94 



THE PRACTICAL BEE GUIDE. 



their stores ; and, without provokingf their ang'er, turn them 

 again to peaceful labour. It is not a charm that may be worked 

 by a privileged few. It is the application of a knowledge to 

 which all may readily attain. 



166. Swarming Bees Harmless — It is well known that bees 

 of a swarm are usually as harmless as butterflies (19). They 

 may be gently lifted in the hand, and dropped, bunch after 

 bunch, without so much as an angry buzz from them. A 

 gentleman carried through the noise and bustle of city streets 

 a swarm that had settled on his head. He walked with them 

 into his office, and secured them in a box. They made no 

 attempt to sting him. There must be some reason for this. 

 Visitors to a Bee Tent look with amazement upon the lecturer 

 driving bees from skep to skep ; picking them off the combs ; 

 remaining unmoved with bees crawling upon his neck, or 

 hanging to his eyebrows. The onlooker cannot understand 

 it. Yet it is easily explained. 



Photo from life} 



ill!/ J. G. Digges. 



Fig. f3. 

 SUBDUED BEES WITH CAPPED BROOD. 



167. Full Of Sweets— Empty of Bitterness Before issuing 



in a swarm, it is the habit of bees to fill their honey sacs from 

 the stores, instinct teaching them to carry from the home, which 

 they are about to abandon, sufficient food with which to secrete 

 wax for new combs, and to support themselves in the interval 

 (18). In that condition they are most peaceably disposed, and 



