872 THE BEE keeper's MANUAL. 



It is well known that the bee is a lover of sweet odors, 

 and that unpleasant ones are very apt to excite its anger. 

 And here I may as well speak plainly, and say that bees 

 have a special dislike to persons whose habits are not clean- 

 ly, and particularly to those who bear about them, a per- 

 fume not in the very least resembling those 



" Sabean odors 

 From the spicy shores of Araby the blest," 



of which the poet so beautifully discourses. Those who be- 

 long to the family of the " great unwashed," will find to their 

 cost that bees are decided foes to all of their tribe. Th* 

 peculiar odor of some persons, however cleanly, may ac- 

 count for, the fact that the bees have such a decided antipa- 

 thy to their presence, in the vicinity of their hives. It is 

 related of an enthusiastic Apiarian, that after a long and 

 severe attack of fever, he was never able to take any more 

 pleasure in his bees ; his secretions seem to have under- 

 gone some change, so that the bees assailed him as soon as 

 he ventured to approach their hives. 



Nothing is more offensive to bees than the impure breath 

 exhaled from human lungs ; it excites them at once to fury. 

 Would that in their hatred for impure air, human beings had 

 only a tithe of the sagacity exercised by bees ! It would 

 not be long before the thought of breathing air loaded with 

 all manner of impurities from human lungs, to say nothing 

 of its loss of oxygen, would excite unutterable loathing and 

 disgust. 



As the smell of a sweaty horse is very offensive to the 

 bees, it is never safe to allow these animals to go near a 

 hive, as they are sometimes attacked and killed by the 

 furious insects. Those engaged in bee-culture on a large 

 scale, will do well to enclose their Apiaries with a strong 

 fence, so as to prevent cattle from molesting the hives. If 

 the Apiary is enclosed by a high fence, with sharp and 



