The greatest distance that I ever knew bees to go, and plunder a defenceless stock of its contents, was three-fourths of a mile. Very likely they would go farther on some occasions, but not often.
ACCUSATIONS NOT ALWAYS RIGHT.
Careless bee-keepers, when their hives are thus robbed, feel regret, or are more often vexed at somebody—at the result of their carelessness. The person, keeping most bees in a neighborhood, must expect to be accountable for all effects of their ignorance, mismanagement, or carelessness, and consequent "bad luck;" when all the honey thus obtained, probably carries with it more mischief than can be eradicated in a twelvemonth, thereby giving the real cause of complaint to the other party.
CHAPTER XVIII.
IRRITABILITY OF BEES.
Keeping bees good-natured, offers a pretty fair subject for ridicule: it seems rather too absurd to teach a bee anything! Nevertheless, it is worth while to think of it a little. Most of us know that by injudicious training, horses, cattle, dogs, &c., may be rendered extremely vicious. If there is no perceptible analogy between these and bees, experience proves that they may be made ten times more irritable than they naturally would be.
THEIR MEANS OF DEFENCE.
Nature has armed them with means to defend their stores, and provided them with combativeness sufficient to use them when necessary. This could not be bettered. If they were powerless to repel an enemy, there are a thousand lazy depredators, man not excepted, who would prey upon the fruits of their industry, leaving them to starve. Had it been so arranged, this industrious insect would probably have long since been extinct.
TIME OF GREATEST IRRITABILITY.