Robbed!!!

LocustHoney · June 14, 2007, 08:09:04 PM

One of my hives got the @#!$% robbed out of it. Now I have a question. Do I chalk them up to death of try to save what is left? There is absolutely NO honey left in the hive. I started feeding sugar water. 1:1. Should I switch to 2:1? There are only two frames of bees that are huddled over two frames of brood. I think there was 3 or 4 frames of brood. The bad news is that the temps are dipping down into the low 60's, upper 50's for the next two nights. The high today was only 69. They didn't even come off the brood. They are very sluggish and slow moving. My wife jumped the gun and bought a new queen today. I can't introduce until tomorrow at the earliest. I am not even sure that they are saveable. Any ideas???? I don't want to take from my other hives unless I have to. Will they go to the sugar water?? Will they survive??? The suspense is killing me!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks for letting me get that out of my system. I am calm now and await your advice.

doak · June 14, 2007, 08:19:41 PM

Put a reducer on, leave no more than half an inch open.
Go ahead and requeen as soon as you can, if it needs it.
either 1to1 or2 will do fine. at this time that is not a big issue.
Hope you can save it. Two frames is no less than a small nuc.
MO.
doak

Kathyp · June 14, 2007, 08:22:40 PM

did you lose the queen? if you didn't, you can always use the new one and make a new hive.

dipping into the 60's :-) that's been our high :-)

i'm wondering if the hive got robbed that badly, if the bees hadn't already swarmed and left not enough bees behind to guard the hive? seems odd that a strong hive would be robbed so badly that you'd lose everything and the bees too.

buzzbee · June 14, 2007, 08:29:40 PM

60's at night?
That sounds about like here everynight.Do you have a nuc box you could transfer them to or close up a little space in the hive box with boards to crowd them a little till the brood starts to emerge?
I have a hive I started with just two frames of brood and bees and let them raise their own queen from this .They are doing great!

LocustHoney · June 14, 2007, 08:30:18 PM

I have only looked for the queen once. And it was mass confusion when I was looking. What I think happened was that I went into the hives for a look-see to check on the last two frames that needed to be drawn out. I think, actually i am sure, that I knocked open some of the capped over honey they had. I already was running an entrance reducer of less than an inch due to the fact we are in dearth here. This was the weakest of the 8 hives I have in my yard. All pretty close to each other. I think they smelled the honey and it was on. Of course it was on then. They robbed the entire hive with the entrance at less than 1 inch. Blew my mind. How can it be??? There is no way it swarmed. This was always the weaker hive. i was so proud they were getting stronger so quick over the past two weeks. Oh well, if they did it once they can do it again. I have moved them 200 feet away into my in-laws yard.

LocustHoney · June 14, 2007, 08:31:19 PM

No nuc.

LocustHoney · June 14, 2007, 08:32:56 PM

Is there a plan B or just one plan only???? At what point do I start thinking otherwise??? What should I be keeping an eye on??

Kathyp · June 14, 2007, 08:40:57 PM

i'd grab some young brood out of another hive and shake in some workers. if your other hives are really strong, they won't miss it and if you don't have a flow going, you won't be hurting honey making.

as the good folks here instructed me, you can take brood from more than one hive. that way you'll only deplete each hive a little.

LocustHoney · June 14, 2007, 08:43:19 PM

Should i introduce a queen before or after the introduction of new brood???

wayne · June 14, 2007, 08:53:50 PM

What's wrong with the old queen? She didn't cause the robbing. If she has problems I can see replacement but otherwise you may lose so much time in the change over that the hive dies anyway and you're out a queen too.

Kathyp · June 14, 2007, 09:03:44 PM

ditto above. i wouldn't replace the queen if she's still there. the adding of the brood and foragers is just to buck up bees until she can catch up.

take the new queen and make a nuc.

LocustHoney · June 14, 2007, 09:08:29 PM

If the queen is there I will start a nuc. But if she isn't...... I have read that in most cases of robbing the will get the queen first. This is my assumption. I know I shouldn't assume but from what I saw it looks as though she is gone. I will go in tomorrow and report back the status. Will they be able to raise new brood without sufficent food stores???

Kathyp · June 14, 2007, 09:36:57 PM

you can feed.

LocustHoney · June 15, 2007, 12:20:53 AM

Will sugar syrup be sufficient???

Brian D. Bray · June 15, 2007, 02:36:05 AM

Sugar syrup is the quickest and easiest way to feed the bees when feeding is necessary. It is also the most common.

LocustHoney · June 15, 2007, 06:49:05 PM

Alright beeks. I just got in and the old queen is still there. I was glad but mad. I now have a purchased queen in her cage who wants out!!! Now I MUST do a split. I need your split help. I know the basics of the split. I have done two this year and they were successful. But two raised their OWN queen. I have never introduced a queen after a split. Please give me the low down. Do I split and introduce the cage at the same time???? Will they accept her??? I would assume that I need no eggs in the hive that I will be introducing the queen???? PLEASE help me. I plan on doing the split tomorrow. It is warming up and the sun is suppose to be out!!! Just when things were going so well. I have 6 strong hives to choose from. One was a HUGE swarm that I caught from one of my other hives. And 2 are from the split of the other two. The other I won't mess with. All are strong and have a super of honey with about 8 frames capped on top of the brood box. Ok Let Me Hear It!!

Michael Bush · June 15, 2007, 08:29:13 PM

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

I leave them queenless overnight. No more or less if I can help it.

LocustHoney · June 16, 2007, 08:15:54 PM

Did the split at 4pm. I will leave them without a queen until 9am. That should be good??? How long could one leave a queen in the queen cage until she expires???

Michael Bush · June 17, 2007, 01:17:24 PM

Two hours is my minimum. Five is ok. 12 is perfect.

As long as the attendants are alive and you give them a drop of water on the screen every day, the queen in the cage can last a long time. Keep her in a room temperature dark quiet place if you can.

As far as releasing, four days is probably the best, but I'd just do a candy release unless you have reason to believe you'll have a problem (like a hot hive or one that's been queenless a long time etc.)