Strange Rob Out

[brooksbeefarm]

Went to one of my outyards yesterday and seen one hive being robed out . This had been a strong hive with 2 deeps and 4 med.supers,thousands of dead bees in front of the landing board and thousands of bees in the air and on the front of the hive . I broke it down and found they had got 2 and a half of the honey from the supers, i got the other super and a half of honey. The brood chamber  was a mess, there was some capped drone brood left and spotty worker brood, and the pollen in the bottom box was sweaty looking and hanging half way out of the cells(4 frames). I left the bottom box in place while i checked and robed some of the other hives so the robbers wouldn't bother me while doing so. Went to get the robed out hive and the robbing had stopped and bees were coming and going like a normal hive? i notice a small pile of live bees on the ground in front of the landing board and started pushing them around looking for a queen, didn't find her.but i seen a cluster of bees hanging from the bottom board and when i raised it up for a good look one of the holes in the concrete blocks (the hive sat on) was also full of bees?? So i left the the hive with one brood box and reduced the entrance to 1/2 an in. to see what happens when i come back in a couple of days? Did they see they were out numbered and hid? or do i have cowardly bees? never seen anything like this before? Have you? Jack

[iddee]

No, I've never seen anything like that, but being where you are, I would dress well the next time out. Sounds like it could be a usurpation. I've never seen one of those, either.

[Perry]

I'm stumped. Weird for a powerful hive to lose like that.

[Riverrat]

2 deeps and 4 supers is a lot of area for even a strong hive to defend especially if there is a lot of openings where the robber bees can enter.  Could it be possible they was just overwhelmed.

[lazy shooter]

If Jack hasn't ever seen anything like it, there should be a documentary made about it because Jack got the first hive off the Arc.  Yeah, you know which Arc. 

On a serious note, I didn't realize that big, mature hives got robbed unless the beekeeper left the hive open too long.  This seems to be a real unusual occurrence.

[brooksbeefarm]

I have a top entrance 1/2 in. x 1 in. that i leave on my hives year round, the lower entrance was fully open and no other cracks or openings( it did have a screen bottom board). I had checked this yard about 10 days ago and most of the supers on all the hives were full of nectar but not capped. The sumac is in full bloom up there and bees are working it hard, so there isn't a dearth going on, from the way the brood boxes looked with no larva or uncapped brood,just a couple frames with spotty worker brood and a half frame of drone brood i'm thinking they may have been queenless due to swarming and the new queen didn't make it back to the hive ect.?? My wife was with me and tried to talk me out of working that hive because of the amount of bees, i'll have to admit i had never seen that many bees bearding on the front of a hive with that much fighting and bees in the air, almost like a swarm leaving Now that i think about it, i don't think i took a hit and they never payed me no mind?? Very strange ???Jack

[jayj200]

id you recapture them?
did they abscond?
was there an Afro in the bunch?
ware a full suit the next few times going in
if they get mean. pinch the queen.
I will.

[brooksbeefarm]

Never heard the term usurpation and don't understand why i should ware a full suit, they weren't aggressive toward me anyway??? Jack

[lazy shooter]

Jack:

Down nearer the Mexico border where I live, sometimes a colony of African bees simply take over a hive in someone's apiary.  I don't really know if they just walk into a hive or if they fight their way into a hive, but I do know that "usurpation" takes place.   Then the nice, friendly hive of Italian bees that you last visited weeks before will will be headed by an Africanized queen and a few thousand of her worker bees.  On your next visit they may come out in the hundreds and attack you like something out of a science fiction movie.  They will then chase you half of a mile or more.  That's can be the result of "usurpation."

[brooksbeefarm]

Thanks Lazyshooter, not heard of AHB this far north yet, but who knows?? That's the St Louis, Mo. Ark Right.  Jack

[iddee]

It's like Lazy says, Jack The AHB do do it, and in a matter of weeks the hive is all AHB.

It only takes one swarm off a truck going from Texas to the Dakota's to have AHB that far north for the summer, even if they don't overwinter.

Just be prepared, that's all.

[brooksbeefarm]

Thanks iddee. i never thought of that. Jack

[brooksbeefarm]

Went back up to the rob out yard yesterday,the hive that was being robed out acted like a regular hive with bees coming and going? I went through it and didn't find a queen, there was 3 and a half frames of bees left and most of what little brood that was left had hatched. I went to another hive and took a frame of uncapped brood and eggs and put it in the queenless hive and started taking honey supers off other hives. Well within 15 min. they were robing the queenless hive again , i closed it up to bring it back home and only got to take 3 med. supers off before i had to leave because for some reason a robing frenzy started.May be that a dearth has started up there now that the sumac has gone to seed, it's so dry up there the corn fields are drying up, turning brown and there leaves standing straight up begging for rain. There are some soybean fields (that looked dark green) 3/4 of a mile in the creek bottom from this outyard, i don't know if they have bloomed yet or not? Jack