232 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



to be getting in an uproar, great masses 

 of bees may cluster on the top and around 

 the sides of hives that are tiered up on 

 some colonies, a great number of bees 

 may be flying in and out of the hives 

 which seem so strongly attacked, and 

 many a novice might think the matter 

 was beyond his control, and imagine ruin 

 staring him in the face. 



I have seen even old, experienced bee- 

 keepers get excited, and spraj^ and throw 

 water on these hives on which robbers 

 were clustered in a frenzied attack, but 

 if a close observation is made it will be 

 seen that these apparently frenzied bees 

 take good care to keep out of the en- 

 trance. If one more venturesome than 

 the rest does get in it is roughly handled. 

 The bees flying in and out so lively are 

 bees that belong to that hive, and they 

 are ready to fight to the death if necessary 

 to defend their stores. 



A colony of average strength, if in 

 normal condition, will, before succumb- 

 ing to robbers, make such a fight that it 

 would always be remembered by one who 

 witnessed it; and it is something I feel 

 safe in saying, but very few have ever 

 seen, after a whole yard has, as the 

 novice would thhik, begun robbing, it is 

 in reality only the colonies as a whole be- 

 coming waked up to the fact that some- 

 thing unusual is taking place, and thej' 

 are flying around to find out what it is. 

 Then a general call to repel boarders fol- 

 lows, and in a few days things quiet 

 down, with no harm done. 



Still, as a matter of fact, I think it 

 much better to avoid as much as possible 

 all disturbances of this kind in a yard, 

 especially late in the fall, for it excites 

 and worries large numbers of bees, and 

 this may do harm by impairing their 

 vitality to endure the long confinement 

 of winter. But whenever I wish to 

 handle a colony for any purpo.se, such as 

 taking out or exchanging frames, I 

 always do so without any regard what- 

 ever as to robbing, no matter whether a 

 drop of honey is coming in or not. In 

 some cases hundreds of robber-bees will 

 get into the hives and on the combs of 

 the colony being handled, i)ut after the 

 hive is closed up they are soon expelled 

 and others prevented from entering. 

 No precaution is taken except to contract 

 the entrance more or less, depending up- 

 on the weather and strength of the 

 colony. I do not advise others to do so, 

 but I have practiced this for years with 

 no bad results. With nuclei the case is 

 different. I have reference to full colo- 

 nies, though they maybe pretty weak and 

 still repel robbers if in normal condition. 



In regard to robbing in the spring 

 when bees are first put out, as before 

 mentioned, there is an easy way to over- 

 come this. Simply smoke the colonies 

 already out enough so the bees will fill 

 themselves with honey. It is ver\' 

 quickly and ea.sily done, does not harm 

 the bees, and no robbing will be at- 

 tempted until the honey in their honey- 

 sacs has been put back in the comix's, 

 and they will be some time doing this, 

 but it isonly under exceptional conditions 

 that robbing in the spring is likely to be 

 started. What these conditions are I 

 would be glad to explain for the benefit 

 of the inexperienced, but I fear I have 

 already gotten outside the space I am 

 allowed in one article. 



Southern Minnesota. 



MORE NEW INVENTIONS. 



Do we Need Them in the Management of 

 Bees? 



I believe I have said that we need not 

 look for many more startling inventions 

 in our business. The movable comb hive, 

 the honey extractor, comb foundation, 

 the bellows smoker and the section honey 

 box were grand and important inven- 

 tions. I don't wish to discourage inven- 

 tion, but I don't look for many more 

 improvements as important as the ones I 

 have mentioned. At the last meeting of 

 the California bee-keepers Mr. J. H. Mar- 

 tin read a paper upon this subject, and 

 from it I extract the following para- 

 graphs: 



ISvery bee-keeper recognizes that in 

 order to get the most profit out of the 

 bees, the business must be conducted up- 

 on a large scale. We have examples in 

 nianv portions of the country where the 

 owner of many apiaries and at least a 

 thousand colonies of bees are the ones 

 that are deriving the greatest profit from 

 them, and the profit is increased accord- 

 ing as they adopt short cuts in the labor 

 and where hired help is dispensed with 

 as far as possible. 



• While working our bees for extracted 

 honey our present method of removing 

 each frame separately and Ijrushing the 

 bees therefrom, and stirring them up to a 

 high state of anger may be classed as a 

 primitive and roundabout way of manage- 

 ment. 



