Apiary under attack?

[astabada]

Hello everyone,
I'm not sure of what's going on in my apiary. Yesterday evening one of my nucs has been attacked by yellow bees (thousands, must have been 3/4 frames of bees to give you an idea). Now today I've noticed a few bees flying around my other 3 main hives. There's something suspicious in the way they fly. I can't tell whether these are my bees guarding the hive or the nasty yellow bees that are coming after my other hives.

What should I do? I have already put the entrance block in a winter mode.
For how long will they be back?

 

[Ivor Kemp]

You could move the nuc away from the apiary completely but you may have done this already.

Are the bees you are observing outside the hives facing the hive in flight and doing a sort of weaving flight looking as if they are trying to see a good way in?

 

[Ivor Kemp]

If you are convinced they are robber bees, the other thing to try is putting a sheet of perspex leaning up against the entrance.

It does work - the resident bees avoid the obstruction and go round it. The robber bees just keep flying into it!

 

[astabada]

Yes, I can't move it away as I just brought it back. (I don't have a car so moving hives away isn't an option). In has been in a semi-wild area for a couple of weeks to let them settle in. (They absconded 5 times in 3 days!). Yes, this is a very unlucky nuc!

I'm sure it was a robbery yesterday evening as the bees that were attacking the nuc were bright yellow while mine are dark-ish.

Today they came back around 12.00 and started attacking a few combs (empty ones!) that I forgot in the living room last night. The windows were open, that's how they got in. But I guess in a way this was a good thing as they stopped bothering the small nuc.

I'm just worried they might come back every day, how am I going to inspect the hives like that?

 

[oliver90owner]

how am I going to inspect the hives like that?

Simple. Only inspect after robber bees have stopped flying.

Further, if you have stopped the robbing and forage is going in, why inspect if it is likely to cause further trouble?

 

[MartinL]

Hello everyone,
I'm not sure of what's going on in my apiary. Yesterday evening one of my nucs has been attacked by yellow bees .................................................................... I have already put the entrance block in a winter mode.
For how long will they be back?

YELLOW? They do have black legs don't they???

"Winter Mode", is that just one or two bees width, 6mm X 10mm?

 

[astabada]

how am I going to inspect the hives like that?

Simple. Only inspect after robber bees have stopped flying.

Further, if you have stopped the robbing and forage is going in, why inspect if it is likely to cause further trouble?

Yeah, I wasn't worried about inspecting the nuc but my main hives, one especially who's been trying to swarm for the past 3 weeks..

 

[astabada]

YELLOW? They do have black legs don't they???

"Winter Mode", is that just one or two bees width, 6mm X 10mm?

Yes MartinL, they have black legs! I mean yellow as in italian type

 

[oliver90owner]

I wasn't worried about inspecting the nuc but my main hives...

As in above post: Simple. Only inspect after robber bees have stopped flying.

Or just A/S it and be done with it!

Don't complicate matters more than they need to be.