ROBBING. 



381 



ROBBING. 



Well, we will say the colony has been almost 

 cleaned out, night has come on, and things 

 in the ai)iary have assumed their natural 

 order. If there are not enough bees left to 

 make up a colony or even a fair nucleus, take 

 away all the old combs, sweep out all the 

 dead bees, and give them a frame containing 

 a very little honey; contract the entrance 

 down to one bee-passage, and then watch 

 them the next morning to see whether they 

 will put up a defense. As a further precau- 

 tion it might be well to throw a little wet 

 grass in front of the entrance. In general, 

 bees tliat are given a little rest, and a 

 chance to recover from their demoralization, 

 will fight very hard ; 

 and iirobably the sec- 

 ond time after they 

 have been helped a lit- 

 tle they will be able to 

 maintain their rights. 

 But the robber - trap 

 scheme described on 

 next i)age is much bet- 

 ter than the tent. 



Trying to people our 

 house - apiary in the 

 fall, when it was first 

 built, we had trouble 

 with one certain colo- 

 ny. In fact, when rob- 

 bing was going on any- 

 where it was sure to be 

 these hybrids that 

 were at the bottom ol 

 ttie mischief. After we 

 had tried every plan 

 recommended, a n d 

 still finding these fel- 

 lows would persist in 

 pushing into every 

 new colony we started, the idea occurred to us 

 that, on the principle that it takes a rogue to 

 catch a rogne, it would be well to try to see 

 how these would repel other robbers. We 

 simply took the greater part of the combs 

 from the robbers, bees and all, carried them 

 into the house-apiary, and put them in place 

 of the colony which they had been robbing. 

 The effect was instantaneous. Every laden 

 robber-bee that went home with its load, on 

 finding the queen and brood gone from the old 

 stand at once showed the utmost consterna- 

 tion, wliile the passion for robbing was in- 

 stantly changed to grief and moaning for the 

 lost home. The weak colony which they had 

 been robbing, and which had only a queen- 

 cell, was carried to them, and they soon took 

 up with it and went to work. The robbers 

 newly domiciled in the house-apiary repelled 



all invaders with such energy and determi- 

 nation that the rest seemed to abandon the 

 idea which they, doubtless, had previously 

 formed; viz., that the house-apiary was a 

 monster hive but ill garrisoned, so we had 

 very little trouble afterward. Before we 

 transposed them, as mentioned, we had seri- 

 ous thoughts of destroying their queen, 

 simply because they were such pests; but the 

 year afterward, this colony gave in the house- 

 apiary over 100 lbs. of comb honey. 



IKJW TO KNOW WHEN A HIVE IS TUTTING 

 UP A GOOD DEFENSE. 



The accompanymg half-tone is a good il- 

 lustration of how a prworful colony will de 



FIG. 4.— A COLONY THAT IS KEADY TO MEET ANY KIND OJ^ 

 ONSLAUGHT FROM BOBBERS. 



Robbers had hovered around the entrance. The re&ult was, tlie guards 

 were out in g-ood force to repel the attack. 



ploy its sentinels or guards during the time 

 when other colonies near by are being rob- 

 bed. This colony is prepared for any kind 

 of an onslaught; for the minute that a rob- 

 ber hovers over the entrance it is promptly 

 met in mid air by one of the sentinels. They 

 immediately clutch in a rough-and-tumble 

 fight, drop to the ground, roll over and over, 

 and lucky is the robber if it gets away wit' - 

 out having its hair or legs pretty vigoiously 

 pulled. Such "a warm reception'" will dis- 

 courage any would-be robber from tackling 

 that colony again. The entranc e is rather 

 wide open and the colony is strong enough 

 to put up a defense and a vigorous one at 

 that. If the colony were not so strong it 

 would be ])roper to contract the entrance as 

 shown under Entrances and Wintering 

 elsewhere. 



