Robber Screen for the Constructionally Challenged

[tillie]

I've been struggling with robbers all day today and read about how to construct a robber screen.  However, Home Depot didn't have the size hardware cloth I needed and when I wandered hopelessly in the window department, I found a solution for those of us beekeepers who didn't get to take shop in High School.

I bought an adjustable window screen 10" high and 19" wide at its smallest.  This is just a little too wide to serve the purpose, but I still had to create a new entrance for the bees to enter the hive.  

From reading on Beesource, I believe the idea of the robber screen is to block the main hive entrance, thus keeping out the robbers who are attracted to the honey and to create a new higher up entrance for the resident bees who are attracted to the queen and will climb, crawl or whatever to get to her.

I used a piece of 1.5"x.75" board, cut to the height of the adjustable window screen.  I hammered the piece to the back of the windown screen on both sides and then bungee corded the whole thing to the hive.

Here are pictures:
http://beekeeperlinda.blogspot.com/2006/06/robber-screen-for-construction.html

I'll know tomorrow if this will thwart the robbers, but it looks like it fills the bill for a robber screen for the constructionallly challenged (like me)

Linda T in Atlanta

[Michael Bush]

>I believe the idea of the robber screen is to block the main hive entrance, thus keeping out the robbers who are attracted to the honey and to create a new higher up entrance for the resident bees who are attracted to the queen and will climb, crawl or whatever to get to her.

You've got the basic principle.  The locals find it first, because they left that way, and second because they are not keying in on the same thing.  The robbers are going to the smell of honey.  The locals are willing to find any indirect or direct route to their hive.

[tillie]

Thanks to an idea from randydrivesabus, I have re-done the robber screen for the construction-challenged and put screw-eyes both in the sides of the screen and at the back of the hive body to hold the screen in place. 

If anyone's interested, here is a very easy way to put together a robber screen (mostly because the adjustable window screen has already done the hard part).

http://beekeeperlinda.blogspot.com/2006/06/robber-screen-for-construction.html
http://beekeeperlinda.blogspot.com/2006/06/building-more-sophisticated-robber.html

This should help anyone who may be like me, unable to nail four sides together to make a square unless they came in a kit and who has no idea what a router is or what it does!

Linda T in Atlanta

[yes2matt]

How tall up the face of the hive does the screen need to be? I made one 6" and I think it is inadequate, tho it did slow the robbers down.

[Dabbler]

If you want a very simple robber screen, check out the one on Little Johns hive in this link.
http://www.beemaster.com/forum/index.php?topic=48866.0

The material looks similar to the stamped aluminum sheets available at the orange store.
Tin nips cut it to size and one screw keeps it in place. 
Easy peezy

[yes2matt]

If you want a very simple robber screen, check out the one on Little Johns hive in this link.
http://www.beemaster.com/forum/index.php?topic=48866.0

The material looks similar to the stamped aluminum sheets available at the orange store.
Tin nips cut it to size and one screw keeps it in place. 
Easy peezy

Is that big enough? I think the raiders on the hive in question will completely overwhelm it?

[iddee]

You can try this one. Lots of people like it, and it's simple.

http://www.worldwidebeekeeping.com/forum/index.php/topic,1420.msg44188/topicseen.html#msg44188

[little john]

Is that big enough? I think the raiders on the hive in question will completely overwhelm it?

I think it's useful to bear in mind that robbing is identical to foraging in it's principles - even though it can look like 'foraging on steroids' ...

Stage 1: is when a forager scout enters a hive and checks it out.  She will then report back that there is a highly desirable source of food and, (say) poorly protected.  If there is much nectar coming in from the fields, her information (in the form of the waggle dance) will be drowned-out by the dozens of competing dances.  But - in a dearth - her's may be the only dance in town.

Stage 2: is when a handful of foragers checkout the source and duly report back.  It is on the strength of that and subsequent information that the 'forager-workforce' takes off for the target 'mob-handed'.

Stage 3: is the cloud of highly excited foragers we call 'robbers' all intent on entering the hive - and by overwhelming any opposition, grab the spoils.

So, when I have competing interests - such as making life easy for a returning post-virgin queen - I fit anti-robbing screens of modest proportions. These are only designed to deal with Stages 1 and perhaps 2.  Providing the foragers are dissuaded at that stage, then full-blown robbing won't occur.  It's a trade-off between offering protection and ensuring that a queen can re-enter without any difficulty.

