That's a really useful tip, Will. Impressive observation and putting 2+2
together. Thanks!
Paul
On Tue, 8 Sep 2020, 06:38 Will H, <whanrott@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Picking up on robbing...
When bees are robbing they are foraging: they fly to the area indicated by
the waggle dance; they then start an orientation flight -- this is where
they fly in an expanding square pattern -- to find the food source.
From my observation, a foraging orientation has the same shape as an
orientation flight from the hive except that the foraging orientation
doesn't gain altitude. Use this to spot robbing.
When there have been robbing incidents in my garden apiary, I've always
spotted it because the bees come in through open windows/doors. Whenever I
find bees in my house, or trapped within the netting of our trampoline I
look more closely for robbing. This is because the flat orientation flight
causes them to collide with buildings. You might also find that bees were
flying into you even when you weren't in their normal flight path. This
recently happened when someone left the window to my shed open. The bees
(and wasps) found the stored comb 🙁
I have the advantage that my garden apiary has only 1 or sometimes 2
hives. It would be harder to spot with lots of closely placed hives.
Will
------------------------------
*From:* oxnatbees-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <oxnatbees-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
on behalf of Gareth John <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
*Sent:* 07 September 2020 13:40
*To:* oxnatbees@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <oxnatbees@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
*Subject:* [oxnatbees] Re: Feeding and Robbers
Hi Will
I will say a few words on robbing.
Robbing varies in intensity and character from out and out carnage through
to so-called silent robbing. There is a continuum between the two. At the
lowest level, silent robbing consists of one hive quietly and
non-agressively pinching the resources of another. The robbed hive will
tolerate the robbing, largely because it doesn’t notice it. When it does,
things can get ugly, perhaps only for a while before things settle again.
This *may* be what you are seeing.
However, other things cause bees to be at the entrance, such as
orientation flights with bees flying up and down, back and forth facing the
hive. Robbing bees will either fly straight in (like returning foragers)
if the robbing is silent or will dart about trying to spot a gap in the
defences if there is resistance. This latter flying is characteristic; the
robbers will fly toward the entrance and then back off, change angle and
dart in again.
Also, robbing bees will tend to be flying when you do not expect bees to
be on the wing, such as very early or very late in the day. This is a
warning sign (to you). Dust some of the bees (if you can) with icing
sugar. Returning foragers will go into the hive and rest a while. They
will be licked clean by other bees. Whereas robbers will be quick in and
out and will emerge white shortly after being dusted. You might even be
able to track them as they leave.
Entrance holes should be the diameter of a pencil (no more) if you have
robbing going on, although once started it is very difficult to stop.
Gareth
On 7 Sep 2020, at 14:07, WHP Spray <whpspray@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hello all,
I was wondering if I could ask a couple of things; apologies if they’re
rather basic.
Robbing - How does one actually determine if robbing is going on? This
morning I saw frenzied activity outside my hive, which seemed strange to me
as it’s not especially warm and forage is not too abundant. It didn’t
really seem to me as if there was fighting or some bees were trying to
prevent others from getting in. I noticed that some bees were more yellow
than my predominantly black bees and so perhaps a different breed, but I’ve
noticed this before when they were calm, and was mindful of someone’s post
earlier which observed that bees join other hives more frequently than is
often realised. I was thinking that robbery issues might explain the rage
with which the bees greeted my attempt to open the hive a couple of weeks
ago. The hive entrance is already down to about 2-3 inches, plus a few of
those bee-space notches that entrance blocks sometimes have.
Feeding - What is the natural beekeeper’s approach to feeding, and how can
I judge whether to feed or not (and how much)? All of the info that I’ve
managed to find seems frustratingly vague on how much honey a colony needs
to get through winter - I expect because there is a lot of variability.
Mine are in their first year and only seem to have about half a standard
super (I’m not sure how much they have in the brood box). Is that enough or
should I supplement it?
Many thanks!
Will
