AUGUST 15, 1914 



comb and then take it out again and work it 

 over till it is thick. During this process the 

 queen is fed just as well as she would be if 

 the bees got it a drop at a time. 



Many will say that I should have the 

 colonies fed up before it is cold weather. 

 That depends on the locality. Here the bees 

 work on fall flowers till after frost. Then 

 the supers are taken off, and perhaps then 

 the weather turns cold when the bees should 

 be fed. 



I was caught this way two years ago. 



There were lots of flowers in the field. It 

 rained so the bees could not get at them. 

 Later it turned cold, and I had only a few 

 feeders. I got some bakepans and filled 

 them with warm syrup and put them in the 

 supers. The bees would take only a little 

 while it was warm. The result was that the 

 colonies went- into winter quarters short of 

 stores, and I lost most of them during the 

 winter. If I had had enough of the present 

 feeders I could have saved every colony. 

 Vincennes, Ind. 



A WHOLE APIARY GONE MAD WITH WHOLESALE ROBBING 



BY GARY W. EEES 



One morning, about a year ago, I was at 

 the home of a neighbor, Mr. Luther Wolfe. 

 We were standing about fifteen steps from 

 one of his apiaries when we thought we saw 

 one of the colonies swarming. It was the 

 first one in the row next to us, and a strong 

 colony. When we went near we saw it was 

 being robbed instead of swarming. There 

 were about thirty colonies in the yard, all 

 strong, and, with perliaps one or two excej)- 

 tions, well filled with honey. They were in 

 two rows, from three to five feet apart. 



Immediately we commenced to break off 

 small limbs with green 

 leaves on them and 

 cover the entrance and 

 front of the hive that 

 was being robbed. The 

 robbers then attacked 

 the next hive, and we 

 covered the front of 

 that the same way. 

 Then they attacked the 

 next hive; and so on 

 down the row they 

 rushed from one hive 

 to another, and' spread 

 almost at once over the 

 apiary. In a very few 

 minutes every hive in 

 the yard was robbing 

 or being robbed, the 

 like of which I never 

 saw before. 



It a p p e a r e d as 

 though the contents of 

 each hive were free to 

 all, and that every 

 colony was determined 

 to take all the honej' 

 its neighbor had; and 

 the neigbhbor was so 

 busy getting honey 



from some other colony that they did not 

 appear to know that their own honey was 

 being taken. I had an apiary of 160 colo- 

 nies about a quarter of a mile away. Some 

 of these bees, although they had water near 

 by, were coming to a pool that was within 

 fifteen steps of these bees, and flew almost 

 directly over them as they came to and from 

 this water. At first none of my bees seemed 

 to be engaged in the robbing; but after a 

 bit we could see that some of them were at 

 it too. 



It then appeared that Ave were helpless, 



Covering every hive in an apiary witli hay 

 wholesale robbing. 



in a frantic effort to stop 