Ok - for dealing with modest robbing attacks (say, from my Black Bees - which are very rare), I find a 4" high wire cage with an open top is more than sufficient - here is a photo showing the template I use to cut them out.




In that shot - next to the corks - is the most effective anti-robbing device I've ever made (I've put a similar device upside-down next to it to show the method of attachment - a stub of 22mm copper tube which is simply pushed into the entrance hole) - and it works so well precisely because it stops the robbing from ever starting.  But - they are time-consuming to make.  There's always a down-side.


But - if robbing should ever develop into a full-blown frenzy - what to do then ?

Here's an example of where I completely forgot (Duhhh ... ) to fit an A/R screen to a Nuc.  Within hours this developed into a situation far more serious than usual, as these robbers were Italians coming in from outside the Apiary and were simply diving-in over the top of the mesh - even though theory says they're not supposed to.




As you can see I placed a temporary top over the mesh, allowing only a small hole to remain.  After 2 days, this measure eventually quelled the riot, and brought the numbers of robbers down to single figures.  When that had been achieved, my girls were no longer overwhelmed by sheer weight of numbers and could then set about dishing out their own brand of punishment.

In the photograph there are 3 fights taking place, where single robbers are being stung to death or having their wings torn off. One fight is taking place at bottom right, outside the mesh.  The second is taking place inside the mesh at 3 o'clock and the third up in the top right-hand corner.

What you can't see is that guards have also set up station inside the box entrance - so that three levels of guarding have been set-up - one outside the mesh, one in the 'forecourt', and another just inside the entrance.

I even began to feel sorry for those robbers ... well, not too much.

Shortly afterwards, the top was removed, as it's job had been done.  Only the occasional robber tries to enter now, and the nuc guards can quite easily chase those away.  Drama over.

LJ

[little john]

You can try this one. Lots of people like it, and it's simple.

http://www.worldwidebeekeeping.com/forum/index.php/topic,1420.msg44188/topicseen.html#msg44188

That's a good design.  The easiest way of mounting that kind of frame is to drill small holes into the frame sides which contact the box and epoxy tiny magnets into the holes. Then - knock some wide-headed tacks into the box to match the magnet positions.  From then on you can simply slide the screen off and on, in order to clean-out the dead bees which will accumulate at the bottom of the screen.
LJ

[yes2matt]

Thanks for the help.  I have a "stage 3" situation.  My makeshift screen looks kinda like Iddee's, hopefully i can get off early today to fix it up.

https://youtu.be/CeSvpqyDl5w

[little john]

You can try this one. Lots of people like it, and it's simple.

http://www.worldwidebeekeeping.com/forum/index.php/topic,1420.msg44188/topicseen.html#msg44188

That's a good design.  The easiest way of mounting that kind of frame is to drill small holes into the frame sides which contact the box and epoxy tiny magnets into the holes. Then - knock some wide-headed tacks into the box to match the magnet positions.  From then on you can simply slide the screen off and on, in order to clean-out the dead bees which will accumulate at the bottom of the screen.

This is what I had in mind:







Sorry about the poor photos - the skies have suddenly darkened - think we're in for a thunderstorm ...

That's only a prototype, but think I'll work on that some more - could be useful.

LJ

[little john]

If you want a very simple robber screen, check out the one on Little Johns hive in this link.
http://www.beemaster.com/forum/index.php?topic=48866.0

The material looks similar to the stamped aluminum sheets available at the orange store.
Tin nips cut it to size and one screw keeps it in place. 
Easy peezy

I've been thinking about how this could be made even simpler for all types of nucleus hive design.  If you were to make a cardboard template and cut out the mesh (hardware cloth) as follows:



... and carefully fold A, B and C downwards ... then fold the two flaps outwards, the screen could then be attached to the nuc box by pressing drawing pins (thumb tacks) through the flaps.

For myself, I prefer the wooden-frame design, as it promises to be more robust, and with magnetic attachment, can be more easily removed for cleaning out dead bees.
LJ

[Jim134]

You can try this one. Lots of people like it, and it's simple.

http://www.worldwidebeekeeping.com/forum/index.php/topic,1420.msg44188/topicseen.html#msg44188

      The Simplicity and the function of your design is great.
Thank You iddee


          BEE HAPPY Jim 134 : smile: