jxl98c
New Bee
- Joined
- Jun 5, 2013
- Messages
- 29
- Reaction score
- 0
- Location
- Nottinghamshire
- Hive Type
- 14x12
- Number of Hives
- 15
Hi all,
I started beekeeping this spring and everything has been going great in my two colonies - I even managed to harvest a tiny bit of honey whilst leaving both my 14x12 hives with a full honey super on.
Over the last few weeks one of my hives (the slightly stronger of my two) has been showing a lot of activity - at first I suspected orientation flights so didn't do anything about it but I realised that it was lasting too long so have recently had a re-think.
I read a lot about robbing - could it be that? I tried a damp towel, stuffing the entrances with grass, etc. but the bees started bearding near the hive but weren't overly looking to get in. So yesterday I created robber screens for my hives and stuck them on...
I can see some bees navigating the screen (which I was led to believe would happen for the bees living in the hive) and other bees were heading for the mesh at the opening - I thought I'd cracked it. However, the bees that I'd suspected were robbers bearded on the screen overnight, and stayed all through today in the rain and are all now looking shabby and a few have died. Presumably robbing bees would have gone home?
Did I mistakenly think robbing was occurring? if it wasn't - what was it?
Home come my bees didn't attempt to find an alternative way in like all the robbing posts / articles tell you they will if they're not robbers?
Are the bees (still bearded on the front) now lost? should I remove the screens? This is a total nightmare - my bees are in no-way conforming to anything I've read.
Things that made me suspect robbing...
- Bees with white on their head - didn't look like my bees.
- Bees entering the hive carrying nothing
- A lot of hectic activity (like orientation)
- A few wasps about
- bees being hectic all day until late at night
Things that made me doubt robbing
- No sign of fighting
- hive has always been strong
- Couldn't see a dip in flight when leaving the hive
- bees are bearding and staying not flying off now that its raining
I started beekeeping this spring and everything has been going great in my two colonies - I even managed to harvest a tiny bit of honey whilst leaving both my 14x12 hives with a full honey super on.
Over the last few weeks one of my hives (the slightly stronger of my two) has been showing a lot of activity - at first I suspected orientation flights so didn't do anything about it but I realised that it was lasting too long so have recently had a re-think.
I read a lot about robbing - could it be that? I tried a damp towel, stuffing the entrances with grass, etc. but the bees started bearding near the hive but weren't overly looking to get in. So yesterday I created robber screens for my hives and stuck them on...
I can see some bees navigating the screen (which I was led to believe would happen for the bees living in the hive) and other bees were heading for the mesh at the opening - I thought I'd cracked it. However, the bees that I'd suspected were robbers bearded on the screen overnight, and stayed all through today in the rain and are all now looking shabby and a few have died. Presumably robbing bees would have gone home?
Did I mistakenly think robbing was occurring? if it wasn't - what was it?
Home come my bees didn't attempt to find an alternative way in like all the robbing posts / articles tell you they will if they're not robbers?
Are the bees (still bearded on the front) now lost? should I remove the screens? This is a total nightmare - my bees are in no-way conforming to anything I've read.
Things that made me suspect robbing...
- Bees with white on their head - didn't look like my bees.
- Bees entering the hive carrying nothing
- A lot of hectic activity (like orientation)
- A few wasps about
- bees being hectic all day until late at night
Things that made me doubt robbing
- No sign of fighting
- hive has always been strong
- Couldn't see a dip in flight when leaving the hive
- bees are bearding and staying not flying off now that its raining