THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



49 



The Pillage of Bives. 



There is perhaps not any -circumstance con- 

 nected with the management of an apiary, to 

 which less attention is paid, than the pillage 

 that is carried on, not only by the bees of the 

 sams apiary, but by stranger bees, and to which 

 may be attributed the loss of many valuable 

 hives. Lombard, who, although undeservedly 

 so, is quoted as high authority amongst the api- 

 arians of France, assures us that a hive is never 

 pillaged, except on the death or the sterility of 

 the queen ; an opinion, to which not the slight- 

 est value should be attached. It may, indeed, 

 be admitted that a hive will be pillaged when 

 the queen is no longer able to perform her func- 

 tions, but it is well known to all keepers of bees, 

 who ai"e versed even in a slight degree in the 

 management of their hives, that the bees, which 

 are in the same apiary, and who possess a fer- 

 tile queen, pillage each other, especially in the 

 spring and the fall of the year. The swarms of 

 the early part of the summer, being in a state of 

 famine before the plants and flowers can supply 

 them with a proper quantity of food, are driven 

 by want to acts of pillage, on nearly the same 

 principle that the late swarms in August, which 

 have not been able to collect a sufficiency of 

 provisions, consider themselves entitled to rob 

 their neighbors of their superfluous store. It 

 sometimes, indeed, happens that the bees, who 

 inhiibit the most populous and well provisioned 

 hives, betake themselves to the predatory sys- 

 tem, and desolate those which are in a weaker 

 condition. 



The chief cause which excites bees to pillage, 

 is a natm-al greediness and an over-anxious de- 

 sire of collecting provisions for the purpose of 

 enriching their own domicile. The bee in its 

 nature is a most insatiable insect ; not exactly 

 in regard to the satisfaction of its appetite, but 

 to the amassing of those provisions, which are 

 to protect it from want during the winter ; and 

 this accounts for the best provisioned hives 

 carrying on the system of pillage to its greatest 

 extent ; for, being conscious of their own 

 strength, they know that they have nothing to 

 fear from the attack of others ; and it may be 

 said, that it is only the weak hives, which suf- 

 fer from the pillage of their own race. Actual 

 want and necessity may, however, sometimes 

 be taken into the account ; for it is no unusual 

 case, that the best peopled hives are precisely 

 those which are the most in want of provisions, 

 and therefore they fall upon the weaker socie- 

 ties, which, from the paucity of their numbers, 

 are better provided with food. 



There is, however, another source of this evil, 

 and which is very apt to happen in the common 

 straw hives. This arises from the moths and 

 other insects, Avhich penetrate into the hive and 

 there multiply, devouring and spoiling all the 

 works of the hive to such an extent, that the 

 bees, judging it most advisable to leave their 

 domicile, defend it but weakly, and then leave 

 it as a prey to the first comers. Afterwards 

 these wandering and vagabond bees seek in 

 their turn to live at the expense of others ; if 

 they be very numerous, they besiege another 



hive, driving out the lawful proprietors of it, 

 and ravaging their provisions without mercy. 

 Those, which have been driven from their 

 dwelling go in their turn in quest of food, or 

 rather on the pillaging system ; and thus the 

 evil, by force of example, becomes, as it were, 

 epidemical. The best furnished hives are for this 

 cause often seen desolated, and entirely ruined. 

 The bees of those hives which have been 

 gnawed by the mice and and other animals, or 

 which have experienced the cruel visitations of 

 the wasps and the hornets, are often obliged to 

 forsake their homes, in order to seek for sub- 

 sistence in other hives, more healthy or better 

 furnished. 



Such are, in snort, the principal causes of the 

 pillage of the hives, an evil of such serious and 

 injurious consequencs, that the utmost vigilance 

 should be used to prevent it. 



There are some days and seasons in which 

 the pillage is carried on to a much greater ex- 

 tent than others. This is a circumstance very 

 easily to be accounted for. The pillage is most 

 to be feared after two or three days of rain, 

 when the weather is not suitable for the col- 

 lection of honey, for hunger then presses more 

 severely on those hives, which have suflTered 

 from a want of provisions ; and as idleness is 

 the mother of all vices, the bees, having no 

 other occupation on their hands, determine 

 upon paying a visit to their neighbors, and rob- 

 bing those, who are weaker than themselves. 



In regard to the seasons in which the evil ex- 

 ists to the greatest possible extent, it may be 

 reckoned that there are two in the year. The 

 first may be computed from the month of March 

 to the middle of May. From that time to the 

 end of August or the middle of September, it is 

 very rare that a hive is attacked by robbers. 

 As soon as the honey season begins to decline, 

 the pillaging bees are seen hovering round par- 

 ticular hives, as if rccounoitering the exact 

 point where the attack is to be made. We 

 would advise the apiarian to pay particular at- 

 tention to that hive about which he sees a 

 number of bees hovering on the wing ; their 

 presence bodes no good to it, and he must not 

 be surprised, if in a few days he finds it for- 

 mally and vigorously attacked by a whole gang 

 of robbers. 



As, however, prevention is in all cases better 

 than a remedy, it is actually necessary that 

 every apiarian should make himself acquainted 

 with the principal signs which display them- 

 selves when a hive is about to be pillaged. 



In the first place, a more than ordinary noise 

 is heard before the hive, and also throughout 

 the whole of the garden, and if the ear be 

 placed to the hive, the noise within resembles a 

 loud hum, which arises from the motions of the 

 bees, some defending their provisions; others 

 robbing them, and as those bees, which are to 

 be seen entering in crowds, come and depart 

 with great glee and precipitation, the increased 

 noise is accounted for which is heard in the gar- 

 den. 



Battles and duels are then seen at the en- 

 trance of the hive, which is besieged at all 

 points; some bees enter in haste, others depart 



