Please excuse my ignorance, but how do you know when bees are robbers rather than your own bees?
robbers
Please excuse my ignorance, but how do you know when bees are robbers rather than your own bees?
Usually the behaviour at the entrance. Bees looking furtive (!), trying to find a chance to dive in and scramble past the guards. See what happens when they meet one - friendly contact or a roughing up? If you have bees fighting at the entrance then things are really bad. Sometimes the robbed colony doesn't make much of a fuss.
Any fussing around the entrance needs a closer look. It might be the emergence of house bees graduating to flying duties when the sun finally comes out, in season it could be a mating flight of a virgin, or it could be robbing.
If you suspect robbing, shower bees at the entrance with flour from a jar with holes in the lid, then watch to see if they return to any of your other hives (assuming that you have more than one of course).
Didn't spot any robbing at mine at lunchtime, other than a heavy wasp attack on one colony which I'll need to do something about tomorrow.
G.
PS Welcome to the forum Onj!
Not so sure about the inverted crown board; put in an entrance block to reduce the entry (obviously); then take some pliable mesh about 3/4 width of hive and 3" wide. longways down the middle shape a 1/2 tunnel perhaps using a bamboo cane as a template. Then pin the mesh over the entrance. The robbers make for the middle entrance but cannot get in and cluster madly around this area. The bees inside come out and walk all the way along the mesh tunnel to either side to get out for their legitimate business and can usually learn their way back in.
Alvearium
caustic or washing soda?..... surely there wont be much left of it with the former ?Originally Posted by Jimbo
when trying to protect a nuc I sometimes close the entrance down to one bee only by filling the whole of the entrance then pushing a biro outer tube in the middle any stranger trying to get down it will have a nice reception committee at the end .....make sure the choice of biro is wide enough to let a bee all the way down and does nt cause a blockage at the end
If you see bees going in with pollen they are the rightful occupants of the hive.
Fighting at the entrance is often a sign of robbing.
Robbing is often sparked off by putting a huge amount of sugar syrup in a small colony which is too weak to defend it.
I have found that fondant is less likely to induce robbing.
All these posts about robbing are making me nervous as I have been away for over two weeks and don't get home until Monday.
I left behind 20 nucs so hopefully most of them will be ok. I put a couple of lbs of fondant on most of them just to be on the safe side.
HensandBees,
You're correct, Washing soda, not caustic.
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