ROBBING 
729 
them in any cool place where they will have 
an opportunity to recover themselves, and 
where, too, robbers cannot continually keep 
up the policy of pestering the life out of 
them. In 24 hours the robbers in the yard 
will have quieted, when the nucleus or 
robbed colony can be taken out and set 
back on its stand. But at this time the 
entrance should be contracted to a space 
just wide enough so that only two or three 
bees can pass at a time. 
A still better plan for the treatment of 
a colony that is being overpowered by rob¬ 
bers is to set a wire-cloth cage or tent over 
it. This cage need not be larger than will 
cover the hive. The illustration shows the 
style used by the authors. Three or four 
of such cages are kept in the yard ready 
for an emergency of this kind. 
There is no rob¬ 
bing except when the 
regular apiarist is 
temporarily away 
and a new man has 
been left in charge. 
Such a man or boy 
will sometimes let 
robbing get well un¬ 
der way, not know¬ 
ing that trouble is 
brewing. In very 
short order it will be. 
apparent that the 
colony or the nucleus 
is not making a de- 
f e n s e. Sometimes 
even a strong colony 
will be taken by sur¬ 
prise, and before it 
is aware of what is 
happening the rob¬ 
bers will be piling 
into the hive at a 
furious rate. At other times there are 
not enough bees in a nucleus to make a 
respectable defense. Such colonies or nu¬ 
clei need help, and that right speedily. If 
one has a wire cage, he can set it over the 
hive, and that immediately stops any more 
robbers from getting in. As soon as the 
marauders in the hive fill up, they will 
rush out of the entrance pell-mell; but 
instead of going back to their own hive 
they are imprisoned in the cage. Tn the 
mean time there will be a big horde of 
robbers outside of the cage. Raise the 
cage up for three or four seconds, when all 
the outside robbers will pounce on the en¬ 
trance. Right here the reader may think 
this a mistake. The scheme is to catch 
every robber that has been carrying on the 
business of stealing for the last few min¬ 
utes or half-hour, so as they return from 
their hive the cage is lifted up at inter¬ 
vals when the robbers rush in. The bees 
that have been imprisoned will cling to the 
top of the cage, even tho it be lifted for the 
moment. In the mean time their number 
will be reinforced by more robbers coming 
out of the hive. In the space of about thir¬ 
ty minutes, if the robbing has not been go¬ 
ing on too long, every robber will be in the 
top of the cage, and there they will stay. It 
is a serious mistake to let such bees loose 
again, for they will immediately go back 
to their hives and return to attack the col¬ 
ony that has been overpowered. 
Toward night the cage is lifted off the 
hive and set down carefully till the next 
day, when the bees will be found clustered 
up in the top of the cage, perhaps in one 
corner. After using a little smoke they 
are sqooped off with a dipper and dumped 
into a box. They are then, carried to an 
outyard, where everything will be strange 
to them, and given to a colony that needs 
Convenient cage to set over hive that is being robbed. 
