HANDLING BEES. 185 
CHAPTER V. 
HANDLING BEES. 
Tre Honey-Bee CapaBLe OF Bursa TamMeED. 
8378. Ir the bee had not such a formidable weapon both 
of offense and defense, many who now fear it might easily 
be induced to enter upon its cultivation. As the present 
system of management takes the greatest possible liberties 
with this insect, it is important to show how all necessary 
operations may be performed without serious risk of excit- 
ing its anger. 
Many persons are unable to suppress their astonishment, 
when they see an Apiarist, with the help of a little smoke, 
opening hive after hive, removing the combs covered with 
bees, and shaking them off in front of the hives; forming 
new swarms, exhibiting the queen, transferring the bees 
with all their stores to another hive; and in short, dealing 
with them as if they were as harmless as flies. We have 
sometimes been asked, whether the hives we were opening 
had not been subjected to a long course of training; when 
they contained swarms which had been brought only the day 
before to our Apiary. 
We shall, in this chapter, show that any one favorably 
situated may enjoy the pleasure and profit of a pursuit 
which has been appropriately styled, ‘‘ the poetry of rural 
economy,’’ without being made too familiar with a sharp 
little weapon, which speedily converts all the poetry into 
sorry prose. 
It must be manifest to every reflecting mind, that the 
Creator intended the bee. as truly as the horse or the cow, 
