# My hives are being robbed!



## Terri (May 10, 2002)

I knew that the weaker hive was being robbed by 2 reasons: the weaker hive does not have enough foragers to make a swarm that big, and because when I removed the feeding jar to insert a new full jar about 3 dozen bees came boiling out of the opening. And, in the past there has never been more than a dozen at the boardman feeder. 

So, I totally blocked the opening to the hive. I took handfuls of grass clippings and shoved them into the opening with my cane, as the bees attacking the hive looked angry. Totally blocking the entrance will be a bit hard on the bees that belong to the hive but they will (I think) cluster on the hive, and at sunset I can give them a small opening so they can go back inside. 

At the time I thought the bees were from my stronger hive, as there were not many bees coming and going at the stronger hive, and at first I saw no line of bees coming and going. But, when I stood back and watched for a bit I saw that the bee line was up high and going North. And, in the half hour since I saw the problem the bees had shifted from hovering in front of my weak hive to hovering in front of my stronger hive. If they belonged there they would go inside, not hover. So, I plugged that opening with grass clippings also, though I was able to use my fingers as there were not so many foreign bees. Yet.

I KNOW that boardman feeders are not the best way to feed, but as I am handicapped I do not always have the energy to open a hive to feed, and I did not want them to lack feed. I had always intended to get the feeders in an empty box on top of the hive, but it was a busy and chaotic summer and it did not get done. So, I will have lost some bees and the surviving bees will need heavy feeding if they are to winter over for me.

Tomorrow I will suit up and set the feeders where they should be: in an empty box on top of the hives so that no bee can reach the feed unless they first walk through the hive. 

Italians are well suited to the Midwest and so almost everybody has them, but they will rob other hives when the flowers get scarce! In the past I have used sprinklers to chase of robbers as bees hate ârainâ, and that worked reasonably well though I had to run the sprinkler for 3 days and then turn them on a couple of times, but I am hoping to avoid it this time. I will start by restricting the entrance to perhaps the width of 2 bees, and by severely reducing the entrance the foreign bees will have to come in one at a time, Unless the hive has been BADLY damaged the home bees can defend this. 

DH will buy sugar for me today, and tomorrow I will make up enough feed to give each hive 4 quart jars of the stuff. And, they will go into the box that I will add onto the top of each hive, to make the hives harder to rob. Only the home bees will be able to reach the feed.

That was about 2 hours ago, and the number of bees in front of the hives have gone back to about the number that should be there. In an hour and a half the sun will be low, so I will open the hives a small amount so that the bees can return to their homes.


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Build a robbing screen for your hives and yes pitch the board man feeders.
Do the pickle jar I have post pictures of in a couple of threads this week.

 Al


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## Terri (May 10, 2002)

alleyyooper said:


> Build a robbing screen for your hives and yes pitch the board man feeders.
> Do the pickle jar I have post pictures of in a couple of threads this week.
> 
> Al


Will do!


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## Steve in PA (Nov 25, 2011)

I made my robbing screens like the US Davis ones. I found them quite effective on my NUCS as they didn't get robbed at all. It's just a bent piece of hardware cloth that I stapled to the front.

I also use jar feeders. They are under the garden lids that I made. I think that will keep the syrup warm and they will take it longer.


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## Terri (May 10, 2002)

This morning I cobbled together something out of hardware cloth and held it in position with bricks: it is working well. When it warms up this afternoon, and after the frustrated robber crowd thins out, I will get into the hives and see how bad things are.

I *SHOULD* have put the screens up at full dark instead of at sunrise: for such a simple and non-invasive thing I thought I did not even need a veil but when they head-butted me I decided to go away and come back in a few minutes so they could calm down.


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## Terri (May 10, 2002)

How things turned out.

The weaker hive has no honey left, but they have a surprising amount of sealed brood when you consider they are going into winter. I saw no hive beetles at all. They were frantically bringing in pollen- I noticed there are wild asters blooming and apparently they found a good stand of them- and I set up feeders inside a hive box on top. 

When I first came out to open the hives this afternoon I thought the robbers were active again because there was a largish swarm around the entrance so I smoked them heavily, but then I realized that the bees that were LEAVING with pollen were circling back to try to get inside: between the reduced entrance and the screen they were not able to get in fast enough. So they wee circling to try again I removed the screen, as there was no way robbers could get in with so many bees coming and going in the one inch opening. That helped but there are still a lot of bees hovering waiting to get in with their loads of pollen. That is OK: the robbers showed up this morning just after sunrise trying to get in, but they couldn't. There are worse things than having to wait to unload.

Now that the home bees are awake and active I think the hive is safe enough for today, though I will set the screen up again tonight to keep things that way. I was just lucky to catch the robbing as early as I did. Feed can be replaced. 

The strong hive has a problem! It has a fair amount of hive beetles. I squished what I could but for every beetle I squished I saw 2 more. A friend who bought 2 hives of bees the same time I did had trouble with beetles and he was going to try a variety of methods on them: apparently some worked since he says his surviving hive is making honey in huge quantities. I will have to ask him what worked best for him. The beetles are the heaviest where the combs are partly drawn and partly filled: I only saw 2 where the bees were clustered over the brood nest and I killed them both. I set up feeders inside that hive as well.

One thing I did not like to see: I have plastic foundation, and the beetles can crouch into the bottom of a dimple, which would leave a smooth and rounded back to an aggressive bee. I hated to see that, as I find the plastic foundation much easier to handle. I must think on that for a bit.


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

I have heard Apastan strips works well on hive beetle as well as the check mite strips.


I found this simple to make robber screen on the internet. Similar to what I make but I just use 3/4x3/4 wood strips Predrill holes for the mounting screws.











 Al


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