168 HOW TO KEEP BEES 



always well to keep the entrance of the hive which 

 contains a weak colony or a nucleus somewhat con- 

 tracted as a measure of insurance. If contracting 

 the entrance does not stop robbing, Mr. Root advises 

 strewing long grass about the entrance which he wets 

 thoroughly. The robbers are too wary to try to rob 

 after they have wet their "feathers" in passing 

 through this grass; for thus handicapped they could 

 hardly escape from their enraged victims; while the 

 robbers already within the hive after having thus to 

 crawl out will hasten home to get their clothes dry. 

 Mr. Doolittle uses a common sheet which he places 

 over the hive that is being robbed, while Mr. Miller 

 places over the victimised hive a bee tent of mosquito 

 netting, which has a hole in the top which permits 

 the robbers to escape. 



A bee tent is a most useful adjunct to the apiary; 

 there are many times when it may be used, but it 

 is especially useful in preventing robbing. It is 

 simply a tent made of mosquito netting large enough 

 to be set over the hive and the operator. When 

 opening the hives at midday the tent is used to pre- 

 vent the robbers from attacking the exposed stores. 



Mr. Root advises working at nightfall when bees 

 are cross or given to robbing; but most bee-keepers 

 declare that the bees will crawl all over one at night, 

 and are no more to be gotten rid of than a porous 

 plaster, at which Mr. Root promptly responds, 

 ''Do not stand near the lamp.'* 



Enterprising men exchange places of the robbers 

 and victims, which produces a confusion that restores 



