Slli 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 



this hive— the brood being cared for by the honey- 

 bees? This is very interesting- practically, no less 

 than scientifically. I have written to Mr. Moore to 

 examine at once to see if these bees were being 

 bred in the hive. There are two ways to find out. 

 First, study the larv* to see if some are different 

 from the others. This might be a long, tedious, 

 and difficult investigation. The other is to watch 

 for the cuckoo-bees just as they come forth from 

 the cells. Some such ought to be seen, and they 

 would doubtless look much like young honey-bees, 

 smaller and lighter colored than the older bees. I 

 hope others will also be on the lookout for these 

 bees. Very likely these cuckoo-bees will winter 

 right in the hive with the other bees. To find out 

 their habits in this respect will also be very inter- 

 esting. I hope Mr. Moore and others will try to 

 find out the truth in the matter. If I can get some 

 of these bees I will try to see if I can introduce 

 them here, that I may study their life-history. 

 Agricultural College, Mich. A.J.Cook. 



Well, well, old friend, you have indeed 

 got hold of something, if it be true, that 

 might well astonish the whole of us ; but 

 either you have not told us all, or else you 

 have not considered all there is to it. Were 

 those eggs surreptitiously placed in the 

 worker-cells by a queen cuckoo-bee, or are 

 the workers all queens V What enemy have 

 we to fight — the single insect that eludes 

 the sentinels, and lays some eggs in worker- 

 cells, or a whole tribe of them ? If the 100 

 or more are going to lay eggs, how long will 

 they stay in the hive before they start out 

 on their nefarious business ? You suggest 

 that they may stay over winter. Now, if 

 they do, what then ? 



ROBBER-BEES. 



AN EXPERIENCE ON A LARGE SCALE. 



fREVIOTJS to coming here to Cuba I had had 

 comparatively little knowledge and little ex- 

 perience in this line of bee-keeping; but the 

 past two summers have been spent in an al- 

 most constant contest with robber-bees; and 

 possibly telling my experience may be a little help 

 to some who, from any reason whatever, may be 

 placed similarly to myself. Of course, the true 

 remedy is never to handle bees so they will get 

 started, which can always be done in our Northern 

 States, and almost always in the South; but some- 

 times experiments are being made in a new coun- 

 try, as we are doing here, or a bad season occurs in 

 California, such as did occur there a few years ago, 

 when whole apiaries had to be fed to save them. 

 In such instances the best way to control robbers 

 is exactly what we want to know. Here where, partly 

 from a mistaken idea and partly for experimen- 

 tal purposes, we are trying to keep 500 colonies in a 

 field, which during four or five of the hottest 

 months of the year, gives forage for not over 200 

 colonies, we have to practice wholesale feeding, 

 and plenty of robber-bees is the natural result. Of 

 course, the right way is to keep bees, here and else- 

 where, so no wholesale feeding will be necessary, 

 during ordinary seasons at least, and we now know 

 how that can be done here in Cuba. 



In June of last year I suddenly found that at 

 least a quarter of our 430 colonies had less than a 

 pound of honey to the colony, some of them not 



over an ounce, while the other three quarters would 

 average not over 3 lbs. each, with no arrangements 

 for feeding on hand, or that could be procured in 

 less than a month of time. Fortunately, for this 

 purpose at least, our hives were of the fast-bottom- 

 board type, and I could feed in the hives. About 

 two-thirds of the colonies required from one to 

 four feeds each during the summer. I had fed but 

 a few hundred pounds of honey, when I saw that it 

 would be impossible to feed honey that way; so we 

 changed to sugar syrup as a food. The smell of 

 this doesn't seem to excite the robbers so much as 

 honey does. With this we managed to get through 

 the season, although with great difficulty. It was 

 the most disagreeable season's work I ever did with 

 bees, except this summer's. Last spring we ob- 

 tained 2J0 feeders, similar to the modified Miller 

 feeders you make. This year we had to commence 

 feeding by the middle of May, nearly a month ear- 

 lier than last year, and have had to feed nearly 

 three-fourths of our 500 colonies. 



We have learned a number of things in connec- 

 tion with this work. Some of them are: 1. That 

 what would be a very lig-ht task indeed, requiring 

 almost no skill at all, to feed 100 or even 200 colonies, 

 is an almost impossible task with 500 colonies. 2. That 

 we must feed as few times as possible, therefore 

 must feed as much at a time as the bees are certain 

 to take up during the night. 3. That robbers are 

 much worse around a hive which has feed left in 

 the feeders. 4. That each time we feed, unless we 

 wait longer between feeds than we could do, the 

 robbers would be worse than the previous time, 

 showing clearly how susceptible bees are to being 

 educated, in one direction at least. 5. That honey 

 fed in the bottom of hives attracts robbers much 

 worse than if given in feeders on the top of combs. 

 6. That mild-flavored honey attracts robbers much 

 less than does strong-flavored honey. There is no 

 need of mentioning the old well-known facts about 

 feeding after sundown, and about Italians protect- 

 ing stores better than black bees do, etc. 



I usually practice feeding from 20 to 30 colonies 

 at a time, and give 5 or 6 pounds at a feed to each 

 colony. The first three or four times feeding, no 

 precautions whatever were needed — not even to 

 contract the entrances. The next two or three 

 times, contracting the entrances was sufficient; 

 then it became necessary to entirely close the en- 

 trances of all the weaker colonies, which was done • 

 the last thing before retiring at night. The en- 

 trances were kept closed until after the first charge 

 of the robbers was over in the morning, usually un- 

 til nine or ten o'clock. Soon, this was not sufficient, 

 and something else had to be done. I tried using 

 wire-cloth covers on the hives, but that was a fail- 

 ure, just as you describe in your ABC book. I 

 then obtained some strips of glass, 3 x 12 inches, 

 and leaned them over the entrances. These were a 

 material help, as the robbers had to travel several 

 inches under the glass before reaching the hive 

 entrances, thus giving the defenders a great advan- 

 tage. But in time the robbers learned how to man- 

 age these. Wet grass over the entrances was of 

 little account. About this time it looked as though 

 I had two horns of a dilemma to choose between. 

 One was, to allow a few score of colonies to die of 

 starvation, or to feed and have them destroyed by 

 robbers. Had the apiary been my own, I should have 

 decreased the number of colonies at least a hundred 

 last spring, instead of increasing that many, as we 



