ROBBERY. 
35 
spring, so that bees may be very numerous when flowers ap- 
pear ; in our State, I might say, when white clover appears, 
which is generally about the first of June. Some very ex- 
perienced bee-keepers recommend feeding bees in the spring 
even when they Have honey enough, in order to induce breed- 
ing, even should it be but a tablespoonful a day. 
ROBBERY. 
Our little friends, so industrious and noble in their general 
behavior, I am almost sorry to say, are sometimes guilty of 
the heinous sin of robbing their neighbors, and that too in as 
shameless a manner as is too common amongst a much higher 
order of beings. The rich and strong prey upon the poor and 
defenceless, and that without mercy, although the case is not, as 
many suppose, that the attacking party kill those they attempt 
to rob, and then take the booty. They adopt the modern gen- 
tlemanly way of robbing without taking life ; the fighting is 
mostly done by the defendants. However well I may like 
non-resistance amongst human beings (especially when they 
are not pushed too hard), I cannot but admire a colony that 
fights well in self-defence, and am not much afraid of their 
being overcome so long as they resolutely resist. When a 
colony in a normal condition is attacked, it has sentinels at 
every entrance to its citadel; and, as Quinby expresses it, 
“every bee has full authority to act as jurors, judges, and ex- 
ecutioners,” and no mining region lynch-law is more speedily 
executed than that of these self-constituted sheriffs. 
Like other rogues, robber bees are known by their haggard, 
thievish appearance- They do not approach and enter a hive 
in a confident, self-satisfied manner, but appear agitated and 
suspicious, and, like thieves generally, try to gain entrance in 
some other way than the regular one. Bees once addicted to 
robbery seldom or never reform, but retain their thievish pro- 
pensity. Bees are ordinarily covered with a nice yellow down, 
which the scuffling incident to robbery, together with other 
means, sometimes wears off; they then present the appearance 
of a small black bee, which some have mistaken for a different 
variety more inclined to rob than others. llobbery ocours 
only in the spring and in the fall, or at times when there is 
no honey to be had from flowers. When bees, as with some 
more intelligent creatures, when they have nothing to do, 
