of the weak one. The weak stock will generally become the
strongest, and put a stop to their operations; but this method is often
impracticable in a large apiary; because several stocks are usually
engaged, very soon after one commences, and a dozen may be robbing one.
Another method is, when you are _sure_ a stock is being robbed, take a
time when there are as many 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
defend 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 number 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 enclosed, 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 destruction! I have known a few instances where
good stocks by this means were reduced, until they in turn fell a prey
to others. I have for several years kept about one hundred stocks away
from home, where I could not see them much, to prevent robbing. Yet I
never lost a stock by this cause. I simply keep the entrance closed,
except a passage for the bees at work during spring. It is true I have
lost a few stocks, when the other bees took the honey, but they would
have been lost any way.

SPRING THE WORST TIME.

As I before remarked in th