Well, today I was opening my hives, three of which I knew would need supering soon so, I took out three supers which I had stored with PDB. To my surpise, appearantly cockroaches had chewed their way through the plastic bag, and now it has SHB and wax moths. So, I took them outside and stood them up on end to vent out, and maybe get rid of the SHB. I walked off, opened a few hives, everything seemed fine and I put on boxes of foundation instead of the comb which I had hoped to save up. Then, I walk back over to the driveway where I had the supers sitting out and the air is FILLED with bees. I got a panicked call from the neighbors.
I"ve removed the supers into the back yard out of sight, and as far from adjacent property as possible. I hosed down the driveway to remove any honey and told the neighbors I have everything under control. I must admit, with all the comb having been slimed, I'm surprised the bees took to it. Basically, all the boxes are buzzing loudly and, it almost looks likea swarm cloud with the air so thick with bees. Have I done everything I can? Any more suggestions for how to get the bees back to their hives and normal foraging faster?
No one's been stung and, that's what I'm trying to keep going.
Now the hives are robbing eachother!
I don't even have my bees yet, so I know nothing, but I think I remember reading that you should use entrance reducers and close up all the hives completely.
I've heared two schools of thought for reducing robbing; reducing the entrances or, taking off the cover. I'm trying to avoid getting any more bees in the air so, that rules out removing the covers. I"ve moved the super out of the way and am debating about spraying it with a repelent like Frisher's Bee Quick.
http://www.bushfarms.com/beesrobbing.htm
Thankyou Michael.