116 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Feb. 15 



ROBBER-TRAPS. 



How Constructed; When and 

 How they Can be Used. 



BY E. R ROOT. 



We have been using in our 

 yards, for some years back, vari- 

 ous forms of roboer-traps Their 

 purpose is to catch ttie hardened 

 "old sinners" — bees that are 



Erofessionals in the art of rob- 

 ing, and which are of but Httle 

 practical value for the purpose 

 of getting honey honestly from 

 the fields. As we have before 

 stated in these columns, we 

 catch these shiny-backed bees 

 and kill them. While some pro- 

 test has been raised on the 

 ground that they might be made 

 over into a colony, yet the kmd 

 of "old sinners" to which we 

 have referred are useless for any 

 purpose. In a queen - rearing 

 yard the sooner they are out of 

 the way the better for all con- 

 cerned. As long as they are al- 

 lowed to prey on their honest 

 neighbors they will continue to 

 make work in the j ard disagree- 

 able by keeping every colony 

 stirred up and more or less cross, 

 df spoil baby nuclei, and make 

 trouble generally. But this is 

 not all. They incite other bees 

 to rob. The force of example is 

 very potent among bees as well 

 as human beings. 



A short time ago Mr. Holter- 

 mann, in his department, face- 

 tiously remarked that any man 

 who would use a robber-trap 

 ought to be "trapped" himself 

 — implying, of course, that such 

 a device is a useless contrivance 

 in a well-regulated apiary. As 

 we later pointed out, robber traps 

 are almost indispensable in a 

 queen rearing yard. While one 

 does not need to use them con- 

 tinuously, they are required on 

 occasions; for if a few bees once 

 get started to robbing they will 

 day after day pounce on the combs every 

 time a hive is opened, and render life mis- 

 erable for their owner and for the baby 

 nuclei. Time and time ajjain in our yards 

 we have restored every thing to absolute 

 order and quiet by the u^e of the trap. It 

 works like magic; and after the rascals are 

 caught, one will be surprised to note how 

 few bees can make such an uproar as is 

 evidenced by the number in the trap. Their 

 intrinsic value is practically nothing, even 

 if they were good honest bees. To let them 

 loose would only invite more trouble. The 

 amount of honey that they might gather if 

 they could be "reformed " would be a very 

 insignificant item. But the amount of dam- 

 age that they can do in interfering with our 



Fig. 1.— Wire-cloth-cone bee-escape on the inside of robber- 

 traps. Note that the laree end of the cone communicates with the 

 regular entrance of the hive. Robbers pass in at the entrance up 

 through the cone into the hive and are caught. 



queen-rearing operations is no small item. 

 But Mr. Holtermann comes back and says 

 that, if a robber-trap wi;l catch robbers, it 

 will also catch honest bees, and why destroy 

 good property? There is no need, Mr Hol- 

 termann, for catching any thing but the hard- 

 ened old sinners — those that we consider 

 hopeless beyond redemption. As explained, 

 we do not run the trap continuously through- 

 out the season — perhaps one or two days in 

 a week, and not even then if no robbers 

 show up During the entire season at our 

 home yard of 400 colonies and nuclei the to- 

 tal nu"iber of robbers that we catch would 

 hardly fill a two-gallon measure; and we ven- 

 ture to say there was not one honest bee out 

 of five hundred in the whole number. 



