Question from the new kid....

[Reptyle]

Hi All,
Glad to meet all of you. Please, forgive my ignorance but something I've wondered since I've began my studies on bees. Robbing seems to be a concern of all bee keepers and as I understand robbing is basically where one hive is attempting to steal from another. So the question is, how do keepers who have multiple hives deal with this? Wouldn't their hives attempt to steal from each other? If it isn't a problem, then why isn't it?
If this question has already been answered elsewhere I apologize, as I've overlooked it and the answer. BTW, other questions of equally basic nature will probably follow, as I currently have no hive of my own but am trying to do all the research I can prior to starting one. Thanks for any and all help offered.

[Rooster4473]

Although I dont know first hand how a keeper with a lot of hives stops it, cuz I only have a few hives. But I know I had a small problem last year with a bigger hive trying to rob out a smaller hive, but it was only when I was using HBH, so I stopped using the HBH in the smaller hive. I had more problems with little wasps then honey bees robbing last year.

Kinda along those lines, I do wonder about my neighbor. Last year I had a very strong hive, and this year I will probabbly have at least two if not three strong hives at the farm. The neighbor that lives right across the street has very weak hives. He had to feed them all last year and I guess he fed them all winter. I just wonder how much he is feeding MY bees too?

[Jim Fischer]

The stop-gap way to stop robbing cold in a matter of
minutes is to simply remove the outer and inner
covers of every larger hive in the yard. This
gives these hives a defense problem, as they
suddenly have a very large opening to defend.

Once that is done, the smaller colonies need
entrance reducers, and a careful look at gaps
and other "ad-hoc entrances". One can easily
see where the bees are "getting in", so some
self-adhesive foil-backed tape can be used to
cover those openings.

Entrance feeders are perhaps the most common
cause of spring robbing. "Just say no" to
entrance feeders. Return yours for credit to
the vendor, and they might get the message that
these devices have no useful purpose in beekeeping. smile.gif

Now that you have fixed the faults, you can
go put all your covers back on.

Regardless of size, a colony with an appropriate
entrance size for the colony's strength can
defend itself against robbers.