142 
SPRING. 
put our hives in, and. get them tco close. “ Can’t 
afford to build a house, and give them so much room, 
no how.” 
CHAPTEE VIII. 
ROBBERIES. 
Robbing is another source of occasional loss to the 
apiarian. It is frequent in spring, and at any time in 
warm weather when honey is scarce. It is very an- 
noying, and sometimes gets neighbors in contention, 
when perhaps neither is to blame, farther than igno- 
rance of the matter. 
. NOT PROPERLY UNDERSTOOD. 
A person keeping many hives must expect to be 
accountable for all losses in his neighborhood, whether 
they are lost by mismanagement or want of manage- 
ment. Many people suppose, if one person has but 
one stock, and another has ten, that the ten will com- 
bine for plundering the one. There are no facts, 
showing any communication between different families 
of the same apiary, that I can discover. It is true, 
when one family finds another weak and defenceless, 
possessing treasure, they have no conscientious scru- 
ples about carrying off the last particle. The hurry 
and bustle attending it seldom escape the notice of 
the other families ; and when one hive has been 
robbed in an apiary, perhaps two-thirds of the other 
