732 
ROBBING 
is closed up. If one is trying to rear 
queens the results will be discouraging. 
Bees get cross, refuse to start cells (or, if 
built out, tear them down), kill off drones, 
and destroy drone brood. 
The fact that there is no robbing when 
honey is coming in suggests the remedy; 
viz., feed outdoors a thin syrup of the con¬ 
sistency of raw nectar. See Feeding Out¬ 
doors. 
HOW TO FEED OUT UNFINISHED SECTIONS OR 
WET EXTRACTING COMBS. 
While these can be scattered out in the 
open, it is quite sure to result in fearful 
robbing and stinging after the supply is 
exhausted. To forestall this, the combs and 
sections should be put in hives or supers, 
one tiered above another on a regular 
bottom-board, and the entrance contracted 
so that not more than one or two bees can 
pass at a time. To make it wider results in 
a scramble and robbing of weak colonies in 
the yard. The top of the tier of hives or 
supers should, of course, be covered. 
These tiered-up hives with small en¬ 
trances are much used to clean up scraps 
of honey, extracting-combs, and to empty 
out partly finished sections. (See Comb 
Honey.) This slow robbing also has a 
tendency to draw off robbers from the nu¬ 
clei and weak colonies and therefore serves 
a double purpose. 
WHAT HAPPENS IF ROBBING IS NOT STOPPED. 
When robbing is under genuine head¬ 
way, the honey of a strong colony will dis¬ 
appear in from two to twelve hours; the 
bees will then starve in the hive, or scatter 
about and die. This is not all; when the 
passion is fully aroused robbers will not 
hesitate to attack the strongest stocks, and 
bees will be stung to death in heaps before 
the entrances. This may finally put a stop to 
it, but they may push ahead until every 
hive of the apiary is in an uproar. At 
such times the robbers will attack passers- 
by in the streets, and even venture an at¬ 
tack on cats, dogs, hens, and turkeys. Like 
the American Indians when infuriated at 
the sight of blood, every bee seems to have 
a demoniacal delight in selling its life while 
inflicting all the torments it possibly can, 
feeling sad only because it can not do any 
more mischief. 
The worst robbing time seems to be after 
the heaviest or main honey flow is over, 
when bees become especially crazy if they 
get even a smell of honey left carelessly 
anywhere near the hives. One who has 
never seen such a state of affairs can have 
but little idea of the furious way they 
sting every thing and everybody. The 
remedy is to get a good smoker and put 
in enough fuel to insure dense smoke; 
then, using one hand to work the smoker 
bellows, with the other, contract the en¬ 
trance of every hive that shows any symp¬ 
toms of being robbed. Shut up every bit 
of honey where not a bee can get at it, and 
do the work well; for at such times they 
will wedge into and get thru cracks that 
would make one think inch hoards were 
hardly protection enough. Be up betimes 
next morning to see that all entrances are 
close and small, and that all the hives are 
bee-tight. An experienced hand will re¬ 
store peace and quietness in a very short 
time to such a demoralized apiary. Black 
bees are much worse than Italians, for the 
latter will usually hold their stores against 
any number of assailants; good, strong, 
well-made hives, filled with Italians, with 
plenty of brood in each, will be in little 
danger of any such “raids,” altho the au¬ 
thor has seen the wounded and slain piled 
up in heaps before robbers would desist 
and give up trying to force an entrance. 
See Anger of Bees. 
BORROWING. 
Before closing this subject of robbing 
there are a few more points, to be men¬ 
tioned. There is a kind of pillaging called 
borrowing, where the bees from one hive 
will go quietly into another, and carry 
away its stores as fast as gathered; but 
this usually happens where the robbed stock 
is queenless, or has an infertile queen. As 
soon as they have eggs and brood, they 
begin to realize what the end of such work 
will be. This state of affairs seldom goes 
on long; for it either results in downright 
robbing, or the bees themselves put a stop 
to it. 
Caution to Beginners. —The first year the 
author kept bees there was constant fear 
that they would get to robbing. One after¬ 
noon in May a large number of bees were 
