32 The Townsend Bee Book 
himself is responsible for nine-tenths of the robbing. In the first 
place, poor methods of wintering result in weak colonies which 
are not able to defend themselves against the stronger ones. Be- 
ginners, not knowing about this, are apt to handle colonies indis- 
criminatingly during the spring months; and if the ever ready 
robbers get a taste of the stores of honey, robbing will be started. 
The weak colony that was being handled is in poor condition to 
defend the stores, even if the bees had a disposition to do so. Our 
beginner may not have noticed that the colony was being robbed 
until there was a great uproar at the entrance of that particular 
hive; and at this point he is likely to do the most unwise thing 
possible; that is, to move the colony to a cellar or honey-house 
with the idea of saving it. It would have been much better to let 
the robbing go on until night, when all would be quiet, and then 
the robbed colony could be set over a moderately strong one, 
which would be abundantly able to defend the stores. There is 
apt to be trouble with the robbers, even when this is done, as 
many of them will stay over night in the hive that was being 
robbed, and will try to make an attack the next morning. If this 
weak colony had been placed over another weak one, the prob- 
ability is that both would be robbed the next morning, and for this 
reason it should be placed over a fairly good colony, as stated 
before. 
After the weak colony has been placed over a strong one, an 
empty hive-body, as near like it as possible, should be set on the 
old bottom-board, and the cover that formerly was on the weak 
colony put over it. Most of the robbers will be attracted to this 
place the next morning, and they will rush into the empty hive 
instead of attacking some nearby colony, thus starting the robbing 
all over again. 
‘With a good deal of satisfaction we sometimes exchange the 
places of the two colonies—that is, the one doing the robbing and 
the one being robbed; but the plan does not always work. Only 
last spring we tried this with two of our colonies. The one that 
was being robbed had enough bees so they should have defended 
themselves, but for some reason they did not. We exchanged the 
places of the two colonies, but it was not long before the bees of 
the strong colony found out the change and began carrying the 
honey from the weak colony back to their own hive now on the 
new stand. The beginner should not attempt to adopt this plan 
of stopping robbing, for often those with considerable experience 
can not distinguish which colony is doing the mischief, 
