I extracted the last of my 2013 honey yesterday, and as usual I put the empty supers (8) out on the deck for cleanup. This is my
first year to have hives where I live, and those four colonies are about 20
yards from the deck, behind an earthen berm. That was far enough away on July 7,
while much of the clover was still in bloom. It was far enough on August 4 after
the main nectar flow was well over – I saw some attempted robbing then but
reduced entrances by 2/3 and that took care of it.
Apparently the bees are more desperate now. The feeding
frenzy on my deck yesterday was noticeably stronger so I walked out and looked at the
hives, and was dismayed to see thousands of bees in the air. I had closed entrances
by half the day before, but upon seeing this I closed them down to about 3 inches,
leaned lids up against them and even turned a lawn sprinkler on them for an
hour or so, which finally calmed things down.
So I have two questions: One, what is the minimum distance
one should place wet supers from hives during a nectar dearth? In my other,
much larger location, I used to put them 75-100 yards away with no issues.
And two, has anyone ever tried to stimulate short-term colony
defense using alarm pheromone? My feeling is there are only so many guard bees out front, and
when the drunken rioters descend en masse they may be too slow to get the alarm
out. Would it help to toss a banana peel in each hive, or beat on the lids with
a shovel, just before putting supers out? I’m kidding here, but you get my
point.
Are Africanized bees less prone to robbing since they’re
always itching for a fight?

Eugene Makovec
Foley Missouri USA

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