3748 Insects. 



hive ? The " robbers " were certainly all dead ; but they had not 

 killed the inhabitants, as when the first alarm was given, though there 

 was fighting, yet there were not probably more than one hundred or 

 so dead ones lying about ; and the nature and habits of bees in 

 defence of their property precluded the idea of their having been 

 previously expelled by the robbers without a severe struggle, which 

 must have caused the death of myriads on both sides. In fact, the 

 parish bee-keepers could make nothing of it ! 



This " Eating out of hives by robber-bees," as it is here called, is 

 by no means of rare occurrence ; and a cottager with fourteen or fif- 

 teen hives, full and in good condition, at the beginning of September, 

 thinks himself well off to escape with the loss of two of his hives. 

 When thoroughly eaten out, the very comb is often gnawed to pieces, 

 and strewed about in front of the hive. I have known one cottager 

 lose four out of ten hives in the course of a few days ; and I have 

 myself lost one or two out of about the same number every year since 

 I have kept bees ; and what T saw last year on the occasion of losing 

 a box-hive, thoroughly ransacked and eaten out in one day, between 

 the hours of 11 and 5, made me suspect the commonly received notion 

 of " robber, or stranger, bees," and induced me to watch the process 

 closely at the first opportunity. This hive (lost last year) was per- 

 fectly quiet, to all appearance, at 10 a.m. By 11, exactly the same 

 scene of riot and disorder that I have detailed above prevailed ; and 

 when I came to examine it at 5 p.m. (not having been able to be on 

 the spot during the interval), the hive was completely deserted, with 

 not a bee or drop of honey in it, and the whole fabric of combs a 

 complete wreck, and a few, perhaps 200, dead bees lying round. As 

 it happened, all my hives had been weighed a night or two before ; 

 and this one was upwards of 45 lbs. weight, and, being only of 

 one year's standing, I have no doubt contained 24j tbs. of pure 

 honey. A large bell-glass on the top of the hive, also nearly 

 full of honey, was completely pillaged, and the comb, being fine 

 and tender, literally reduced to powder. Thus, here was this great 

 quantity of honey carried off, and all the damage done, during the 

 short space of a few hours. The aperture in this hive was nearly 

 five inches wide, which would afford additional facility for carrying 

 off the honey, and so may account for the very short space of time in 

 which it was done, though I have heard of several other instances in 

 which the operation has been equally short and decisive. I have 

 never heard of a case in which, after this commotion had commenced 

 at the entrance of a hive, and nothing done until all was quiet again, 



