Emergency

Joelel · October 08, 2009, 05:30:10 PM

Emergency,It looks like one of our hives has been taken over,This morning my bees were flying in and out with pollen and the guards were fighting off some wild bees trying to get in. Now there is even an other different bee ,it look like there the only ones there.I see one or two of mine going in and out once in a while with pollen.
Question is, is my hive being robbed and taken over by an other hive or is my hive excepting in an wild hive that lost their queen ? Where did all my bees go,I see very few out side,i haven't looked inside yet. When we last checked the hive three days ago,we seen a couple in their that didn't look like ours. I know a hive can change the breed of bees if the queen matted with different breed of bees,do yo think that may have took place or did my hive get invaded and getting robbed big time ?

Kathyp · October 08, 2009, 05:56:09 PM

you won't know much until you look inside. robbing at this time of the year is common. if you are feeding, or they have lots of honey, they will attract raiders. reduce your entrance and make sure all is well inside.

as long as your numbers are good and they don't have to much to defend, they usually fend off the attackers without to much trouble.

Michael Bush · October 10, 2009, 11:57:58 AM

It could be robbing or it could be an actual take over. AHB have been known to take over hives. Reduced entrances are the first best step for preventing robbing. Closing it off altogether is about the only thing you can do to stop it in progress Then after the robbers have left, open things up only enough for one bee at a time to get in and out.

http://www.bushfarms.com/beesrobbing.htm

Joelel · October 11, 2009, 02:31:04 PM

Quote from: Michael Bush on October 10, 2009, 11:57:58 AM
It could be robbing or it could be an actual take over. AHB have been known to take over hives. Reduced entrances are the first best step for preventing robbing. Closing it off altogether is about the only thing you can do to stop it in progress Then after the robbers have left, open things up only enough for one bee at a time to get in and out.

http://www.bushfarms.com/beesrobbing.htm

Hi Michael,The robbing of small black has been taking place for a few days,two or three now and then and there were a couple there that day getting killed.Now the other kind that we thought were taking the hive over were not getting fought off. We come to the conclusion our queen matted with more the one kind of bee and these were the first ones out on their orientation flight,when we were in our hive three days before my son seen what looked like one of these different bees in there.
Thanks for your info link,it has been helpful now and in the past. I do have onequestion.If you think your hive is being robbed and you close your hive up,how do you get all your bees in to close it. I got bees that stay out side all night on the hive ?

Michael Bush · October 11, 2009, 04:26:14 PM

If you have the time and the hive isn't a long ways from home, you can immediately close it up. But if you find a lot of bees hanging on the hive and not a lot of bees frantically crawling around and flying around, then I'd open up and let them in right then. But by dark you can figure these are not robbers and let them in. Then, after the move in, before daylight, close it up again. Bees that show up in the morning are robbers.

Michael Bush · October 11, 2009, 04:27:47 PM

If the hive is a long ways from home, the normal method is to reduce the entrance down to only two bees, then stuff grass in that. Hopefully the grass will last long enough to discourage the robbers and the reduced entrance will give them something they can guard. Meanwhile you don't have to make several more trips.

weBEE Jammin · October 19, 2009, 12:20:15 AM

How did your bees turn out? Did they get robbed? There are many AHB in Texas now, but you should be able to tell by their aggressive manner.

deknow · October 19, 2009, 11:01:22 AM

another thought (based on what's been posted here):

if the "black bees" you see are largely bees with black tips of the abdomen, you are likely seeing robbers. the yellow color is provided by hairs, and individual bees that do a lot of robbing end up rubbing these hairs off in the course of fighting, squeezing, etc.

it is common to misidentify these bees as "local dark feral stock", they could be, or they could be from the pure italian hive next door.

deknow

Joelel · October 19, 2009, 01:24:46 PM

Quote from: weBEE Jammin on October 19, 2009, 12:20:15 AM
How did your bees turn out? Did they get robbed? There are many AHB in Texas now, but you should be able to tell by their aggressive manner.

They turned out great. We have around here about three different breed of wild bees. Two kind are trying to rob ,but my hives are fighting them off very well.The robbers are large Italian looking bees with big black spot on end of tail with black and yellow stripes,the others are small solid black. My bees are cordovan Italian and are solid yellow.I have no problem telling all these different bees apart. I have two hives,one is cordovan and the others are starline. The starline are black and gray striped. There is an other bee that my cordovan bees are changing to or the cordovan has excepted into their hive,they are yellow and black striped with no big black spot on end of tail.
I have been told,if a hive loses their queen and can't make a new one for what ever reason,maybe they lost their hive some way to a fire,they go to an other hive and that hive knows they don't have a home and they except them in.The more I think about it,that is what I think took place.One day I went to the hives and there was a bunch of bees flying around my hive and have landed on my screened bottom,a few thousand.Well,my hive were not fighting these yellow and black striped off and now their part of my hive.They were not mine because mine are solid yellow cordovan. There were others they were fighting off and still are,the solid black ones and the yellow and striped one with the black on end of tail.
I will see what happened in a couple or three months what happened,if my hive turns completely over to the striped yellow and black or turns back to compleat cordovan solid yellow. I still have my cordovan queen.Did my condovan queen start laying eggs with different genes or did they except and other hive in,I don't know ? They are fine .

Joelel · October 19, 2009, 03:05:44 PM

We intend to have many hives,probably cordovan,they are yellow wit very light stripes ,we can tell if they get crossed with African bees.We will have around here flooded with cordovan drones.We will raise our own queens and if they get crossed,we will kill them. If we see a hive that don't have cordovan bees and continually have cordovan,we will kill the drones and the queen.