The destruction of _queen wasps_ and _queen hornets_ in the spring, and of wasps' and hornets' nests in the summer, will prove the best security against those formidable enemies. None but queen wasps and queen hornets appear in the spring. Everyone which is then annihilated would probably have been the founder of a kindred colony, and every colony of wasps at a moderate computation may be calculated to produce at least 30,000 in a season. These destroyers may often be watched to their homes and exterminated in the night, by brimstone, gunpowder, or boiling water. The wooden guards invented by Espinasse, or the tin guards of Huish, will be very useful in case of a formidable attack, and had better be made use of if an assault be apprehended from these predatory insects. Powder and shot are the only protectors from the visits of _birds_. The exclusion of _poultry_ must be left to the ingenuity of the apiarian. In an ungenial autumn, it is not uncommon for _bees that are ill-managed and not properly fed, to plunder the hoards of their own species_, and bees that have thus acquired predatory habits, become great annoyers of industrious and well-fed colonies; they are known by the name of corsair bees. On these occasions spies are said to be sent our to ascertain the respective strengths of neighbouring colonies, and to select the weakest for attack. _They make similar attacks upon the nests of humble-bees, as well as upon the bees themselves_; in the former case they will carry off almost the whole of the stores that have been collected, unrepulsed by its proprietors; and in the latter case, says +Huber+, "the humble-bee, accustomed to such exactions, yields up its honey, and resumes its flight." In both cases it renews its labour in the fields, and repairs with its surplus treasure to its usual asylum, and that even after repeated robberies. +Mr. Hubbard+ says that he has known repeated instances of weak stocks being expelled from their hives by strong ones. _The best remedies_ for this evil are _the contraction of the entrances_, as for guarding against wasps, _or a change in the situation of the hives._ +Dr. Darwin+ in his _Phytologia_ has related an instance of a besieged hive being removed to a distant and more easterly part of the same garden: the assailants in this case did not follow, and the bees resumed their usual occupations. Removal to a still greater distance would seem to promise more certain relief. In order to raise their courage above its natural height when thus attacked, +Schirach+ _recommends mixing a little wine or brandy with honey, and presenting it to the bees that are besieged_.