ROBBING. 



387 



ROBBING. 



bing and stinging after the supply is ex- 

 hausted. To forestall this, put the combs 

 and sections in hives or supers, one tiered 

 above another on a regular bottom-board, 

 and then contract the entrance so that not 

 more than one or two hees can pass at a time. 

 To make it wider results in a scramble, and 

 robbing of weak colonies in the yard. The 

 top of the tier of hives or supers should, of 

 course, be covered. While a regular hive- 

 cover can be used, a wire-cloth screen is 

 much to be preferred, to prevent suffocation. 

 But it must be provided with a bee-escape; 

 otherwise nearly all the visiting bees will 

 perish, vainly trying to force an exit through 

 the wire screen. 



These tiered-up hives with small entrances 

 are much used to clean up scraps of honey, 

 extracting-combs, and to empty out partly 

 finished sections — see Comh Honey. This 

 slow robbing also has a tendency to draw off 

 robbers from the nuclei and weak colonies 

 and therefore serves a double purpose. 



WHAT HAPPENS IF ROBBING IS NOT STOPPED. 



When robbing is under genuine head- 

 way, the honey of a strong colony will disap- 

 pear in from 2 to 12 hours ; the bees will then 

 starve in the hive, or go home with the pil- 

 lagers, or scatter about and die. This is not 

 all: when the passion is fully aroused they 

 will not hesitate to attack the strongest 

 stocks, and you will find your bees stung to 

 death in heaps before the entrances. This 

 may put a stop to it, in time, but we have 

 seen them push ahead until every hive of the 

 apiary was in an uproar, and it seemed as if 

 every bee had certainly gone crazy. At such 

 times the robbers will attack passers-by in 

 the streets, and even venture an attack on 

 cats, dogs, aye, and hens and turkeys too. 

 Like the American Indians when infuriated 

 at the sight of blood, every bee seems to 

 have a demoniacal delight in selling its life 

 while inflicting all the torments it possibly 

 can, feeling sad only because it can not do 

 any more mischief. I 



The worst robbing time seems to be after 

 basswood is over, when bees become espe- 

 cially crazy, if they get even a smell of this 

 aromatic honey left carelessly about the 

 hives. One who has never seen such a state 

 of affairs can have but little idea of the furi- 

 ous way they sting every thing and every- t 

 body. The remedy is to get a good smoker 

 and put in enough chips or planer shavings 

 to insure dens j smoke; then, using one hand 

 to work the smoker bellows; with the other, 

 proceed to close every hive that shows any 

 symptoms of being robbed. Shut up every 



bit of honey where not a bee can get at it, 

 and do your work well; for at such times 

 they will wedge into and get through cracks 

 that would make one think inch boards were 

 hardly protection enough. Just before dark 

 let all the robbers go home, and be up be- 

 times next morning to see that all entrances 

 are close and small, and that all the hives are 

 bee-tight. An experienced hand will restore 

 peace and quietness in a very short time, to 

 such a demoralized apiary. Black bees are 

 much worse than Italians, for the latter will 

 usually hold their stores against any number 

 of assailants; good, strong, well-made hives, 

 filled with Italians, with plenty of brood in 

 each, will be in little danger of any such 

 "raids," although we have seen the wounded 

 and slain piled up in heaps before robbers 

 would desist and give up trying to force an 

 entrance. See Anger of Bees. 



BORROWING. 



Before closing this subject of robbing 

 there are a few more points to be mentioned: 

 There is a kind of pillaging called borrow- 

 ing, where the bees from one hive will go 

 quietly into another, and carry awny its 

 stores as fast as gathered; but this usually 

 happens where the robbed stock is queenless, 

 or has an unfertile queen. As soon as they 

 have eggs and brood, they begin to realize 

 what the end of such work will be. This 

 state of affairs seldom goes on long; for it 

 either results in downright robbing, or the 

 bees themselves put a stop to it. 



Caution to Beginners. — The first year we 

 kept bees there was constant fear that they 

 would get to robbing, as we had read so much 

 about in the books. One afternoon in May 

 we saw a large number of bees passing 

 rapidly out and in a particular hive, and 

 the more they were examined the more w^e 

 were persuaded that they were being robbed. 

 We contracted the entrance, but it seemed lo 

 make little difference. We finally closed it al- 

 most entirely, compelling the bees to squeeze 

 out and in, in a way that must have been 

 quite uncomfortable, at least. After awhile 

 they calmed down, and we had only the or- 

 dinary number of bees going out and in. 

 " There," thought we, "had w^e not read the 

 books and known how,we might have lost our 

 bees," and we undoubtedly felt very wise if 

 we did not look so. On turning oar head, be- 

 hold, the robbers were at another colony, and 

 they had to be put through the same program ; 

 then another and another; until we concluld- 

 ed a host of robbers had come from some 

 where, and made a raid on the apiary, and 

 that, had we not been on hand, the whole of 



