Advice: Help! bees found my stored supers!

[SireeDubs]

I have a few wet supers stored at the back of my garage. The access door is always shut and the supers sealed up.

However, a member of the family who will remain nameless, not only removed the top of the super pile (so it was open) and then left the garage door wide open. I now have 1000s of bees in and around. Have tried smoking out, have tried leaving it for the night, but all back this morning.

I’m going to remove the wet supers and get them on hives (there’s only 2) and then make sure all else cleaned...

Any suggestions most gratefully received.

 

[enrico]

Go out and close it at midnight!!!!
E

 

[SireeDubs]

Go out and close it at midnight!!!!
E

Yup, did that, thinking they’d all leg it home for the night. Not so apparently!

Bees everywhere!

 

[oliver90owner]

Haha, you will not make that mistake again. They will be there for a couple of days after all has been removed. Bees only need a beespace to gain access.

 

[ShinySideUp]

Take them back to the hives, put clearer boards underneath and clear them that way...then tell the 'nameless' person to keep out.

 

[SireeDubs]

Thanks all...
The family (esp teenage son) have been debriefed and progress is being made. Supers will go back on, and have a very fine mist hose rigged by garage door which appears to be deterring any new visitors.

 

[enrico]

Still flying at midnight.......wow, they are amazing bees!
E

 

[Finman]

Still flying at midnight.......wow, they are amazing bees!
E

My bees do not fly at midnight even if they rob. Wasps fly quite late.

 

[user 6228]

move the stack a few metres , brush combs, place in another box. Then move again. Repeat a few times. it works but is laborious

 

[bontbee]

A tip I was given, and have tried with 100% success, (out of two attempts!), is to exchange what is being robbed with a very small amount of honey/comb/whatever - in the same place. When that supply has all gone, the bees go elsewhere to forage, despite the quantity and appearance of the food source having changed so significantly.

 

[SireeDubs]

Still flying at midnight.......wow, they are amazing bees!
E

Sorry, think I must’ve misunderstood. I’d hoped they’d have all flown out by midnight and gone back to their hive (well 1am when I checked) but there were still lots of bees in the stored supers.

Anyway, crisis now averted. For now anyway. The fine mist by the garage had stopped any more activity here, and the supers are back on hives. A few stragglers left, but nothing like the black mist I had yesterday!

Thanks again.

 

[Helen]

He he... Similar happened to me.

1 Wet super in the garage, sealed. Whilst I was at work, builders nudged the top ajar, and left the garage door open whilst they were wandering around fixing the house. Mass bee invasion into the garage, and a paniced call from the builders as they needed to go into the garage to get stuff. I couldn't get home from where I was, so I gave instrucctions to get one of them to put my suit on and then move the super outside and put a clearer board on it.

The builders decided the youngest labourer should tackle it. He was 6 foot + tall, just about fitted into my medium sized suit, and was brave enough to do it. None of the others would go anywhere near it. Wish I had pictures/video of it.

 

[beeno]

A tip I was given, and have tried with 100% success, (out of two attempts!), is to exchange what is being robbed with a very small amount of honey/comb/whatever - in the same place. When that supply has all gone, the bees go elsewhere to forage, despite the quantity and appearance of the food source having changed so significantly.

I have done it once and it worked for me too.

 

[john t]

He he... Similar happened to me.

1 Wet super in the garage, sealed. Whilst I was at work, builders nudged the top ajar, and left the garage door open whilst they were wandering around fixing the house. Mass bee invasion into the garage, and a paniced call from the builders as they needed to go into the garage to get stuff. I couldn't get home from where I was, so I gave instrucctions to get one of them to put my suit on and then move the super outside and put a clearer board on it.

The builders decided the youngest labourer should tackle it. He was 6 foot + tall, just about fitted into my medium sized suit, and was brave enough to do it. None of the others would go anywhere near it. Wish I had pictures/video of it.

i have never been stung by robbing bees or wasps ,they dont seem to be defensive at all,
where my spare hives etc are stored there are hundreds of wasps getting what they can,i dont give it a second thought when i need to disturb them as i get some equipment

 

[Beefriendly]

A tip I was given, and have tried with 100% success, (out of two attempts!), is to exchange what is being robbed with a very small amount of honey/comb/whatever - in the same place. When that supply has all gone, the bees go elsewhere to forage, despite the quantity and appearance of the food source having changed so significantly.

Why add a source of honey at the original site? Surely more simpler to just move the supers full of bees somewhere else, lid them and add clearer board. Bees revisiting the original site won't stay around for long when there's no "nectar" source for them.

 

[bontbee]

In the past I've just removed the source and noticed that the "robbers" carry on looking for the missing food and will attempt to invade nearby hives.

This may be simplistic, but my interpretation is that because the bees finish up the food themselves, they regard it an just another exhausted food source and revert to finding new sources of forage.

A month or so ago, after dark, at the end of a long beeking day, I rather foolishly dumped a roof with several super frames in it, complete with dribbles, next to two nucs. I fully intended to move it after a reviving beer but, needless to say, I forgot and next morning, about 10.30, the frames were black with bees. I removed the frames and roof and left one frame of foundation with, literally, two or three smears of honey on it. The bees very quickly finished these off and dissipated calmly, without any drama, and certainly no attempts to raid the nucs.

Perhaps I should try it again and see if the behaviour of the "robbers" is the same at this time of year.....

 

[Beefriendly]

In the past I've just removed the source and noticed that the "robbers" carry on looking for the missing food and will attempt to invade nearby hives.

This may be simplistic, but my interpretation is that because the bees finish up the food themselves, they regard it an just another exhausted food source and revert to finding new sources of forage.

Yes and if you have weak hives it may be them that become the new source of forage....So I'm not sure I'm with you on this.
If you have strong colonies they don't get robbed period. If you have a weak colony/nuc then it probably will get robbed anyway either by bees in times of nectar shortages or exploited by wasps ....... like now in many areas!
Giving them sources of honey increases the likelihood of robbing anyway..whether it's removed abruptly or they finish it off. The bees will still be looking for sources of nectar as that is what they do.
But if it works for you then great.

 

[bontbee]

I understand what you are saying about robbing - why wouldn't they rob anyway? I pondered exactly that.

I didn't give them extra honey, I just left them with a tiny remnant of what they had been working in exactly the same place. My thoughts are that when a food source is suddenly cut off, they cast about looking for it. I just wondered if the gradual (though artificially accelerated!) depletion might provide different behavioural cues leading to a more orderly "abandonment" of the food source....?

As I said, it's only based on two examples, so not to be depended on, but the behaviour was consistent on both occasions, compared to the more determined searching observed when I've simply removed the source. It's probably a load of carp - or perhaps my bees are a bit twp and/or lazy!

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

It's happened to me once or twice - when I've discovered it, I've immediately shut the stack back up bee tight (with the bees still in) within an hour or two, interest from bees returning for more has died down, then, with the last of the evening light, open up again - the bees inside will quickly pile out and return to their hive. Close up and secure properly when near dark - job done.

 

[Swarm]

It's happened to me once or twice - when I've discovered it, I've immediately shut the stack back up bee tight (with the bees still in) within an hour or two, interest from bees returning for more has died down, then, with the last of the evening light, open up again - the bees inside will quickly pile out and return to their hive. Close up and secure properly when near dark - job done.

Seal them up, interest disappears, deal with what's left.