THE HONEY BEE CAPABLE OF BEING TAMED. 25 



be so multiplied, and the true principles of bee-keeping so 

 thoroughly understood, that ignorant and designing men will 

 neither be able to impose their conceits and falsehoods upon 

 the public, nor be sustained in their attempts to depreciate 

 the valuable discoveries of those who have devoted years of 

 observation and experiment, to promote the advancement of 

 Apiarian knowledge. 



CHAPTER II. 



The Honey Bee capable of being Tamed or Domesticated, to a most 

 Surprising Degree. 



If the bee had not such a necessary and yet formidable 

 weapon, both of offence and defence, multitudes might easily 

 be induced to enter upon its cultivation, who are now afraid 

 to have anything to do with it. As the new system of man- 

 agement which I have devised, seems to add to this inherent 

 difficulty, by taking the greatest possible liberties with so 

 irascible an insect, I deem it important to show clearly, in 

 the very outset, how bees may be managed, so that all 

 necessary operations may be performed/ in an Apiary, with- 

 out incurring any serious risk of exciting their anger. 



Many persons have been unable to control their expres- 

 sions of astonishment, as they have seen me open hive after 

 hive, removing the combs covered with bees, and shaking 

 them off in front of the hives, forming new swarms, exhibit- 

 ing 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 so many flies. I have sometimes been 

 3 



