Hello,
Looked at the hive this morning and found this
Lots of bees on the landing pad. Some fighting and what not. Some ants have gathered at the bottom and were eating a dead bee.
Also this at the back, bees trying to get into my feeder.
So how would I prevent this before it gets too bad? As it is already bad it seems
Hi Tom, in my experience robber bees can smell honey through the finest of cracks. Therefore you need to eliminate any cracks the bees can smell honey through.
I would switch to a solid floor, I would temporarily block the vents in your lid, then I would suggest to wrap masking tape around where the boxes meet with each other, as well as where they meet the lid & bottom board. If you don’t have a strong population, you can reduce the entrance to about 2" (50mm), assuming it is 3/8" (10mm) high.
Work on 5 sq.cm. Therefore if your entrance is deeper that 10mm (1cm), you can reduce it to less than 2" (5cm).
On top of that, use the towel & make the robbing screen as @Eva suggested.
cheers
Thanks, how long should I leave this towel on?
I’d leave it on all day and put your robbing screen on at night, then re-dampen it and put back for the next day. You should see some peace restored by the end of the second day & remove the towel but leave the screen on until your colony or the flow is a bit stronger.
