36 AN EASY METHOD 



small guard for their protection. In large establishments it 

 is frequently necessary to use the canal bottom board, 

 and for a while close the hive entirely. [See Fig. 4, in 

 back part of Appendix,] Some good bee-managers sprin- 

 kle robbers with cold water, which usually allays their 

 propensity to pilfer the earnings of their neighbors by 

 frightening them into order, and harmony is soon restored. 

 Perhaps no animal, or insect, or even man in his most bar- 

 barous state, possesses a more inordinate desire for booty 

 than the honey-bee : honey, or saccharine matter, is all he 

 courts, and to carry his desires into effect, appears to be 

 chiefly regardless of danger. Bees do not, like men or brute 

 animals, seem to possess a spirit of domineering over their 

 fellows ; but fight merely to' pilfer on the one hand, and de- 

 fend where they have acquired rights of property on the 

 other ; and in this they do not esteem any thing as theii* 

 own till they are in actual possession ; as, for instance, honey 

 b not their ovm when in the blossoms of trees and plants, 

 or even in the feeder ; and the bees of different hives will 

 not often quarrel about it until they have drawn it into their 

 honey-sacs and stored it in the hive. 



Bees are frequently knowfi to leave their hives in the 

 spring, and join with other hi.yes, for want of honey, and their 

 owner is deceived with regard to the cause. It is not sure 

 that bees get honey when bre3,,d is seen on their legs. Every 

 bee-master should be awa^e .of this 4 for it is believed that 

 more swarms are lost in Aprjlj May, and even in June, in 

 northern climates, for wapt of honey than by being robbed. 

 A drawer of honey, or one part filled, inserted into the 

 chamber of the hive, -^vi}! rernedy the evil. 



