Identifying Robbing and what to do about it when its too late!

[@tkbfoot12]

Watched a keeper with about a dozen hives open the tops of all 12 hives and the robbing stopped. Made all the bees go back home to defend their hive that was open. When he wanted to inspect during a derth he would open them all up.

[@WoolieBsApiary]

i put out 5 gallons of sugar syrup and let them work it for about an hour and i can work them without any robbing. this day there was no syrup out and as you can see in the video no queen returned and when that happens and the bee keeper is not on top of his hives its all over. i do not have the time nor the desire to take the lids off 120 hives .

[@628DirtRooster]

Bunch of hungry hungry hippos

[@waynewatson-cedarbranchhiv8491]

You can sit up a sprinkler over them, an it will stop it in a heartbeat, i had one getting it bout a month ago, i made it rain over the hive for 2 days non stop an it put a stop to it . Then i moved the one being robbed to a place by themselves, gave em 3 frames of honey, pollen Patti, an fed em bout 3 gal of prosweet, an they've rebounded good, lots of capped an freash brood now.

[@WoolieBsApiary]

sadly in the video you can see the hive is a total loss. the queen did not make it back and i did not get back to check to see if she did.

[@waynewatson-cedarbranchhiv8491]

@@WoolieBsApiary yeah, that sucks when that happens, i hate them robber bees, probably them dang dragon flies got her, have you ever seen as many as there is this yr? Least they're plentiful over here in Missouri.

[@massachusettsprepper]

It is really hard for a smaller hive to defend against something like that for sure. Thanks for sharing brother.

[@WoolieBsApiary]

when i made the split it was 8 frames full of bees stayed busy for the 2 weeks after about 3 days without a queen and the cell should have hatched. bees are brutal and ruthless.

[@katmanclancy]

Thank you for that I'm mentoring 5 people at the moment and we are in Ireland, South really crap year barley have their own no crop atall this year for many of us, our black bee's do rob but usually in these bad summers it pissed rain all summer and your video is an education for them so it's been shared my friend.

[@WoolieBsApiary]

Thank you. I never made it to Ireland when I lived in GB and I kick myself for it i so LOVE GUINNESS 💘 ❤ 💗 💕

[@wayneshoneybees5439]

Great information

[@CanadianDirt]

Could you try setting a small amount of feed out in a separate container, on top of the tub feeder, maybe a gallon max with a few drops of lemongrass to stimulate them. If no response with lemongrass maybe try a very small amount of anise, just to get them into the syrup and then switch it out once they have established the feeding pattern? Not sure how well it would work for you, but it’s a thought.

[@WoolieBsApiary]

i do not use lemongrass oil for anything due to the robbing issues it causes. in the video i make reference to a soybean field about a 1/2 mile down the road from me. there was a flow going on but if the flow stops they will go looking for food

[@michaeltabors2193]

Thank you sir, great video.

[@WoolieBsApiary]

@michaeltabors2193 thank you for watching

[@chucknSC]

I've had a bad year of robbing too. Yea, I just smoke them till they cant smell anything. Lite it up. Now if its windy, I dont know what to do. I had the same thing, I did a split off, and a day later they were under heavy attack. Putting screen up on the front helped but didnt make it go away, so I loaded the new hive in the truck and moved it 9 miles. Then the robbers I moved, had to become the foraging members of the new hive.

[@WoolieBsApiary]

It was 2 late for this one. If I had caught it when it first started I could have pulled a queen from the mating nucs to give it a mated queen.

[@jasonseaward8506]

Im a new beekeeper and i keep seeing what im pretty sure are orientation flights and theres so many of them i keep thinking its a robbing frenzy but both of my hives are about the same strength lol.

[@WoolieBsApiary]

@jasonseaward8506 watch the time of day usually between say 3 and 6 pm and it eill only last 1 to 15 minutes. They will fly out do figure 8s infront of the hive and go back in then come back out and do it again. Fighting on the landing board is a great indicator of robbing.

[@heavymechanic2]

This year was so dry where I live and robbing has been crazy, several deadouts from dwindling colonies. I even had nuc boxes robbed until they were all gone.. Look for bees sniffing around the top, back and other places away from the landing board, all signs of robbing.

