192 



HANDLING BEES. 



daring to meddle with them. Such thriftless radicals are 

 always to be dreaded, for they must vent their spleen on some- 

 thing, even though they perish in the act. (84.) 



If a whole colony, on sallying forth, possessed such a 

 ferocious spirit, no one could hive them unless clad in a coat 

 of mail, bee-proof; and not even then, until all the windows 

 of his house were closed, his domestic animals bestowed in 

 some place of safety, and sentinels posted at suitable stations, 



Fig. 91. 



CHAMPION SMOKER. 



to warn all comers to keep at a safe distance. In short, if 

 the propensity to be exceedingly good-natured after a hearty 

 meal, had not been given to the bee, it could never have been 

 domesticated, and our honey would still be procured from the 

 clefts of rocks or the hollows of trees. Probably the good 

 nature resulting from a hearty meal is not the only cause of 

 the above fact. There is another physiological fact connected 

 with it (85). When her stomach is empty, a bee can curve 



