Robbing???

[Jen]

Just got home from town and this furious business is going on. One of the fella's posted a vid of this last week, I thought it was an orientation flight, by many of you felt it was robbing. LOTS of bees coming in and out. I grabbed the long reducers and closed the entrances off to one bee width.

  Now doesnt' this lock the robbers inside as well?

  Update 10 minutes ago, Now all the hives are furiously busy! Reduced all entrances

  Do I have a Mob Robbing going on?





The bees are actually pushing the reducer out! Good Grief Charlie Brown!

[blueblood]

Given all the hives are doing it, I would venture to say you have a bunch of young bees making their orientation flights?

[Jen]

Hmmm, blue that interesting. Why would all four hives be doing orientation flights all in the same hour? Can one hive alert all the hives "Let's Party Down?"

[blueblood]

It's either end of day foraging arrivals or you have a bunch of new bees orienting.  There is a specific time in the later afternoon my hive entranced will all look nutty like that. 

[Jen]

Update photo 1 hour later. It's 5pm here so it's not the end of the foraging day. But I will admit that between 4-6 the bees are busier than ever, either that or the sun is shining thru them and I can see all of them brightly.

If this is an orientation flight then I had better get some supers on 

[tbonekel]

Mine are very busy during that time. I still don't know how they know which home is theirs with all that traffic.

[iddee]

I don't see any fighting going on, and there should be if it was robbing. I would remove the feeders and open the entrances to at least 3 inches.

Robbing looks like this.

[rcannon]

I can't tell from the pictures. If they're doing figure 8s in front of the hive, they're orienting. If they're fighting on the front porch, they're robbing.
If I suspect robbing, I take a hunk of #8 wire the length of the hive opening, bend it 90 degrees and shove it in the entrance. Who ever is in stays in, who ever is out stays out. By tomorrow they're one big happy family.
It's a way of strengthening a nuc, if you happen to catch it at the right time.

[Slowmodem]

If in doubt, use a robbing screen.   

[Gypsi]

Iddee's pic is classic robbery. I think yours are just traffic jams Jen, and robbing screens make those a bit worse.

[Jen]

Okay. So just to clarify, the first picture shows that my reducers have a two inch opening. The other three pics I have put a longer reducer because I 'thought' this might be a robbing. Iddee suggested a three inch entrance.

To me a three inch entrance? why even put on an entrance reducer?

Curious... How many members use an entrance reducer, how many don't?

[Beeracuda]

Our hives are all busy doing orientation flights between 4:00 to 6:00.  It isn't uncommon to see 3 or 4 of the 6 orienting at the same time, but I haven't seen all of them going at once.

One question though, what are the SCUBA weights under the hives?   

[Beeracuda]

We have reducers on 4 of the 6 hives.  One is at the smallest opening, 3 are at the 3" opening and 2 are wide open.  I am thinking about adding the reducers back to the wide open ones, just to be on the safe side.

[Jen]

Hi Beer    Hubby and I used to be placer gold miners here in the rich hills of northern california, nothing big, but a summer hobby to get out of the 100 degree summers. It's a lot of hard work. Hubbies fondest memories were when the salamanders would swim past his goggles while under water.

[blueblood]

I only use reducers in late fall through early spring to assist the bees with guarding since the hive is at lower numbers.  I leave those puppies open during the summer to help keep air flowing.

[barry42001]

Summertime entrances are wide open if population supports/ protects it. Heat and air flow, needed to reduce nectar much higher than in early spring when ventilation alone is needed.

[iddee]

I think I have a reducer around here some where. I haven't seen it in awhile, tho.

[Yankee11]

Here was a robbing outbreak on a couple of mine. You should see bees on the ground in front of the hives.

[tbonekel]

Okay, I have a question about your screen. Is that a standard robbing screen or something you made. Is there still an opening or is it totally closed off? Also, the screen goes up pretty high on the hive. Why?

[LazyBkpr]

I still have my 3" reducers on all hives, but I also have a 1" top entrance on hives that have three boxes.
   My wife wont go sit with me this time of year because of the FRANTIC activity around the hives. the roar of wings is loud in the bee yard.  You can see a literal LINE of bees flying back and forth toward the southwest.. not sure what is in that direction that they are after, but it looks like a freeway during rush hour with all the cars going 70 mph with bumper to bumper traffic.  As mentioned.. I check the front of the hive. If I see bees fighting, rolling off the landing board locked together and bees fighting on the ground I know its robbing, otherwise I let them alone.
   I use the larger opening on my reducers most all the time, making sure they also have the top entrance. so it about 3" by 3/8" openings.
   On some production hives that are really strong I will put a piece of 3/4 by 3/4 that is about 8 inches long into the entrance. This reduces the length of the entrance to 5" or so, but opens the width to 3/4" and helps relieve some congestion.
   If they still beard when its hot I will open the entrance all the way.