378 ROBBING; AND HOW PREVENTED. 



It -will often be found that a hive which is overpowered 

 by robbers has no queen, or one that is diseased. 



669. One of the best methods which we have found to 

 stop the robbing of one hive by another, when the robbed 

 colony is worth saving, is to exchange them; i. e., to place 

 the robbed colony on the stand of the robbing colony, and 

 vice versa. The robbing colony can usually be found by 

 sprinkling the returning bees with flour, as they come out of 

 the robbed hive, and watching the direction which they take. 

 It can also often be detected by the activity of its bees, if 

 the neighboring hives are idle, especially after sunset. 



This method, however, cannot be practiced when the robbing 

 and the robbed colonies do not belong to the same person; or 

 when the robbing is carried on by many hives at one time, 

 although, in the latter case, the exchange of stands between 

 the strongest of the robbing hives and the weak robbed 

 colony, in the evening, and the reducing of the entrances of 

 both, usually has a good result. The old robber bees, be- 

 wildered by this exchange, make their home in the robbed 

 colony, since they find it on the stand where they are accus- 

 tomed to bring -their honey; and they defend it with as much 

 energy as they used in attacking it before. See Quinby's 

 "Mysteries of Bee-Keeping," N. Y., 1866. 



670. We read in the British Bee-Journal that a carbol- 

 ized sheet (38-1:) can be used to stop robbing, if spread in 

 front of the robbed hive. This same sheet, spread on the 

 hive while extracting (749), and on the surplus box where 

 the combs are placed (768), displeases the robbers and pro- 

 tects the comb, but strong smelling drugs must be used spar- 

 ingly over a super full of honey, for fear of damaging the 

 flavor of the honey. 



671. There is a kind of pillage which is carried on so 

 secretly as often to escape all notice. The bees engaged in it 

 do not enter in large numbers, no fighting is visible, and the 

 labors of the hive appear to be progressing with their usual 

 quietness. All the while, however, strange bees are carrying 



