216 FIFTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES 



Xo other hives were a( tacked. I somewhat expected to find 

 the queen killed, but slie was all light next day, and no further 

 trouble occurred, as the colony was a strong one, and, when in 

 its right mind, capable of taking care of itself. 



DO KOBBED BEES JOIN THE KOBBEKS? 



One of the venerable traditions that is perhaps generally 

 accepted without question is that when a colony is being robbed 

 it is a quite coumion thing for the bees that are robbed to join 



Fi(j. 73 — Miller Tent-Escape. 



tlie robbers and help carry off the stores. I am very skeptical 

 as to there being any truth in the tradition. I do not say such 

 a thing never happened, but I never saw such a case, and I 

 have seen from first to last a nundier of eases in which all the 

 stores were emptied out of the combs by robbers, and the bees 

 oi' the colony seemed to be all left, and generally by taking 

 the right kind of pains I have succeeded in re-establishing such 

 a colony. ]n such cases there was certainly no joining the 

 robbers. 



I have found other cases in which the bees were entirely 

 gone, and T could only guess what had become of them. My 

 guess was that after being robbed of all their stores, and hav- 



