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Stupid question OK?

1K views 1 reply 2 participants last post by  Michael Bush 
#1 ·
When bees rob, and if you close up the hive, will the robbers who are trapped inside die?

And if so, are they dieing because they're full of the robbed goodies and they don't have a place to deposit it? Or is it likely they were taken down by the other bees inside? Or a combinations of both?
 
#2 ·
>When bees rob, and if you close up the hive, will the robbers who are trapped inside die?

If you open it up the next day, the robbers will exit as soon as you open up and beeline for home. If you leave them closed up long enough they will adopt the hive.

>And if so, are they dieing because they're full of the robbed goodies and they don't have a place to deposit it? Or is it likely they were taken down by the other bees inside? Or a combinations of both?

Holding all that honey in just makes wax it doesn't hurt them any.

I've only watched this in my Observation hive. Once in a while they will harass a robber who is trapped in with them, but usually they just ignore them. The robbers get frantic trying to get out. The locals are just kind of irratated that they, themselves, can't get out. If the robbers are inside the hive long enough the robbers give up and start living there.

If I closed a hive up, because of robbing, in the middle of the day, I like to open it up about sundown so the resident field bees can get back in and the robbers can get out and then I close it up again. That way the resident bees aren't trapped outside all night, and the next morning the robbers can't get in so they start looking somewhere else.
 
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