SUBDUING AND HANDLING BEES. 95 



will not Sting except under violent provocation. If they can, 

 at other times, by any means, be brought into a similar condi- 

 tion the same results will follow. It has been found that any 

 sudden, mysterious alarm communicated to all the colony in a 

 hive will drive them .to the honey cells for food. A puff or 

 two of smoke blown in at the entrance (126), or a carbolic cloth 

 (127) laid on the frames, has the necessary effect, and a peep 

 under the quilts will then discover the bees with their heads in 

 the cells, drinking deeply. A delay of a minute or two, and 

 the whole colony will be found subdued. With gentle handling 

 the frames may be taken out ; examined ; hung upon a stand 

 (Figs, 72, 73, and 77) and returned to the hive, not a bee 

 taking wing, nor any attempt being made to show resentment. 

 In this manner the fiercest colony may generally be subdued 

 and handled with safety. With Maeterlinck this inoffensiveness 

 is the result of happiness ; with Simmins, of homelessness ; 

 with Cheshire, of terror ; with Langstroth, of a physiological 

 fact — 



"When a bee prepares to sting, she usually curves her abdomen 

 sn that she can drive in her sting perpendicularly. To withdraw it, 

 she turns around the wound. This probably rolls up its barbs, so 

 that it comes out more readily. If it had been driven obliquely 

 instead of perpendicularly, as sometimes happens, she could never 

 have extracted it by turning around the wound. When her stomach 

 is empty, a bee can curve her abdomen easily to sting. If her honey 

 sac is full, the rings of the abdomen are distended, and she finds 

 more difiiculty in taking the proper position for stinging." — Langstroth. 



168. A Firm and Gentle Hand Necessary — It is known, also, 

 that bees resent roughness ; have a deep-rooted objection to 

 jarring of their combs ; fly into a passion if any of their 

 number be crushed in the hive ; will not tamely submit to being 

 rubbed the wrong way ; are provoked to violence when one 

 sting has been inflicted, by the mere smell of it ; and will often 

 attack a hand for no other reason than that it has been 

 suddenly and quickly moved adjacent to them. Sometimes 

 bees noted for their peaceable disposition, will be found in an 

 angry humour, some unaccountable influence having dis- 

 turbed their wonted calm. Therefore bees should always be 

 handled with the utmost deliberation and care. A firm and 

 gentle hand is necessary. There must be no jarring of the 

 combs, no swiping of the handkerchief at a threatening bee. 

 Coolness gained by experience, together with the precautions 

 already, and yet to be described, will usually render the 

 manipulation of bees as safe as the driving of a flock of geese. 

 Should bees at any time show marked signs of vindictiveness, 

 it is better, instead of attempting to fight them, to withdraw 

 in a manner as quiet and dignified as possible (179). They 



