116 MANUAL OF APICULTURE. 
Spiders. — Webs made about hive entrances often capture bees as 
well as wax moths, and, notwithstanding this last-mentioned point in 
their favor, they had better be removed. 
Toads and lizards. — These devour many bees, and whenever found 
near the hives should be destroyed or removed to the vegetable garden. 
Birds. — Swallows and kingbirds have been accused of eating many 
bees. It is probable that the destruction of injurious insects by them 
more than makes amends for the bees taken. This was clearly proven 
in the case of the kingbird, stomachs of which, examined at the United 
States Department of Agriculture, showed only a very small percentage 
of honey bees, and these mostly drones. 
MAMMALS. 
Mice gaining access to the hive during winter gnaw out among the 
combs a nest cavity and eat honey, pollen, and bees. Low entrances, 
covered, if found necessary, with a strip of tin, will prevent the mice 
from gnawing larger holes, yet permit the bees to pass in and out. 
Skunks sometimes disturb hive entrances and catch bees as they come 
out. This is particularly vexatious in the winter, when colonies should 
be left quiet. In mountain localities, bears, led by their fondness for 
honey, still occasionally overturn beehives. The remedies for both of 
these are, of course, shooting or trapping. 
ROBBER BEES. 
When forage is scarce in the field, bees belonging to different colonies 
often wage fierce wars over the stores already in hives. Thousands are 
killed and the victors relentlessly carry off as booty every drop of honey 
from the vanquished hive, leaving its bees to starve miserably. A great 
stir and loud buzzing in the hive of the conquerors attests their rejoicing 
over the ill-gotten gains. Nor have they any code of morals which 
inclines them to select as opponents forces equal in strength to their own. 
With them " all's fair in war." Their only object is plunder, and they 
therefore select the most defenseless, a colony disorganized through loss 
of its queen being an especial mark for a combined attack. 
Extreme caution to prevent robbing is always advisable. A little 
carelessness or neglect in the apiary early in the spring or toward the 
latter part of the season may result in much loss. It is easier to prevent 
robbing than to check it at once or without loss after it is well under 
way. Leaving honey exposed about the apiary often induces robbers to 
begin their work; hence extracting and similar work must be done in 
bee-proofrooms whenever the bees are not gathering honey freely. It 
may at such times be necessary to do all manipulating early in the 
morning, before many of the" bees have begun to fly, or later in the day, 
after they have ceased, or even under a tent made of mosquito netting 
and placed temporarily over the hive to be manipulated. Queenless 
and weak colonies should be put in order if possible before the honey 
