Robbery in progress

[Rookie]

It is a very sunny warm afternoon here and my topbar hive I have a quart feeder inside the hive. The feeder has sugar water mixed two to one with a little HBH in it. I am pretty sure all the bees that are in the hive drinking are not all my bees. I did open the hive and checked on the queen and she is ok. It didn't look or seem like the outsider bees were stealing honey just sugar water.Is there any hope or way I can persuade these outside bees to make my hive there new home? Another thought is I thought I had treated my hive well enough for mites this fall but with all the outsiders maybe another treatment is in order.

[Michael Bush]

>The feeder has sugar water mixed two to one with a little HBH in it.

The HBH is the main cause of the problem.

>Is there any hope or way I can persuade these outside bees to make my hive there new home?

No.

> Another thought is I thought I had treated my hive well enough for mites this fall but with all the outsiders maybe another treatment is in order.

Put a sticky board in or do a sugar roll and see if you do or don't need to do something.

Right now I'd get rid of the HBH syrup, fill the feeder with straight unsecented sugar water (after washing it out well), reduce the entrance to just big enough for a few bees to get in and out, or, for one day, just close off the hive altogether and then reduce it to just big enough for a few bees.

From my experience, the HBH attracts robbers like crazy.

[Michael Bush]

I took some pictues of one of my robber screens. These are made from a Brushy Mt. "Front Door" and are made for a standard hive, but the concept would be the same if you wanted to build one for a top bar hive. You need a bit of a maze and a screened in area to confuse the robbers who are going by smell and not the residents who will remember how they got out.

Here's the side that goes to the hive:
http://incolor.inetnebr.com/bush/images/RobberScreenHiveSide.JPG

And the side that faces out from the hive:
http://incolor.inetnebr.com/bush/images/RobberScreenOutside.JPG

It seems to help a lot on the hives being robbed. But I'd still stop using the HBH on the hives being robbed.



[This message has been edited by Michael Bush (edited October 06, 2004).]