204 ENEMIES OF BEES. 



should they on their return home fall down 

 through fatigue or the weight of their loads. 



From rats and mice the surest safeguard is an 

 appropriate position of the hives ; traps may also 

 be laid, and in winter the entrances into the hives 

 contracted. It will be prudent likewise to case 

 the legs of the bee-benches with tin. Bees in a 

 healthy vigorous state will attack and kill an in- 

 truding mouse ; but in winter it might commit 

 great depredations, and cause the emigration of 

 the bees on the return of warm weather. (Mr. 

 Espinasse says that he has known a mouse take 

 up his winter quarters in a hive, without destroy- 

 ing the bees.) 



For protection against ants, which sometimes 

 enter the hives and eat the honey, Mr. COBBETT, 

 in his Cottage Economy, recommends that the 

 pedestals or legs of the benches supporting the 

 hives should be surrounded by a green stick, 

 twisted into a circular form and covered with 

 tar ; and if the ant nest can be traced, that boiling 

 water should be poured into the centre of it, at 

 night, when all the family are at home. The tar- 

 ring of the stick should be repeated every two or 

 three days : the legs of the stool, or the posts 

 on which the shed stands, may also be tarred. 

 Some bees may be lost by sticking in the tar, but 

 this disadvantage will be more than counter- 



