> what nature would be doing?
Bee Enemies
The good bee as other good things, hath many enemies, from which she needs your help to defend her, viz.: 1, the mouse, 2, woodpecker , 3 , the sparrow, 4; the titmouse, 5, the swallow, 6, the hornet, 7, the wasp, 8, the moth, 9, the snail, 10, the emit [ant], 11, the spider, 12, the toad, 13, the frog, 14, the other bees, 15. the weather.
But not any one of these, nor all the rest together, do half so much harm to the bees as the bees. They make the greatest spoil of bees and honey ; for as they of the same hive live in inviolable peace, one with another, so have they no intercourse, no friendship or society with others, but are rather at perpetual war, defiance, and deadly feud with them.
In fight they are fierce, and in victory merciless. Within the space of a day or two ; yes, of an afternoon sometimes, if the hive be open that they may have easy passage to and fro, they will have rid him clean , and therefore all bees of all enemies do most dread strange bees, knowing well in what danger they are, to be robbed by them of goods and life .
This robbing is practised all the year. In winter, as oft as the weather is fair and warm , some will be prowling abroad, and some are so thievishly disposed that all the summer long they will be filching should they die for it. In the spring they are more earnest to repair their decayed store, and therefore, now have an eye unto them , and to defend the weaker swarms from their violent interruptions.
The robbers are thought to be poor swarms, which have not provided themselves for winter; but indeed fitter to be robbed than to be robbers. There is no thief to the rich thief, yet by hook or by crook, though they have enough and more than enough, they will have more although the poor starve for it.
—From an old Bee-Book
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