Old Hive-Should I keep Feeding robbers?

[Clint D]

My old hive I found in the loft in my shop is drawing robbers, (Of course I'm a newbie) I started putting out Syrup 3 weeks ago before I knew whether the hive was active or not. Now I have determined I have robbers on an old dried out comb.
I put the old comb on some frames in a hive box. and put out some syrup hopping maybe the bees will restart a hive. so far it looks as if they are just robbing. My question, should I continue putting out syrup? or just give up on that idea and try to catch me a swarm elsewhere when I find one?

I recently bought two hive boxes, thinking I had an existing hive to move into one and ordered a package with a queen to start the other.
I know some things I am doing probably is to no avail, but I am learning from it. I would really like to get two hives going my first year since I got this fever of bee keeping.

Clint

[dcross]

The more you feed the robbers, the more likely their hive is to swarm, unless it's being well-managed by a beekeeper.

I would try some bee-lining, and put out pollen or substitute in addition to the syrup, but they might not take it.

[John Russell]

might end up becoming a swarm trap.....

Never hurts to feed a bee in any senario....

J.R.

[jim b]

dcross- please educate... "bee lining" ? i'm interested in swarms and attracting them. i've not come across this term before(new guy).

thanks,
jim

[BULLSEYE BILL]

Bee lining is the tracing or tracking of a bee back to it's origin.

By setting out a bait like sugar syrup in a small dish you can watch the direction that they fly. Go in that direction and set out your dish again, watch, move, watch, until you see where they are coming from.

[Jim Fischer]

> By setting out a bait like sugar syrup in a
> small dish...

The problem with this approach is that it is
difficult to attract a bee to a dish when the
bees are looking for flowers. It is so difficult,
that studies that use scented, high-concentration
"artificial nectar" must often start with the
dish right at the hive entrance, and move back
a little at a time to get the bees "trained"
to the dish.

What I do, and what most bee-liners have done
over the years is to capture several bees when
they are on flowers or at a water source with a
bee-lining box (something one can now order from
Brushy Mountain Bee Farm), and release them
from different points to "get a compass bearing"
on the hive, or set up the box as a "feeding
station", one that one hopes that the bees will
return to for subsequent nectar loads.

The tracking of a bee released from a box is not
a very easy task, as bees will circle several
times to get a "navigational fix" on the UV
rays in the sky and the local landmarks before
setting off in the (general) direction of the
hive. If one has the time, one can use the
"feeding station" approach, stand back from
the box, and not have to try and track a bee
flying circles around you.

In testing all the "old methods", I have come
to the conclusion that most of them are utter
garbage. They only "worked" because back before
varroa, one could walk a mile or so in nearly
any random direction and find a "bee tree".

The NCAA (the National Collegium of Apiary Athletics)
runs bee-lining competitions, which are
described at http://www.bee-quick.com/500/

As 100% of the information of bee-lining is
very old and very out-of-print, the NCAA has
acquired rights, and will be re-publishing
annotated versions of these old books and
articles for the modern bee-liner, both
on dead trees, and on CD/DVD.

The amazing thing is how much of what was
said with great authority turns out not
to work at all.

[dcross]

If they're taking syrup from your shop, you've got the hard part done.

Now just watch what direction they take when they leave for home. They circle for a while, so it's tough.

If you can set up a second feeder a ways away, then you can get two "lines" and triangulate the nest better.

But I was watching some of them head straight south from my yard last summer, and the others were going west down my driveway. It took me a while to figure out they were just doing that to go around the neighbor's house before all heading to the same hive.