The honey bee: a manual of instruction in apicultureBenton, Frank
Science
The honey bee: a manual of instruction in apiculture
Benton, Frank
Bee culture; Bees
If robbing has begun it may sometimes be stopped by throwing coarse
grass or weeds over the entrance of the hive attacked, or by leaning
a pane of glass against its front, the entrance being, of course,
contracted as indicated above. These plans tend to confuse the robbers
for a time, and meanwhile the rightful occupants of the hive may be
able to organize for defense. If convenient the colony attacked may be
moved a distance of a half mile or more and placed as far as possible
from other apiaries until it can recuperate. Another plan in extreme
cases is to put the colony in a dark cellar for a few days, confining
the bees to the hive with wire cloth, so as to allow plenty of
ventilation, as described under the head of "Moving bees." When brought
out of the cellar it is well to place the colony on a new stand, apart
from the other bees, contract the entrance, and lean a board against
the front of the hive. It is also safest to bring it out late in the
day, even just at dusk, so the bees will begin flying from it gradually
and not attract the attention of robbers. It may be well, when removing
a colony from its stand to save it from robbers, to put in its place
a hive with combs containing a little honey and pollen. The robbers,
instead of scattering and entering adjacent hives, will continue to
visit the same stand, their numbers gradually diminishing as the honey
gives out and the pollen is sucked dry. If meanwhile the entrances of
adjoining hives have been contracted and these colonies are fairly
strong and in normal condition, individual robbers will be successively
repulsed as they appear. Quiet will thus be eventually restored.
LAYING WORKERS.
Although laying workers are not strictly enemies of their kind, their
work hastens the extinction of the colony to which they belong, in case
the latter has become queenless and is without the means of rearing
another queen. They cause the expenditure of the stores and strength
of the colonies in a vain though well-meant endeavor to perpetuate
their species; the eggs which laying workers deposit, and for whose
development through the larval stage much honey and pollen are
required, only resulting in the production of a lot of drones, for the
most part weak and dwarfed.
If not discovered until the hive is nearly depopulated, the remaining
old bees should be brushed off, and the combs, after the sealed drone
brood has been unmapped and jarred out, may be distributed among other
colonies. Should the affected colony still be worth saving, combs
containing emerging bees should be added and a queen introduced a few
days later, or a queen cell inserted, as soon as the added brood has
stocked the hive well with young bees.
=BOOKS AND JOURNALS RELATING TO APICULTURE.=
The following are among the leading books and journals relating to
apiculture:
BOOKS.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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