Robbing bar stewards

[Jon]

Probably neonics.

Only a matter of time till we get some guff about neonics making bees susceptible to robbers.
If only these pesky shills would stop suggesting that some bee problems are not caused by Imidacloprid.

[Black Comb]

One of the supposed benefits of Ambrosia etc is that it does not induce robbing.
They are certainly nowhere near as excited as e.g. when you put a wet super back on.
I have had nothing come in for over 3 weeks now so had to feed in one apiary yesterday. Only a small feed of Ambrosia and I fed all the hives which again is supposed to reduce robbing.
I agree, this is the worst year for robbing and wasps in my 6 years of BK.

[Jon]

The wasps go mad for invert sugar like they do for any sugar.

[The Drone Ranger]

Only feed at night,use rapid feeders, don't spill , take the syrup to them in several sealed and washed 2ltr plastic milk containers or similar, small entrances etc it all helps

[Jon]

Bloody wasps are active from first light right up to dusk though.
I honestly don't know why bees are being given syrup in August.
I feed my bees a bit before winter like a lot of beekeepers but I usually start in late September.
Might have to be a bit earlier further north I suppose.
I used to mess around feeding nucs with syrup and I often had the problems described in this thread so I stopped.
There are a load of posts now about people who have had difficulties after feeding syrup so I reckon that is sending out a clear message.
It is good to get some feed into a nuc but the robbing is a massive risk you have to take on board.

[Black Comb]

Well Jon, I feed because otherwise they would starve. Colony numbers are at their peak and after the supers are off they soon chomp through a reasonable amount of stores. No balsam in these parts. Fondant is a good suggestion.
I have never seen as many wasps as this year.
Agree winter feed time is September.

[Trog]

Why not leave the supers on a bit longer? The bees will remove what they need and the rest is yours.

[Bumble]

Inspected today and found a lot of wasps inside the hives, the bees were ignoring them. I hope it doesn't turn nasty.

I shouldn't have written 'a lot', it wasn't really but with each colony I saw one, two or three wasps mingling with the bees. .

Bumble. Hoping is not an option. D.R. is right, it will turn nasty.

Bumble. If you have wasps walking around unchallenged inside a hive you can measure its life expectancy in days. Again, you need to move it away somewhere.

Thanks for the warnings. It's appreciated.

First of all there are a lot of wasps around at the moment. I'd agree with Black Comb and say there are more than I've seen for a good few years. One nest has been dealt with, but there must be many, many, more that we don't know about. They're scouting just above ground level, I'm not sure what they're looking for. I think that, because the spring was so late arriving here, their colonies are at the wrong point of growth for the time of year.

We've still got masses of bumblebees. Same as with the wasps, there are far more than I've seen for years. They should have died back by now, but there are still workers gathering nectar.

I sat and carefully watched each hive entrance for about ten minutes today, to see if there was a lot of wasp activity. A couple of brave wasps tried to get in, but they were quickly repelled by a cloud of guards. The entrances are one bee space high and about two wide, all colonies are strong. (The one on double shallows isn't in this apiary. I didn't see any wasps anywhere near it, but that doesn't mean there aren't any.)

When was inspecting yesterday. The hives had been smoked so I think the bees didn't notice the scent of the strangers in their midst. I will keep a close eye on them.

[Bridget]

Well they have been robbing the larvae as well, as if I didn't have few enough of them. I smoked and watered the entrance to the nuc and all the other hives to boot. Stood there for about 30 mins smoking the entrance so the robbers came out and then smoked any that came near. This cut the numbers down a bit. Found the new queen in there so after a strong coffee I'm going out to catch her, cage her with some attendants and put her in the hive she was intended for. (That will be a first if I am successful). Then I shall try and save what little there is left of the unhatched bood and move the nuc away away. Cant wait till tonight as there wont be anything left.
No neonics here Fat Shark - if there were if would give me a reason for the poor performance of my queens this summer.

All successfully done - await the new day to see what that may bring. I also added a small frame with a few eggs and larvae to the shook out colony from Monday. It came from Jenbee a sometime lurker and poster on this site and a new friend who moved 2 miles down the road from me in the winter. Our new association for Speyside got us together and she is very generous. As is Drone Ranger who sent me a couple of queens in the post and they have been introduced to their new colonies, one of them today. I think I learnt quite a lot - I hope so - I seemed to spend most of the day out there. I dumped the nuc and the tattered remains of frames and larvae the other end of the garden - nothing worth saving so lucky to save the queen in time. Point taken about syrup - didn't realise and won't do it again. (is there an emoticon for smacked wrist?)

[lindsay s]

I feed my bees a bit before winter like a lot of beekeepers but I usually start in late September.
Might have to be a bit earlier further north I suppose.

You are dead right there Jon.
Not much forage coming in at the moment so the porter escapes went on the crown boards today and entrance blocks were fitted to all hives to help cut down on any robbing. All the supers will be removed on Friday night and all my hives will be fed syrup before I go home. I’m not going to change what I’ve been doing for the last 30+ years. The honey flow was intermittent and while two hives did well this year’s crop will be below average. The robbing at Sue’s apiary has now calmed down (see page 161 post 1606 todays news) and she has removed most of her supers. For those of you who need it Tesco’s have 5 kilo bags of sugar for £3.99 and I’ll be back there for more tomorrow.