200 HANDLING BEES. 



Mismanagement of Bees. 



399. When a colony of bees is unskillfully dealt witli, 

 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 generallj 

 gi\e 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 scjthe, 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- 



