HOW TO HANDLE BEES. 
By 
JOHN ANDERSON, M.A., B.Sc., E.B: S.B.A., 
Lecturer in Bee-keeping. 
INTRODUCTION, 
Many people are afraid to keep bees because they have the 
impression that a bee is a creature going about seeking for 
somebody to sting. In reality, a bee is a very inoffensive 
insect, which never volunteers an attack unless the intruder 
is quite near the hive and likely to interfere with the private 
property of the colony. A bee inside a room is anxious only 
to get out, and a bee at work in the garden attends strictly 
to the business of the moment. The thoughtful bee-keeper 
is actually grateful that bees have stings, because, if they 
had not been possessed of some means of defence the species 
would long since have become extinct—their product is so 
delectable, and they have so many enemies. 
The handling of live bees seems to the novice a matter 
of such, extreme difficulty that the expert bee-master who 
handles bees without veil or gloves is regarded as a kind of 
wizard, and receives a great deal of credit to which he is not 
entitled. We are frequently told of such and such a man 
who “worked among the bees, and the bees seemed to know 
him, and he never got stung.” The suggestion is that the 
management of bees cannot be acquired, that a bee-master, 
like a poet, has to be born, and cannot be made. On the 
contrary, any person of average intelligence, and possessed 
of an ordinary amount of patience, can easily and quickly 
learn to handle bees. It is true, also, that all the experts 
will admit, when closely questioned, that they began hy being 
dreadfully afraid of the bees. But there are a few simple 
principles which must be kept in view by those who would 
handle bees and receive, in the process, a minimum of stings. 