[@billysbees3521]

Man that is brutal... Thanks for sharing.

[@WoolieBsApiary]

my miss fortunes are a learning opportunity for everyone. if you watch many of the youtube beekeepers they do not do video on their failures. i share success and failures.

[@billysbees3521]

@@WoolieBsApiary yeah I learn the most from my mistakes, Thanks for sharing the good and bad.

[@olddave4833]

maybe add a little honey bee heathy to attract the bees to the sugar water faster?? I use the upside down 5 gal pails to feed so when the friendly bear stops by he doesn't get very much.

[@donbearden1953]

Woolie, now we both have had one of those feeding frenzies lately.

[@WoolieBsApiary]

bad beekeeper i did not bet back in them to see that the walkaway split never got their queen back from mating.

[@rab2020]

Wow. That was frustrating. Is it your own bees that do that or is impossible to tell?

[@WoolieBsApiary]

It was my bees but thats what happens when a split does not get its queen mated and back. During a flow they will ignore it but not in the middle of the dearth.

[@weirhauch1002]

Robbing happens with Langstroth boxes because you and other beekeepers externally feed their bees sugars and everything these bees are used to storing sugar from any source ,so the victims are the smaller hives .

[@WoolieBsApiary]

@weirhauch1002 if you knew the time and the reason for this hive getting robbed you might have a clue. When a queen does not make it back and the other hives smell that they go after a free meal. Timing is everything in beekeeping. Yes I feed during the dearth no its not a massive massive amount of sugar. It might be 50 lbs over 4 weeks. 2 to 3 lbs per 5 gallons of water. You figure out the rest

[@weirhauch1002]

@WoolieBsApiary sorry for this .This phenomena never happens amongst my bee hives .I follow natural beekeeping. I select stronger colony and they seem to defend themselves well against varroa and other diseases .I open the boxes at sunset because nearby Langstroth bees (always hungry) attack mine .

[@WoolieBsApiary]

@weirhauch1002 i select the strongest genetics and im mite treatment free but the question I have is how many colonies do you have in one location and do you sell nucs and queens. The only yard I feed is my nuc and queen yard and that's only in the last 2 weeks August and the first week sometimes 2 of September because my home yard can not support 75 to 100 colonies.

[@weirhauch1002]

@WoolieBsApiary I sell neither queen's nor nucs because I wait one full year to elect the best queens .Normally, they come from swarm or replacement cells .I also keep them treatment free ,and they are very well adapted with the environment and method I apply ! I feed them honey from theirs ,and I do not feed them sugar unless I have no honey and if they need to ,I just feed them sugar to survive not thrive on it ,thus making them stronger and healthier .The 50 boxes are dispersed in 2M Square land ,simulating their natural habitat .It is a great hobby seeing them develop on their own ,seeing them act naturaaly is also an amazing thing . In short ,In order to have clean and strong bee hives ,I let the weak go and keep the most self-made colonies .Good luck

[@WoolieBsApiary]

@weirhauch1002 I replace the queens in a weak colony. 2 square miles is not natural Tom Seeley did research and in nature there is less than 2 colonies per square mile. I'm way over that seeing I have 60 to 70 at my home location. It is amazing what bees can do when left alone and not treated that's where you and I select the strongest and requeen the weak with queens from the strong. Tennessee has an average 45 to 53 winter loss rate

[@bobbibonner]

Thank you!!

[@WoolieBsApiary]

@@bobbibonner you are welcome thank you for watching.

[@fishmut]

Lost one colony due to robbing so far this year only last week , they ate all the honey supplies and killed the bees as it was a weak colony , no queen In Sight I think they killed her to , couldn’t find her she had her wing clipped and was marked , if it happens again I will lock it down and move it up to 4 / 5 miles away , with the robbing bees, I’m thinking those bees may stay with the hive in a far away location, going to give that a try . Fingers crossed.

[@WoolieBsApiary]

a friend of mine tried it and it worked.

[@ericlaforge9445]

People say black bees rob the most and the asian bees make cheap honey. The native bees lover the smoke .

[@Mz.Stephanie]

Do you have pol noodles in your sugar water tote?

[@WoolieBsApiary]

yes there is a video on how i made it

[@chuckandellenreichert4880]

Mm of