leaving with full load?

[newguy]

leominster wrote bees climbing up before taking off are leaving with full load.  what the bleep are you talking about, is this true? i have never heard this. if this is law, my hive has been getting robbed everyday since i installed my hive and that would explain the lack of production in my hive. more than half of all take offs are done this way, could some other experienced beekeepers please wiegh in on this subject, im going into full panic mode, what should i do?

[Chad S]

If you have more than one hive, or there are other hives near by, you could be getting robbed out.  Some other symptoms would be wax crumbles on the bottom board etc.  If you have very few bees, and there is very little stored honey, but lots of activity you are getting robbed.  Also robbing bees just seem more hostile than bees coming and going into there own hive.  

If you think you have enough bees to make a viable coloney screen them in tonight with some window screen, and staples.  Move them to a friends house or a place a couple of miles away.  Use a rope or a strap of some kind to keep the hive from coming appart.  In the morning leave the screen on, but peel back a little bit to let the bees out like 1/2".  With any luck if you are getting robbed out the field bees from the other hive will become field bees for your hive.

If things settle down and coloney starts to build up  remove the screen but watch for hostile beehavior.  Let the hive get strong like 8-10 frames, and move it back if you want.  Do you have more than one hive?  Or an established coloney some where so you can observe normal bee comings and goings?

I did the same thing this spring with two hives that were getting robbed due to my stupidity.  I lost one which was week before the trouble started, and saved the other which is up to 6-8 frames from 50 bees and a confused queen.  I was able to add a couple of frames of bees and brood from another hive though.

[leominsterbeeman]

Bees that are robbing will climb up the hive to take off becuase they are full of nectar, it is harder for them to get airborn.  and they will leave with a low flight pattern.  When a bee (not robbing)  typically leaves the hive to collect nectar,  she will take off right from the entrance, bottom board, she is lighter and can get airborn better and she will fly up.

There will be bees that crawl up and down on your hive, but they most likley won't be doing this  to collect nectar.  The nectar collecting bees want to do this in the most efficient manner.

[newguy]

this hive (my only one) has been slow to build up,  there was a point in may when my hive was a couple of weeks old that i thought it was getting robbed, but i think it was just the first time i had witnessed orientation flights.  i have always had bees taking off from the bottom brood chamber, so does this definately mean its being robbed?  this hive has a very small amount of drawn comb in the second deep which had necter in it two weeks ago, but had absolutely nothing in it last week.  i thought that they had just hit a dearth but maybe its being robbed.  i have never seen any fighting at the entrance or anywhere else, i have seen gaurd bees checking other bees on thier way in but never fighting.  if this was going on for a long time, would my bees eventually get used to it and not defend the hive? i have no other hives, i did notice two hives at a house 1/4 mile away but didn't think this was a problem with robbing.  is it true that a normal hive has no bees taking off from the first six inches above the entrance? i just have a hard time believing that my bees have been getting robbed for two solid months. :x  :x  :x  :evil:  :evil:  :x

[Chad S]

When a bee goes out to forage they shoot out of the hive.  1/4mi away is plenty close for a strong hive to realize that there are some free eats in the area.  You may want to try to consolidate the frames into one deep.  Brood and eggs in the center, drawn comb or honey frames next, foundation on the outside.  If moving bees is out of the question reduce the entrance to 1/2 and check: are bees coming in with pollen on their legs etc?  After a while when my bees were getting robbed the bees doing the robbing felt right at home.  The other thing is when the bee's leave are the bee lining for the hives that are near by?

[newguy]

some of the bees are comming in with pollen on thier legs. the others i assumed where comming in with nectar, i guess some are and some are empty.  i can't say for sure if they headed in that direction or not.  i killed one of these bees that were climbing up before flying and pulled it apart and found its honey gut was full of honey.  is there some way of marking these robbers and then going down the road to this other guys hives to see what hive they are comming from? i was thinking of maybe doing a sugar roll but i don't know if they could fly with powdered sugar all over them.  i guess it doesn't matter what hive they are comming from, im so mad i want to squash all of this guys bees as they exit my hive until his hive can no longer support itself and he gets no honey!!!  :twisted:  :twisted:  :twisted:   im going to change my user name to jadednewguy. :)

[bassman1977]

When we talk about going up the top of the hive to take off (if the bees are getting robbed).  I was watching my bees today and I noticed that there were a FEW bees that would walk about an inch up the box and then bolt.  The majority of the bees just bolt out the front opening and go to wherever it is they are going.

[thegolfpsycho]

You need to reduce the entrance, possibly closing it up with screen for a day.  Or put on a robber screen.  Maybe  both if you can only move them within the yard.

[newguy]

i don't think closing the entrance is going to help because i never see any fighting,  if its true that my hive has been getting robbed for as long as i have seen them climbing the entrance(almost two months) then all of my bees are probably used to getting robbed.  i wonder if they were hatched into a hive that was getting robbed continuously if eventualy, as the older bees die, the entire hive would just accept it as the norm.  (too much thinking, i'll shutup now )

[manowar422]

My hive had a robber problem earlier this past spring. I just placed the entrance
reducer on until the hive's foraging population increased to
a large enough number, that there was a mild traffic jam at the entrance.

Then I flipped the reducer over to the bigger opening and waited until
the traffic jam occured again.

Eventually I was able to remove it all together,
once the hive got strong enough to defend their stores of food.

[thegolfpsycho]

Step back a minute.  If they are being robbed, and not defending themselves, what do you think is going to happen?  You have to intervene.  Thats the very reason to close up, restrict, trap the entrance.  Your bees are either too weak, have been demoralized and have stopped defending if that's what is happening.  If there is a dearth, the activity will increase.  Robbers are opportunists.  They don't sit around secure in the knowledge that you will eventually open back up.  Instead, the opportunity is taken away, and they usually will go away