362 KOBBING AND HOW PREVENTED. 



" In Germany, when colonies in common hives are being rob- 

 bed, they are often removed to a distant location, or put in a 

 dark cellar. A hive, similar in appearance, is placed on their 

 stand, and leaves of wormwood and the expressed juice of the 

 plant are put on the bottom-board. Bees have such an anti- 

 pathy to the odor of this plant, that the robbers speedily forsake 

 the place, and the assailed colony may then be brought back. 



"TheEev. Mr. Kleine says, that robbers may be repelled by 

 imparting to the hive some intensely powerful and unaccus- 

 tomed odor. He eflfects this the most readily by placing in it, in 

 the evening, a small portion of musk, and on the following morn- 

 ing the bees, if they have a healthy queen, will boldly meet 

 their assailants. These are nonplussed by the unwonted odor, 

 and, if any of them enter the hive and carry off some of the 

 coveted booty, on their return home, having a strange smell, 

 they will be killed by their own household. The robbing is 

 thus soon brought to a close." — S. Wagner. 



It will often be found that a hive which is overpowered 

 by robtJers 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, bewildered by this exchange, make their home 

 in the robbed colony, since they find it on the stand ^yhere 



