ROBBING. 



385 



ROBBING. 



now TO MAKE. 



Take four basswood sticks, about Hi feet 

 long, and fasten them together like let- 

 ter X's, with a good strong screw where 

 they cross. A piece of good strong tar- 

 red twine, or small rope, makes the ridge- 

 pole, as seen in the engraving, and this 

 same twine imites the sticks at their tops. 

 The mosquito-bar is sewed into a sort of 

 bag, having the same strong twine all round 

 its lower edges, and down each of the 

 four corners. At these corners are also 

 sewed metal rings, and these rings, when 

 pulled down stronglj', will loop over screw- 



Queens having been already hatched in the 

 lamp nursery, would all be lost unless the 

 colonies were divided at once, so as to make 

 use of them. The surplus combs for making 

 these late swarms were in the upper stories, 

 and the robbers knew it; for no sooner was a 

 cap raised than they were on hand; and be- 

 fore we coidd get the brood-combs to go with 

 them (required becau;^e the bees w^ould not 

 adhere even to their own combs, unless some 

 of them contained unsealed brood), a smart 

 traffic would be under way. It came night, 

 and hives and queens were in all sorts of bad 

 shapes. We weie glad to have night come, 



TENT FOLDED. 



FOLDING BEE-TENT, READY FOR USE.^ 



heads, near the lower ends of the four sticks. 

 When thus looped over, the sticks are bent, 

 or bowed, so as to give room in tlie top of 

 the tent. The whole structure weighs less 

 than five pounds, and yet it gives room inside 

 for a hive, and to do all necessary work. 

 The basswood sticks are 1 x f at the lower 

 end, and tapered to 1 x | at their upper end, 

 with the corners taken off, to make them as 

 light as possible. 



In tlie small cut above at A is shown the 

 way the ring is looped over the screw-heads, 

 and just below is seen the end of a 2i-inch 

 wire nail, bent so when turned with the 

 point downward it can be used as an anchor 

 to keep the tent from blowing over. If the 

 sticks are spread a little when the anchors 

 are pushed into the ground, the tent stands 

 very securely. 



WORKING WITH BEES BY LAMPLIGHT WHEN 

 ROBBERS ARE TROUBLESOME DUR- 

 ING THE DAY. 



We have before mentioned our troubles in 

 trying to people the house-apiary in the fall. 

 13 



we assure you, for we longed for the time 

 wiien the robbers would be compelled, by the 

 gathering darkness, to go home. Many of 

 you have doubtless had cause to repent try- 

 ing to work with bees when it began to grow 

 dark, but we somehow got the idea that, 

 with some good lamps having nice shades on 

 them, we could dow^ork in the evening. We 

 went at once, took a lamp, and walked around 

 the apiary viewing the inmates of different 

 hives clustered out at the entrances, hum- 

 ming merrily, we presume in remembrance 

 of the rich loads they had but an hour before 

 snatched from us. Scarcely a bee took wing, 

 and we then ventured to open a hive. With 

 the lamp on one of the posts of the trellis, 

 we found we could handle the bees al- 

 most as well as in daylight, and, to our in- 

 tense relief, not a bee w^ould leave its hive, 

 no matter how many combs were held tempt- 

 ingly imder their very noses. We went to 



*Our artist has shown the bottom fring-e of the 

 tent as common cloth; it is nothing- but a continua- 

 tion of mosquito-bar. 



