COUNTRY LIFE
I MAY yet become a bee-keeper, having helped to move two colonies in their hives. Two of us staggered through a nettle-bed and across a very uneven potato-patch to bring the hives out of a sheltered corner to the car. At first I could only think of the awful consequences of falling and letting the root off the hive. The tall box vibrated with the anxiety of the bees, and my own was no less. They were safe, however, for we had blocked the exit with gauze. The second hive was tied down with cord. Its occupants were the wild devils that had put several people to flight before, and they are due to have their queen replaced so that their temper will change. We sailed through the town with one hive strapped on the luggage-grid and the other inside the car. Although I knew that we had made everything fast, I jumped when a small moth flew in my face. The operation was a complete success. By dusk the hives were re-sited some eight or nine miles from their original position.
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