G L E xV N I N G S IN BEE C' U Ij T U R E 



September, 1917 



Y!, 



EARS affo, 



c 



were kept in 

 straw skeps, rob- 

 bing time was 

 the harvest rime 

 of the year, the 

 bees being- killed 



by the beekeep- lp:sson xo 



er and the honey "robbed" away from them. 

 It is still common among box-hive bee- 

 keepers of today to hear about "robbing" 

 the bees to get the honey. 



There is nothing pleasant about this term 

 (used now in another sense) for the modern 

 beekeeper, how'ever, for any beeman who 

 has had just one experience with bees rob- 

 bing each other looks back upon that ex- 

 perience witli a feeling of thankfulness that 

 it is over and a feeling of dread against a 

 return. 



Robbing, as understood now, is an act 

 perpetrated by the bees themselves, and an 

 act tliat is much easier to prevent than to 

 stop after it gets started. Bees are crea- 

 tures of habit, and once they get a taste of 

 honey for which they have not worked they 

 bscome as excited as some men do when 

 they obtain money without rendering any 

 just equivalent. In one sense robbing is 

 like gambling — the longer it is kept up the 

 wilder the participants become until, in 

 some cases, madness results. It is trre that 

 robbing oftevi starts innocently, but it does 

 not take long for an uproar to develop. 

 Bees tumbling into the hive, loaded not with 

 nectar but with fully ripened honey, excite 

 the other bees of the hive, which then rush 

 out to get some of the stolen sweets. In 

 time, if some weak colony is being robbed, 

 the bees get to figliting fuiiously until they 

 reach such a condition that they will sting 

 everything and everybody in sight. It is 

 this sort of fracas that will cure any be- 

 ginner from being so careless as to allow 

 robbing to get started. In many localities 

 September is a time of danger, hence our 

 decision to devote Lesson 8 to this subject. 



When I was about ten years old, my 

 fathei'. wlio was working in the apiary, 

 handed me a piece of comb honev that he 

 cut olf the side of the hive. While I was 

 eating it a bee got en the under side and 

 stung m.3 on the lip. After that I didn't 

 want the rest of the honey and I threw it 

 away. I wondered at the time why father 

 was so particular to Irave me go back and 

 clean up that little piece of honey ; but 

 years afterward, when I carelessly left the 

 door of the honey-house open, I knew the 

 reason why. 



Giving the bees a taste of rii>o hnney and 

 getting tleni stined up is only tlic begin- 



BEGINNERS' Lessons 



H. H. Root 

 I — II fss*- ^ ' M.^v^^>J>aEp^ ' ^^^Vy-Vy' ' >' ■■^i v — 



1 



ning of troulde; 

 for o n c e they 

 get i n t () the 

 habit of robbing 

 they may make 

 life misei'able for 

 the beekeeper, 

 sometimes for 

 ROBBING. days afterward. 



During extracting the utmost cave is 

 necessary, especially if the work is dore at 

 a time when no honey is coming in. When 

 bees are busily engaged in gathering nectar 

 from the tlowers any quantity of honey 

 might be left scattered all about the apiary 

 and they would pay no attention to it. But 

 it is this fact alone that so often gets the 

 beginner into trouble, for he becomes care- 

 less during the honey-flow, and then some 

 day when the honey is not "flowing" a repe- 

 tition of former carelessness brings on 

 double trouble. During a honey-flow the 

 bees may be shaken and brushed from the 

 combs without attracting robbers in the 

 least ; but during a honey dearth the Avork 

 must be done very rapidly, the apiarist 

 moving so quickly from hive to hive that the 

 robbers can get no chance to pounce on any 

 exposed honey. In extreme cases it is neces- 

 sary to take the honey from a hive on one 

 side of the apiarj' and then on the other, 

 running back ancl forth from one side to 

 the other so as to avoid staying very long in 

 one place. 



During a honey dearth it is mucli more 

 pleasant, for the beginner at least, to free 

 the combs from bees by means of the bee- 

 escajje. But here again caution is neces- 

 sary ; for if the cover does not fit bee- 

 tight robbing will be started in the short- 

 est possible time, for the robber bees 

 from other hives very quickly find the leak 

 and have the honey all to themselves, since 

 the bees cf the hive are trapjied away and 

 therefore unable to protect their stores. 

 (The bees of tlie hive in question never rob 

 from their own hive by entering above. ) One 

 should rlways be careful, therefore, in ad- 

 justing the bee-escape below the honey to 

 see that the cover above is not warped. It 

 is the height of foolishness to suppose that 

 bees will not find an opening if there is one. 

 They will not notice it when honey is com- 

 ing in, but (juickly find it at other times. 



When extracting duiing a honey dearth 

 it is important to see that all windows are 

 screened. The door to the extract ing-room 

 should not be a screen door, otherwise there 

 will always be a cloud of bees flying about 

 it, and some of them will get in every time 

 it is opened. The windows must be 

 screened, but the d(~or should be solid. 



It always makes trouble to sjnll honey on 



