robbing question

[Becky Hampton]

I found my little hive being robbed this morning - again. This is the second day another hive has been after them. It was very obvious robbing and many more bees than the previous attack. I already had the entrance guard in place after Wally told us that it was robbing season and to be ready. I closed both the bottom guard and the top guard to keep them out. I came back later to find many had left, but a cluster was trying to get in the smaller top guard. They were even trying to get in behind the entrance guard so I used duct tape to pull it tight. My question is do I leave the smaller top guard open or closed? I'm sure some of my bees are out and trying to get in, but needless to say, it's a little hard to tell who's who. There are bees crawling all over the outside of the wire trying to get in. If I leave the top guard closed, how long? Should I open it up tonight for my bees to come home?

[Jacobs]

I am assuming you are using the robber/moving screen like Brushy Mountain sells. This has 2 doors at the bottom board and a smaller one at the top, shielded by a metal plate. When I use these with a heavy robbing episode, I will close all entrances for about 10 minutes. Then I will open the bottom 2 for about a minute to let robbers out, close for another 5-10 minutes and open the bottom 2 again for about a minute and then close the bottom 2. IF there are so many bees trying to get in that they would overflow the screen and allow robbers to stumble in at the top, I would leave it closed until dusk/dark. If there are bees on the screen, but not overflowing, I would open the top door AND ONLY the top door. At that point, I would leave the bottom 2 doors closed and leave the top door open.

My thinking is that you briefly open the bottom doors to allow the robbers to get out, but not long enough to have them recruit more robbers and return to the open bottom doors. Your bees will figure out the upper entrance. The robber bees generally do not.

[Becky Hampton]

That's just what I needed to know. Thanks for the advice.