270 THE BEE NATION. 



of the smell, and are driven away or killed. Most of the rob- 

 beries take place out of and soon after the collecting season, 

 because the bees flying about and accustomed to forage can 

 find no more food nor provisions, and therefore seek other 

 opportunities of gain, be they fair or foul. 



In addition to these robberies from their own race, there are 

 a large number of somewhat similar opportunities of theft, and 

 the bees thoroughly understand how to utilise these cases 

 with great craftiness. Instinct is here quite blameless, for 

 most of these incidents are quite accidental, and brought 

 about first by man's industry. The sugar plantations in 

 Cuba (and in other places, as in the neighborhood of Stettin, 

 where there are many sugar refineries, and where it is 

 asserted that the bees know very well how to distinguish the 

 different kinds of sugar) suffer no little injury on account of 

 the visits paid by the bees to the refineries. Where such 

 resources are open to them all the year through, as in Bar- 

 badoes, they finally lose their original instinct of work, and 

 disuse the collecting of honey. They also do not hesitate 

 to take the wheat or rye meal placed as food by the bee- 

 master in front of the hives in spring, before the flowers 

 begin to bloom, and turn it to account as a substitute for 

 the missing pollen. 



Amongst us also, during the late summer and autumn, 

 when the flowery food supply begins to run short, the bees 

 utilise every opportunity of stealing sweet things, and it is 

 well known to everyone that confectioneries, sugar factories, 

 and similar places are regularly besieged by them. They 

 trace out every such spot with tireless patience, however 

 concealed it may be, or however difficult to get at, as, for 

 instance, syrup-casks in cellars, which can only be reached 

 by narrow cracks in the cellar shutters. Bee-masters thereby 

 .suffer great loss, for on such occasions many bees perish for 

 the same thing through which so many men lose life or 

 health namely, through intemperance. They drink so 

 much that they fall to the ground, and are no longer able to 

 return home. 



Nor do they neglect such chance opportunities as may be 

 offered them by nature. They are as fond of the honey 

 collected by humble bees as of their own, and have many 

 sly ways of getting hold of it. Huber, during a season of 

 scarcity, put the nest of some humble bees in a box near his 



