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So, I inadvertently set up a robbing situation
today.
I purchased a local queen yesterday and pulled a few frames with nurse bees from one hive to put them in a nuc with her. While I was at it, I pulled a few frames from my other hive and put them in a second nuc to let them raise another queen. I brought the nucs up to the flower bed behind the house instead of leaving the nucs in the bee yard. I put in reducers and left them to it. I installed the queen cage today.
All seemed well until about an hour ago, when I looked outside and noticed there seemed to be a whole lot of bees flying in the yard. One of the kids came in from the backyard and said, "it's bee Star Wars outside!" I went out to look at the nucs, and bees were all over them. Terrifying. I'd wondered if I'd recognize robbing...it was pretty obvious.
I threw a wet towel over each nuc, shoved grass in the openings, and traffic is somewhat less out there but still high.
I'm glad I moved the nucs to where I could see them. Otherwise, I'd have not known as quickly as I did.
Anyhow, a few questions:
Will my new queen be OK? When can I look to check on her? I'll kick myself if she was killed in her cage.
When should I combine the nucs, should I determine the loss of bees in each nuc is too high to allow them to survive on their own? I was thinking of popping the top after dark to look quickly for carnage. The frames were beautiful...full of capped honey, pollen, capped brood and eggs.
I'm thinking of keeping the nucs closed entirely up for the next few days, but it's going to get to the 90's here, and it's supposed to get humid again (sigh). How to help them stay cool? I could set up a mister over them. Can't find any hardware cloth of the correct size locally to make a robbing screen. I'll order some, but it will take a few days to get here.
How long will the robbers be interested in my poor nucs?
And note to self: making up nucs when a dearth seems to be setting in isn't a terrific idea. Next time, put robbing screens in place beforehand
I purchased a local queen yesterday and pulled a few frames with nurse bees from one hive to put them in a nuc with her. While I was at it, I pulled a few frames from my other hive and put them in a second nuc to let them raise another queen. I brought the nucs up to the flower bed behind the house instead of leaving the nucs in the bee yard. I put in reducers and left them to it. I installed the queen cage today.
All seemed well until about an hour ago, when I looked outside and noticed there seemed to be a whole lot of bees flying in the yard. One of the kids came in from the backyard and said, "it's bee Star Wars outside!" I went out to look at the nucs, and bees were all over them. Terrifying. I'd wondered if I'd recognize robbing...it was pretty obvious.
I threw a wet towel over each nuc, shoved grass in the openings, and traffic is somewhat less out there but still high.
I'm glad I moved the nucs to where I could see them. Otherwise, I'd have not known as quickly as I did.
Anyhow, a few questions:
Will my new queen be OK? When can I look to check on her? I'll kick myself if she was killed in her cage.
When should I combine the nucs, should I determine the loss of bees in each nuc is too high to allow them to survive on their own? I was thinking of popping the top after dark to look quickly for carnage. The frames were beautiful...full of capped honey, pollen, capped brood and eggs.
I'm thinking of keeping the nucs closed entirely up for the next few days, but it's going to get to the 90's here, and it's supposed to get humid again (sigh). How to help them stay cool? I could set up a mister over them. Can't find any hardware cloth of the correct size locally to make a robbing screen. I'll order some, but it will take a few days to get here.
How long will the robbers be interested in my poor nucs?
And note to self: making up nucs when a dearth seems to be setting in isn't a terrific idea. Next time, put robbing screens in place beforehand