MARCH I. 1915 



193 



STOPPING A ROBBING MIOT 



1!V AK'THl'R ('. MlLT>f:R 



A hoc is a reflex luaehine — er, thai is lo 

 say, nearly so. She is much like a small 

 I)oy. always into something; and, like the 

 small boy. must have her attention diverted 

 into other channels if she is to be success- 

 fully turned from the mischief-making. You 

 may correct the small boy by a vigorous 

 spanking; but try it on the bee and you will 

 have proof positive that she is a reflex 

 machine. 



Last fall I wrote of some experiences in 

 quelling trouble in an apiary, and said that 

 I would give some of the particulars later. 

 Xow' a friend reminds me that I have so far 

 tailed to do so. 



The conditions found were these : General 

 robbing w^as rife, and the bees were fighting 

 mad. A veil was a necessity. There was a 

 swarm out. driven out by the heat and the 

 robbing turmoil. Two colonies were all 

 robbed out. and one had about lialf of its 

 ]iopulation Jiilled. Even the brood had been 

 consumed. 



The owner and another beekeeper, just 

 previous to my arrival, had searched through 

 these colonies for the queens and pronounced 

 them queenless. When I came on the scene 

 they were decidedly ready for help. Condi- 

 tions were actually dangerous. 



First I shook the swarm into a large box, 

 threw some water over the bees, covered the 

 box with a cloth, and set it in the shade. 

 Then T threw water into the hive the swarm 

 came from, taking ofl" the cover and splash- 

 ing it over the frames. The hive w-as then 

 shaded. 



The next thing was to stop the robbing, 

 and quickly too. All of the extracting- 

 combs were above escapes, and free from 

 bees. Some of these were rushed into th'^' 

 extracting-lent and the honey extracted. 

 Seizing one of these supers full of wet 

 combs I walked down the Avhole length of 

 the apiary and back again. The bees poured 

 into the super until it was full of them, and 

 it was then set on a hive floor j^laced a rod 

 behind the rear row of hives. Another su- 

 per of wet combs was used in the same way. 

 and then two more. The four were stacked, 

 a cover put on. the entrance reduced to one 

 bee-space, and the worst of the trouble was 

 over. All of the ugly warriors were inside 

 of those very sticky supers. As fast as 

 other sets of combs were emptied of honey 

 I hey were stacked in the sam.e way, the jiiles 

 being six bodies high. (The " supers '' were 

 fiill-d(')>lh bodies.) Kveiv super was carried 

 out wilhriut i)oltoin or lo)), and the bees were 

 permitted to pile in as fast as they chose : 



but once in, and the super on the stack, they 

 could get out only by way of the one-bee-at- 

 a-time space at the bottom. Peace reigned 

 within fifteen minutes after the fii'st super 

 was carried out. 



Attention was then turned to the colony 

 that had swarmed. As was suspected, no 

 cells were to be found. The swarm was at 

 once returned, shade replaced, and tliey set- 

 tled down to business. The two robbed colo- 

 nies were the next cared for. A moment's 

 scrutiny of the bees at the entrance of one 

 assured me that they had a queen. The 

 evidence at the other was less positive, for 

 they had lost half of their population; still. 

 I felt pretty sure that the queen was still 

 thei'e. The first stock was opened and the 

 queen was found at once. Two combs of 

 honey were given to it ; the entrance was 

 reduced to about one inch, a creosote com- 

 pound smeared about it, and they were safe. 

 On opening the second stock it appeared 

 almost ruined. The honey was all gone, all 

 unsealed brood was gone, and much of the 

 sealed brood had been torn open and partly 

 consumed. Over two quartg of dead bees 

 lay on the floor, besides all those on the 

 ground before the hive. The queen was 

 quickly found, and was uninjured. A frame 

 of brood in various stages was taken from 

 another colony, freed from bees, and placed 

 in the front part of the hive right next to 

 tlie entrance. (All hives in this apiary, 

 about forty, have the entrances parallel to 

 the combs.) The rest o.' the brood was 

 pushed up against the comb of fresh brood, 

 some of the empty cjmbs removed, and two 

 combs of honey placed in the back part of 

 the hive. The reason for this procedure is 

 that bees will protect brood better than they 

 will honey, or, perhaps T should say, the 

 brood holds the bees close to the entrance, 

 and tlien they will fight to protect it and 

 their home. The entrance of this hive was 

 also reduced to about a square incli. crpo- 

 sotcd, and left. In a few days this stock 

 was nearly normal, though of course weak- 

 ened. 



The p.sychology of the cure for robbing 

 was to get the bees busy in some other place, 

 and by brief exposure of the w^et combs 

 while walking up and down the apiary all 

 of the real persistent and pugnacious rob- 

 bers were gathered in and permitted to 

 return home only one at a time; and as they 

 of course got well daubed up in those sticky 

 combs they wei'e a long time getting fixed 

 so they could go back. 



The diagnosing of queen conditions by 



