June 5, 1902 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



359 



Clive a colon)' an cxtractinff-siipcr, and keepit restrictod 

 to tliat one story, cniptyiiit; it often cnoiiph to ff'^'C them 

 room, and after liavinfj the habit of storinf;- in that one 

 story continnod diirinff tlirec weeks time, Kive tlicm a 

 second story without emptying the first, and see if tliey 

 will not as promptly enter the second super as if it liad been 

 given two weeks sooner. 



It is probably the truth that habit has its bearing, but 

 not enough to be a serious hindrance ; that bees always pre- 

 fer to have their stores as near as possible to the brood-nest, 

 and store away from it only when compelled to do so; that 

 after having continued the habit of storing in the supers no 

 matter how long a time they will always change to storing 

 in the brood-chaml)er if room there is given ; that they 

 always begin storing in the brood-chamber before storing in 

 sections ; and that the length of time they continue storing 

 in the brood-chamber has no special bearing upon their 

 hesitancy to Ijegiu in the supers. 



Mr. Doolittle wants me to give a better plan if I have 

 one. As no plan has been mentioned I do not understand 

 to what he refers. If he will say to what plan he refers I 

 will be delighted to give him a lietter one — if I have one. 

 But I have not been aware that we have difl'ered in any plan 

 that might be affected by a difference of belief as to the 

 things that are herein mentioned. McHenry Co., 111. 



Question, "Do Robber-Bees Sting ?"— Answered 



HV \v. w. m'neal. 



ON page 11.^, in an editorial under the heading, " Do Rob 

 ber-Bees Sting." A supicion is ventured that robbers do 

 not sting the defenders of the hive they are trying to 

 rob. Moreover, the Editor asks for something positive upon 

 the subject, and here it is : Robber-bees do sting at such 

 times, and with terrible effect, too. If this were not so, 

 how is it they are so successful in over-running at times a 

 good, normal colony ? Surely, the bees of the attacked col- 

 ony are not intimidated by anj' superior force of numbers, 

 and retreat before the robbers in their rush for the stores ! 

 This is not in the nature of the honey-bee when she feels 

 that her home is worth fighting for. When such a colony 

 submits to the plundering of its combs, you may know that 

 its fighting force has been swept away by the fierce on- 

 slaughts of those frenzied desperadoes. 



There is something peculiar about the apparent ease 

 with which robber-bees will, in so many cases, get the bet- 

 ter of a bee that opposes it in an endeavor to enter the hive. 

 The robber is worked up to the very highest pitch of excite- 

 ment and abandonment to an evil habit ; the poison-glands 

 pour forth their fiery fluids more bountifully ; and, the 

 honey-sac being almost perfectly in a state of depletion, it 

 will be seen that she is in the very best possible fighting 

 condition. But a robber-bee will not use its sting for the 

 mere pleasure of killing — that characterizes a villain in 

 human form. There is a risk to run which she is not will- 

 ing to take in any such way. I mean the risk of losing her 

 sting. The danger of having it torn away is not so great 

 when thrust into the body of another bee ; but when the 

 sting has penetrated sufficiently to kill outright, the bee 

 can not witndraw it easily, and I have often seen them 

 crawling about upon the ground in front of the hive drag- 

 ging the dead bee thereby. 



Robbers will often bite and sting just a little a bee that 

 has surrendered, in an effort to make her give up the last 

 mite of honey, which may cause the bee to die in a short 

 time. This, to me, is more plausible than that the captives, 

 so to speak, join the victors in their own hive. When a rob- 

 ber has been seized by a fighting bee, and the two are buz- 

 zing so rapidly on the alighting-board or ground in front of 

 the hive that the eye can not determine what is actually 

 being done at the time, the fact that one, and quite often 

 both, of them have their mandibles fastened upon each 

 other at the close, convinces me that both were fighting. 

 Sometimes they cease buzzing, and wrestle on the ground 

 for the advantage. The mandibles hold a death-grip while 

 the two hindmost legs of each are dextrously used in an 

 effort to prevent the other from getting into position to use 

 its sting. The bee whose abdomen is distended the least 

 of the two that are fighting, usually succeeds in this and 

 destroys the other. So soon as the fatal thrust of the sting 

 has been effected, the victorious bee will usually make an 

 effort to break away ; but the other vfill often cling by the 

 mandibles till she is too weak to do this. 



