Robbing?

[rast]

 A couple of questions for those of you experienced with another hive robbing you.
I did a newspaper combine on this hive (1 deep, strong, 5" entrance, SBB W/slatrack) starting a week ago yesterday with a small hive of small dark bees I had rescued from tree trimmers. I had tried to get the small hive to grow, gave them brood, drawn comb, a new queen, fed constantly 1 to1. Were dwindling down. Got rid of queen and combined. Newspaper was gone on Sat. and all looked fine.
Yesterday evening there was a lot of dead bees in front of the hive, more than normal and I watched them fight and try (successfully) to drag other bees out of the hive and kill them. Still going on tonight. Lots of dark bees on landing board acting as guards, seems to be darker that what I remember. Looks a lot like the feral hive I had here that swarmed this past April.
Before I close them in tonight, will the robbers set up guards such as I seem to see?
Do the robbers usually kill the queen? Excellent layer in this hive.
Yes, we have been in a dearth.
Will the workers continue to bring in pollen undisturbed? They are. Also the bees flying out act like they are empty, the ones coming in are sluggish.
Of course I have read MB's "robbing" on his web site and have also found that like he says, If I let them, they usually take care of it themselves.
  Rick

[Michael Bush]

> Yesterday evening there was a lot of dead bees in front of the hive, more than normal and I watched them fight and try (successfully) to drag other bees out of the hive and kill them.

Not good.

> Still going on tonight. Lots of dark bees on landing board acting as guards, seems to be darker that what I remember.

There is a lot of hair pulling involved.  Usually the ROBBERS get darker and shiner.

> Looks a lot like the feral hive I had here that swarmed this past April.
Before I close them in tonight, will the robbers set up guards such as I seem to see?

I don't know, but the darker ones are usually the robbers.  The robbers are usually more frantic and less organized.

> Do the robbers usually kill the queen?

Yes.

> Yes, we have been in a dearth.
Will the workers continue to bring in pollen undisturbed?

No.  The hive will be in shambles.

> They are. Also the bees flying out act like they are empty, the ones coming in are sluggish.

Not sure what that means, but I would reduce the entrance to a bare minimum.  Preferably with #8 hardware cloth for ventilation.

> Of course I have read MB's "robbing" on his web site and have also found that like he says, If I let them, they usually take care of it themselves.

When it comes to robbing, a lack of action on your part will probably result in the death of the colony.

[rast]

 Thank you Michael,
Worrying about the PM heat and a lack of water, I reduced the entrance way down. Tonight everything seems normal, maybe the hive was winning all the time and the small dark bees on the landing board were from the combine. I opened the hive tonight and all looked OK. Still had honey/nectar. Did not look for the queen.
I once read, and thought it was from MB, that an incoming heavy laden bee would kinda dip down when slowing for the landing board. An empty outgoing bee would shoot out and up quickly. This is what I normally see. If being robbed, they were not as quick and fast leaving. Just in a frantic hurry getting in. Kinda like me after a big lunch :).
   

[Michael Bush]

Robbers are often very frantic.