ANGER OF BEES. 221 



He likewise cautioned purchasers of Italian queens, who 

 live in districts where the disease, has not appeared, to 

 never procure them from a section where it exists ; because 

 if the little combs that are sent with the queen should 

 contain any honey from such a hive, " the disease would 

 go with it, as sure as fate." I have never known such a 

 result in a single instance. Neither have I ever found an 

 experienced apiarian, one who hnew what he was saying, 

 who advanced such an idea. Should a full colony, badly 

 affected, be sent into a district where it never appeared, 

 there is no need of its being extended. If the bees are 

 simply transferred to an empty hive, and the contents 

 secured from pillage, it would go no further. There would 

 be no loss, except in transferring. 



CHAPTER XV. 



ANGEK OF BEES. 

 CAUSES OP IKRiTABILITY. 



Keeping bees good natured, offers a pretty fair subject 

 for ridicule, for it seems rather too absurd to talk of teach- 

 ing a See anything. Nevertheless, it is worth while to 

 think of it a little. Most of ns know, that by injudicious 

 training, horses, cattle, dogs, etc., may be rendered ex- 

 tremely vicious. If there is no perceptible analogy between 

 them and bees, experience proves that they too, maybe 

 made ten times more irritable tha.n they are naturally. 



Nature has provided them with weapons to defend their 

 stores, and combativeness sufScient to use them when ne- 

 cessary. If they were powerless to repel an enemy, there 

 are a thousand lazy depredators, man not excepted, who 

 would prey upon the fruits of their industry, leaving them 



