ROBBERIES. 
151 
plunderers inside as you can get, and close the hive at 
once, (wire-cloth, or something to admit air, and 
at the same time confine the bees, is necessary ;) carry 
in, as before directed, for two or three days, when 
they may be set out. The strange bees thus enclosed 
will join the weak family, and will be as eager to de- 
fend what is now their treasure, as they were before 
to carry it off. This principle of forgetting home and 
uniting with others, after a lapse of a few' days, 
(writers say, twenty-four hours is sufficient for them 
to forget home) can be recommended in this case. It 
succeeds about four times in five, when a proper num- 
ber is enclosed. Weak stocks are strengthened in 
this way very easily ; and the bees being taken from 
a number of hives, are hardly missed. The difficulty 
is, to know when there are enough to be about equal, 
to what belongs to the weak stock ; if too few are en- 
closed, they are surely destroyed. 
COMMON CAUSE OF COMMENCING. 
After all, bees being robbed is like being destroyed 
by worms; a kind of secondary matter; that is, not 
one strong stock in a hundred will ever be attacked 
and plundered on the first onset. Bees must be first 
tempted, and rendered furious by a weak hive ; a dish 
of refuse honey set near them is sometimes sufficient 
to set them at work, also where they have been fed 
and not had a full supply. After they have once 
commenced, it takes an astonishing quantity to satiate 
their appetite. They seem to be perfectly intoxicated, 
and regardless of danger ; they venture on to certain 
