142 
SPRING. 
put our Lives in, and get tLem too close. “ Can’t 
afford to build a house, and give them so much room, 
no how.” 
1 CHAPTER V III. 
I 
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 
