IRRITABILITY OF BEES. 
277 
body — at the result of their carelessness. The per- 
son keeping most bees in a neighborhood, must 
expect to be accountable for all effects of their igno- 
rance, mismanagement, or carelessness, and consequent 
“bad luck;” when all the honey thus obtained, 
probably carries with it more mischief than can be 
eradicated in a twelvemonth, thereby giving the real 
cause of complaint to the other party. 
CHAPTER XVIII. 
IRRITABILITY OF BEES. 
Keeping bees good-natured, offers a pretty fair 
subject for ridicule: it seems rather too absurd to 
teach a bee anything! Nevertheless, it is worth while 
to think of it a little. Most of us know that by inju- 
dicious training, horses, cattle, dogs, &c., may be ren- 
dered extremely vicious. If there is no perceptible 
analogy between these and bees, experience proves 
that they may be made ten times more irritable than 
they naturally would be. 
THEIR MEANS OF DEFENCE. 
Nature has armed them with means to defend their 
stores, and provided them with combativeness suffi- 
cient to use them when necessary. This coula not be 
bettered. If they were powerless to repel an enemy, 
there are a thousand lazy depredators, man not ex- 
cepted, who would prey upon the fruits of their in- 
dustry, leaving them to starve. Had it been so ar- 
