I have been having some robbing issues myself. I lost a decent hive last year when I put some extracted frames in the super. This year I experimented with putting one single extracted frame in a medium strong hive and robbing frenzy ensued immediately. I took the frame back out lol. This info is helpful
Once upon a time I had this nuc which was really kick'n butt to where I upgraded their house from a 5-frame nuc to an 8-frame box. I was going to even give them an extra super to keep expanding as they were exploding so fast! I went in 2 days after the 1st upgrade to check on them (thinking to give them the 2nd box) and they still had decent numbers, but the hive was 100% stripped. It was like a package of bees with drawn comb. They were acting really weird too, like they went into swarm mode, they just were in a little cluster with nothing, no food, no brood... That hive went from glee to complete panic (on my part). I was new at the time. I ended up putting them back into a 5-frame nuc, gave them some honey frames, a bit of open brood, I gave them a new (different box), gave them a tiny opening and moved the box to another yard...they bounced back quickly and returned to their uber productive selves! I was so scared they were goners!
Brilliant explanation Ian. We are only small hobby keepers in the uk with 10 hives, but your operation and other larger keepers all face the same problems. Yours is just on a much larger scale.your honey house and hive winter storage videos are great by the way. There's another commercial keeper called honls' in Minnesota they have 7500 hives and sue bee is vast in size. We all have something in common protection of the honey bee. If we can make a small money fund that helps buy new gear.
If you are adding extracted frames to a nuc, the smell causes robbing. A two or three bee entrance will help but robbing can still occur. From my experience, wait till evening/night to do that work and the bees will clean up the smell during the night and by morning I have no problem.
Great personal presentation on a bee subject. Save it too for your forthcoming book - a Canadian bee keepers year-. Already a collectors item. Seriously. ☺
An overlooked way of stopping/preventing robbing is to manipulate the robber hives, rather than trying to protect the hives being robbed. Taking all the lids off and blocking the entrances with them often does the trick. Throw off the flight path, and turn them on defensive mode.
I agree 100% that bees don't defend a new box. I've seen up to a week. I did a couple late season splits. with queen cells . It took almost a week before they began to defend those nucs. Still had some flow so my issues weren't bees but instead wasps and hornets. Most of the times wasps and hornets won't try messing with the hive. They did here. When I saw it they were killing bees. I had to reduce the entrance and literally killed over fifty wasps and hornets manually to cut down on the onslaught on those nucs. I was able to track some of the wasps back to their nest where i eliminated it. There was more than one wasp nest doing the robbing. Once they began to defend, that was it. Wasps and Hornets had no chance. I learned a valuable lesson. That there is a transition period when changing equipment as if they were a swarm. Even with brood they remain docile for a bit so they have to be monitored. No such thing as a walk away anything.
Because of the research I do I must minimize robbing activity (robbing transfer mites and other illness) caused by any of my inspections so I use robbing traps built into each quilt box. Won't help with commercial operation but stop they stop hornet, wasp and mellifera attacks by using the difference between the smell of honey and the hives smell to redirect attackers..
Neat Ian. I think certain Hive's did a little Wiggle, or the Wind came from that direction. Weather deciding. Bee's smell better than Dog's. I would do this just before Sundown :-)
I was at a red light on my motorcycle when i started getting hit in the helmet, looked up and there was a black cloud of bees filling the whole area. I took off and rode thru the red light to escape the swarm. I noticed a grounds crew running from their back hoe as well. Not sure what kind of bees but im guessing there were millions of em.
I make and overwinter 1 and 2 frame colonies here in Baltimore. It's not the size of the colony that triggers a robbing event, it's the dysfunction of the colony that triggers robbing. Dysfunction can be classified as no queen, weak queen, a declining colony, a severe population decline...colonies can sense that a nearby colony is in stress since the stressed colony releases a stress pheromone that signals their weakness. My 1 and 2 frame spits that are healthy and queen right have no robbing issues.
A man told me if you have a problem with Robin and it's your bees open the lids up on all the colonies if you don't know who's Robin and it will quit I tried it and damn if it didn't work I even had one was robbing itself.lol it went on for 2 days before they realized there was Robin herself
I have been having some robbing issues myself. I lost a decent hive last year when I put some extracted frames in the super. This year I experimented with putting one single extracted frame in a medium strong hive and robbing frenzy ensued immediately. I took the frame back out lol. This info is helpful
Once upon a time I had this nuc which was really kick'n butt to where I upgraded their house from a 5-frame nuc to an 8-frame box. I was going to even give them an extra super to keep expanding as they were exploding so fast!
