Aug. 22, 1901. 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



533 



will get a schooling which, in after life, you would not 

 part with for a considerable amount of money. 



Onondaga Co., N. Y. 



iContinued from page 5('2.) 



No. 11. 



Practical Lessons for Beginners in Bee- 

 Culture. 



BY J. D. GEHRING. 



" T BELIEVE, Mr. Bond, I promised yesterday to tell you 

 I about robbing in the apiary, when I could get a good 

 opportunity to do so. Well, I've just noticed some- 

 thing about this drone-beheading business that has 

 brought the matter to mind again — I mean those shavings 

 from the drone-comb which I carelessly allowed to fall to 

 the ground at my feet. This is a good time to direct your 

 attention to it, because I believe that fully seven out of 

 every ten instances when robbing breaks out among bees, 

 it is owing to some violation of an important rule — some 

 thoughtless transgression of the law of vigilance, which in 

 an apiary is always in force. 



" The sight of those drone-head shavings reminds me 

 of an experience with the worst case of robbing I have 

 ever been compelled to deal with. It was my first experi- 

 ence in api-surgery — the process of drone-decapitation. I 

 went from hive to hive in my search for drones and sliced all 

 the drone-brood I could find. I found it harder work than I 

 had anticipated, and it took more time than I had counted 

 on. And, several other things that proved to be of consid- 

 erable importance in the course of that experience I failed 

 to see — or foresee, I would better say. 



" Well, I was at the sixth hive in the course of my 

 work when, suddenly I thought — but the fact is I had been 

 too eagerly engaged in the work to notice anything else 

 going on around me — I heard a noise like that of a swarm 

 of bees going over my head. For the first time since I had 

 begun the job I looked up — and for about a minute by the 

 clock I kept looking. It took that long for my startled 

 mind to realize what was going on in my little apiary. 



"Robbing!" I exclaimed aloud to myself, when I had 

 finally taken in the most prominent signs and symptoms of 

 the case. 



" Under ordinary circumstances I would have tried to 

 figure out the cause, or course, of this sudden outbreak, 

 before doing anything else — my mental machinery is built 

 that way — but I had quick wit enough, for the moment, to 

 see that this was no ordinary case of robbing. This was 

 plainly evident to the naked eye, for the air was full of 

 bees, as I had never seen the like before ; and they were 

 darting — not merely flying, mind you, Mr. Bond — in every 

 direction, and with a noise which I can't describe, but 

 which sounded in my ears for weeks after. 



" It is not usual for me to lose my head on the occasion 

 of an accident, or a sudden, unexpected, frightful occurence, 

 but on this occasion I was completely ' upsot ' for — I can't 

 exactly say how long. I noticed, however, that the greater 

 part of the flying bees were near the two hives I had first 

 operated on, so I went there to investigate. On my way I 

 noticed a great many bees crawling around on the ground, 

 and, on looking down to find out the cause. I saw that they 

 were busy on the drone-brood shavings. These, it seemed, 

 contained more or less honey, and as I had carelessly scat- 

 tered them about each of the six hives treated, they made 

 quite an attractive mess for the bees. 



" But that was not all, as I found when I came near the 

 end of the row, for there stood the second of those hives 

 open — I had forgotten to replace the cover. This alone is 

 often enough to start robbing in an apiary, but here it was 

 aggravated by a combination of circumstances. These 

 circumstances, however, could not have combined to oper- 

 ate against me had I been thoroughly informed as to cer- 

 tain details. I did not then know that the afternoon would 

 not do as well as the forenoon for such a job of manipula- 

 tion. Neither did I then know that it was not a good time 

 for such a job when all the colonies are comparatively idle 

 and apparently quiet. And I was also ignorant of the fact 

 that bees are never idle or quiet during the daytime unless 

 there is no honey in the fields. 



"The fact is — and I may as well own it, Mr. Bond- I 

 had at that time a slight attack of a complaint known as 

 ' big-head.' Nearly all bee-keepers have had it, more or 

 less severely — usually during a fever caused by unexpected 

 success. I imagined that I had already mastered the intri- 

 cate science of bee-culture when, in truth, I had many of 



the most important things yet to learn. I had made the 

 mistake, too, of supposing that because I had read two or 

 three kinds of bee-books I had nothing more to learn. I 

 have since learned that many essentials in the course of 

 successful bee-keeping can not be found in bee-books — not 

 because those who write bee-literature are not thoroughly 

 informed, but because many things come to our knowledge 

 by experience, and can be learned in no other way. 



