Hopefully, if the link works,
There is a lot of bees activity at the entrance of the brood box.
It almost looks as if they are fighting.
Does it look like robbers trying to get in ?
The opening is only 75 mm wide
Cheers, G
Hi George, the video for me was very low res and skipping, (maybe not yet rendered by YouTube, or my internet).
I saw some scuffles but can’t say with confidence it’s robbing, could be just normal traffic. When I had robbing, I could see bees interlocked and dropping off the platform.
Robbers, when flying away from the hive they are robbing tend to dip in their flight, they go down, then up. That’s because they are loaded with the loot. The hive occupants leave the hive with no excess baggage, and tend to fly straight up.
If there’s robbing it doesn’t look like a full-out attack, but possibly a few insurgents that are getting their @s kicked on the landing board. I’d keep an eye on it though and maybe a precautionary robbing screen wouldn’t hurt.
The birds and chickens in the background were nice too
Congrats on getting the video uploaded George. I watched it a few times and didn’t see anything related to robbing happening. Obviously a very active and strong, healthy hive. The entrance is busy but not to the extent of needing traffic lights or a larger entrance. It all looks good to me.
Cheers
I watched the video also. I don’t see any fighting or evidence of robbing.
If your hive is getting robbed, you’ll see evidence of the honey cells empty after caps being unceremoniously ripped off. Not to mention dead bees on the floor & outside of the hive, as well as bees fighting.
What time did you take the video? If it was in the afternoon from 2pm onwards, could be bees doing orientation flights. Bit hard to confirmed with the video zoomed in.
@Eva, @JeffH@Peter48@Zzz, thank you all for your encouragement and replies.
Makes me feel better when the majority consensus seem to be that the hive is in good shape and no robber bees.
I will continue to keep an eye on it and have also put a screen in . front of the opening to keep robbers out. Cheers, G
It is easy to mistake extra activity around the hive as a robbing attack when it could be orientation flights.
New bees on an orientation flight tend to fly about the hive in ever increasing distances more often than not facing the hive. When there is robbing happening the robbers make a bee line for the entrance where they fight to the death with the guard bees who will have increased in numbers to help defend the hive. Orientation flights can also be mistaken for swarming.
Cheers