[nao_shadowpaws]

Naturally I was a bit excited to see bees coming into the hive with plenty of pollen. The weather is really nice, yesterday was the first day since putting my two nucs in hives that the wind hasn't been going full bore. Then I noticed a few fighting, and a few dead bees already laying on the ground around the hive entrance. So I closed up the entrance, much to the disapproval of a fair number of bees. Will the robbers give up in a few hours, or tomorrow, or should I leave them closed up for a couple days?

 

[fieldsofnaturalhoney]

What is causing the robbing? Whatever you do, I would not close them up for a couple of days. Consider reducing the entrance?

 

[nao_shadowpaws]

The entrance was reduced, my guess on what brought on the robbing was me putting some sugar syrup in the water bucket I'm using as their water source. The idea was to attract my bees to that so they would use it instead of going to the neighbor's pool for water. It is definitely bees from another hive and not wasps. I would set up a swarm trap to see if I could score some free bees but I don't have any extra wooden ware right now. Will keep an eye on the outsiders and hopefully I can open up the entrances of my hives this evening, or early tomorrow. With the syrup water removed, will they stop trying to raid if they aren't getting anything for their efforts?

 

[beegeorge]

use pool chemicals in a bit stronger proportion in an open feeding method to try to entice bees to the new source and away from the pools. they like the chemicals in pool water

 

[BeeGurl]

Nao ShadowPaws, I try really hard to keep all sugar syrup, honey, powdered sugar, and even comb covered up, cleaned up and not lingering outside of the hive. I use top feeder buckets with deeps around them. If I have even a spec of sugar or syrup out, ever last hymenoptera in the South would visit my hives. Maybe try something other than sugar in the water bucket.

 

[nao_shadowpaws]

They have internal feeders, I was only using the sugar syrup in the bucket to get them to associate that as their water source and not the pool. The invaders left a while ago and I opened the entrances, letting a river of bees pour from both hives. Anything else I could add to the water aside from chlorine to keep them attracted to it and not bother my neighbor? Seems like chlorine would hurt the bees.

 

[beegeorge]

find out what the neighbors are using,, if the bees are going for it, it is not hurting them

 

[Vance G]

The clorine does not hurt the bees. If there are bees in the neighborhood to rob your hives, they will be in your neighbors pool no matter how successful you are in getting your bees to change sources. Point that out to neighbor if he is listening kind.

 

[Michael Bush]

http://www.bushfarms.com/beeswater.htm

Bees need water. One of the issues is providing it. In your case, another is to provide a source that is more attractive than your neighbor's pool. To accomplish this you need to understand that bees are attracted to water because of several things:

o Smell. They can recruit bees to a source that has odor. Chlorine has odor. So does sewage.
o Warmth. Warm water can be taken on even moderately chilly days. Cold water cannot because when the bees get chilled they can’t fly home.
o Reliability. Bees prefer a reliable source.
o Accessibility. Bees need to be able to get to the water without falling in. A horse tank or bucket with no floats does not work well. A creek bank provides such access as they can land on the bank and walk up to the water. A barrel or bucket does not unless you provide ladders or floats or both. I use a bucket of water full of old sticks. The bees can land on the stick and climb down to the water.

So, if you can provide a source that smells like what they are already looking for (chorine) is warm (a small amount in the sun gets warm quickly) is reliable (you keep it full) has access without drowning (the one thing you can provide better than the pool) you may get them trained to go there. A five gallon bucket with a lot of sticks in it works well enough. A bird bath also seems to work well enough, especially if you make a "beach" of gravel or sand for them to climb on.

 

[nao_shadowpaws]

Thanks, will try a smaller container with floats and see how that goes.