§ X.J BEE ENEMIES. 319 



colony of bees that we discovered were living the life 

 of outlaws under the roof of an adjoining house. Al- 

 though much disheartened and perplexed, we at once 

 renewed our search, and, upon enquiry, found that the 

 missing bees had taken a southerly course across the 

 turnpike road, and it was therefore necessary to ask 

 permission to search the gardens of the houses opposite. 

 From one of these we observed, on looking through the 

 hedge, that the inhabitants of the next house were on the 

 quivive. On enquiring whether they had seen a colony 

 of bees, the wary old dame replied that she " had no 

 bees but her own," but added that " they were very 

 much excited." Having asked permission to go through 

 the hedge to look at her bees, we soon discovered our 

 Italians on the top of the old lady's bee-house. There 

 was no difficulty in identifying our own bees;, their 

 yellow rings were as good as a private mark. Quickly 

 hiving the swarm, we took them home, and replaced them 

 in the hive they had quitted. It was almost destitute of 

 honey ; but by liberal feeding, and lessening the entrance 

 so that only one bee at a time could find ingress or egress, 

 we succeeded in inducing them to rest in their old home. 

 Thus nearly half a day's exertion was needed to save a 

 fine colony, which would otherwise have been utterly 

 lost by the power of the relentless wasps. 



Much watchfulness is needed to prevent the loss of 

 swarms, and the foregoing incident may serve to suggest 

 the necessity of having hives so located as to be con- 



