THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



197 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



WASHINGTON, APRIL, 18G8. 



lE:^' The Ameutcan Bee JbunNAL is now 

 published monthly, in tho City of ^Yasllin<;•ton, 

 (D. C.,) at $2 per annum. All eommnnieations 

 should be addressed to the Editor, at that place. 



Tlic Kentucky Bce-kccpcrs' Association will 

 meet iu Lexington, on the second Tuesday in 

 April, (I4th instant), and will be pleased to see 

 visiters from other States. 



The good people of Wenliam, in Massachu- 

 setts, in town meeting assembled, have voted 

 that bees shall not be kept in their town, be- 

 cause, among other reasons, they (the bees, not 

 the citizens) stole a few pounds of sugar from 

 an upper room, the Avindows of which had been 

 nnwiselj- left open ; and, furthermore, because 

 they made an inroad on a certain kitchen, where 

 odoriferous sweetmeats were being prepared 

 without due caution. For this and other simi- 

 lar peccadillos, the poor bees are banished from 

 the town by a vote of two to one. Thus the ir- 

 rational creatures are first led into temptation, 

 by the thoughtlessness, or the slovenliness — for 

 it comes to that — of the rational portion of the 

 community, and then banished for obeying 

 the instincts of their nature. 



"With ordinary care the sugar would have 

 been safe in its box, and confections could 

 have been cooked in the kitchen without an- 

 noyance or interference. The sulferers, asthej^ 

 Avould fain regard themselves, are in reality 

 more to blame than the alleged depredators ; 

 Laving caused all the trouble bj' first inconsider- 

 ately miseducaiinrj the bees, giving them access 

 to coveted sweets, and allowing them opportu- 

 nities to visit jjlaces from which common pru- 

 dence and care would have kept them debarred. 

 Thus taught " bad habits" (for that can readily 

 be done), is it surprising that the bees were 

 steadily on the lookout for chances to indulge 

 their appetite, and make a dashing onslaught 

 where a rich quarry was temptingly exposed ? 

 It was by indiscreet indulgence at tlie start, 

 that the trouble ^rrt.s imited ; for bees will not 

 resort to such spots in cro%cd»^ till after individ- 

 uals have been permitted to work the mine long 

 enough to let the news of the discovery of a jjZa- 

 cer become spread abroad. Those thoughtless per- 

 sons who permit the game to be carried ou un- 

 til tlie visits become a visitation, must charge 

 the annoyance suifercd and the damage sus- 



tained to tlieir own ignonince or imprudence. 

 Here too " a stitch in time saves nine," and 

 " prevention is l)etter than cure." 



It also becomes a serious question whether 

 careless and slovenl}' peoj.le have a right to ask 

 those engaged in laudable an<l lawful pursuits 

 to abandon them, that they, despite of slovenli- 

 ness, may live at case. It would hardly be fair, 

 indeed, that even sugar refiners and confection- 

 ers should be granted an injunction against api- 

 arians, because annoyed and perhaps injured by 

 the bees ; for the converse of the case might as 

 propei'ly be urged against them, and the argu- 

 ment be as valid. An apiarian, we apprehend, 

 has as good a right to carry on his business iu 

 a community as either of the others. Nay, he 

 might even allege that, besides being a public 

 benefactor, saving that which would otherwise 

 be lost, he is a great sufferer from them by tho 

 frequent destruction of his laborers en manse. 



Do not tempt the bees, and they will not an- 

 noy you. Where they are invited to come, they 

 will in time repair in crowds, if they find good 

 accomodations there. If stinging follows, that 

 too is commonly the result of provocation, for 

 bees are not apt to sting when away from their 

 home. 



There was a time when, in Europe, the owner 

 of a robbed colony could maintain an action 

 against, and recover damages from, the keeper 

 of the robbing bees. But now, thanks to the 

 dififusion of a more accurate knowledge of facts, 

 the man who there claimed damages in sucli a 

 case, would be laughed out of court. It has 

 become a well-known and recognized truth, 

 that the owner of the robbed colony is at fault, 

 and has liimself to blame for his loss. 



But will the Wcnhamitcs gain much by ban- 

 ishing bees from their bailiwick ? The metes 

 and bounds of their town do not probably 

 embrace tho whole area of the Old Bay State ; 

 and if the good people continue to "keep open 

 house," boiling sweetmeats with kitchen doors 

 and windows open, and letting sugar "lie 

 around loose" on the counters of their groceries 

 and the shelves of their pantries, there accessi- 

 ble to outsiders, how are they going to keep out 

 the "winged worshippers" that come from 

 abroad ? Is it even certain that those bees 

 which con\mitted the overt acts complained of, 

 belonged to !Mr. Gould's apiary ? It is the very 

 poorest sort of argument to allege that "an acre 

 and a half of land" could not supi>ort a hundred 

 colonies, therefore — ar(/al ! Thej', or many, or 

 most of them, may have come from a distance. 

 In this number of the Bee .Iourkal we have 

 au account of a swarm that travelled eight 