"'Well,' I said to myself — I thought out loud during 

 that exciting experience, Mr. Bond — 'this /'i a sweetness 1 

 If only I knew what to do I But I can't think of a blessed 

 thing I ever knew about robbing; ! And it's getting worse 

 and worse all the time, too I The fracas is on all along the 

 line — and getting worse at the other end, I declare I' 



" At this moment I heard some one shouting my name, 

 and on looking around I saw my dear little wife — any pos- 

 sible source of help was dear to me just then — standing in 

 the kitchen doorway, gesticulating, and shouting : ' Shut 

 the hives, John ! Shut the hives, quick !' 



" I didn't at once understand what she meant by 

 ' hives,' not being aware that more than one was open, but 

 I had sense enough return to me so that I could see the hive 

 right before me and the cover by its side. I had been too 

 completely dumbfounded to see that first important thing 

 to be done toward controlling the robbers ! I quickly put 

 that cover on, and then looked to see where my wife had 

 seen another all the way from the house. She pointed 

 toward the end of the line of the six hives. I ran in that 

 direction and slapped the cover on that hive in a jifi'y. In 

 the first flush of excitement ensuing my discovery of rob- 

 bing going on, I had left the hive without replacing the 

 cover, and the robbers had discovered my mistake before I 

 did." 



" What did you do next ?" queried Mr. Bond. We were 

 walking toward the honey-house as I was talking ; and, as 

 I opened the door and asked him to walk in and take a seat, 

 I answered : 



"The next thing I did was promptly to execute another 

 suggestion my wife made to me, and partly executed her- 

 self when she came running toward the apiary with an 

 armful of quilts and pieces of carpet, calling as she ran, 

 'Here, John I Take these and throw one over each of the 

 hives most in danger. It will confuse them a little for a 

 while, anyway.' And then she wanted to know whether 

 she hadn't better get her bee-veil and help me get out of 

 the scrape ! I tell you, Mr. Bond, it never pays to ignore 

 our women-folks in this business. They remember things 

 better than most of us men, and they nearly always know 

 what to do in sudden and perplexing emergencies." 



"Did that put a stop to the robbing?" Mr. Bond 

 inquired, as though not having heard the last sentence. 



"Well, no," I replied, "not altogether; though it 

 seemed to bother the robbers for awhile, as my wife sug- 

 gested if would. But by this time I had recovered my wits, 

 and was now ready for further development. I didn't dare 

 to close, or even to contract very much, the entrance-spaces 

 of the hives, because of the heat in the hives and outside. 

 I had smothered a fine colony in that way the year before, 

 and by the same process also ruined two supers full of 

 nicely finished section-honey. 



" Not knowing what I could do further to stop the rob- 

 bing I got my sprinkling can and for an hour or more kept 

 the hives where the bees were the most aggressive wet all 

 the time. Soon after, night came on ; and that put a stop 

 to the business for that day. 



" Before I went to bed that night I got out my bee- 

 journals and looked them over for articles on ' robbing.' I 

 found some good things on the subject, and stored them 

 ' for keeps ' in my memory. No doubt I had read these 

 articles when the nurnbers containing them first came to 

 hand, but not having an acute case of robbing on my hands 

 at the time I did not charf^e my memory with the subject- 

 matter, and hence my forgettery took charge of it instead. 

 "Well, one of the articles on robbing advised the put- 

 ting of straw or hay in front of the entrance of the hive 

 that was being robbed, and then keeping it wet by sprink- 

 ling water on it at frequent intervals. That struck me as 

 a good idea and I determined to try it next day if robbing 

 recommenced. 



" Another of the articles said, ' Take the hive that is 

 being robbed and carry it into your cellar, if you have one 

 and it's handy, and leave it there for a few days.' I 

 thought that was a capital scheme, too, and resolved to try 

 it next day, if necessary. 



" In another article I found the prescription highly 

 recommended, to change the location of the beleaguered 

 hive, reverse the entrance-front, and cover the hive with a 



