1879 



GfLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



fo 



ROBBING. Paul says, "TKe'Jove of 



money is the root of all evil." I should be 

 inclined to state it in this way; the disposi- 

 tion to get money without rendering an 

 equivalent, is the root of all evil. Well, the 

 root of a great many evils, in bee-keeping, 

 is the disposition of the bees to gain honey 

 without rendering any equivalent. Some 

 one of our ABC class has said that he found 

 bees making visits to over 100 clover heads, 

 before they obtained a load sufficient to car- 

 ry to their hives. I think it very likely, that 

 during a great part of the season, a bee will 

 be absent a full hour, or it may be, during 

 unfavorable spells, as much as two hours, in 

 obtaining a single load. Is it at all strange, 

 that a bee, after having labored thus hard 

 during the fore part of the day, should, in 

 the afternoon, take a notion to see if he 

 could not make a living in some easier way? 

 Would he be very much worse than many 

 types of humanity V Well, as he passes 

 around to other hives, he catches the per- 

 fume of the clover honey they have gathered 

 in a like manner, and by some sort of an op- 

 eration in his little head, he figures out that 

 if he could abstract some of this, unper- 

 ceived, and get it safely into his own hive, 

 he would be so much the gainer. I presume 

 he has no sort of care, whether these other 

 folks die of starvation or not. That is no 

 concern of his, at all. 



With all of their wonderful instincts, I 

 have n^ver been able to gather that the bees 

 of one hive ever have any spark of solicitude 

 as to the welfare of their neighbors. If, by 

 loss of a queen, the population of any hive 

 becomes weak, and the bees too old to de- 

 fend their stores, the very moment the fact 

 is discovered by other swarms, they rush in 

 and knock down the sentinels, with the most 

 perfect indifference, plunder the ruined home 

 of its last bit of provision, and then rejoice 

 in their own home, it may be but a yard 

 away, while their defrauded neighbors are 

 so weak from starvation, as to have fallen to 

 the bottom of the hives, being only just able 

 to feebly attempt to crawl out at the en- 

 trance. Had it been some of their own 

 Hock, the case would have been very differ- 

 ent indeed'; for the first bee of a starving col- 

 ony will carry food around to his comrades, 

 as soon as he has imbibed enough of the food 

 furnished to have the strength to stagger to 

 them. 



Well, suppose the bee mentioned above, in 



prowling around in the afternoon or some 



• other time, should find a colony so weak, or 



so careless, that he could slip in unobserved, 



and get a load from some of the unsealed 



cells, and get out again. After he has passed 

 the sentinels outside, he will usually run but 

 little danger from those inside, for they seem 

 to take it for granted that every bee inside 

 is one of their number. There is danger 

 though, for should he betray too great haste 

 in repairing to the combs of honsy, they will 

 often suspect something ; so he assumes an 

 indifference he is far from feeling, and loi- 

 ters about very much as if he was at home, 

 and finally, with a very well assumed air of 

 one who thinks he will take a lunch, he goes 

 to the cells, and commences to fill up. Very 

 often, when he gets pretty well 'podded out" 

 with his load, some bee approaches, appar- 

 ently to see if all is right. When the robber 

 once gets his head into a cell, however, he 

 seems to have lost all sense or reason, and if 

 he is discovered at this st ige to b. 1 a stranger 

 and a thief, he is often pounced upon and 

 stung with very little ceremony. How do 

 they know a stranger from one of their own 

 number, where there are so many? It is 

 said, they know by the sense of smell ; this 

 may be the principal means of distinguish- 

 ing strangers from their own number, but I 

 think they depend greatly on the actions and 

 behavior of a bee, much as we do when judg- 

 ing of the responsibility of a man who asks 

 to be trusted. We can give a very good guess, 

 simply by his air or manner, or even by the 

 sort of a letter he writes. If a robber is sus- 

 pected, and a bee approaches for the purpose 

 of satisfying himself, it is a very critical mo- 

 ment, and one becomes intensely interested 

 in watching the performance. The robber 

 will stand his ground, if he is an old hand, 

 and permit himself to be looked over with a 

 wonderful indifference, but one who has 

 watched such scenes closely will detect a 

 certain uneasiness, and a disposition to move 

 slowly toward the entrance, that he may he 

 the better aide to get out quickly, when he 

 discovers things to be too hot for him inside. 

 If the bee who fust suspects him concludes 

 he is an interloper, he begins to bite him, 

 and grab hold of his wings to hold on until 

 others can come to help. The thief has now 

 two chances to escape, and sometimes he 

 seems meditating winch to adopt; one is to 

 brave it out until they shall perhaps let him 

 alone, and then slip out unobserved. The 

 other is to break away, and trust to his heels 

 and wings. The latter plan is the one gen- 

 erally adopted, unless he is a very old and 

 "hardened sinner" in the business. One 

 who has been many times in such scrapes 

 will usually get away, by the latter plan, by 



