SOUTHERN BEE CXJLTURE 91 



inmates of the hive. The best treatment for a hive thus pillaged is to re- 

 move all frames containing honey, and the robbers will soon disappear; 

 then exchange these removed frames for frames of hatching brood from 

 other colonies, and set them in the hive and close the entrance up completely 

 with wire cloth for two days; then, remove the wire entrance near night, 

 and contract it so only one bee can pass. By this time the bees will be over 

 their struggle with the robbers, and, more bees being hatched out, they 

 will set up a defense and protect themselves. 



If the hive thus affected by robbers should be a strong one, all that 

 is necessary is to fill the entrance with some grass or weeds until night 

 then they can be removed and the entrance contracted. During the night 

 the bees will come to their senses and kill the robbers (those that do not 

 escape) and will set up a strong defense next morning, and likely will 

 defend themselves. 



Sometimes bee-keepers cause robbing by carelessly leaving honey cut 

 around the apiary, or the honey-house door open. When there is no honey- 

 flow on, bees are much worse to rob, and just a little sweet carried into 

 the hives by the professional robber will cause a great excitement in the 

 apiary, and some damage is sure to be done; hence great caution should 

 be used in handling sweets about the apiary. Bees should not be fed until 

 aljout night ; for if the fact is made known to them that there are obtainable 

 sweets, many of them, not knowing where the feed is, will rush out of 

 the hives and make great efforts to get in other hives, and perhaps will, 

 and many bees will be lost. 



If robbers collect too thickly about hives while extracting, the combs 

 should be stacked up in the honey-house until about night, then given back 

 to the bees, for this will greatly decrease the number of them; then if 

 they should collect too thickly, the extracting should be postponed until 

 the next honey-flow, or done at intervals. 



FERTILE WORKERS. 



Fertile workers, or, rather, laying workers, may appear in any neglected 

 apiary. When a colony of bees loses its queen and has no brood, or is not sup- 

 plied with any from which to raise them another queen, they are hopeless, and 

 they fully realize it, and their last and only resort is for some worker or 

 workers to take upon themselves to lay eggs to continue the existence 

 of the colony. But this last effort is a failure, because worker bees can 

 lay only unfertile eggs, which hatch drones or useless consumers, and 

 soon t4ie colony is in the hands of the bee-moth, and destroyed, for the 

 bees fast diminish, and soon the colony is weak. 



It is not difficult to tell when a colony of bees is affected by laying 

 workers, for they will not deposit their eggs in regular order in the cells as 

 a laying queen will, for sometimes they will lay more than half a dozen eggs 

 in one cell, and very often more than one; and to be sure that the colony 



