1887 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



619 



find a greater improvement than il' left perfectly 

 square. I have tried to make this perfectly i)lain, 

 and hope you will l)o able to understand it. 



Theodoke Jennings. 

 Rye, N. v.. July :i:i, 18S7. 



Putting partly tilled sections into the su- 

 pers is one of the best ways of getting the 

 bees to commence work above. This meth- 

 od has been recommended several times 

 before. 



THE OTHER SIDE. 



DDOMTTLE'S EXl'EKIENCE WITH ROlJBlNtJ. 



TT is said, writers give the bright side of bee cul- 

 ^ ture more largely than the dark, which T am 

 ^l free to admit; for when in a happy mood we 



"*■ are more lliient talkers than when sad or per- 

 plexed. As I have been perplexed and troubl- 

 ed for the past week or more with would-he robbers 

 I thought perhaps not a few of the readers of 

 Gleanings would be glad to hear about it. If any 

 thing about bee-keeping makes me feel " duber- 

 some " it is to have robbers hovering all day long 

 about every hive in the yard that they think there 

 is a possible chance of getting into. About a week 

 ago the little honey that had been coming slowly in 

 stopped short off, so that there was nothing for the 

 bees to do; while with every day the heat has been 

 intense, which is just the time to put all the possi- 

 ble vim into a robber. Add to this the running of 

 a queen-rearing business in which I was often 

 sending out 30 to 40 (jueens a da3', and the reader 

 will take in the situation. The cover could not be 

 gotten olf a nucleus before there was a host of 

 marauders ready to pile in, so that, had it not been 

 for the bee-tent, T could not have done any thing 

 at all, except very early in the morning and late at 

 night, both of which times are very unpleasant to 

 work with bees. The bee-tent would hold the rob- 

 bers at bay while the hive was' being opened and 

 closed ; but when the bees, kept outside by the tent, 

 would tlock in upon the i-emoval of the same, in 

 would go the robbers, when a fight would ensue, 

 which, in some instances, would have resulted iu 

 victory for the latter, had 1 not promptly closed the 

 hives to some of the weaker nuclei. Then I never 

 before saw robbers so determined or cunning be- 

 fore. They would hover all day long at the entrance 

 of a nucleus, Ave and six at a time, and alight down 

 with fanning wings as a tired bee would do after 

 being from home a long time, and in this way get 

 past the tired guards. Again, when some of the 

 guards would catch a robber, other robbers would 

 catch hold of the robber also, and hold on, pulling 

 back till said bee got away, when they would whirl 

 around as if looking for another robber, and run in- 

 to the hive. In this way they would worry out the 

 guai-ds of the smaller nuclei, and keep me on the 

 .lump all the while. Talk about the pleasure of bee- 

 keeping when a man has to go on a jump from ear- 

 ly morning till after dark at night, in the scorching 

 sun most of the time, with the mercury up from 

 90° to 95° In the shade, then add this robbing per- 

 plexity, and you have something— dfliyhtfi/lfjy un- 

 pleasant. 



Well, there is a pleasant part to it after all, and 

 that is what I wanted most to tell the readers 

 about. The bright side again, you see. What was 

 it could make such a time bright and pleasant? 

 Just this: I beat the robbersl Coming off victor 



makes days of struggle and hard toil look pleasant. 

 From such a struggle, with victory, a satisfaction 

 comes that can not be had through ease or indo- 

 lence. In watching I often noticed that, when a 

 robl)er slipped by the outside guards into a hive, he 

 would often be led out V)y a bee from the inside of 

 the hive. This set me to thinking, the result of 

 which was the fixing of every nucleus and weak 

 colony as follows: Heretofore 1 had the entrance to 

 the hive right direct on to the combs. I now. as fast 

 as I opened a nucleus, took the frame having the 

 most honey In it and set it clear to the opposite 

 side of the hive from the entrance, then the frame 

 having the next most next to that, and the one 

 having the most brood in it last, as I usually use 

 three frames to each nucleus, Iteeping them (the 

 nuclei) in full-sized hives. I now drew up the 

 division-board and closed the hive. This left the 

 entrance on one side or end of the hive, while the 

 nucleus with its three combs was on the other. If 

 a robber slipped by the outside and inside guards 

 he now had to travel over a foot of space, all along 

 which were scattered guards ready to seize him. 

 If he succeeded in getting by them through strata- 

 gem he first came to the division-board; and if he 

 got around that, the next thing was a comb of 

 brood better protected with bees than any other 

 part of the hive. The result is, that, although rob- 

 bers still hover around, yet not one nucleus, since 

 fixed in this way, has allowed a robber to get a load 

 of honey, if there were bees enough in it to protect 

 it at all. Of course, if I tried to open hives right 

 along without the help of the tent, probably some 

 robbing would be done; but with the help of the 

 tent I am now once more boss of the situation in 

 this the worst time of scarcity I ever saw in hot 

 weather. G. M. Doolittle. 



Borodino, N. Y.. Aug. 3, 1887. 



Friend 1)., we have had an experience in 

 robbing this season, quite similar to yours, 

 as you will see by tlie department of Our 

 Own Apiary, last issue. I do not think that 

 we have had a season when Itees seemed 

 more persistent and more determined to 

 thieve than they have this. We have been 

 obliged to use a tent exclusively, and one 

 which was particularly bee-tight. In for- 

 mer seasons it made but little difference 

 whether the tent had one or more holes or 

 not ; in fact, a few holes in the peak of the 

 tent were quite an advantage ; but this 

 year we found that we had to put an entire- 

 ly new covering over each tent, for we dis- 

 covered that the robbers this year had learn- 

 ed the trick of going down the holes. We 

 don't recollect that we ever had them do 

 this before. T5y using the greatest care we 

 think we have also come off victorious— at 

 least, we have managed to make the rob- 

 bers think there is no use trying, and so on- 

 ly a few stray bees will hover around the 

 tent ; bnt we find it necessary, upon open- 

 ing a hive, to always use a tent. Our tents 

 are so very light, and easily handled, we 

 would just about as soon work with them as 

 without. — Your plan of crowding the nucle- 

 us over to one side of the hive, so that the 

 sentinels, or "guards," as you call them, are 

 strewed all the way from the outer entrance 

 to the inner entrance, we feel sure \\\\\ 

 work. —Beginners will take a little comfort 

 in knt)wing that even one of our old veter- 



