Ron Breland, 64 years old, is a teacher at the private Rockland Country Day School of Congers, thirteen or so miles out of Manhattan. He set up the hives of his design in the school&rsquo;s organic garden and teaches apiculture to children from nursery to secondary school. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s extraordinary, just using my type of hive and smoking them with sage, I can open a hive without any danger to the kindergarten pupils. The bees raised like that are so much gentler and we practically never have any stings.&rdquo;