DADANT SYSTEM OF BEEKEEPING 



87 



While working about the apiary, the apiarist sometimes 

 finds himself followed by robber bees which appear to under- 

 stand that they may find profit in shadowing him. We have 





Fig. 49. Super combs which have been in use for over fifty years, and 

 are fully as good as at first 



often stopped our work for an hour or so on this account, or 

 perhaps have gone to work at the other end of the apiary to 

 baffle the robbers. 



The worst thing to be feared from robbers is not during the 

 harvesting of the crop. It is when there happens to be disease 

 in the apiary and we find ourselves compelled to open the hives 

 that contain this disease in a period of scarcity of crop. This 

 matter will be considered at the chapter on diseases. 



Varying Honey Crops 



In our locality, as in many others, the honey yields are 

 divided into two very distinct seasons, the summer crop and 



