babsbag
Herd Master
Yesterday I noticed a huge number of bees in the air around one hive. It was late in the day so I just let them be bees. This morning they were back at it so I know they are being robbed. I have a robber screen that I went and installed and it seemed to reduce the number of bees around the hive. But I am sure that I also closed out some of the hive's occupants. I guess the screen should go on at night. Next year I will put one on every hive all of the time.
When it got dark there was a huge cluster of bees on the lid. I opened the trap door on the screen hoping that they would just file on in... they didn't. Bees came out instead. So I took off the lid, again hoping that they would just go down into the hive...they didn't...they just hung out on top of the frames. So I brushed off as many as I could and put the lid back on, probably killing 100 at least. I also got stung...multiple times. Twice on one hand through my gloves and three or four time through my sock. I know that working bees in the dark is never a good thing.
This is not a weak hive, I was very surprised they were being robbed. I don't know if it the hive sitting near them doing the robbing or another hive, I have neighbors with probably 10 hives at least. I have three smaller hives and they are fine so far.
I read that I should lock them up for three day, but that I need to give them food a water, but I am guessing that that would be for a nuc, not an established hive. Fortunately it isn't really hot here so they should be ok.
Do you think that the bees clustered on the hive were the occupants or robbers that didn't go home? Did I do the right thing trying to get them to go inside? I need to go in and check for a queen as I understand that sometimes the robbers will kill her. There were a lot of bee fights going on outside of the hive today. When I opened the little trap door on the robbing screen the bees just came pouring out, just not sure if they are mine or the enemy.
Any ideas, thoughts, experiences, etc. ? I have seen this before and it usually means the loss of the hive but I have never tried to stop if before either. This time I decided to try and intervene.
When it got dark there was a huge cluster of bees on the lid. I opened the trap door on the screen hoping that they would just file on in... they didn't. Bees came out instead. So I took off the lid, again hoping that they would just go down into the hive...they didn't...they just hung out on top of the frames. So I brushed off as many as I could and put the lid back on, probably killing 100 at least. I also got stung...multiple times. Twice on one hand through my gloves and three or four time through my sock. I know that working bees in the dark is never a good thing.
This is not a weak hive, I was very surprised they were being robbed. I don't know if it the hive sitting near them doing the robbing or another hive, I have neighbors with probably 10 hives at least. I have three smaller hives and they are fine so far.
I read that I should lock them up for three day, but that I need to give them food a water, but I am guessing that that would be for a nuc, not an established hive. Fortunately it isn't really hot here so they should be ok.
Do you think that the bees clustered on the hive were the occupants or robbers that didn't go home? Did I do the right thing trying to get them to go inside? I need to go in and check for a queen as I understand that sometimes the robbers will kill her. There were a lot of bee fights going on outside of the hive today. When I opened the little trap door on the robbing screen the bees just came pouring out, just not sure if they are mine or the enemy.
Any ideas, thoughts, experiences, etc. ? I have seen this before and it usually means the loss of the hive but I have never tried to stop if before either. This time I decided to try and intervene.