ARTIFICIAL SWARMING. 209 



old-fashioned bee-keeper can, with movable combs, destroy 

 his faithful laborers quite as speedily as by setting them 

 over a sulphur-pit ; thus preserving his honey from dis- 

 gusting fumes, while he secures it on frames from which 

 it may be conveniently cut, and preserves all empty comb 

 for future use (p. 7l). 



As many who would like to keep bees are so much 

 afraid of being stung, that they object entirely even to 

 natural swarming, how, it may be asked, can such persons 

 open hives, lift out the combs, shake or brush off the bees, 

 and practice other processes which seem like bearding a 

 lion in its very den ? The truth is, that some persons are 

 so timid, or suffer so dreadfully when stung, that they are 

 every way disqualified from having anything to do with 

 bees, and ought either to have none upon their premises, 

 or to entrust the care of them to others. With the direc- 

 tions furnished in this treatise, almost any one, however, 

 by using a bee-dress, can learn to superintend bees with 

 very little risk. I find, in short, that the risk of being 

 stung is really diminished by the use of my hives ; although 

 it is very difficult for those who have not seen them in use, 

 to believe that this can be so. 



The ignorance of most bee-keepers of the almost un- 

 limited control which may be peaceably acquired over 

 bees, has ever been regarded by the author of this treatise 

 as the greatest obstacle to the speedy introduction of 

 movable-comb hives. He might easily have invented con- 

 trivances which, by adapting themselves to this ignorance, 

 would, at first, have proved much more lucrative to him, 

 had he thought it just, either to the community or to 

 himself, to have taken such a course. Such ignorance has 

 led to the invention of costly and complicated hives,* 



* I have before me a small pamphlet, published In London in 1851, describing 

 the construction of the "Bar and Frame Hive" of W. A. Mnnn, Esq. The object 



