Robbing?

Beekeeping & Apiculture Forum

Help Support Beekeeping & Apiculture Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

barratt_sab

House Bee
Joined
Jun 15, 2010
Messages
275
Reaction score
0
Location
Herts / Essex border
Hive Type
14x12
Number of Hives
12
Relative new-comer to the art, so all help and suggestions gratefully received.

We have three hives in a row, two of ours and one of a friends. Our two have been in place for some time, the third was added from a Nuc at the weekend. The box was put on a stand on Sunday and then the frames were put into a hive (in the same spot) on Monday evening. We put an entrance reducer on when we put them in the hive.

None of the hives are being fed, and all had pollen and capped and open honey when they were checked at the weekend. All have at least two spare brood frames (undrawn).

Tonight, there is a lot of activity in front of the new hive - much more than the other two. There are bees on the landing board, about half fanning outwards, half wandering about. There are bees flying about in front of the hive, facing towards the hive. They look like they are on orientation flights – flying back a forth and up and down. Some bees leave the crowd and fly off, some land on the board and enter the hive. I cannot see any fighting on the board or at the entrance to the hive, and the bees seem to enter the hive without any interference from the bees on the board. The entrance does not seem to be overcrowded – the bees that land can get in without waiting.

There is apparently normal activity in front of the other two hives – bees coming out “purposefully” and heading off, then coming back and going straight into the hive. I cannot see any direct travel between the hives.

I cannot see if the bees entering or leaving the new hive are carrying anything – certainly those leaving don't climb up the hive before flying, and don't dip when they take off.

Robbing, or just lots of first flights?
 
Update

All really calm now - so I guess it was just normal activity.

It didn't look aggressive, just very very busy, when the other two hives were relatively quiet. As my ten year old son pointed out, there's not much in the new hive worth robbing anyway!
 
Robbing usually involves clear fighting. One of our colonies has been nicknamed "The Karate Colony" after displaying very impressive kicking skills on invaders last year.
 
Thanks - I was worried when I first saw all the activity, but I couldn't see any fighting, so calmed down a bit.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top