314 SEASONS OF PILLAGE. 



go in their turn in quest of food, or rather on the pillaging 

 system ; and thus the evil, by force of example, becomes, as 

 it were, epidemical. The best furnished hives are for this 

 cause often seen desolated, and entirely ruined. The bees 

 of those hives, which have been gnawed by the mice and 

 other animals, or which have experienced the cruel visita- 

 tions of the wasps and the hornets, are often obliged to 

 forsake their homes, in order to seek for subsistence in 

 other hives, more healthy or better furnished. 



Such are, in short, the principal causes of the pillage of the 

 hives, an evil of such serious and injurious consequences, 

 that the utmost vigilance should be used to prevent it. 



There are some days and seasons in which the pillage is 

 carried on to a much greater extent than others. This is a 

 circumstance very easily to be accounted for. The pillage 

 is most to be feared after two or three days of rain, when the 

 weather is not suitable for the collection of honey, for 

 hunger then presses more severely on those hives, which 

 have suffered from a want of provisions : and as idleness is 

 the mother of all vices, the bees, having no other occupation 

 on their hands, determine upon paying a visit to their 

 neighbours, and robbing those, who are weaker than them- 

 selves. 



In regard to the seasons in which the evil exists to the 

 greatest possible extent, it may be reckoned that there are 

 two in the year. The first may be computed from the month 

 of March to the middle of May. From that time to the 

 end of August or the middle of September, it is very rare 

 that a hive is attacked by robbers. As soon as the honey 

 season begins to decline, the pillaging bees are seen hovering 

 round particular hives, as if reconnoitring the exact point 

 where the attack is to be made. We would advise the 

 apiarian to pay particular attention to that hive, about which 

 he sees a number of bees hovering on the wing; their pre- 

 sence bodes no good to it, and he must not be surprised, 



