18?9 



GLEANINGS IX BEE CULTUKE. 



19 



heat given off by the clamp crowd is often so 

 great as to melt down the combs into a sticky 

 mass, and when touched by the hand, it oft- 

 en feels almost scalding hot. The bees soon 

 die in this condition, for their breathing 

 pores are closed, and unless they can be 

 speedily licked off by other bees, or washed, 

 they will be "no good." If they are found 

 in this condition, with life enough to move, 

 they may be saved by giving them to clean 

 bees to lick off, but they should be confined 

 so that they cannot readily crawl out of the 

 hive in the dirt ; they will always do this if 

 they can, for they seem to consider them- 

 selves of no use, and like any ailing bee, try 

 to get off out of the way of those that are 

 healthy and well. I have often saved almost 

 every one, by dipping a teacupful, or even a 

 pint, with a spoon, and placing them right 

 over the frames of a strong colony. If you 

 do not give each hive too many at once, they 

 will soon clean them off as bright as them- 

 selves. Letting the outside robbers get at 

 the mass will do, but it may result in more 

 trouble, unless you are master of your busi- 

 ness. One of our feminine friends reported 

 a short time ago, saving such a colony, by 

 washing the bees in warm water, and then 

 drying them in the sun, in a box covered 

 with wire cloth. 



HOW TO TELL WHERE THE ROBBERS BE- 

 LONG. 



If you are a bee hunter, you will probably 

 line them to their hive without any trouble, 

 but if you are not, you can easily find from 

 which hive they come, by sprinkling them 

 with flour, as they come out of the hi ve being 

 robbed. Now watch the other hives, and see 

 where you find the floured bees going in. I 

 can generally tell in a very few moments, by 

 the excited actions of the robbers, already 

 mentioned. It has been often recommended 

 that the combs be broken and the honey set 

 running in the robbers' hive, that they may 

 be induced to stay at home ; this will some- 

 times check them, but as these colonies are 

 almost always extra spry and active, they 

 will have things fixed up in a trice, and be 

 out at their old trade again. In trying to 

 people our house apiary, in the fall, when it 

 was first built, I had a great deal of trouble 

 with one certain colony. In fact, if any rob- 

 bing was going on anywhere, it was sure to 

 lie these hybrids who were at the bottom of 

 the mischief. After I had tried every plan I 

 had heard recommended, and still these fel- 

 lows would persist in pushing into every 

 new colony I started, the idea occurred to 

 me that, on the principle that it takes a rogue 



to catch a rogue, it would be well to try and 

 see how they would repel robbers. I simply 

 took the greater part of the combs from the 

 robbers, bees and all, and carried them into 

 the house apiary, and put them in place of 

 the colony which they had been robbing. 

 The effect was instantaneous. Every laden 

 robber bee that came home with his load, on 

 finding the queen and brood gone, at once 

 showed the utmost consternation, and the 

 passion for robbing was instantly changed to 

 grief and moaning for the lost home. The 

 weak colony which they had been robbing, 

 and which had only a queen cell, was placed 

 with them, and they soon took up with it, 

 and went to work. The robbers newly dom- 

 iciled in the house apiary, repelled all invad- 

 ers* with such energy and determination, that 

 the rest seemed to abandon the idea which 

 they, doubtless, had previously formed, viz., 

 that the house apiary was a monster hive but 

 illy garrisoned, and I had but little trouble 

 afterward. Before I swapped them, as I 

 have mentioned, I had serious thoughts of 

 destroying the queen, simply because they 

 were such pests; but the year afterward, 

 this colony gave me in the house apiary, over 

 100 lbs. of comb honey. 



SWAPPING COLONIES TO STOP ROBBING. 



The practice of swapping colonies is not 

 always a very safe one, on several accounts, 

 although an experienced, or a careful hand, 

 will often make it serve an excellent pur- 

 pose. Sometimes the queen of the weaker 

 colony may be attacked and destroyed, and 

 again bees from other hives may strike in, 

 and both being demoralized by the unexpect- 

 ed transition, and unfitted to repel intruders, 

 robbing may be started on a much larger 

 scale than before. Instead of exchanging 

 hives and all, I think by far the better way 

 is to leave the hives on their old stand, and 

 simply exchange the greater part of the 

 combs, with the bees adhering. With the 

 fingers between each two combs, with both 

 hands, we can raise four combs with all the 

 adhering bees, and carry them all together. 

 If done in this way, enough of the original 

 inmates will be left in the strong hive to pro- 

 tect it, and enough will also be carried to the 

 weaker hive to make it perfectly safe. The 

 queen of the stronger hive will be in no dan- 

 ger, but the queen of the weaker one may 

 have to be caged, although I have seldom 

 found this necessary. 



WHAT HAPPENS IF ROBBING IS NOT STOP- 

 PED. 



Well, when the work is under real head- 

 way, the honey of a strong colony will disap- 



