CONTENTS. XXI 



PAGE 



cular days and seasons in which the pillage is carried on — 

 March and September the principal months of pillage — 

 Method of knowing the pillaging bees — Signs of pillage — 

 Frequent visits to be paid to his hives by the proprietor 

 — Young bees to be distinguished from pillaging bees — 

 Method of distinguishing them — Prevention of pillage — 

 The entrance of the hive to be contracted — Hives that 

 are attacked to be removed — Weak hives to be fed — The 

 removal of a hive not always a remedy — An empty hive 

 to be put in the place of the one removed — Concluding 

 remarks 312 



CHAPTER XIII. 



ON THE DECLINE OF HIVES, AND THE MORTALITY 

 OF BEES. 



The decline of hives, and the mortality of bees, difficult to 

 be accounted for — The prejudices and superstitions of the 

 cottagers of this country, a great drawback to the culture 

 of the bee — A bad season the cause of the mortality of 

 bees — The progressive population of a hive the cause of 

 famine — Consequent death of the bees— False judgment 

 of the cottagers — Extreme cold not injurious to bees — 

 The greater the torpor of bees, the less their consumption 

 of food — Injurious effect of keeping bees warm in winter 

 — Plastering of hives with pitch to be recommended — Cul- 

 ture of the bee in Russia — Statement of Gmelin — The 

 severity of a Russian winter not injurious to bees — The 

 works of Huber not to be consulted on the practical de- 

 partment of the apiary — His opinion of the effect of cold 

 on bees — Extraordinary discovery of Huber — Bee hives 

 to be used for warming apartments and greenhouses — 

 Absurdities introduced by Huber into the natural history 

 of the bee — Paradox and contradictions in the statements 

 of Keys — More hives destroyed by heat than cold — Pre- 

 cautions to be used against the rays of the sun — Average 

 heat of a hive — Advantages of a straw top to the hives — 

 Hives to be protected from humidity — Confinement in 

 cellars and dark places injurious to bees — The retention 

 of the excrement highly injurious to bees — System of 

 burying the hives adopted by some apiarians — Snow a 

 great cause of the mortality of bees — The death of the 

 queen one of the chief causes of the decline of a hive — 

 Uncertainty of the fate of the bees, who desert a hive on 

 the death of a queen — Famine the chief cause of the 

 mortality of bees — Prevented by feeding — Hives to be 

 weighed in October and January — General remarks 320 



