Notwithstanding our prodigality in building a splendid bee-house, we think of economy when we come to put our hives in, and get them _too close_. "Can't afford to build a house, and give them so much room, no how."
Robbing is another source of occasional loss to the apiarian. It is frequent in spring, and at any time in warm weather when honey is scarce. It is very annoying, and sometimes gets neighbors in contention, when perhaps neither is to blame, farther than ignorance of the matter.
A person keeping many hives must expect to be accountable for all losses in his neighborhood, whether they are lost by mismanagement or want of management. Many people suppose, if one person has but one stock, and another has ten, that the ten will combine for plundering the one. There are no facts, showing any communication between different families of the same apiary, that I can discover. It is true, when one family finds another weak and defenceless, possessing treasure, they have no conscientious scruples about carrying off the last particle. The hurry and bustle attending it seldom escape the notice of the other families; and when one hive has been robbed in an apiary, perhaps two-thirds of the other families, sometimes all, have participated in the plunder. One family, if it be large, is just as likely, and more so, to find a weak one among the ten, and commence plundering, as the other way.
Notwithstanding it is common to hear remarks like this, "I had a _first-rate_ hive of bees," (when the fact was he had not looked particularly at his bees for a month, to know whether it was so or not, and if he had, very likely would not know,) "and Mr. A.'s bees began to rob them. I tried every thing to stop it; I moved them around in several places to prevent their finding the hive. It did no good; the first I knew they were all gone--bees, honey, and all! The bees all joined the robbers." Now the fact is, that not one _good_ stock of bees in fifty, will ever be robbed, if let alone; that is, if the entrance is properly protected. This moving the hive was enough to ruin any stock; bees were lost at every change, until nothing was left but honey to tempt the robbers; whereas, if left on its stand, it might have escaped.