What is a robber screen?

[Judy Bee]

One of my hives is being plagued with yellow jackets. It was my strongest hive. In one of the posts below, something was mentioned about robber screening. What is that and how is it used?

Another thing. This hive is being treated with Apiguard, which seems to be working well, but I see lots of dead bees around the hive. I wonder if this is due to tracheal mites and if so, my guess is that Apiguard doesn't kill them. There IS a grease patty in the middle of the brood box. I will have access to a dissecting microscope later in the week to be sure.

Also, could this die off be due to bees reacting to the Apiguard? Another hive with fewer bees is doing well with Apiguard.

Judy

[Michael Bush]

Here are pictures of mine.

http://www.bushfarms.com/beesmisc.htm

Basically it is a screen in front of the direct path to the hive. The smells of the hive lead the robbers to this area. But the actual entrance is somewhere else so that the locals (who are not going by smell, but by memory) goes in somewhere away from that screened in enntrances.

Try a search on these forums on Robber Screens and you'll find many discussions.

I've never used Apiguard and have no idea if it's likely to kill bees, but that would seem doubtful unless excess heat caused it to evaporate too quickly.