[Stone]

has been quoted too many times, but in this case, this IS the question!

I've had a nightmare situation with robbing over the last couple of months and lost 3 out of my six hives to this. There has been a pretty severe drought up here and I think this is what is making for this relentless robbing. Please see my previous post and discussion on this:

http://www.beesource.com/forums/showthread.php?t=244418

My question is this: I have the opportunity to obtain some excellent bees from "The Fat Bee Man", Don Kuchenmeister, and I'm very fearful that if I bring these nucs into my yard, I will loose them to my three stong bandit hives (which I would not be surprised to see robbing each other when I return next week!). I'm tempted just to wait until next year to build up what I lost.

Short of moving my present hives somewhere else, or putting my nucs in another location, I'd be very grateful for you thoughts and suggestions on this.

By the way, I posted this on the Top Bar Hive forum because all my hives are of that design, but I thought I'd post here as well to get as many ideas about this as I can. Thanks.

 

[merdoc]

I read if you feed the hive doing the robbing it helps but not sure good luck.

 

[devdog108]

Stone, Don's bees may not be aggressive, but they build up VERY fast and protected their hives well..... Mine would be in 3 meds right now if I had not splt them a few weeks ago. That split is 10 frames already packed solid.

 

[BuzzyBee]

Also, if you haven't already, you might put entrance reducers on your hives. It will be much easier for your bees to defend a 3/8 inch hole than the entire front of the hive.

Good luck!

BB