1910 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



117 



How do we avoid catching honest bees? 

 Easy enough. The traps are put in opera- 

 tion only when the prowHng thieves are 

 around. They are constantly on the alert, 

 skilled as they are in the art of steaUng and 

 in finding any exposed sweets; that is to say, 

 they are ever following one about, while the 

 honest bees are either in the field or hive. 



Let us assume a case. After we have been 

 working in the yard a few days there are a 

 few robbers that accumulate. But we do not 

 let them continue on with their nosing into 

 other peop e's business till they make work 

 in the yard exceedingly disagreeable, and 

 the colonies that are being worked cross. 

 Before they become very numerous, two or 

 three robber-traps are put into operation; 

 and in an hour absolute peace is restored 

 and not a prowler is in sight. 



The value of the trap depends on the fact 

 that it stops a would-be bad case of robbing 

 before it has progressed to any extent. A lit- 

 tle syrup (and a very little) is put into one 

 or two traps. The robbers, because hunting 

 for sweets, are caught long before any honest 

 bees think of looking for it. If Mr. Holter- 

 mann will try the traps he will find there is 

 no need for catching honest bees. If he 

 does /?e ought to be "trapped." 



C NSTRUCTION OF ROBBER-TRAPS. 



Let us now look over one of these traps at 

 the Root apiaries and see how they are con- 

 structed. An ordinary hive, su'h as is used 

 in the yard, two wire screens such as are 

 employed for moving bees, a super-cover, 

 and a wire-cloth-cone bee-esrape, make up 

 the complete outfit. (The ordinary Porter 

 spring e>capes for this purpose have not 

 been found to be as satisfactory as the wire- 

 cloth cones.) We open up the robber- trap 

 hive, and just over the entrance of it we 

 find a wire-cloth cone tacked up against the 

 inside hive-front. This is made by cutting 

 and folding a piece of wire cloth in the form 

 of a triangle. The large end fits over the en- 



trance, while the other end, gradually taper- 

 ing to a small orifice (about y% inch square) , 

 reaches nearly to the top of the hive, or with- 

 in an inch of the rabbet on which the frame- 

 rest; it is then secured by double-pointed 

 tacks as shown at the top of Fig. 1. As ai. 

 additional precaution we find it desirable to 

 have a smaller wire cone of the same con- 

 struction under the larger one. Where 

 there is only one cone the bees are liable to 

 go back out through the entrance. Other 

 forms of cones are shown in the two lower 

 views of Fig. 1. 



One of these traps is placed at a conven 

 lent location in the yard, when one of the 

 wire screens for moving bees is laid on top. 

 With a brush we smear a little diluted honey 

 (honey is better than syrup) over the wire 

 cloth at one end — the back one. This film 

 of honey is spread over an area of about two 

 inches wide by the width of the screen. 

 An )ther screen is placed on top of this, and 

 over the whole is placed a super cover as 

 shown in Fig. 2. Notice that this super cov- 

 er is set back about two inches, leaving a 

 portion of the wire cloth— the part smeared 

 with honey — exposed where the bees can get 

 a. smell of it, but not touch it, because the 

 upper srreen keeps them from it. Now, a 

 robber-bee, if a hardened "old sinner" or a 

 professional, when it smells honey in this 

 w ay w ill immediately begin to "investigate. " 

 It will hover around the wire cloth (not cov- 

 ered by the super cover) for a minute or so, 

 and then, like a duck to water, it will make 

 a dart for the entrance. There are no guards 

 there to stop it; it rushes in pellmell, crawls 

 up throujh the two wire-cloth cones shown 

 in the previous illustration, and out through 

 the apex, when it is a prisoner. It may take 

 a sip of the honey, and when it gets its fill it 

 will go toward the light at the point where 

 the super-cover is slid backward. The 

 chances are only one in a thousand that it 

 will get back through the wire-cloth cones 



Fig. 2.— Outside detail of the robber-trap. A double screen is used, and honey is painted on the in- 

 ner screen. Robbers are atiracted by the odor of the honey. As they can not reach it from the outer screen 

 they enter the hive and are trapped. 



