Monday, November 23, 2015

Robbing

I told you in my last post that I had combined two hives and in the process started a lot of robbing.  And these robbers were relentless. 

It's normal to see a lot of action in the front of the hives and around the entrances.  

It is NOT normal to see action all around a hive, under the hive, around the back, with bees trying to get in the seams, and bees fighting and dropping off the hive in clusters.   That's robbing behavior. 

The robbers will strip all the stores from a hive in no time flat and kill an entire hive as well.  I knew that the worst of the robbers were other honeybees, joined with a few yellow jackets and some giant bumblebees.  I just didn't know if the bees were from one of my other hives or from a feral hive or a neighbor's hive.

First rule of robbing:  Stop It Now!

What to do?   There are several options:
  • robber screens
  • wet blanket over entire hive
  • set out feeder 100-200 yds away from the hives to lure robbers away
  • close up hives completely
  • open up all hives so that robbers go back home to defend
  • something even more drastic if you can think of it.
I had already put robber screens on the hives as soon as we had our first hard frost and the winter dearth started. They didn't seem to be making much difference.

I put out a feeder but that had minimal effect.

I tried wet blankets and that didn't work.  The robbers went under.

I didn't want to open all the hives, because it looked like all the hives were getting robbed and that meant the robbers were mostly likely coming from another area and not my bees robbing each other.

The guys on Beemaster bee forums said to do something even more drastic, so I turned the hose on the bee yard and hosed all the hives down.

It worked.

Then I suited up completely including gloves and screened off all three hives. 

The next morning, the hives were covered with bees again and I knew for sure they were coming from outside my yard.   I left the hives completely closed with screens for a couple of days until the robbers didn't come back, and then I took the screens off late one evening so my bees could have a bathroom break and get back in without having to worry about robbing.   Robbers go home at dusk.  

Note:  Bees HATE flashlights, so if you go out and must use a flashlight around the hives, make sure you suit up completely.   I was paranoid and insisted we suit up, and boy, were we glad we did.

A couple weeks later, I put sugar and quilt boxes on all the hives.  I reduced the combined hive to a single box as fast as I could and using hive cloths to keep things covered as I worked.  By the time I was done another robbing frenzy had started and I got the hose out and took care of it.

This time the robbing was mostly centered on the combined hive, so I closed that hive up completely with screens and left the other two alone with their robber screens on. 

If there are robbers in a hive when you close it up, within three days, they either fight to the death or are forced to join the hive. If there are a lot of robbers and they join the hive, you've effectively increased the size of that hive, which would be a good thing in my case.    So I left it closed for three days.  

Things are calm now.   All hives have robber screens, extra sugar and quilt boxes on for the winter.

Let's hope they'll make it through til spring.


Friday, November 20, 2015

Fall Bees

It was a busy fall around the bee yard the past couple of months.   Two of the hives decided to requeen in late August - one of the Russians and one of the nucs.   

The Russian hive produced 27 queen cells, which we tried to make nucs with and failed, but the cell we left in the hive produced a fabulous queen and that hive is doing very nicely now.   We're overwintering it in two boxes.  

The other Russian hive is doing fine and will winter in a single box.  

The nuc with the new queen never got very big and so I decided to combine it with what had been a much stronger hive.  Unfortunately, the combine was slow because you have to find one of the queens to take her out.   I had decided to keep the new queen and it took for freaking ever to find the other.   By the time I finished the combine, there was wholesale robbing.   By the time I got the robbing under control, there were not enough stores to warrant two boxes over the winter, so I reduced them down to a single box.   Which started more robbing, which I'll talk about in the next post. 

At any rate, I'm going into winter with 3 hives this year.   I am hopeful that the two Russian hives will do OK.   The other hive is very different in demeanor and I'd be thrilled if they made it through at all, but I confess I won't be surprised if they don't. 

Monday, November 9, 2015

Classes for 2016


Thanks to everyone who came out to this year's Bloomington Spinners and Weavers Guild show in Bloomington.   We spent many happy hours talking to wonderful and creative people about all sorts of projects.   Thank you for coming and for sharing your creativity.






I heard several requests for classes for next year and since I hadn't made any decisions, I thought I'd open the topic up for discussion on the blog for a few weeks and find out what you were most especially interested in.

Please take a moment and tell us what you're thinking.

The classes I want to offer are full-service type classes.   Everything is provided, all you have to do is get yourself here.  We live in Greene County Indiana -  25 minutes southwest of Bloomington, Indiana.   20 minutes northeast of Bloomfield, Indiana.   1 1/2 hours southeast of Terre Haute, Indiana.   1 1/2 hours south of Indianapolis.  2 hours north of Louisville, Kentucky.



Each class would be limited in size to 4 or 5 people max, so you'd be getting a lot of individualized attention.   Each class would include hands on experience and a goody bag to take home.  Everything is provided - all you have to bring is yourself.   Full day classes would include home made lunch and a walk along the paths through our woods and fields, if you like.

Thanks for taking the time to help us focus our classes for 2016. Please click on as many things as you are interested in.

What kinds of classes would you be willing to come here to take?  
Half or Full day?  
Day of week?

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