As the editorial in question suggests, evidence of a very 

 conclusive nature may be had in cases where the conten- 



tion is between a colony of Italian and black bees. The 

 untrained eye then can easily separate the robbers from the 

 regular inmates of the hive. Hut the experienced observer 

 will not often be deceived by the maneuvers of robber-bees. 

 The sweet melody in the hum of a bee engaged in honest 

 pursuits is so difi'crent from the loud, shrill notes of robbers 

 that the ear alone may detect them. The bright, cheery 

 color of honesty is soon swept away, being replaced by a 

 dirty, glassy, grea.sed appearance in a short time, when a 

 bee resigns itself to this evil haliit. All Italian bees will, 

 when they become aged, assume a darker color than they 

 had when in younger life ; but this shade of blackness that 

 comes with waning vitality — vitality spent in honest toil — 

 contrasts largely with the other, though the novice may be 

 wholly unable to determine a robber by its color. 



Upon approaching a hive— and I might say any hive- 

 even its own — a robber-bee will hover over the entrance 

 just out of the reach of the guards, very much as a sparrow- 

 hawk will flutter above a certain spot in some grassy, weedy 

 field when watching for a mouse. 



There is anything but pleasantness in an apiary where 

 the bees have acquired the habit of robbing. On behalf of 

 the little honey-bee, and the g^ood graces of every reader of 

 this Jowrnal who has the care of bees. I beseech you to use 

 great care not to provoke them to rob. Their mission is a 

 noble one, and they should not be tempted to pursue an 

 ignoble one through the careless exposure of sweets. 



I would be pleased to hear from others upon the subject 

 of robber-bees. Scioto Co., Ohio. 



Italianizing Bees at tlie Time of Swarming, Etc. 



I!V O. M. DOOLITTLE. 



QUESTION — I see that you sometimes answer questions 

 in the American liee Journal, so I send along a couple. 

 Wishing to Italianize my bees I have thought that it 

 might be done by changing queens during the time of 

 swarming. What I mean is this : If I have my queens' 

 wings clipped, and hive the new swarm on the returning 

 plan, can 1 pick up the old queen while the swarm is out, 

 put an Italian queen in a cage, put the new hive on the old 

 stand, and when the swarm returns let the Italian queen 

 run in with the bees into this new hive, the same as would 

 the old queen did I not change them 7 Would it ba| safe to 

 let a strange queen go in with the swarm ? 



Answer. — From an experience of 30 years I have 

 found that the changing of queens, upon the hiving of any 

 swarm of bees, in any place, is liable to " raise a rumpus," 

 and especially is this the case where the swarm is hived 

 upon a new stand ; for in this case the least disturbance or 

 dissatisfaction will start the swarm running out and all 

 over the hive, resulting in the larger part of the bees going 

 back home. And the chances of failure are too great for all 

 practical purposes with a single swarm hived in a new loca- 

 tion. Where two or more swarms cluster together, if the 

 new queen is placed in a large cage made wholly of wire- 

 cloth except the stopper, so that the bees can get near the 

 queen in large numbers, and the cagej hung with the clus- 

 tered swarm for half an hour or so till they are led to call 

 her " mother," then this large swarm can bs hived where 

 you please, and the queen allowed to run in with the swarm, 

 and as a rule all will go well. 



The why of this is that where two or more swarms clus- 

 ter together, they seem "to know that strange queens and 

 strange bees must be thrown one with the other, and so are 

 not so disposed to be such sticklers for their own queen, or 

 go back to their brood if they cannot find her with them. 

 But as very few wish to hive two or more swarms together, 

 so that it is possible thus to give a queen, only occasionally, 

 did we so wish to do, this also is hardly practical. The 

 chances are better where the swarm is hived in a new hive 

 on the old stand, or allowed to return as our questioner sug- 

 gests, and where you have the old queen so you can control 

 her on account of her having a clipped wing ; but even then 

 they will sometimes become so dissatisfied that they will 

 hunt up the old hive (unless moved quite a distance from its 

 old standi, and all or nearly all go back to it, or worse still, 

 go into the hives all about the apiary, where in many cases 

 they will all be killed. 



If the above large cage is used, placing the cage over 

 the frames before the swarm returns or is hived, and the 

 queen allowed to remain in this cage for a day or two, the 

 chances of success are much increased. The reason for this 

 dissatisfaction coming to the bees, is not so much that they 

 have a strange queen, as that ninety-nine-one-hundredths 



