After one of my hives' being robbed, I closed the hive up for a couple of days, so any robbers still in the hive could be assimilated. I opened them up this morning, giving them only one bee space. There were robbers outside again, and it seemed that hive residents were letting bare bee butts inside the hive. Do bees that were being robbed also have bare butts? WILL the hive defend itself if they have ONE bee space?? Thank you.
What exactly do you mean by "bare butts"? Do you mean bees that have had their hair rubbed off from fighting? In my experience most strong colonies can easily defend one bee space, but a weak colony may not be able to, especially if the robbers already know how to get in. How strong is the colony?
Yes, that is what I meant. This hive was fairly strong. I think I will go check on them now and put a wet towel over the hive.
Have you tried a robbing screen for this colony? I use them regularly on my hives this time of year, and they really help to keep robbers from learning the entrance.
The drawback from having calm bees is that they are a potential for being robbed by aggressive bees. Usually if you notice robbing it is too late. The aggressors know that the hive is weak and the queen might already be dead. It might be better to do combines rather than try to stop robbing. It is one of those tough bee keeping decisions.
It's a case of "move it or lose it."
Take it temporarily to a friends' house at least 5 miles away.
Add a bar of capped stores if you have it.
Put on a robbing screen. The best $8 you can spend.
Make sure they have water source.
I had a colony robbed out... only 300 bees and a queen were left....
Every hive has it's own response to robbing. For the most part it's a bad situation that probably won't be fixed no matter what you do, but if you compress them (remove all the empty space) and reduce the entrance to nothing for long enough for the frenzy to quit. And then open up just enough of an entrance for one bee at a time, they MIGHT get on their feet. But probably not...
http://bushfarms.com/beesrobbing.htm