This objection, to persons unskilled in Bee-matters, may, I grant, appear to be plausible--nay, reasonable: but every _practical apiarian_, who has taken off two or three end-boxes of honey, knows very well that there is not the least danger to be apprehended from robbers or marauders during the short time that the liberated, native Bees are hurrying away as fast as they can get. I have never witnessed any thing like an attempt to besiege and rob a box so situated. Were, however, the communication to be left open for any considerable time after the Bees have departed, I have no doubt that, if not discovered by Bees belonging to other hives, it (the vacated box) would be re-entered by its own Bees, and by them be soon entirely emptied of its honey. Nothing, however, but down-right carelessness on the part of the operator will ever subject a box of honey to a visitation of this description. But, notwithstanding the conviction in _my_ mind that the above-stated objection is _in fact_ groundless, I set my wits to work to answer it in a way more satisfactory to the highly respectable persons who raised it, and, if by any means I could, to obviate it entirely. It did not cost me much mental labour to invent--_a safety-block_,--nor does it require much manual labour to make one.
A safety-block must be made to fit the place of the common block, and may be cut out of a piece of half-inch deal board, having one side planed off so as to leave the bottom-edge less than one-fourth of an inch in thickness; then with a three-eighths-inch centre-bit cut as near the lower, that is--the thin edge, as you can, a row of holes. Ten holes in a length of six inches will allow a convenient space between each hole. Next, over each of these small holes, suspend a piece of talc, cut of a proper size for the purpose, by a thread of silk, and make that thread fast round a tiny brass nail above. The talc, which is a mineral substance as transparent as glass, and much lighter, and on that account much better than glass, thus suspended over each hole, is easily lifted and passed by Bees from within, but is heavy enough to fall again as soon as a Bee has made its exit, and forms an effectual bar or block against the entrance of Bees from the outside. A block of this description may be had for a trifling expense, and is recommended to all such inexperienced and timid--timid because inexperienced---apiarians, as are apprehensive of being annoyed by intruders when they are taking off a box of honey. Though this safety-block rather impedes the escape of the Bees, it has nevertheless a pretty appearance when it is neatly made,--and it is amusing enough to see the beautiful, little creatures pushing open first one little trap-door and then another, popping out their heads, and then winging their flight to the entrance of the pavilion. After all, though it certainly is a complete _safety-block_, and was invented to obviate a groundless objection, it is more an article of curiosity than of real usefulness.