Flower bed in the apiary & robbing

[SixFooter]

I think, in the dim and distant past, I read or was told that it's not advisable to put a flower bed with bee friendly plants very close to your hives. The theory is, I think, that it attracts bees from outside the apiary which then find the hives and could start robbing them.
Also, I had an idea that there's another theory that bees don't forage on sources right outside their own hive, so it's pointless any way.

Are either of these things true ?

 

[Erichalfbee]

So they say
I have thousands of crocuses planted in front of my beehives. When weather us colder the bees do use them in early spring. They don’t have far to fly in the cold.

 

[Curly green finger's]

Hi six footer, I've hives dotted about very close to my garden apiary I've never had issues with robbing.

I've also got flower beds with bee friendly plants in them which are metres from the garden hives and they do forage on the flowers, you can watch them doing the rounds. So imo you are fine planting flowers close to your colonys.

The garden hives are a mixture of strengths nucs, double brood, single and14x12.

 

[madasafish]

The usual beekeeping bull excrement..

All bees rob: it is part of their DNA.
All bees forage on flowers if there are enough, the yield is worthwhile and the distance not too great.

Our garden is full of our own bees foraging on our flowers - chosen to appeal to bees and in large quantities (for a garden)

 

[The Poot in Somerset]

I shut my bees in yesterday as I had work going on in the apiary garden - my bee friendly flowers were still buzzing with other folks bees! I have had no robbing. It was interesting to see how many bees I had thought were from my hives, weren’t.

 

[Newbeeneil]

Today I watched some bees coming out of my garden hive onto goldenrod which is 3' away then straight back into the hive after about 10 mins. That's the first time I've been able to be sure they were my bees.

 

[thedozzer]

we have clumps of wild marjoram in front of both hives and the bees fall out of the hive onto it, wander around the flowers for 5 mins, then fly about 5 inches back to the landing board.
There are large areas of clover in the lawn all around them, with bees buzzing away on it, we watch lazy little sods walk from flower to flower, sometimes they have collected so much, that aviating becomes a bit of a struggle.
we have not had any noticeable problem with robbing?

 

[Finman]

That theory is not true. Flowerbeds in your garden do not offer work for many bees.

Robber bees know hive's odor as well as flowers'. When bees do not get nectar from flowers, robbers are lurking weak hives.

When bees get good yield from flowers, they do not want to rob free honey from combs.

 

[Antipodes]

OK...l'll add it to the beekeeping myths thread....

 

[SixFooter]

Thought so. Thanks

An hour or so after posting this, I watched bees coming out of one of my hives onto a Himalayan balsam plant about 2ft (60 cm) away from the hive.