Subject: Re: Hive robbing, how to stop it

From: [email-masked] (Pollinator)
Date: 21 Aug 1996 16:00:15 -0400

In article <[email-masked]>,
[email-masked] (Norm Bolser) writes:
>
>What suggestions do you folks have to stop hive robbing by other
>hives?  Where I live is residential enough that a major relocation is
>near impossible.  Would a hundred feet or so be enough?  They are now
>located about 12 feet apart.  I've screened off or blocked most of the
>access into the weaker hive, but the problem appears to continue.  

   If you have reduced the entrances, and the robbing still continues, you
need to solve the problem in the weak hive.  They do not have enough
morale to regroup, and defend their home and honey stores.  Find out what
is wrong and deal with it.

   One hundred feet relocation is not going to help much.

   They may be queenless, have a bad mite problem, chalkbrood, or even
worse, foulbrood.  They may have taken a pesticide hit. (Yes, hives are
creatures of habit, following their scouts and the previous days'
patterns, and one hive may have been mostly flying in one direcion, the
other going the opposite way.)

   If you live in a residential area, you have an especial reason to stop
robbing, as bees that are robbing are much more apt to be nasty, not only
to each other, but to everything that moves in the area.

[email-masked]    Dave Green,  PO Box 1200,  Hemingway,  SC
29554

Practical Pollination Home Page            Dave & Janice Green
http://users.aol.com/pollinator/polpage1.html

[email-masked]                                   Dave and Janice Green
Practical Pollination Home Page    
http://users.aol.com/pollinator/polpage1.html  
PO Box 1200, Hemingway, SC    29554

---

From: Gerry Visel <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 22 Aug 1996 13:14:33 -0700

"What suggestions do you folks have to stop hive robbing by other
hives? "

The first thing is to make sure the hive is strong enough to defend 
itself, then close down the entrance with a cone shaped screen that will 
let them out but not back in.  Leave it on a day or two max, as it will 
also keep out the resident field bees.

Good luck!