Robber bees

[nella]

If you trapped robber bees in a hive being overwhelmed and robbed(1gal. a day), would they be accepted and become a worker bee in the hive? How long would that take? I am feeding this hive with a gallon feeder on top of the inner cover in an empty deep super. How long can I keep this hive closed with a bee escape to keep in the robber bees in trying to build up the bee numbers? Any suggestions.
 Thanks, Nella

[D Coates]

Others may say otherwise, but unless you move the hive such that the robbers can't find their way home and have no other option they are not interested in becoming a worker bee in the robbed hive.

[FRAMEshift]

3 days.  If the hive still has stores, that's fine.  If not you should add some syrup before you lock them up.  Then the issue is water.  You can pour some water into one frame of drawn comb and stick that in the hive to give them a 3 day supply.

[Michael Bush]

Ive tried confining them for 3 days and yes I think they do, but by then the hive may be queenless.

[nella]

I am feeding them a 1to1 in a gallon feeder on top of the inner cover inside of an empty deep. Do they need water with a 1to1 ratio? I can do it easily with another feeder on top of the inner cover.

[FRAMEshift]

They need water for cooling the hive as well as drinking.  I don't know if they can get their drinking water from 1:1 syrup but I doubt it since that would probably mean ingesting more sugar than they need.  The 1:1 syrup is more concentrated than most nectar sources would be.

If you have robbing going on, the first thing to do is stop feeding.  Once the robbing ends (by locking them in if necessary) then you can feed your strong hives and move capped stores to the weak hives.

[Michael Bush]

I've always had a jar feeder of syrup and another of water when I have tried it.  All in all I did not view it as very successful.  Stopping the robbing is more important than trying to reorient the roobers.