Stray Bees. 197 



side — one of the prettiest sights as you could ever 

 see. 



I could not credit this myself, but my friend went 

 just then and took a look at my tube. " Oh," he said, 

 " I am summat afeard as 'tis too wide for the bees to 

 do the work so neatly as I have seen 'em a doin' of it. 

 You make a tube a little bit smaller, sir, just so much 

 as will let the bees have room to move at each side, 

 no more, and then, if I ain't mestaken, you will see 

 what I war a tellin' you on, if you come to them hives 

 about mid-day the third day after." I did so, and 

 'twas just as he had said, and certainly 'twas a very 

 pretty sight. 



Then this same bee-master told me that he had 

 often observed stray bees that had swarmed from a 

 hive go back, from some cause, to the parent hive. 

 They were never tolerated there, but quickly turned 

 out ; and not only so, but for most part killed, and not 

 only that, but the bees proper to the hive would drag 

 them over the little platform in front of the hive, and 

 then fly down, work away till they had made a small 

 hole, and roll little pellets of sod over the bodies, and 

 thus bury them. He had seen this done not once but 

 scores of times, for he was an indefatigable watcher and 

 a thorough friend of the bees. This does not quite 

 agree with some observations of Sir John Lubbock, 

 but that may pass. 



Then sometimes a vagrant wasp would intrude into 

 the hive, and the bees had a very short method with 

 him. They directed their whole power of attack on 

 one point — to tearing off one of the wings of the wasp, 

 which they were not long in effecting ; then Mr. Wasp 

 was helpless, could only buzz and pitifully gyrate, and, 

 thus maimed, he was bundled out of the hive and 