I went in 2 days after the 1st upgrade to check on them (thinking to give them the 2nd box) and they still had decent numbers, but the hive was 100% stripped.
It was like a package of bees with drawn comb. They were acting really weird too, like they went into swarm mode, they just were in a little cluster with nothing, no food, no brood...
That hive went from glee to complete panic (on my part).
I was new at the time.
I ended up putting them back into a 5-frame nuc, gave them some honey frames, a bit of open brood, I gave them a new (different box), gave them a tiny opening and moved the box to another yard...they bounced back quickly and returned to their uber productive selves!
I was so scared they were goners!
Studying bees is fascinating and a constant joy with every mistake or illness overtaken!
Brilliant explanation Ian.
We are only small hobby keepers in the uk with 10 hives, but your operation and other larger keepers all face the same problems.
Yours is just on a much larger scale.your honey house and hive winter storage videos are great by the way.
There's another commercial keeper called honls' in Minnesota they have 7500 hives and sue bee is vast in size.
We all have something in common protection of the honey bee.
If we can make a small money fund that helps buy new gear.
Unbelievable how much info you are giving out, great guy! Thank you
If you are adding extracted frames to a nuc, the smell causes robbing. A two or three bee entrance will help but robbing can still occur. From my experience, wait till evening/night to do that work and the bees will clean up the smell during the night and by morning I have no problem.
Great personal presentation on a bee subject.
Save it too for your forthcoming book - a Canadian bee keepers year-.
Already a collectors item.
Seriously.
☺
thanks so much Ian....you have a great way of explaining robbing. appreciate it you doing video! will pass on
An overlooked way of stopping/preventing robbing is to manipulate the robber hives, rather than trying to protect the hives being robbed. Taking all the lids off and blocking the entrances with them often does the trick. Throw off the flight path, and turn them on defensive mode.
I agree 100% that bees don't defend a new box. I've seen up to a week. I did a couple late season splits. with queen cells . It took almost a week before they began to defend those nucs. Still had some flow so my issues weren't bees but instead wasps and hornets. Most of the times wasps and hornets won't try messing with the hive. They did here. When I saw it they were killing bees. I had to reduce the entrance and literally killed over fifty wasps and hornets manually to cut down on the onslaught on those nucs. I was able to track some of the wasps back to their nest where i eliminated it. There was more than one wasp nest doing the robbing. Once they began to defend, that was it. Wasps and Hornets had no chance. I learned a valuable lesson. That there is a transition period when changing equipment as if they were a swarm. Even with brood they remain docile for a bit so they have to be monitored. No such thing as a walk away anything.
This is such good information. Is it okay to play this at our next tiny club meeting?
Because of the research I do I must minimize robbing activity (robbing transfer mites and other illness) caused by any of my inspections so I use robbing traps built into each quilt box. Won't help with commercial operation but stop they stop hornet, wasp and mellifera attacks by using the difference between the smell of honey and the hives smell to redirect attackers..
Neat Ian. I think certain Hive's did a little Wiggle, or the Wind came from that direction. Weather deciding. Bee's smell better than Dog's. I would do this just before Sundown :-)
Martin Szy. Wow bees smell better than dogs.
Should I Google that subject !
Yes.
Interesting.
So 1.5 mile spacing between yards... I'mma need more dirt.
thanks Ian.
Clustered over that Queen protecting her..
Great videos
I was at a red light on my motorcycle when i started getting hit in the helmet, looked up and there was a black cloud of bees filling the whole area. I took off and rode thru the red light to escape the swarm. I noticed a grounds crew running from their back hoe as well. Not sure what kind of bees but im guessing there were millions of em.
It was probably honey bees.
#AllHailHoneyBees
Primeiro porque elas vão roubar? Porque não tem alimento no campo certo ? Então temos que fazer plantação para haver alimento todo verão.
Robbing happens in EVERY culture, humans, fish, birds, bees!
I make and overwinter 1 and 2 frame colonies here in Baltimore. It's not the size of the colony that triggers a robbing event, it's the dysfunction of the colony that triggers robbing. Dysfunction can be classified as no queen, weak queen, a declining colony, a severe population decline...colonies can sense that a nearby colony is in stress since the stressed colony releases a stress pheromone that signals their weakness. My 1 and 2 frame spits that are healthy and queen right have no robbing issues.
BeeFriendlyApiary put a dbl deep beside it
A man told me if you have a problem with Robin and it's your bees open the lids up on all the colonies if you don't know who's Robin and it will quit I tried it and damn if it didn't work I even had one was robbing itself.lol it went on for 2 days before they realized there was Robin herself