Grand theft

[rcannon]

I have just about had it with these robbing **s Italians. 4 booming nucs that I made up in the summer got robbed out a couple of weeks ago. Then some rainy/cold weather came in and settled everything down. Or so I thought. This week, 2 full size hives got robbed to death. I'm talking about hives in 2 deeps that I pulled a good honey harvest from a couple of months ago.
At this point, I don't know what to do except let the hair go with the hide. I've tried screens, with very little success. I've tried wet sheets, but I can't be here all the time to do that. I'm not feeding, so that can't be the cause. I've got all the entrances closed down to just about nothing, which seems to help.
If I knew it was a particular hive doing the robbing, I'd get rid of them. But I'm not seeing a lot of honey showing up in any one hive, so I suppose it's multiple hives doing the robbing. Or a feral hive. I've haven't had this problem before, so it's kinda caught me with my pants down.

Anybody got any ideas? I'm thinking about trying some Russians, just so this isn't as much of an issue anymore.

[Riverrat]

All bees strains will rob a weak hive during a dearth.  Install robber screens make sure hive has no more room than they can defend close off all unneeded access points to the hives to help stop the robbing

[pistolpete]

when you say you've tried  screens, what kind are you using.   In my experience robbing screens are 100% effective at stopping robbing.  Putting them on for just a couple of days will not work.  The screens go on at the start of September and stay on till winter. 

There's a fancy word for bee mentality:  cleptoparasitic.  Any time there isn't easy pickings they'll look for other avenues to sustain their colony.

[Gypsi]

a much larger hive is probably doing it.  I do feed under covers and boxes. I had a robbery attempt from my largest hive attacking my smallest today. I did throw a sheet over the back of the smaller hive draping on the front and sprayed a robber hose.  I also put a half a jar of 2:1 syrup in a bucket 10 feet in front of the hives. Not sure if that will work for you but in my case it really helped. I need to put more fondant on all 3 hives but if I had let in about 2 of the robbing bees I'd have lost my smallest hive (beeweavers queen this september approx)

Why is my keyboard ringing bells here?

[iddee]

""Why is my keyboard ringing bells here?""

It's Christmas. Run your curser over the bells at top of the page.

[riverbee]

"Anybody got any ideas? I'm thinking about trying some Russians, just so this isn't as much of an issue anymore. "

rc, sorry to hear of your troubles on the robbing issue.  like rat said, all bees will rob, irregardless of the strain/breed.  i keep russians and mutts of, they will rob just as well as others. dearths will increase this.  i move nucs, i don't keep them anywhere near the bigger hives until they are strong enough. try keeping the robbing screens on all full time as pete suggested?

[Ray4852]

 What I would do. Take off all the covers on all your hives, not the nucs. Smoke them down. This usually stops robbing. The robbers will go home to defend their hive.

[kebee]

 I only have two hives right now and they are trying to rob each other out for the last month and a half, I closed the top entrance and have the robbing screen on both hives and will stay there until spring flow.

Ken

[Jen]

Gypsi- "Why is my keyboard ringing bells here?

LOL Gypsi! I asked myself the same question. It's just adorable!

jgb jgb jatw, o wht fn it is to rde in a 1 hse opn slay...  Hhahaahhahahah

[tedh]

I wanna hear the bells!!!!  This is too much fun!  bla bla bla Ted tedddd The d doesn't ring.  The period does......  Okay back to the original topicccc, but this is FUN!

[rcannon]

I think maybe pistolpete hit the nail on the head. The nucs that got robbed had homemade screens on them, maybe I left too much room at the top. I'm gonna build some like Iddee suggested earlier on this site. Looks like they would work better than mine.

Gypsi - I have 30 big hives. I can't tell which are the worst offenders, but I suspect all of them are participating. Plus, I'm certain there are some feral hives around here. I caught 16 swarms this year that come from every direction.

I was pretty aggravated yesterday. One of the hives that got robbed out was headed up by my favorite queen. She was a laying machine and the workers were extremely gentle. Most days I could have worked them butt naked. The neighbors mave have taken exception to that, but the bees wouldn't even notice.

[Gypsi]

I know how frustrating it is. I lost a hive I had built up from 2 frames to 7  beaten mites back learned to ID larva, moved from shade to sun and so on and so on. Big feral swarm, must have been 25.000 bees finally came and literally pried my wooden robber screen off from the top and killed them all..  I cried for 2 weeks. Then I joined bee club and ordered spring nucs, and I learned to do cutouts the next spring too.

I have always got screened bottom boards on for ventilation and no openings wider than 2 bees and short year round. unless it is my very largest hive. I have a couple of levels of robber guards, home made sloppy and homemade screwed on just try it you naughty bees.

But for now I don't have any screens on.  To get one of my better ones on I need to either move the hive into a nuc or make a super power robber screen, and I need to tighten up their bottom board, I have wax stuffed in a crack on the back. Ooops.. So it was sheet and water. 

Once I put the 2:1 out to feed the attack pretty well stopped. And I took my petunias, one pitiful flat, out of the greenhouse and gave those bored bees something to do for a few hours.

[brooksbeefarm]

Like rat said all breeds will rob,But i'll have to say the Italians are the worst at it, anyway the ones i've had are. I don't have much robbing out of my Carnionals until they supersede . Jack

[tecumseh]

faced with starvation... what self respecting bee or person would not rob?  do try and make you robber screens a bit tighter.... since like pistol pete I find these to be highly effective... me being a bit more conservative than that pistol packing pete I will guess 98% effective.

next to lastly... perhaps it is a time of year kind of issue but the same thing use to happen to me in the fall of the year when my good bee keeping neighbor would set down 60 booming hives newly moved from North Dakota to here in the fall of the year just up the road and just out of site for my hives here at the house.

and lastly... at some point I came to look at robbing as being something of a plus since I also have come to believe that the hives picked off units that were for one reason or the other weak or struggling...  and yes sometimes this weakness is a beekeeper produced weakness.