I have two colonies rescued from water meters. They are side by side on the hive stand.
A week ago I added a second box to one of the hives. Yesterday I added a second box to the other. A few hours after adding that box I noticed it appeared it was being robbed, probably from the other colony. I reduced the entrance down to 1 bee width and that seemed to halt the robbing.
My question is: Do I need to be worried about the queen? Will robbers first try to kill the resident queen? I would prefer to not disturb them again, but I can. Do I maybe need to inspect the hive for resources, since if they have been reduced substantially they may not need the second box now and will have difficulty patrolling it?
A week ago I added a second box to one of the hives. Yesterday I added a second box to the other. A few hours after adding that box I noticed it appeared it was being robbed, probably from the other colony. I reduced the entrance down to 1 bee width and that seemed to halt the robbing.
My question is: Do I need to be worried about the queen? Will robbers first try to kill the resident queen? I would prefer to not disturb them again, but I can. Do I maybe need to inspect the hive for resources, since if they have been reduced substantially they may not need the second box now and will have difficulty patrolling it?