Author Topic: Robbing?  (Read 3549 times)

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Offline BellaFrunes

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Robbing?
« on: August 13, 2014, 11:05:27 pm »
How do you tell if there are bees robbing your hives?  And how much to close down the entrance without overheating the hive?  Also is the Queen in jeopardy? Thanks

Offline riverbee

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Re: Robbing?
« Reply #1 on: August 14, 2014, 12:16:53 am »
bella,
this time of year is infamous for robbing behavior........how to tell? bees flying frantically in a frenzy.... or lots of bees in the air in front of or on the hive being robbed; and an elevated 'roar' or 'hum' at the hive.  robber bees tend to fly lower to the hive entrance/s (and many bees) and are intent on one thing.....finding any opening to the hive they want to rob.  not like orientation flights where bees exit and fly up and down and face the hive to orient themselves. robber bees just want to get in.  also, bees fighting at the entrance...tumbling, rolling around.  bits of comb on the bottom board or on the landing board in front of the hive.  if you look inside the hive, comb will be raggedly chewed and emptied of any honey that robbers can carry off.  sometimes the queen can be killed in the process.

not sure what you have going on but reduce the hive entrance to the smallest opening. i use robbing screens, a screen placed on the front of the hive to help the bees defend their hive and reduce robbing.  i also place these on every hive when robbing starts or before i think i might have a robbing situation.


hope this helps.....give us a few more details to help you out!  iddee has plans here on the forum to build your own robbing screens, pretty simple, and effective!

 
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Offline riverbee

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Re: Robbing?
« Reply #2 on: August 14, 2014, 12:31:14 am »
iddee's robber and moving screen bella:

Robber Screen & Moving Screen
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Offline LazyBkpr

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Re: Robbing?
« Reply #3 on: August 14, 2014, 01:06:53 am »

   I had a couple of nucs that were being robbed. My screens fit standard hives, not nucs, so I leaned a board across the entrances so the bees had to go in from the sides.




   In this situation it was enough. If there is more of a dearth I will use a wider board, so any robber has to fly in sideways further to get to the entrance. They cant get a run for it and dart in past the guard bees because they have to go around a corner.
   If the hive has enough bees this will help a lot. If the hive is weak a screen would certainly be better, and or covering the hive with a damp sheet after leaning that board across will help even more. The bees from the hive will find their way in and out, but would be robbers have a much harder time of it.
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Offline pistolpete

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Re: Robbing?
« Reply #4 on: August 14, 2014, 08:23:31 pm »
the robbing screens create quite a traffic jam at first.  Old foragers have quite the routine down and are slow to re-learn.  But in 2 or three days all the bees in the hive will learn how to enter efficiently and the robbers never do. 
My advice: worth price charged :)

Offline BellaFrunes

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Re: Robbing?
« Reply #5 on: August 14, 2014, 10:09:07 pm »
Thanks Riverbee for the tips.  I'll study the way they come in to make sure that they could be robbers.  It just seems strange to have "shinny black bees with no hairs" coming and going in a hurry.  I haven't seen any pollen on their legs like some of the others.  I haven't seen any comb at the entrance but I'll look inside tomorrow.  I'll make up a few screens and place them on too.  I might try what LazyBkpr did and observe those "shinny black bees"  Thanks all

Offline riverbee

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Re: Robbing?
« Reply #6 on: August 14, 2014, 10:33:37 pm »
bella, you are welcome.  "shiny black bees".....hmmm, well older foragers are not as fuzzy, and their wings can get quite tattered.  foragers are typically relegated to nectar or pollen collection, for the hive, or inadvertently bring pollen in from nectar collection, so not every bee coming in will have pollen on their legs.

tell us  or describe what you are seeing, or give us a little more detail to help you out....?
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