324 FEEDINa BEES. 



incautious owner tempts them with liquid food, at times 

 when they can obtain nothing from the blossoms, thej- 

 become so infatuated with such easy gatherings as to lose 

 all discretion, and will perish by thousands if the vessels 

 which contain the food are not furnished with floats, on 

 which they can safely stand to help themselves. 



As the fly was not intended to banquet on blossoms, but 

 on substances in which it might easily be drowned, it cau- 

 tiously ahghts on the edge of any vessel containing liquid 

 food, and warily helps itself ; while the poor bee, plunging 

 in headlong, speedily perishes. The sad fate of their un- 

 fortunate companions does not in the least deter others who 

 approach the tempting lure, from madly alighting on the 

 bodies of the dying and the dead, to share the same miser- 

 able end ! No one can understand the extent of their 

 infatuation, until he has seen a confectioner's shop assailed 

 by myriads of hungry bees. We have seen thousands 

 strained out from the sjTups in which they had perished ; 

 thousands more alighting even upon the boiling sweets ; the 

 floors covered and windows darkened with bees, some 

 crawling, others flying, and others still, so completely 

 besmeared as to be able neither to crawl nor fly — not one 

 in ten able to carry home its ill-gotten spoils, and yet the 

 air filled with new hosts of thoughtless comers. 



We once furnished a candy-shop, in the vicinity of our 

 Apiary, with wire-gauze windows and doors, after the bees 

 had commenced their depredations. On finding themselves 

 excluded, they ahghted on the wire by thousands, fairly 

 squealing with vexation as they vainly tried to force a 

 passage through the meshes.* Baffled in every effort, they 

 attempted to descend the chimney, reeking with sweet 

 odors, even although most who entered it fell with scorched 



• Manufacturers of caudies and syrups will find it to their Interest to fit such 

 guards to their prcnuses; for, if only one bee in a hundred escapes with its 

 load, considerable loss will be incurred in the course of the season. 



