Why is it important to stop robbing in your bee yard?

Let’s start with the 3 main reasons why “robbing” happens in the bee yard.

1. A dearth – Click here to learn more about dearths
2. A weaker hive
3. Un-equal feeding program
4. Using a entrance reducer

Robbing happens mostly when there are limited resources for our bees to forage upon.  This lack of resources is called a “dearth”.  Dearth’s happen mostly starting in late July and lasting til the Goldenrod comes into bloom.  After the Goldenrod has no more blooms, the dearth is back all the way til the Spring of the following year.

The best beekeeping supplies a beekeeper can have is an entrance reducer.  The reducer has two openings.  One larger opening for summer use.  During the cooler Fall and Winter months you will want to use the smaller opening.  Using an entrance reducer will help the colony defend their hive as it reduces the opening down to 3 inches during the summer and allowing the guard bees a better chance in defending the hive.  Very few hives can defend their hive with a completely open entry way into the hive.

The honey bee is designed to forage for nectar sources and when a dearth has hit week 2 your bees will just hover around the hive and just hang out on the front of the hive.   By week 3, of the dearth, the bees will begin a “drift”.  A drift is when a honey bee visits the hive next door or looks for a hive with limited guard bees to defend the hive.  A strong hive will have guard bees to sense the pheromone of a queen of another hive and will not allow that “foreign bee” into the hive.  In fact, there will be a good fight on the landing board.

A weak hive will not have many guard bees or no guard bees at all.  The foreign honey bee will go in and inspect the hive for honey sources or sugar water.  This foreign bee will then go back to their original hive and perform the waggle dance to let other foraging bees know where this honey can be found.  Then 5, then 25, then 100+ bees start entering this weak hive and plundering the honey stores.  At this point the defending hive has lost the battle.  The opposing honey bees can even kill the queen with multiple bee stings.  After the plundering is completed, the hive has no food stores and will begin a slow die-off.  By the first frost, the remaining bees will freeze and the living hive will now be a tomb of dead honey bees.

A bee yard can develop into a man-made robbing problem when a beekeeper has 3 hives and decides to only feed one hive.  The other two hives will eventually over power the guard bees and plummet the honey stores of the hive that is being fed sugar water.  This would also be true if you decided to add Lemongrass oil to the sugar water of one hive.  You would need to feed all three hives with lemongrass oil.  If not, robbing will occur.

Best practices mandate that if you are going to feed one hive, you must feed all hives.  This balances out the bee yard feeding so it greatly reduces the need for robbing in the bee yard.

How do you limit robbing?

1. Using internal feeders is highly important as it limits access to the sugar water.
   1. Top feeders are typically the best as it requires more transit time within the hive.
   2. A frame feeder is also a good way to limit robbing.
   3. A boardman feeder must be placed on the opposite side of the entry way into the hive. Never place the feeder next to the entry way.
2. Never “community feed” in a bee yard. This accelerates robbing in the bee yard.
3. Only allow one point of entry into the hive.

Some of the best sugar water feeds is using a 1:1 ratio with a teaspoon of lemongrass oil or tea tree oil per gallon.  Your bees will love you with either or both oils!