ROBBING. 335 



the Apiarian will occasionally lose some of his most prom- 

 ising stocks. When any departure is made from the old- 

 fashioned mode of management, the liability to such misfor- 

 tunes is increased, unless all operations are performed by 

 careful and well informed persons. Before describing the 

 precautions which I successfully employ, to guard against 

 robbing, I shall first explain, under what circumstances bees 

 are ordinarily disposed to plunder each other. 



Idleness is with bees, as with men, a most fruitful mother 

 of mischief. Hence, it is almost always when they are 

 doing nothing in the fields, that they are templed to increase 

 their stores by dishonest courses. Bees are, however, much 

 more excusable than the lazy rogues of the human family ; 

 for they are idle, not from indisposition to work, but for the 

 want of something to do. Unless there is some gross mis- 

 management, on the part of their owner, they seldom at- _ 

 tempt to live upon stolen sweets, when they have ample 

 opportunity to reap the abundant harvests of honest in- 

 dustry. 



In the Spring, as soon as the bees are able to fly abroad, 

 they begin to feel the force of an innate love of honey- 

 getting.* Unable to find anything in the fields, they at once 

 attempt to appropriate the spoils of some weaker hive. 

 They are often impelled to this, by the pressure of imme- 

 diate want, or the salutary dread of approaching famine ; 

 but truth obliges me to confess that not unfrequently some of 

 the strongest stocks, which have all they would be able to 

 consume, even if they gathered nothing more for a whole 

 year, are the most anxious to prey upon the meager posses- 

 sions of some feeble colony. Just as some rich men, who 

 have more money than they can ever use, urged on by the 

 insatiable love of gain, " oppress the hireling in his wages, 

 * " Iimatus urget amor habendi." — Virgil. 



