Robbing Bees Question

[rallyrabbit]

All I need some help. You all have probably seen me post that I had a queenless hive get robbed and devastated to the point of consolidating with a smaller NUC Hive I got started this year.

Well turns out, they've been robbed, again and again and again and again. The hive right next to them is left alone. The robber screen isn't work. Wet towel covering the hive didn't work. The queen is in their. As of 2 days ago she was laying. I shrunk the hive to one deep now because so much of the hive had been killed in robbing the a wax moth took over on some abandoned frames.

Flip that to today. I am tired of the robbing. I shut the robber screen completely at 10am. The attack stopped, but there are a mountain of robbers trapped inside.

A few questions:
1) How long would it take for the robbers trapped to join the hive if I don't open it up?
2) When should I open it up?

This hive is never going to get enough stores for winter if they keep having the comb broken and feed taken every day.

[Jacobs]

I can't remember what Wally said about how long it takes robbers to become incorporated into a target hive. I hope he sees this and answers for you. If the hive is small enough and you have the equipment, you may want to reduce the hive to a nuc with a robber screen on it. I did this with a very small abscond/swarm that showed up on 9/1/23. I have an inner cover I made that takes a regular mouth mason jar so that the robber screen stays on with the top opening only partially opened. The jar feeder does not put as much smell out as a top feeder. This has stopped the robbing that started when I still had the swarm in a larger bait hive. I don't know if the smaller area helps concentrate the queen pheromones, but the bees do seem better organized and more willing to challenge probing bees on the robber screen.

If I were going to open the robber screen, I would only do it for about 30 seconds at a time to let robbers out. I don't want to give time enough for more robbers to enter a colony under attack. I spray water in the screen for the hive and make sure they have feed. Vapo rub around seams and around the robber screen helps some to slow robbers. Also, I use a spray bottle to spray robbers at the front and around seams of the hive. I think Langstroth suggested this as a way of making the robbers "think" that it is raining and return to their own colony. This won't completely stop robbing, but I have had it work to really stop the frenzied attack that was going on.

[rallyrabbit]

Consensus online seems to be 72 hours. Closed it up, added water that they can get to, a pollen tray, and fed them. Crossing my fingers.

[Wally]

I think 72 hours is correct, but in this weather, I wouldn't chance it. I would move them a few miles and bring them back after 4 days. On extra for ins.
Also, I would never have a robber screen with a bottom entrance.

[rallyrabbit]

What do you mean. You would never have a robber screen on a bottom entracne hive. I am not sure I follow.

As far as moving hives. That only works when you have a pickup truck and a place to move them to unfortunately

[Wally]

That's NOT what I mean. My robber screens are on a bottom entrance hive, but only have an entrance from the top of the screen. No entrance from the bottom of the screen.

See it here.

https://worldwidebeekeeping.com/forum/i ... 8#msg44188

[rallyrabbit]

Interesting, that's somewhat like my setup, the robbers found their way into the entrance on the top part of the screen. Which is why I buttoned it up completely which I know is a risk.

[rallyrabbit]

Well the relentless robbing killed the hive and then the wax moths took over. What a mess.

Super grumpy that I've lost 3 of 4 hives this year. 2 just collapsed, 1 robbed to death, and 1 is still rocking it.

Not a really good motivation....

[Jacobs]

You are going to have rough patches. We all do. The idea is to learn from them, change practices, and do better. The rapid collapses I have seen in my hives was from varroa infestations not detected early enough and probably vectoring some type of bad virus. Slower collapses seem to be either from strong hives swarming and failing to requeen while having lots of brood at swarming time to mask problems OR poor/failing queens whatever the cause.