Robbing in High Point 9/20/24

[Pharmacyman]

I didn't know to expect robbing bees this late in the season, but i sure have them. I noticed activity first on Friday and immediately shut openings on robbing screens and vents were taped. They have gone after the two swarms I captured this past Spring which surprised me because they are strong hives now...I thought. They gave up on the one and moved to the other yesterday. Last night I opened the small robbing screen opening. Today they are back, but seem to be defending well and I see very little fighting going on.

What I wanted to ask is today I am seeing bees all over the front of the hive, on all 4 boxes of the hive, and they are fanning frantically. Only one with butt in the air, others with butts level. Any idea what this behavior is about? Any predictions for my hive?

[Jacobs]

Sometimes, bees all over the front of a hive means they attempted to swarm/abscond, but the queen did not go with them. They cover the front of a hive for around 15 minutes and fan a lot. In my experience, when this happens, the queen goes with them the next time-often the next day.

Absconds this time of year can be caused by starvation, heavy mite load, or small hive beetles overwhelming the bees.

[Pharmacyman]

I hope that absconding or swarming is not the case. We will see. They have been well cared for, have room but not too much, are under mite treatment now (I will remove Apivar strips later this week), SHBs have not been a problem and they have resources.

There are no robbers today, so I opened the small openings (top) on the robbing screens.

[Pharmacyman]

Yesterday there were no robbers so I opened both openings on the robbing screen. Hope I taped up the hole on the inner cover well. When I opened the larger opening at the landing board, the opening was clogged with dead bees. I used my tool to drag as many out as I could and bees were coming in and out. Have you ever had any luck closing up a hive and your hive was strong enough to survive? I can't tell if the dead bees are robbers or mine. Hives are active today, I'm seeing very little fighting.

[Jacobs]

If the hive is queenright and you have broken the robbing, your hive has a reasonable chance to survive. The dead bees may be a mix of your bees and the robbers that got trapped in when you closed up the hive.

[Pharmacyman]

Of the two hives that were being attacked, I ended up losing one. It may have not been queenright and/or was weak.

When I closed them up, I taped up the vent hole in the inner cover, but the robbers seemed to be getting in around the tape. About the time that all was lost for the hive, I noticed that if I simply pull the outer (telescoping, migratory) cover back it tightly closes this hole. I believe that is part of what helped the second hive to survive.

Now I only have two hives remaining. Hopefully they will stay healthy and make it through the winter.

Also I should mention, when I cleaned up the dead out, there were many SHB larvae in the piles of dead bees on the bottom board. I saw lots of adults scurrying about. What do you make of that? Do you think that is a sign of a week or queenless hive? And what would you do with the larvae? Should I not dump them on the ground?

[Jacobs]

Do NOT dump SHB larvae on the ground. They go into the ground to pupate. Either put them in a plastic bag and freeze them for 3-4 days or dump them in a pail of water to drown them.