EOBBEBIES. 151 



plunderers inside as you can get, and close the hive at 

 once, (wire-cloth, or something to admit air, and 

 at the same time confine the bees, is necessary ;) carry 

 in, as before directed, for two or three days, when, 

 they may be set out. The strange bees thus enclosed 

 will join the weak family, and will be as eager to de- 

 fend what is now ilmr treasure, as they were before 

 to carry it off. This principle of forgetting home and 

 uniting with others, after a lapse of a few days, 

 (writers say, twenty-four hours is sufficient for them 

 to forget home). can be recommended in this case. It 

 succeeds about four times in five, when a proper num- 

 ber is enclosed. Weak stocks are strengthened in 

 this way very easily ; and the bees being taken from 

 a number of hives, are hardly missed. The difficulty 

 is, to know when there are enough to be about equal 

 to what belongs to the weak stock ; if too few are en 

 closed, they are surely destroyed. 



COMMON CAUSE OF COMMENCING. 



After all, bees being robbed is like being destroyed 

 by worms ; a kind of secondary matter ; that is, not 

 one strong stock in a hundred will ever be attacked 

 and plundered on the first onset. Bees must be first 

 tempted, and rendered furious by a. weak hive ; a dish 

 of refuse honey set near them is sometimes sufficient 

 to set them at work, also where they have been fed 

 and not had a full supply. After they have once 

 commenced, it takes an astonishing quantity to satiate 

 their appetite. They seem to be perfectly intoxicated, 

 and regardless of danger ; they venture on 1;o certain 



