ANGER OF BEES. 367 



silent and fear nothing, and remaining myself close by her ; 

 I then made her stretch out her right hand, which held the 

 queen, and covered her head and shoulders with a very thin 

 handkerchief. The swarm soon fixed on her hand and 

 hung from il, as from the branch of a tree. The little girl 

 was delighted above measure at the novel sight, and so en- 

 tirely freed from all fear, that she bade me uncover her 

 face. The spectators were charmed with the interesting 

 spectacle. At length I brought a hive, and shaking the 

 swarm from the child's hand, it was lodged in safety, and 

 without inflicting a single wound." 



The indisposition of bees to sting, when swarming, is a 

 fact familiar to every practical bee-keeper : but I have not 

 in all my reading or acquaintance with Apiarians, ever met 

 with a single observation which has convinced me that the 

 philosophy of- this strange fact was thoroughly understood. 

 As far as I know, I am the only person who has ever ascer- 

 tained that when bees are filled with honey, they lose all 

 disposition to volunteer an assault, and who has made this 

 curious law the foundation of an extensive and valuable 

 system of practical management. It was only after I had 

 thoroughly tested its universality and importance, that I be- 

 gan to feel the desirableness of obtaining a perfect control 

 over each comb in the hive ; for it was only then that I saw 

 that such control might be made available, in the hands of 

 any one who could manage bees in the ordinary way. The 

 result of my whole system, is to make the bees unusij- 

 ally gentle, so that they are not only peaceable when 

 any necessary operation is being performed, but at all other 

 times. Even if I could open hives and safely manage at 

 pleasure, still if the result of such proceedings was to leave 

 the bees in an excited state, so as to make them unusually 

 irritable, it would all avail but very little. 



