Robber Bees ~ Robbing Behavior

[riverbee]

this is a great informational pdf file on robbing bees and behavior, it covers:

Robber Bees’ Behavior
Times and Situations Leading to Robbing
Dangers of Robbing
Signs of Robbing
Preventive Measures
How to Stop Robber Bees

Robber Bees

please feel free to add comments or your experience with robbing situations and bees.

i have also attached the pdf file.

[pistolpete]

Good summary of robbing.   One thing that took me a while is to recognise/anticipate a dearth.   Around here any time it does not rain for about 10 days all the plants stop producing nectar to conserve water.  This type of drought dearth is tricky because there are still all kinds of flowers out, just no nectar.

I've had two bad robbing episodes, both caused by me.    1)  I left an extractor out to be cleaned by the bees.  When they finished the extractor, they switched to the nearest hive.  2) I put together a 5 frame Nuc.  One of the frames in the nuc was fully capped from the previous fall, so I scratched the cappings to get the Nuc better access.  This drew robbers to the Nuc even though there was a good flow on.

Those robber screens really work well.

[Jen]

I used a robbers screen last year from Country Rubes. I loved it, haven't needed it this year... yet 

[riverbee]

thanks pete, some good points and info....especially what you said about recognizing or anticipating a dearth.  also, the author said bees don't rob in a nectar flow, well, yes and no.  i have had 5 frame nucs robbed out during nectar flows, some years they don't?  so, to be on the safe side, when i make up a nuc now, it gets moved.  jack said it best in another thread, bees are opportunists. 

robbing screens do work really well.  i make my own, not like iddee's, a little different, and i use them for moving bees.  iddee has a great thread here, step by step instructions for anyone that would like to make their own robber screen that also doubles for moving bees as well:

Robber Screen & Moving Screen

[Gypsi]

chewed wax on the sticky: hive is being robbed.

[Mosti]

Iddee's robber screens are excellent. I always put them on nucs or weak hives. I have  witnessed several robber bees trying to go through the screen without any success whilst foragers work without problems.