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city, and escaped with some spoil before the defenders. were aware. It has ever been a marvel to witness the result of one bee having intimated to its companions that it has brought home a sackful of honey. How it communicates the fact, or how it commands them to go and do likewise, and how they are told where to go, we cannot tell; but we have seen them leave their hive in great numbers, on receiving the word of command, and sacrifice their lives in scores and hundreds ere the assault was deemed hopeless and unavailing. Attacks are sometimes suddenly made, and sometimes as suddenly ended. When the bee-master sees any of his hives assaulted, and every assaulting bee hurled back, he has little to fear; and all that he can do is to contract the door, and thus enable his bees to defend their citadel. If the robbers have no mercy, neither have the defenders. Each bee defending its hive is a qualified judge and executioner. If a robber is caught, lynch-law takes its course.

Bees know each other by smell, and they know strangers in the same way. If robbers are not resisted, and kept out of a hive at first, there is no attempt made to resist them after having been allowed to go in and out for some time. They soon pillage the hive of all its treasure. When this pillaging is taking place, the bees work late and early, wet and dry. Weak hives are generally the sufferers; but sometimes strong ones, while fully employed in gathering honey fast, suffer robbers to carry away what they gather, and all their stores.

Every experienced bee-keeper knows robbers by their stealthy manner of attempting to enter hives for plunder, and he knows them by the way in which they come out of the hives laden with it. This knowledge cannot be obtained by reading, but is gained by observation.

CHAPTER XXXIII.

TRANSPORTING BEES FROM ONE PLACE TO ANOTHER.

IN some favoured districts bees remain from the beginning of the year to the end of it. The trouble or expense of removing them to a locality supposed to be better, would not be covered by the additional income. In other localities the heather is at so great a distance that it is not considered worth while to remove bees so far for the chance of having a harvest of moorland honey. But earnest men, who keep large strong hives, find it profitable to remove them to good pasture. We remove ours twice every year, first to the clover, then to the heather; but our neighbourhood is a very poor one for honey. If left at home, our best hives would not gain 1 lb. of honey each daily in favourable weather during the months of June, July, and August, whereas on the clover and heather they gather from 2 lb. to 6 lb. each daily. When the beekeepers of this country awake to see the value of large hives, in the vast stores of honey speedily gathered by them, the practice of removing bees to better honey districts will become as general here as in some Continental parts, where carts are made on purpose, shelf over shelf, to carry hives. In hot weather, inexperienced persons find some difficulty in removing full hives, the combs of which are so apt to fall down and melt by their own heat. Great care is required in removing such hives; for when

ever a hive is closed up to keep in the bees, natural ventilation comes to an end, and moreover, the commotion of the bees caused by the first and continued motion of the hive increases its internal heat. The bees of hundreds and thousands of hives are suffocated in being removed to the moors. Young gardeners generally steam or stew to death their first plants of cucumbers, and young bee-keepers often destroy one or more hives in their first effort to transport their bees. In rainy seasons and cold winters, weak hives suffer most, but in being transported from place to place they suffer least. When suffocation takes place, it is almost always in one of the best hives.

In considering this subject, the value of cross-sticks in each hive to support its combs will be seen: indeed they are indispensable, for if combs are not supported and kept steady by these cross-sticks they are easily shaken down. Sticks are otherwise of great advantage in hives, being used as by-lanes by bees in going from comb to comb.

There are various ways of saving bees from suffocation in removing them. The admission of plenty of fresh air into their hives is the secret of success. By admitting air enough, and confining the bees to their hives, we can safely transmit them by cart or waggon or rail, one hundred miles, or five hundred miles if need be.

Our mode of confining bees for removal from one place to another is as simple as it is safe. The doors of our hives are pretty large, and the holes in their crown are also large, some four and some five inches in diameter. We nail a piece of fly-proof wire over their mouths and crown-holes, then tie the hives tightly to their boards with strong string or cord, and sometimes drive three twoinch nails through the bottom rolls of the hives into the boards. They are thus prepared to bear pretty rough handling. The fly-proof wire at the doors and on the

tops secures ample ventilation for hives as full as they can be; indeed this ventilation is so great that the heat of full hives is less at the end of a short or long journey than it was before they started. If hives are not full or crowded with bees, we do not often use the wire on their crownholes. The wire at their doors, and a few thin wedges or penny-pieces slipped in between the hives and their boards, before they are tied together tightly with the string, prevents suffocation. They travel safely. The nails are used to make all doubly secure. If hives travel over a rough

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road on a cart, the jolting sometimes causes them to move on their boards, especially if the bottom of the cart is not level. The nails, either through the rolls of the hives, or outside of them, driven partly into the boards, prevent the hives from moving laterally or off their boards. course hives are thus prepared for travelling either before the bees go to work in the morning, or after the outdoor labour of the day has closed. In this way not a bee is lost, and the cool of the day is the better time to transport and transplant hives. If the weather be cold or rainy, the bees may be all caught during the day, confined, and their hives tied and secured as described already, and transported. In fact, the colder the weather is, and the less the bees are at work when about to be transported and transplanted, the less danger there is, for in cold weather the bees need far less ventilation. We take our bees twenty miles to the moors, part of the way on carts, and the rest of the journey by railway, without having misfortunes and breakdowns. Indeed we cannot conceive a more efficient, safe, and easy mode of insuring the safety of hives while being moved from place to place than the one now described, and which we invariably practise.

Hives without cross-sticks, such as bar-frame hives, are

exposed to great risk in being moved at all if they are not full of combs. Sometimes they are turned upside down while being transported, in order to prevent the weight of the combs helping to detach them from their holdingpoints. Even in this position they will suffer much if slightly shaken or jolted. When the distance is short, and the combs insecure, hives should be removed on hand-barrows in their natural position. Some bee-keepers place their hives on thin towelling, which is tied over their mouths, and which answers for ventilation in their transition. We knew a case of bees eating through this towelling. They were sent from Scotland to London well tied up in it. They were sent on a carrier's cart thirtythree miles to Edinburgh, to be shipped at Leith for London. In the centre of the city of Edinburgh the bees escaped in great numbers. The carrier's wits made him purchase two sheets of fly-proof wire, which he speedily placed over the towelling, and thus saved the hives from losing more bees. The hives arrived in London safe, and though considerably reduced by the loss of bees in Edinburgh, they did well next season in county Middlesex.

When hives are so full that some of their bees are clustering outside, they should be enlarged with ekes or nadirs one or two days before they are prepared for removal to a distance. When such hives are to be removed but a short distance for the convenience of watching them swarm naturally, they can be safely carried on hand-barrows after ten o'clock at night, without closing their doors at all. Like well-behaved people, bees keep to their

homes after that hour.

On arrival at their destination, all hives should be speedily placed where they are to stand, the wire on their crowns removed, and their own lids put on, then covered, and their doors opened. If the weather and time of day

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