MY INTRODUCTION TO A HIVE 
*7 
he must always modify his manipulations to fall in 
line with their unchanging age-old instincts. But 
he benevolently supervises their activities in the 
dominion which he likes to consider his own, mak¬ 
ing changes for the best—or the worst, if he is not 
expert and wise. 
There is a Let Alone Method which often works 
admirably in the hands of a master who knows how 
to do just the right and requisite thing on the rare 
occasions when he does not let them alone! Un¬ 
doubtedly it is not the method for the beginner who 
must learn his “bee behavior” at first hand. 
How vividly the picture of that first interview 
at home is sketched in my memory. A lovely, warm 
June morning in New England with everything at 
its freshest and greenest. Flowers blooming in the 
fields, birds singing in the orchard, and bees hum¬ 
ming. . . . Yes, bees humming when I first 
drew near the hives under the big old oak by the 
ice-house, where there were few passers-by. I 
hummed, too, with pleasurable anticipation of an 
hour or so, such as I had known with the well-man¬ 
nered insects belonging to the State Agricultural 
College at Amherst. ... I remembered how 
the professor had complimented me on my careful 
handling of the combs, drawing them out of the hive 
