116 MANUAL OF APICULTURE. 



Spiders. Webs made about hive entrances often capture bees as 

 well as wax moths, and, notwithstanding this last-mentioned point in 

 their favor, they had better be removed. 



Toads and lizards. These devour many bees, and whenever found 

 near the hives should be destroyed or removed to the vegetable garden. 



Birds. Swallows and kingbirds have been accused of eating many 

 bees. It is probable that the destruction of injurious insects by them 

 more than makes amends for the bees taken. This was clearly proven, 

 in the case of the kingbird, stomachs of which, examined at the United 

 States Department of Agriculture, showed only a very small percentage 

 of honey bees, and these mostly drones. 



MAMMALS. 



Mice gaining access to the hive during winter gnaw out among the 

 combs a nest cavity and eat honey, pollen, and bees. Low entrances, 

 covered, if found necessary, with a strip of tin, will prevent the mice 

 from gnawing larger holes, yet permit the bees to pass in and out. 

 Skunks sometimes disturb hive entrances and catch bees as they come 

 out. This is particularly vexatious in the winter, when colonies should 

 be left quiet. In mountain localities, bears, led by their fondness for 

 honey, still occasionally overturn beehives. The remedies for both of 

 these are, of course, shooting or trapping. 



ROBBER BEES. 



When forage is scarce in the field, bees belonging to different colonies 

 often wage fierce wars over the stores already in hives. Thousands are 

 killed and the victors relentlessly carry off as booty every drop of honey 

 from the vanquished hive, leaving its bees to starve miserably. A great 

 stir and loud buzzing in the hive of the conquers attests their rejoicing 

 over the ill-gotten gains. Nor have they any code of morals which 

 inclines them to select as opponents forces equal in strength to their own. 

 With them " all's fair in war." Their only object is plunder, and they 

 therefore select the most defenseless, a colony disorganized through loss 

 of its queen being an especial mark for a combined attack. 



Extreme caution to prevent robbing is always advisable. A little 

 carelessness or neglect in the apiary early in the spring or toward the 

 latter part of the season may result in much loss. It is easier to prevent 

 robbing than to check it at once or without loss after it is well under 

 way. Leaving honey exposed about the apiary often induces robbers to 

 begin their work; hence extracting and similar work must be done in 

 bee-proofrooms whenever the bees are not gathering honey freely. It 

 may at such times be necessary to do all manipulating early in the 

 morning, before many of the bees have begun to fly, or later in the day, 

 after they have ceased, or even under a tent made of mosquito netting 

 and placed temporarily over the hive to be manipulated. Queenless 

 and weak colonies should be put in order if possible before the honey 



