I do NOT agree with Peter Borst.
I strongly agree with both Dave Cushman and Layne Westover.

Be a PROUD BEEKEEPER, tell the world about the VALUE of bees.  99% of the
public has no idea about the pollination of the fruit and vegetables that we
humans eat.
Women don't know that a principal ingredient of their lipstick is bees wax.
People
don't know that cakes made with honey instead of sugar are more moist and
stay fresher longer.  People don't know that almost no bacteria can live in
honey, and hence was once used like iodine, mercurecome ???, and now
neosporine.

Tell the public all the wonderful things about bees, and put on demonstrations
with your bees at the county fair or in your own apiary.  For the past 16
years,
I have 3 full size colonies of bees in a screen wire cage at the county fair,
and 4 times each day for 9 days, I open one of these colonies, describing all
kinds of things about the bees and of course show the queen to everyone and I
do this dressed
only in shoes, shorts, and tee-shirt, and No veil.  I have not been stung in
7-8 years
and perhaps only 4-5 stings in 16 years.  I have big crowds of as many as 200
watching me and LISTENING to me about the VALUE OF HONEY BEES TO MANKIND.
Of course, I sell I tremendous amount of MY honey to them and at prices 50%
higher than the grocery store.

Worry about law suits? If I were sued, my neighbors, fair officials, and some
of the
demonstration attendees will defend me.  You only live once, and I can't be
bothered
by these "might happen" things.

You will find that today's populace knows almost nothing about bees, but they
have
seen "killer bee" movies, and they are AFRAID. However, if YOU tell them that
honey bees DIE when they sting you and hence are NOT aggressive, but only
defensive of
their home (hive), people lose their fear and start agreeing with you.

Many of our "people problem" today about bees is the fact that beekeepers have
HIDDEN themselves as a keeper of honey bees rather than tell the world about
their bees.  THINK POSITIVE!

George Imirie
Starting my 71st year of beekeeping just 20 miles from the WHITE HOUSE in
Washington, DC