So woi\ the honey bees; 
Creatures, that by a rule in nature teach the art of order 
to a peopled hjngdom. 
—Shakespeare 
III 
INSIDE A HIVE 
I T happened that when I began keeping bees 
there were no old or more experienced bee¬ 
keepers in my particular locality on whom I could 
call for help in difficult situations. There was no 
one to whom I could go as people later came to me. 
No one helped me catch swarms, or interpreted 
for me anything strange in the family life of my 
bees. I had to learn all that for myself, putting 
into practice the theories learned from textbooks 
and the agricultural college short course. Some¬ 
times I burned my fingers in the fire by ignoring 
what I read of other’s experience. 
For instance, I had of course read that when the 
mercury is high and a hive is to be moved from 
one place to another, a large space should be covered 
with wire netting at the hive entrance, as bees be¬ 
come agitated when they feel their house moving 
and rush to the doorway. This doorway, at the 
base of the hive, is low and, in old box hives, very 
narrow. If not made larger, the small air passage 
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