ROBBER BEES LAYING WORKERS. 117 



flow ceases. In any event the entrances of such hives should be con- 

 tracted until but few or even no more than one bee can gain access to 

 the interior at one time. Professor Cheshire has devised an excellent 

 entrance block to prevent or check robbing. This is shown in fig. 7G, 

 and is so simple that anyone can make it. When contracted and placed 

 at the hive entrance it will be seen that the robbers must make their 

 way through a narrow and bent passage, something they are loath to 

 attempt, especially if at the first onset they find the passage well 

 guarded. 



If robbing has begun it may sometimes be stopped by throwing 

 coarse grass or weeds over the entrance of the hive attacked, or by 

 leaning a pane of glass against its front, the entrance being, of course, 

 contracted as indicated above. These plans tend to confuse the rob- 

 bers for a time, and meanwhile the rightful occupants of the hive may 

 be able to organize for defense. If convenient the colony attacked 

 may be moved a distance of a half mile or more and placed as far as pos- 

 sible from other apiaries until it can recuperate. Another plan in 

 extreme cases is to put the colony in a dark cellar for a few days, con- 

 fining the bees to the hive with wire cloth, so as to allow plenty of 

 ventilation, as described under the head of " Moving bees." When 

 brought out of the cellar it is well 

 to place the colony on a new stand, 

 apart from the other bees, contract 

 the entrance, and lean a board against 



the front Of the hive. It iS alSO Safest FIG.TG. Cheshire anti-robbing entrance: st, 

 tO bring it OUt late in the day, even stationary piece ; *,slide; p.pin orstop. (Re- 



just at dusk, so the bees will begin 



flying from it gradually and not attract the attention of robbers. It 

 may be well, when removing a colony from its stand to save it from rob- 

 bers, to put in its place a hive with combs containing a little honey and 

 pollen. The robbers, instead of scattering and entering adjacent hives, 

 will continue to visit the same stand, their numbers gradually dimin- 

 ishing as the honey gives out and the pollen is sucked dry. If mean- 

 while the entrances of adjoining hives have been contracted and these 

 colonies are fairly strong and in normal condition, individual robbers 

 will be successively repulsed as they appear. Quiet will thus be even- 

 tually restored. 



LAYING WORKERS. 



Although laying workers are not strictly enemies of their kind, their 

 work hastens the extinction of the colony to which they belong, in case 

 the latter has become queenless and is without the means of rearing 

 another queen. They cause the expenditure of the stores and strength 

 of the colonies in a vain though well-meant endeavor to perpetuate 

 their species; the eggs which laying workers deposit, and for whose 

 development through the larval stage much honey and pollen are 





