338 



GLEANINGS IN BEE (CULTURE 



May 



they are fairly aroused. Perhaps I had better say 

 Bomething about 



WHAT TO DO IN CASES OF ROBBING. 



And here again I will trust to your watchful care 

 to see that I do not lead astray the inexijerieuced, 

 for I am inclined to believe that, in a large number 

 of cases, the very best thing to do in a case of 

 robbing is to do nothing. Have you not sometimes 

 had it happen, that, the first thing you knew in the 

 spring, a hive was robbed and not a drop of honey 

 left— bees and all gone? And if you didn't find it 

 out till alter the mischief was all done, did you 

 ever know any further harm to come of it?— any 

 adjacent hives robbed in consequence? But if you 

 found it oul while the robbing was going on, and 

 moved away the hive that was being robbed, or 

 shut it up, very likely there was trouble all around. 

 Now, the whole thing in a nutshell seems to be 

 something like this: Bees are very precise in their 

 knowledge of locality, and the exact spot where 

 they have commenced robbing they will visit again; 

 and when all the honey is gone from that spot or 

 point of entiance (perhaps provided Ihey have 

 finished the honey themselves), they decide there is 

 nothing further to be done, and no surrounding 

 hive is attacked. But if the meddlesome bee- 

 keeper removes the hive which they were rob- 

 bing, they know they left honey in that hive, 

 and go to hunting for it, and thus attack the 

 surrounding hives. So if any thing bees are rob- 

 bing be removed, let some comb with at least a 

 little honey be put in a hive in exactly the same 

 place, and adjoining hives will be safe. Of course, 

 see that all entrances are contracted in spring. 



Yesterday I found the bees were robbing a col- 

 ony in a double hive. They had been at it so long- 

 that it was not worth while to try to save what 

 little honey was left (otherwise I should have taken 

 out pari), and I let them entirely alone. To-day 

 they have left it, and another colony in the same 

 hive, using the same alighting-board, with its en- 

 trance 8s inches distant, >is left undisturbed, al- 

 though its entrance was left '.i'i inches wide. 



Marengo, 111 , Apr. 20, 18W. C. C. Miller. 



Now, friend M., while we agree almost ex- 

 actly on pretty much all these subjects that 

 come up, there is one place where 1. too, just 

 won't agree — that is, if I understand you 

 fully, but perhaps 1 don't. I^et me explain. 

 When bees have got into a notion of robbing 

 in an apiary, unless great care is taken 

 it will continue to groAV worse and worse 

 until finally robbing is so much the order of 

 the day and the excitement of the hour that 

 your whole apiary may be so much absorb- 

 ed in it they won't even notice the apple- 

 bloom and clover when they come. If you 

 have not had any experience in such a state 

 of affairs, I can tell you that 1 have. At 

 such times a pan of broken combs, such as 

 is left after transferring, would be the ruin 

 of almost any colony, if simply placed in the 

 upper story ; and if there were cracks 

 through which tlip bees could get a glimpse 

 of it, and a sniff of the broken combs, it 

 would make matters ever so much worse : 

 and I have never found complete relief 

 from this kind of work until I adopter] the 

 Simplicity Ijevels and the chaff' hives. Flat 

 boards, cleated in the best manner I could 

 devise, would warp and let a sufficient 

 number of robbers get their heads thiough 



the crack to raise the cover a little, and 

 then they would get their shoulders under, 

 and, in a little time more, away goes the 

 colony where the i)aii ot sweets was placed, 

 and with it a qneeu vvorth perhaps three or 

 four dollars. 1 would stoj) promptly every 

 sort of robbing the ininute 1 discovered it, 

 and I would do this lo keej) them from 

 getting into this mischievous habit of rob- 

 bing. I have had good slroug colonies 

 overpowered and used uji i>y just i)utting 

 a pan of bro.ceu combs in ihe u])per slory : 

 and I have been through whole seasons 

 where robbing was so constantly going on 

 that it si)oilpd all the pleasure "and pretl\ 

 nearly all the piofit of the whole apiaiy. 

 I^ater, after I liad learned l.'V sad experi- 

 ence, and had provided myself with better 

 hives, I have so managed that scarcely a 

 case of robbing occuired from spring until 

 fall; and when bees are so caieliilly man- 

 aged that tliey do not discover there" is any 

 way to get stoves excei)t from the llowers, 

 we may leave combs of honey standing 

 around with considerable impunity, and no 

 bad results follow. I have sometimes 

 thought it would almost jniy better to l)rim- 

 stone an apiary of l)ees, when they had got 

 well educated iip to the business of rol)bing. 

 than to do any thing else with them. I 

 suspect that localities have a great deal to 

 do with this. I often hear visitors say that 

 their bees gather stores enough to be slowly 

 increasing in weight during all the summer 

 months. This is by no means the case 

 here. We have many weeks togethei-, right 

 in the summer time, when a colony placed 

 on the scales shows a loss in weight day 

 after day. Now, my advice to the rising 

 generation of bee-keepers is. to kee]i such a 

 sharp, vigilant eye on the apiaiy during all 

 the warm weather, that the bee"s never get 

 a going enough to discover that stealing is 

 among the possibilities. It just nov, occurs 

 to me, that the same rule applies not only 

 to kicking and balky liorses, but to th'e 

 younger ones of the human family as well. 

 A stitch in time saves nine, in al"l sorts of 

 vice, among bees or men. 1 quite agree 

 with you, tliat moving the hive away when 

 it is almost used up makes matters, for the 

 time l)eing, a good deal worse ; but I would 

 adopt it as the lesser of two evils. Wlien it 

 is almost nigJit it may do to let tliem go 

 ahead sometimes until darkness winds it 

 up. 



THE SMITH FORCE-PUMP, FOR BRING- 

 ING DOWN SWARMS. 



THE ITSKS OF FORCE-in'Ml'S. 



foil several years back, force-pumps have 

 been recommended for bringing down 

 swarms while ai the air. We have 

 nevei' tested them oui'selves. for the 

 simple reason that we do not allow 

 swarming to any great extent. However, if 

 we were situated as smie are. there is no 

 doubt it would be a good investment lohave 

 a p;iil of water and a Smith pump in the api- 

 ary, convenient lor emergencies of tiiis kind. 

 It" is said, that the bees are led to believe a 

 shower is coming up while being sprayed. 



