70 Bee-]:ee pit)fi in Victorin. 



and (Iocs not excite the bees so niuch, as it does not contain any nitrogen. 

 Even then it is best to give the syrup towards evening, so that bees from 

 other hives may not be attracted. 3. Combs in hives, the walls of which 

 are too thin, sometimes melt down in hot weather, and the honey running 

 out, attracts bees from other hives. 4. Weak colonies, which are unable 

 to guard the hive entrance efficiently, or qiieenless colonics, wnicb will 

 admit strange bees, robbers included, without hindrance, may also, dur- 

 ing a scarcity of nectar, cause an outbreak of robbing. 5. Unseason- 

 able operations are frequently the cause of robbing. Shaking the bees 

 off the combs in front of the hive instead of into the hive, and thus 

 spilling thin honey on the ground, extracting honey in the open air, or in 

 a non-bee proof room, and returning extracted combs to the hives, are 

 all operations which are quite harmless during a honey flow, but which, 

 after a change in the weather, may create quite an uproar in the aj^iary. 

 The secretion of nectar by the blossoms sometimes suddenly ceases when 

 extracting still lias to be done, and it is, therefore, best to have a bee- 

 proof place to extract in, to shake the bees off the combs into the hives, 

 and not to put the extracted combs out till towards evening. 



Results of Robbing. 



It has already been stated that robbing has caused, and, it may be 

 added, is still causing the wholesale spread of the diseases of bees, and 

 while the loss of many colonies from foul brood is the most deplorable 

 of the results, there are others, some of which are annoying, while others 

 add expense to the running of an apiary, or reduce the returns. Robbing 

 is almost invariably accompanied by the stinging of man and beast in 

 the vicinity of the hives, while sometimes the actual loss of bees stung 

 to death is considerable. 



When an apiary has become demoralized through robbing, even bees, 

 which, by mistake or on account of strong winds, enter the wrong hive 

 are stung to death, when under ordinary conditions they would be ac- 

 cepted. It is stated in some bee books that every bee knows its hive, 

 but every careful observer who has kept several distinct races of bees in 

 the same apiary knows that there is considerable straying of bees from 

 hive to hive. In a demoralized apiary, every strange bee entering a 

 hive is stung, and large numbers of dead bees may be seen in front of 

 every hive long after actual robbing has ceased. Further, when bees 

 are in this state of irritation they will sometimes ball their own queen, 

 or, if a virgin, cripple her so that she is unable to take her mating flight, 

 or destroy her altogether, so that the colony becomes queenless, and a 

 further inducement to create robbing. At such times attempts to in- 

 troduce new queens are sure to result in failure, the owner of the bees 

 being at a loss how to account for it. 



Prevention of Robbing. 

 In regard to robbing, as in other things, prevention is better than 

 cure. If the extent to which bee-keeping is carried on does not justify 

 the erection of a special bee-proof extracting house, at least a place 

 should be set apart which can be made bee tight in which to carry out 

 all the operations of uncapping, extracting, and tinning of honey, and 



