HAKDLINO BEES. 185 



CHAPTER V. 



handling bees. 



The Honey-bee Capable op Being Tamed. 



378. If 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 hberties 

 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. 



