robbing blind

Aaron B · August 13, 2006, 10:17:05 PM

I noticed today that there are bees robbing at an alarming rater of 35 or so entering per minute. This is new hive this year. unfortunately ace was closed as I realized this.this was the first day of heavy robing And hopefully the last. Cant I just use a screen over the cleat on my hive? will that work? I f my cleat is cut open in the middle like an enlongated n ? also these bees are huge. twice as big as the honey bees. Thanks

Kathyp · August 14, 2006, 01:09:35 AM

might the big bees have been drones? i observed the same thing a bit back, but after watching for awhile, i realized that the bees were not upset, and when i got a chance for a closer look, the big bees were drones.

Brian D. Bray · August 14, 2006, 01:24:10 AM

Drones is my guess. Drones and Boring, Oregon somehow there's justice in that.

Aaron B · August 14, 2006, 12:04:29 PM

there are two different sized bees coming in other theynmy bees. one lookslike a bigfly but is a bee and the other looksmorelike wasp. long abdomen and longer legs. if these are drones is this high # signaling something?

Kathyp · August 14, 2006, 12:58:29 PM

Quote from: Brian D. BrayDrones is my guess. Drones and Boring, Oregon somehow there's justice in that.

i don't know....boring is sounding good right now....not looking forward to the hassle of flying all over europe! of course, i had to include london in there! :)

Kathyp · August 14, 2006, 01:00:43 PM

Quote from: Aaron Bthere are two different sized bees coming in other theynmy bees. one lookslike a bigfly but is a bee and the other looksmorelike wasp. long abdomen and longer legs. if these are drones is this high # signaling something?

i had some wasp intruders too, but the hive seemed to take care of them. only thing i had to do was close my top entrance. that seemed to be one opening to many for a young hive. they seemed better able to protect the bottom opening.....

qa33010 · August 14, 2006, 03:57:26 PM

If there are a bunch of dead and fighting bees at the entrance and on the ground in front of the hive, it's robbing. I use a robber screen on my weak hive as well as an entrance reducer. When I saw robbing last year I used a water sprinkler to stop it.

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j110/mydarlingheathens/Robbing%20and%20Others/Robbingremainders1Oct05011.jpg

Then set up the reducer and the screen. It worked great.

Good luck.

David

Brian D. Bray · August 14, 2006, 09:56:20 PM

If you go to a top entrance it is important to close up the lower entrance as the bees will abandon it in preference to the upper one. Robbers (bees or wasps) can then use the unguarded lower entrance to their advantage. At the very least use the entrance reducer at the smallest setting. Having more than one entrance invites robbers.