Turned back a robbing attempt

[Bamabww]

Last Friday I pulled what little honey I could off my hives and noticed an above normal activity around one of my strongest hives. I had my veil on so I walked up close enough to see that bees were trying to get in by the dozens thru the bottom entrance and thru the raised top cover as well. Watching a little while convinced me this hive was being robbed. The bees inside the bottom entrance were fighting / dragging those trying to get in back out.

I ran to the shed, got an entrance reducer and worked it in place with the smallest opening open and removed the shim under the top cover that I had placed there for extra ventilation. This allowed  the cover to set flat down on the inner cover. I pulled it toward the back to further block access to the notch in the inner cover.

The reduced opening and blocked top entrance allowed the hive to defend their home. Standing back I could see the robbers flying over my head into a scope of woods across my neighbors yard. There is not another beekeeper in this area so it must have been a feral hive that was attempting the robbing.

The robbers gradually gave up after a couple of days. In the meantime, I reduced the bottom entrances to all my other hives and removed access to the top entrance for a couple of days after the robbers left, just to be on the safe side.  So far so good.

[Jen]

Interesting that the robbers picked a strong hive...

[Riverrat]

This wouldnt work in your case but I thought I would throw it out there. If you have robbing going on in the bee yard.  Taking off the top cover and opening all the hives will  stop the robbing. This will only work if robbers are also from your bee yard Another thing I have done during robbing is turn on a water sprinkler on the hive being robbed this will soon end the robbing.

[riverbee]

wayne, excellent observation by you and decision to throw that entrance reducer on.  when bees rob, they rob, even the strongest colonies .
how did you take the honey off ?  did you place wet supers back on?

[riverbee]

"This wouldnt work in your case but I thought I would throw it out there. If you have robbing going on in the bee yard.  Taking off the top cover and opening all the hives will  stop the robbing. This will only work if robbers are also from your bee yard"

yep, what riverrat said, it works, but i tend to pull off the lids off the strongest hives, and put screens on the weaker ones.  this really does work for robbing in your own yard.

be mindful of how you take your supers off, and also be mindful of placing wet supers back on, this can create additional robbing under a myriad of circumstances.

[Bamabww]

This wouldnt work in your case but I thought I would throw it out there. If you have robbing going on in the bee yard.  Taking off the top cover and opening all the hives will  stop the robbing. This will only work if robbers are also from your bee yard Another thing I have done during robbing is turn on a water sprinkler on the hive being robbed this will soon end the robbing.

Thanks for that advice. I was able to use my smoker to slow 'em down somewhat but didn't think about a sprinkling them. Never would have thought about opening the hives. Thanks again.

[tbonekel]

This is going to be one of those threads that I will be looking for if and when robbing does happen to me. I will forget the good advise and then probably not be able to find the thread. Now I think I will be able to tell when robbing is happening. Whether or not I will be able to tell if it's from my own hives is the real trick.

[Bakersdozen]

be mindful of how you take your supers off, and also be mindful of placing wet supers back on, this can create additional robbing under a myriad of circumstances.

I'll vouch for that.  I had a robbing situation started when replacing wet supers on for a real strong hive to clean out.  A feral hive found the tiniest crack under a telescoping lid.

tbonekel- You will remember some of this.  I automatically think of helping them protect the weak areas.  Thus an entrance reducer.  The trick is to catch them in the act before your colony is too weak and recognizing the act of robbing when it's happening. 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSXJLfG-hA0  This video shows some of the warning signs of robbing.

[LazyBkpr]

Toss a handful of powdered sugar on the robbers/fighting and see where the powdered bees go.

[Bamabww]

how did you take the honey off ?  did you place wet supers back on?

I have the luxury of space so my "bee yard" is spread over 3 acres and each hive is separated from the closest hive by 50 or 60 feet. I started removing the honey supers from the farthest hive first and used a wheelbarrow to move the supers to my utility room. The hive in trouble was the first hive in a line of 9 and when I passed it going to the last one, there was no out of the ordinary activity going on. I pulled two supers off the farthest hive and as I was coming back noticed the activity. I hurried the supers of honey into the utility room and went back to investigate what was going on. That's when I figured out I had caught a robbery happening just a few minutes after it had started.

After placing the reducer, I removed the top cover and grabbed off the honey super, set it in the wheelbarrow, covered the hive back up and got out of the way. The honey super was almost empty of bees, apparently in response to the "all hands on deck" call from the guard bees.

I didn't put a wet super back on until maybe 3 days after the robbers left. I'm going to remove the reducer today.

[Jen]

Please explain 'wet super' 

[Riverrat]

A wet super is a super  the frames have been extracted but still has some honey or "wet" left in them.

[Jen]

Thanks Riverrat