How to I tell if the bees are empty or full?

[grumpy]

How do I tell if the bees coming into the hive are full of nectar and belong to the hive or if they are empty and coming in to rob?

I installed (at about 2pm.)a 3# package into a hive with about ten frames of honey and pollen. Within 2 hours there seemed to be alot of bees coming in and out of the hive. Some were just circling (Orientation flights?), but many were flying away.

Am I being robbed or is this package very active?

[Michael Bush]

A lot of bees hovering outside the hive could be several things. It could be robbers, but they also tend to be hovering all around the hive searching for the back door. It could be, with a new package like this, that they are trying to orient. It could be there is a traffic jam at the door. Watch and see if there is a traffic jam. Watch and see if there is fighting at the door. If you see bees wrestling there is robbing going on. If in doubt, make the entrance as small as you can while not obstructing traffic. It will be easier to gaurd and you may get a better chance to see if they are wrestling. Robbers are often darker looking and slick looking, because they've had their hair pulled out by the gaurds.

[grumpy]

I didn't see any fighting. The number of bees outside went down after I put the entrance reducer back in. I did see one bees with a partial load of pollen exit the hive and leave. I saw another one with pollen exit and then go back in.

Thanks

[Michael Bush]

I've never seen bees steal pollen. They usualy just steal honey. I'd keep the reducer on as long as you don't have a traffic jam.

[grumpy]

I'll do that.

Thank you