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HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



MY GARDEN PETS. 



By Edward H. Robertson. 



Tart IV. 



UPON the close of the honey harvest, about the 

 end of July, after which usually follows the 

 hottest period of the year, Apis viellifica appears to 

 get into an uncomfortable condition of body, which 

 brings about a somewhat unamiable condition of 

 mind. The fierce heat, the plundering of their 

 store, and the rude treatment to which at such times 

 they are unavoidably subjected, beget in them a 

 chronic state of irritability, at which can we wonder? 

 and the careful beekeeper, as far as possible, avoids 

 any cause of provocation. 



The sordidness of many modern apiarians leads 

 them, not only into plundering their industrious 

 servants of the whole of their sweet store, to the 

 very last drop, giving in exchange, too often, the 

 veriest trash, and barely sufficient even of that to keep 

 them from actual starvation, but, also, to the habitual 

 extraction of honey, from comb containing brood. 

 The apiarian is never happy unless he is meddling 

 with his pets ! little wonder then that the much 

 persecuted little fellows become irascible, that brood 

 perishes, that stocks dwindle — and that foul-brood is 

 disseminated throughout the length and breadth of 

 the land. I should consider myself little better than 

 a lunatic if I ever extracted honey from a comb 

 containing brood, and never, unless honey be very 

 abundant, do I take any from the hive — bar frame or 

 skep. 



When an angry bee means mischief he emits a 

 remarkably pungent, but not unpleasant odour — 

 probably formic acid ; when this is perceived let the 

 timid bee-keeper take to his heels, if he would avoid 

 a sting — or rather stings, for the odour seems a 

 signal which arouses the' ire of other bees, and, almost 

 before he is aware, he is surrounded by an angry 

 host, who will soon put him to ignominious flight. 

 As the odour, although frequently perceptible when 

 bees sting unintentionally through pressure or injury, 

 is much fainter at such times, it seems probable that 

 its emission is as much under the insect's control as 

 are the odours emitted by many animals under the 

 influence of anger, fear, &c. 



A sense of justice here impels me to record that 

 Apis mellifua is a thief. Some bees appear to take 

 kindly to robbing as a profession, but, as a rule, they 

 evidently rob to obtain possession of stores they 

 know to exist not for their own use, but rather for 

 that of their friends. The sagacious little rascals 

 realise that the well-being of future generations 

 depends upon the labours of the present, and when 

 supplies are short, or are becoming so, they seek to 

 replenish them in the readiest way that offers. 

 There is nothing selfish in a bee's nature, his 

 unselfish object is the good of the community, and 



in pursuit of this object he not only lives, but also, it 

 may be trulyj said. dies. How pertinaciously the 

 rascals will hover and zig-zag close to the mouth of 

 the hive selected for their attentions, few but 

 experienced apiarians would credit — keeping the 

 watchful sentinels ever on the alert, sometimes for 

 weeks together. In any case a great sacrifice of bee 

 life is the inevitable result of these marauding 

 expeditions, for not only do not the burglarious 

 proceedings of the robbers pass unpunished, as 

 evidenced by the frequency of the conflicts, but the 

 tiny heaps of slain that at such times appear on 

 the ground beneath doubtless consist of the bodies of 

 both defenders and assaulters. I give no quarter 

 to these robbers. I have but one punishment for 

 them — death, and being quick-sighted and deft- 

 handed, many a raider falls beneath my scissors. 

 Snip ! and a headless carcase tumbling into the 

 midst of the crowd, always on such occasions 

 gathered around the gates of the citadel, is seized 

 upon by the enraged defenders, who, dragging it to 

 the edge of the board, tumble it over where it helps 

 to swell the heap beneath. 



Scissors-slaughter is all very well as an adjunct to 

 other and better plans, but of itself will not go far 

 towards keeping robbers in check. The best plan 

 is to narrow the entrance to the hive, and to give a 

 liberal washing of carbolic acid and water, which 

 soon scares away the would-be-plunderer ; the smell 

 of it is, however, such an abomination to bees that 

 it seems too bad to inflict it upon the poor inmates. 

 At times it becomes absolutely necessary. 



The best antidote to robbing is to keep every hive 

 in the apiary thoroughly well supplied. The danger 

 to your stocks will then generally arise from your 

 neighbours' bees, but if your stocks be strong they 

 will be more than a match for them. 



Of the many pretty sights to be witnessed in the 

 insect world not one, in my estimation, surpasses 

 that to be seen when a newly hived swarm of bees 

 is to be transferred from a skep to a bar frame, or 

 other hive. The skep containing the swarm is, 

 usually towards evening, carried to a spot where, 

 upon a lawn or other level plot of ground, has been 

 spread a sheet, upon one end of which rests the 

 frame hive, commonly slightly raised towards the 

 bees, to afford them more ready ingress. Lifting 

 the skep, mouth downwards, the operator suddenly 

 lets go his hold, and as suddenly again catches it 

 between the palms of his hands, as it descends 

 towards the earth. The sudden jerk precipitates 

 the whole of the bees on to the sheet, the heap 

 spreading outwards as a bag of sand or peas would 

 do, and my astonished pets have become a confused 

 and struggling mass of insect life. A few seconds, when 

 lo ! in the twinkling of a eye, every head is turned 

 towards the hive, whose wide open door invites 

 them to enter, and a mighty phalanx is pressing on. 

 to the hospitable shelter ; the substrata of bees, in. 



