The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1900-05-17
CATCHING RoBBER BEES.
A Little Strategy Is Necessary to En-.
trap Them ana Then Turn
Them to Account.

Bees do not select the colonies near
est them to rob, nor do they contine
themselves to their own apiary, but
may GO miles away and rob neighbor-
ing bees. Bees may come from the
forests, what we term wild bees" and
prey upon our domesticated ones. Rob-
ber bees may be caught in trap, but
this would damage our own or our
nsighbors' bees, but may be worked
successfully on the wild bees. Take a
tight box with a bottom in which is
a two-inch hole; insert in this a wire
cloth cone the shape of funnel, and
just large enough at the small end to
let a bee pass, and two inches at the
other to suit hole in bottom. The cone
may be three or four inches long, and
the small end extend up into the box,
and the box to be covered with wire
screen with small mesh to contine the
bees. Set this on an ordinary hive that
contains some honey and place it con-
venient to the robbers. The robber
bees will pass in at the entrance, load
up with honey, and, seeing the light di-
rectly above them, will go up to it, pass
up through the wire cone and into the
empty chamber and there remain.
Enough bees will go out of the ordi-
nary entrance of the hive to go home
and bring others with them, and thus
keep up the work until all the working
force of the robber bees are entrapped.
These bees may be turned to account
by giving them frames of comb and
honey, and also frame or two of
brood from other colonies. They should
be confined three or four days before
letting out, for if left out soon they
will go back to their former home.
There are several methods of stop
ping cases of robbing when once thor
oughly at it. The quickest way is to
throw blanket over the entire hive
that is being robbed, and thus entirely
cover the hive, with the edges of the
blanket spreading out as far on the
ground as it will reach. occasionally
picking up a corner of the blanket to
let out the robbers and to let in the
occupants of the hive. In this manner
we will soon get all the robbers out and
all the bees belonging to the hive in.
This simply checks it for the present,
but does not cure the case. The colony
should be examined late in the evening
or early in the morning to ascertain its
condition. In nine cases out of ten, or,
l might say, ninety-nine cases out of
hundred, it will be found without
queen, and the remedy is to supply it
with one or two frames of young brood
from other colonies, and also to intro
duce a queen to it, if there is any at
hand.
How to readily detect case of rob.
bing requires some experience, and un-
less one makes close study of bees he
can hardly know when it occurs. Usu.
ally there is an unusual uproar at
hive being robbed. The bees will come
out of the hive heavily loaded with
honey, and those going in will look
slim and lank. which is quite the re-
verse of bees working in their natural
way. When a case of robbing is going
on, all other hives near will be seen
fighting the robbers, for the neighbor.
ing hives will be visited by them also,
but these hives, being in good condi.
ton. will defend themselves, and the
result is more or less fighting.
Preventing is always better than
remedies, and if all colonies are kept in
proper condition they will never fall a
prey to robbers, and in about every
case of robbing may be laid to careless
ness on the part of the apiarist.-A. II.
Duff, in National Rural