312 



TWELFTH CHAPTER. 



THE PILLAGE OF HIVES J ITS SIGNS, AND METHODS OF PRE- 

 VENTION. 



THE PILLAGE OP HIVES HOT PROPERLY ATTENDED TO — ERRONEOUS OPI- 

 NION OP LOMBARD — THE CHIEF CAUSE OP PILLAGE— PARTICULAR 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 — FREQ.UENT VISITS TO BE PAID 

 TO HIS HIVES BY THE PROPRIETOR — YOUNG BEES TO BE DISTINGUISHED 

 PROM PILLAGING BEES — METHOD OF DISTINGUISHING THEM — PREVEN- 

 TION OF PILLAGE — THE ENTRANCE OP 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. 



There is perhaps not any circumstance connected with the 

 management of an apiary, to which less attention is paid, than 

 the pillage which is carried on, not only by the bees of the 

 same apiary, but by stranger bees, and to which may be 

 attributed the loss of many valuable hives. Lombard, who, 

 although undeservedly so, is quoted as a high authority 

 amongst the apiarians of France, assures us that a hive is 

 never pillaged, except on the death or the sterility of the 

 queen ; an opinion, to which not the slightest value should 

 be attached. It may, indeed, be admitted that a hive will be 

 pillaged when the queen is no longer able to perform her 

 functions, but it is well known to all keepers of bees, who 

 are versed even in a slight degree in the management of 

 their hives, that the bees, which are in the same apiary, and 

 who possess a fertile queen, pillage each other, especially in 

 the spring and the fall of the year. The swarms of the 

 early part of the summer, being in a state, of famine before 

 the plants and flowers can supply them with a proper quantity 

 of food, are driven by want to acts of pillage, on nearly the 

 same principle that the late swarms in August, which have 



