always well to keep the entrance of the hive which contains a weak colony or a nucleus somewhat contracted as a measure of insurance. If contracting the entrance does not stop robbing, Mr. Root advises strewing long grass about the entrance which he wets thoroughly. The robbers are too wary to try to rob after they have wet their "feathers" in passing through this grass; for thus handicapped they could hardly escape from their enraged victims; while the robbers already within the hive after having thus to crawl out will hasten home to get their clothes dry. Mr. Doolittle uses a common sheet which he places over the hive that is being robbed, while Mr. Miller places over the victimised hive a bee tent of mosquito netting, which has a hole in the top which permits the robbers to escape.
A bee tent is a most useful adjunct to the apiary; there are many times when it may be used, but it is especially useful in preventing robbing. It is simply a tent made of mosquito netting large enough to be set over the hive and the operator. When opening the hives at midday the tent is used to prevent the robbers from attacking the exposed stores.
Mr. Root advises working at nightfall when bees are cross or given to robbing; but most bee-keepers declare that the bees will crawl all over one at night, and are no more to be gotten rid of than a porous plaster, at which Mr. Root promptly responds, "Do not stand near the lamp."
Enterprising men exchange places of the robbers and victims, which produces a confusion that restores
