200 HANDLING BEES. 
MISMANAGEMENT OF BEES. 
399. When a colony of bees is unskillfully dealt with, 
they will ‘‘compass about”’ their assailant with savage 
ferocity; and woe be to him, if they can creep up his 
clothes, or find a single unprotected spot on his person. 
Not the slightest attempt should be made to act on the 
offensive; for, if a single one is struck at, others will 
avenge the insult; and if resistance is continued, hundreds, 
and at last, thousands, will join them. The assailed party 
should quickly retreat to the protection of a building, or, 
if none is near, should hide in a clump of bushes, and lie 
perfectly still, with his head covered, until the bees leave 
him. When no bushes are at hand, they will generally 
give over the attack, if he lies still on the grass, with his 
face to the ground. A practical Apiarist, sheltered with a 
veil and armed with a well lighted smoker, will not retreat 
much before the most ferocious swarm of bees. 
Those who are alarmed if a bee enters the house, or ap- 
proaches them in the garden or fields, are ignorant of the 
important fact, that a bee, at a distance from its hive, never 
volunteers an attack. Even if assaulted, they seek only to 
escape, and never sting, unless they are hurt. 
If they were as easily provoked away from home, as when 
called to defend those sacred precincts, a tithe of the merry 
gambols, in which our domestic animals indulge, would 
speedily bring about them a swarm of infuriated enemies; 
we should be no longer safe in our quiet rambles among 
the green fields; and no jocund mower could whet or swing 
his peaceful scythe, unless clad in a dress impervious to 
their stings. The bee, instead of being the friend of man, 
would, like savage wild beasts, provoke his utmost efforts 
for its extermination. 
Let none, however, take encouragement from the con- 
