ROBBING 
731 
bers newly domiciled in the house-apiary 
repelled all invaders with such energy and 
determination that the rest seemed to aban¬ 
don the idea which they, doubtless, had pre¬ 
viously formed; viz., that the house-apiary 
was a monster hive but ill garrisoned, so we 
had very little trouble afterward. Before 
they were transposed, as mentioned, we had 
serious thoughts of destroying their queen, 
simply because they were such pests; but 
the year afterward, this colony gave in the 
house-apiary over 100 lbs. of comb honey. 
HOW TO KNOW WHEN A HIVE IS PUTTING 
UP A GOOD DEFENSE. 
The half-tone shown below is a good 
illustration of how a powerful colony will 
deploy its sentinels or guards during the 
time when other colonies near by are being 
robbed. This colony is prepared for any 
kind of an onslaught; for the minute that 
A colony that is ready to meet any kind of on¬ 
slaught from robbers. Robbers had hovered around 
the entrance. The result was, the guards were 
out in good force to repel the attack. 
a robber hovers over the entrance it is 
promptly met in mid air by one of the 
sentinels. They immediately clutch in a 
rough-and-tumble fight, drop to the ground, 
roll over and over, and lucky is the robber 
if it gets away without having its hair or 
legs pretty vigorously pulled. Such “a 
warm reception” will discourage any 
would-be robber from tackling that colony 
again. The entrance is rather wide open 
and the colony is strong enough to put up 
a defense and a vigorous one at that. If 
the colony were not so strong it would be 
proper to contract the entrance as shown 
elsewhere under Entrances to Hives and 
Wintering. 
WORKING WITH BEES BY LANTERN LIGHT 
WHEN ROBBERS ARE TROUBLESOME 
DURING THE DAY. 
Some years ago, when the conditions hap¬ 
pened to be such that most of the colonies 
were not much more than two or three 
frame nuclei, it was necessary to build 
them up by means of stimulative feeding. 
No honey had been coming in, and the bees 
were very troublesome about robbing. The 
moment the hive was opened, robbers 
would pounce down on the combs. Feed¬ 
ing by day was quite out of the question. 
It was finally decided to try going thru the 
colonies by lantern light. It was found 
possible to examine hive after hive, and get 
a pretty accurate idea of their condition. 
Of course, no robbers would bother at such 
a time. The bees were given some weak 
syrup at the time of the examination, and 
by morning it would be all taken up. By 
working a few nights in this way by lan¬ 
tern light the whole apiary was built up 
without any trouble from robbers, and by 
late fall there was a lot of fine colonies 
well supplied with stores and young bees. 
The only difficulty one will experience 
will be tire disposition on the part of a few 
bees to fly out toward the light. Some of 
them will buzz around against the lantern- 
globe. But the trouble from this source is 
not very great. Other bees ■ will have a 
tendency to crawl up one’s sleeve or his 
clothing. To prevent this the ordinary 
fingerless gloves as described under Gloves 
should be worn. 
HOW TO REMOVE THE ROBBING TENDENCY 
BY OUTDOOR FEEDING. 
When honey is coming in there is no 
robbing; but as the nectar supply stops, 
bees begin to pry around to find what they 
can steal. At such times, when hives are 
opened for examination robbers will be 
about, and if" the combs are exposed very 
much by such handling they will pounce 
upon the hive and combs in great numbers, 
and then attack the entrance after the hive 
