Robbing Screen - Anybody tried it?
With a lot more wasps about this year, has anybody tried a robbing screen on their hive? Below is a picture of one, but wasn't certain whether it makes a lot of difference or not. This is taken from the website :- http://kiwimana.co.nz/
Robbing-Screen-on-Hive.jpg
We build them into the floors of some of our mininucs but we use a slightly different design where two thirds of the mesh area is actually blanked off, only the area directly over the hive entrance is open. These work well by attracting interested bees/wasps to the doorway behind the mesh while the entrance is actually a few inches away. There are plans (somewhere)on the net for an 'add on' version, one of the Cornell pages I think as they were promoted by Laidlaw.
My nucs have 22mm hole entrances, so I've made up several of these:
They work surprisingly well, even though the mesh only re-routes the entrance by a couple of inches. That's enough to confuse robber bees who want to go straight in. Wasps however, can figure it out. So they are dealt with by traps located downwind of the hives.
LJ
Works for robber bees but not for wasps, best reduce the entrances as much as possible and reduce empty space in the hiveOriginally Posted by Hux
Your workshop must be like an Alladins cave of innovative kit.
This is where blanking off two thirds of the tunnel really does pay as both a deception and by offering a very easily defended corridor.
Not sure that it's worth using screens on large hives, easier just to maintain strong colonies, but for mating nucs I reckon that they're worth the extra build time and, given the opportunity, I will retro-fit all of them.
A gadget for a Nuc... I love it!
Many thanks all. So the consensus is, only of use for Nuc's and will only deter robbing from other hives.
For wasps, best to build a strong colony, put out wasp traps (downwind) and reduce the empty space within a hive to a minimum.
I'll try and find the Cornell page that you were talking about as well.
Cheers
Not had much chance to look for it myself but I'll have a go later. Also. I'll take a photo of my interpretation, did have a lot of active season photos but I've lost access to them at least for now.
I find the main cause of robbing, by either wasps or bees, is feeding syrup in August. The wasps can be hard to handle in August but the problem seems to diminish after a few weeks.
Best advice to prevent robbing is don't open up a colony unless you really have to in late summer and don't feed syrup unless the colony is on the point of starvation.
Most of the horror stories about robbing I have read on the bee forums are beekeeper induced through feeding syrup at a bad time of year.
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