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Rh of sweetness is likely to crawl up the hive a little way so as to have the advantage of a high place to "jump from" as it takes wing. The virtuous worker comes out of the hive slim and depleted of her load and flies off leisurely to the field, while the robber comes out stuffed full and furtively climbs up the side of the hive in order to be able to be off.

We usually detect robbing in our apiary by the fighting which we observe about the entrance; when we see a pair of workers rolling over and over with each other in the grass near the hive we know that one of them is a robber, but as we do not know which one we are obliged to apply the test meted to the knights of old, and believe that the one who survives is in the right. However, we take measures at once to defend this hive. Also if we discover the bees to be particularly cross some day, we look about to see what has aroused their ire, and nine times out of ten find that robbing is the cause of their ill temper.

HOW TO STOP ROBBING

Contract the entrance to the hive being robbed. To do this we place blocks in front of it, leaving only enough space so that one or two bees can pass in at a time. The robbers having to enter in single file attract the attention of the suspicious sentinels and are either driven back or killed at once. It is unsafe to close the entrance entirely, unless it is done with a wire screen, for the bees within will smother unless the air is admitted through the entrance. It is