Getting to know your bees

There's another blog out there with occasional bees. Jason tells an interesting story of his early encounters with his father's bees and points to an interesting quote in Keeping Bees, an American beekeeping book for beginners getting used to handling bees:

Pour a puddle of syrup through the screen and shake some bees into it ... Watch their little tongues go at the syrup. Touch the feet and antenna of bees crawling inside the cage wire. They can't sting through the wire. Blow on a cluster and see what it does. Poke a broom straw through the wire and into the bees. Stir them gently. Fast movement will meet with antagonism. Slow, gentle movement won't be noticed. You are learning two major skills of bee handling: do nothing until you feel safe--have confidence born of know-how--and do everything in a slow, gentle, and deliberate manner.

Nice! I haven't seen such a piece in a British bee book.