Can someone explain what is happening here. This is obviously robbery but they mostly trying to get into the flow box hanging on to the crack and the roof but don’t seem to get I there.
I had to hive Coast for two days and it will calm
down I opened it up this afternoon and this is what happened within a couple of hours of opening
What should I do with this next?
Pictures in the comments
I would probably smoke them off and then put an old sheet all around it (not the entrance of course) and then reduce the entrance down. Check again that the lid fits well and there are no gaps. Was there any sort of honey or wax or anything left around the hive at all? What do you think set it off? You only have one hive - is that correct?
No idea what set it off, I don’t keep stuff around to attract robbing. The two hives next to them are fine.
The aroma of the honey attracted them, and according to Goodman and Kaczynski in their book the Australian Beekeeping Guide- in relation to robbing, … “It is seldom a problem when bees gather plenty of nectar. When nectar is in very short supply or the nectar flow stops abruptly, robbing can be initiated when hives are opened.”
I would not smoke the entrance itself as it might upset the ability of the guard bees to defend the hive. I’d just quickly smoke the clumps of robber bees off the side before quickly covering.
Did you try covering the hive and reducing the entrance?
I have closed the entrance for now but have not covered the hive. After closing the entrance it’s calm down significantly I can still see some bees there that don’t belong but it’s not as crazy as it was.
I will wait a couple of days but then I would like to extract honey from the flow frames and remove the flow super. We are pretty much done with nectar flow heat in this area.
Hi Sabine, sounds good… thanks for getting back.