After I extracted several supers of honey I thought the easiest way to get the supers cleaned out was to load everything into the back of a pickup truck and park it about 1/4 mile away from my hives. Big Mistake! All the girls went crazy, not only swarming over the empty supers, but trying to rob each other's hives out at the same time. Bees were flying everywhere! A few days later I extracted the rest of my supers. This time I thought I would be smart and put the supers to be cleaned out directly on the hives. I also installed entrance reducers. Unfortunately I had the same result: bees gone wild!
The weather here has been extremely dry and we are in a dearth. My hives need to be fed to help them prepare for winter. The stores I left on them at harvest are being quickly depleted. My question: What is the best way to feed my bees without causing another bout of robbing? I have hive top feeders, bucket feeders and entrance feeders. Is one of these better than the others? Do I need to leave the entrance reducers on the hives? Any suggestions are eagerly awaited. I am fresh out of ideas. :?
I'd leave the reducers on, less area to defend, and get rid of entrance feeders, they are famous for creating robbing.
Good Luck and God bless
Wayne
I truly love the baggie type feeders. You place them directly into the hive on top of the top super and then close up the entrance to the smallest size. I also place feed on the hives in the early evening (about 0700pm), when there is less of a chance of robbing. We have a dearth here also and so far the hives have not been robbed out when I feed like this. I think the most important thing is feeding in the evening
Thanks, Annette, I've been thinking of trying the baggie feeders. Maybe they'll work with this crew!
If you go with the baggie feeders, just some suggestions so you do not make the same mistakes that I did. Fill up the gallon size ziplock bags only about 1/3 full and make sure you are using the good ziplocks, not some cheap brand. When you fill them up leave the air bubble in them, then seal them up. Double check the seals, I mean every inch of them. I just press and press every spot and believe me when I say that I find some spots that were unsealed. After you place it on the hive, take a sharp knife or razor, something very sharp so it doesn't drag on the baggies and make the slits into the air bubble very carefully. The slits should be short around 1/2" and just a few of them. They should also be around 1/2" apart from each other. I made a horrible mistake a few weeks ago and made rather long slits and to many of them. Well the bees drowned in the baggies.
Take Care
Annette