Robbing.... will it ever stop!!!

[Bigfoot]

People I just don't know what to do and I really would appreciate some advice. I've got two hives and this fall all they do is keep getting robbed, one hive I caught as a swarm the other from a cut out, I know one hive is Italians and I think the other one is also and I've heard Italians are notorious for robbing and I'm starting to believe it. All I know is I'm sick of it and I don't know what to do about it, any advice on what can be done, and also is there another type of bee that doesn't rob like Italains, I really would apprecaite any advice on what I can do.  :?

[Hemlock]

Have you been feeding the bees?

How have you been feeding the bees?

Are the entrances reduced?

What steps have you taken to stop it?

[Bigfoot]

Have you been feeding the bees?

How have you been feeding the bees?

Are the entrances reduced?

What steps have you taken to stop it?

One of the hives have good stores so I haven't been feeding that one. The cutout I tried to feed about three weeks ago but the bees wouldn't touch it, and I did reduce the hive entrance down to about a half-inch wide on one hive, the other hive has been reduced down to about an inch and a half.

[Kathyp]

don't think it has much to do with the breed.  probably aren't your own bees doing the robbing anyway.  if you think it's your own bees, have you tried separating the hives?  have you tossed a wet sheet over them for 24 hours?  

i'd guess that there is another hive around somewhere and they are helping themselves.  

one other thing....are you sure that what you are seeing is robbing? 

[AliciaH]

If you are sure it's robbing, I would reduce the entrances even further.  They won't stop until your bees have made it obvious to the robbers that they can't get in.  Try one bee width for a few days.  It's a hassle for your bees, but better that than to continue getting robbed.

Also, is it possible you have too much room inside the box for them to defend?  What do you have?  A single deep, deep/medium, or double deep?  I know you said you have stores in at least one of the hives, but are there bees enough to cover the frames?  If not, then maybe reducing the size of the hive is another thought.  You can always store extra frames to feed back later.

[Shanevrr]

You can try and turn hives different directions and reduce entrance to one bee width, dont entrance feed,  and if its been going on a while, you better check on your queen, could be another reason why there robbing

[BlevinsBees]

Buy or make a robbing screen.

http://www.brushymountainbeefarm.com/10-Frame-Moving-and-Robbing-Screen/productinfo/517/

[T Beek]

Lots of good advise here.  If entrances are down to their absolute smallest and robbing is still going on the only solution besides the wet sheet/blanket method I've found is to run a sprinkler over the victim hive during the day and only feed that hive at night.  Usually just closing the entry is enough, although you may still see lots of fighting it is likely that little actual robbing is taking place.

thomas

[Michael Bush]

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

[VolunteerK9]

Buy or make a robbing screen.

http://www.brushymountainbeefarm.com/10-Frame-Moving-and-Robbing-Screen/productinfo/517/

Ditto on the Robbing Screens-they work wonders

[Martin]

after about a wekk of trying things mentioned above, i finally gave up and had to move mine to another yard

[L Daxon]

I've had a robbing screen on my weak hive for about 2 weeks and plan to keep it on until I am sure all my hives are clustered up for the winter.  I've heard of people keeping robbing screens on indefinitely with a weak hive.  It is good to have at least one Brushy Mountain robbing screen on hand for robbing or moving hives, I've found.

[CapnChkn]

I also use the robbing screen.  It's simple enough to make, if you can't find the #8 hardware cloth, you can use metal window screen.  I don't see any advantage to reducing the entrance covered by the screen, if you need to restrict the bees, you can put a block in the top, where the bees would exit.  If you're using a Screened Bottom Board, you can just reduce the entrance, the smell of the hive is where the robbers zoom in on.

I don't remember where I found this, so I'm linking to a site I put files on.
http://allthemfiles.horizon-host.com/files/robbingscreen.pdf

Here's two I made.  You can see the block with a single bee width entrance and a stick I put in it to lock the robbers in.  After dark I took the stick out and let the home bees do what they do.