How do I feed queenless nucs and avoid robbing?

[Parsonage Bees]

Apart from one queen-right hive I have an apiary of queenless colonies and they are running low on stores. Need to feed them.

Trying to increase number of colonies and replace the bad-tempered ones. Following an artificial swarm (from which I lost the original queen) I've made up 6 nucs with the QCs created. So I've got 6 x 3 frame nucs and the 2 sets of boxes from the artificial swarm, all queenless.

With the dry weather there doesn't seem to be much nectar coming in and they've started robbing the nucs.

I've reduced the entrances down to <1cm on the nucs and now I've put mesh screens over the entrances.

We should be seeing mating flights about now so can't move them.

I tried feeding with syrup and robbing restarted.

Gave the nucs a tablespoon of fondant on top of the frames at dusk last night so that it is finished before dawn. I could do this every evening as they are at the bottom of the garden.

What do you suggest? Feed them all with syrup until the drought is over?

Thanks . . . . Ben

 

[linoleum bonypart]

I'd move them... Once robbing starts it's difficult to stop

 

[Erichalfbee]

You can move them away and stick a slab of fondant on top of the frames
Better being moved than robbed out

 

[Parsonage Bees]

I'm guessing that's move them 3+miles? I'll see if i can find another site.

Still worried that the virgin queens may not know the area and fail to mate. But if nuc robbed out they have no future anyway.

Thanks. . . . Ben

 

[Beefriendly]

Or as your profile suggests you only have one other full hive that must be the one doing the robbing, move that instead?

 

[Parsonage Bees]

That's the heavy one! And I only moved it back from the OSR last week. Also the bad tempered one whose correction I'm planning. I didn't really want to bring their genes back to mate with my new queens but someone else wanted the site on a friend's farm.

 

[Beefriendly]

That's the heavy one! .

You want everything to be easy!
If that is the hive providing the robbers I would suggest that it would be more beneficial to move them than move several nucs whose virgins may have already "located" to their current site. As you were previously worried about

It can't be that heavy you have already moved it once.

 

[Parsonage Bees]

Nothing seems to be easy this year! Is there such a thing as a difficult second year?

Possibly getting overambitious.

Did occur to me that I could squish the one remaining queen. I want to replace her anyway. Then I'd have all the boxes queenless and maybe they would settle down.
That is assuming it's my bees doing the robbing.

 

[Beefriendly]

Did occur to me that I could squish the one remaining queen. I want to replace her anyway. Then I'd have all the boxes queenless and maybe they would settle down.

Why on earth would they stop robbing if you killed their queen? ???
Killing your sole laying queen at this moment would count as more than stupid.
You seem reluctant to move either nucs or single hive....Therein lies your problem.

 

[Parsonage Bees]

Why on earth would they stop robbing if you killed their queen? ???
Killing your sole laying queen at this moment would count as more than stupid.

That thought didn't need much consideration. The artificial swarm split (most of the original colony is still big even after taking out a couple of nucs) They were in a double brood box. They could also be the robbers even though they are queenless?

 

[Beefriendly]

Whatever.