IS 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



JAN. 



sharp practicing. I have several times seen 

 hees pass honey through the wire cloth in 

 this way, but have always stopped the 

 fun, before the insiders had passed it all out. 

 A correspondent in the Jan. Gleanings for 

 1879. gives an instance, where the whole of 

 the honey was handed out to the robbers, 

 leaving the insiders so destitute that they 

 actually starved to death, the whole of them. 

 These fellows, it seems, were a little too 

 Sharp, and in their greed for ill gotten gains, 

 rather overstepped themselves. 



Well, if we cannot give them ventilation 

 through wire cloth, what shall we do? I 

 Would let the robbers out, without letting 

 any of the outsiders in ; I generally do this 

 by brushing away, with a little bunch of as- 

 paragus tops, all the bees which are around 

 the entrance, and then keeping them away 

 until all get out that wish to. You can then 

 close the hive with very little danger. If 

 the colony is a large one (it is very seldom a 

 large colony is caught being robbed), you 

 would better shade the hive, to be on the safe 

 side. It will also be a good idea to set on an 

 upper story, and let them go up into that. 

 If you have got the robbers all out, it will 

 often do to give them their liberty the next 

 morning, but if they will not defend them- 

 selves then, I would shut them up and let 

 them remain 3 days. By this time, all the 

 bees that remained in the hive, or a large part 

 of them, even if they are robbers, will adhere 

 to the stand as if it had always been their 

 own. I hardly know why this is, for a bee 

 remembers things that happened several 

 weeks before. Perhaps they get interested 

 in the ways of their new home, and conclude 

 to cast their lots there. I know that bees 

 remember more than 3 days, because I once 

 carried a stock away to a swamp and kept 

 them there about a month. When I brought 

 them back, I placed them on a new stand, 

 and jostled them a little in opening the en- 

 trance. At this they sallied out in quite a 

 body, but when they tried to return to their 

 hive, they all went directly to their old stand. 

 Bees have been known to do the same, after 

 being in a bee house over winter. 



After a colony has been confined a day or 

 two, because they would not repel robbers, I 

 woidd let them out just about sundown, and 

 watch them closely. To be on the safe side, 

 you would better get up next morning be- 

 fore they begin to fly, and see if they are all 

 right. It sometimes puzzles beginners ex- 

 ceedingly, to know whether the bees that 

 come out are robbers, or the ordinary in- 

 mates of the hive. 



HOW TO KNOW ROBBER BEES. 



A robber bee, when he approaches a hive, 

 has a sly, guilty look, and flies with his legs 

 spread in rather an unusual way, as if he 

 wanted to be ready to use his heels as well 

 as wings, if required. lie will move cau- 

 tiously up to the entrance, and quickly dodge 

 back, as soon as he sees a bee coming toward 

 him. If he is promptly grabbed for, as soon 

 as he attempts to go in, you need have but 

 little fear. If a bee goes in and you cannot 

 well tell whether he was a robber or not, you 

 must keep a close watch on the bees that 

 come out. This is a very sure way of telling 

 when robbers have got a start, even at its 

 first commencement. A bee, in going to the 

 fields, comes out leisurely, and takes wing 

 with but little trouble, because he has no 

 load. His body is also slim, for he has no 

 honey with him. A bee that has stolen a 

 load, is generally very plump and full, and as 

 he comes out, he has a hurried and guilty 

 look; besides, he is almost always wiping his 

 mouth, like a man who has just come out of 

 a beer shop. Most of all, he finds it a little 

 difficult to take wing, as bees ordinarily do, 

 because of the weight. In bee hunting, I 

 told you how a bee laden with thick undilut- 

 ed honey, would stagger several times under 

 his load, before he could take wing for his 

 final trip home. Well, the bee when he 

 comes out of the hive with the honey he has 

 very likely just uncapped, feels instinctively 

 that he will be quite apt to tumble unless he 

 can take wing from some elevated position, 

 and therefore he crawls up the side of the 

 hive before he launches out. When he first 

 takes wing, he falls a little by the weight of 

 his load, before he has his wings fully under 

 control, and therefore instead of starting out 

 as a bee ordinarily does, he takes a down- 

 ward curve, coming quite near the ground, 

 before he rises safely and surely. With a 

 little practice, you can tell a robber at a 

 glance, by his way of coming out of the hive, 

 particularly, by that fashion of running up 

 the side of the hive before taking wing, in 

 the way I have mentioned. As soon as you 

 find bees coming out of the hive loaded, shut 

 it up at once. If there are not many of them, 

 there will be no danger of suffocation. It is 

 the bees gorged with honey that are most 

 apt to suffocate, for they are much like an 

 individual who has eaten too large a dinner, 

 and they cannot stand close confinement. 

 When near suffocation, they will disgorge 

 the honey, and the quantity is often sufficient 

 to wet the whole mass almost as thoroughly, 

 as if they had been dipped in honey. The 



