Once upon a time I left my cappings and frames out for the bees
to clean up. I had been told it creates robbing but saw no
evidence. Plus, a friend told me he did it all the time, and he
had forty hives.
I no longer leave them out.
I was not as observant as I thought. I did not recognize robbing
when it was going on right in front of me. And took for granted a
number of dead bees left behing after the cleaning of the
cappings. I also did not know that the bees bothered my neighbors
ever time I put out honey covered wax for cleaning. They seem to
lose it and agressively looked for anything sweet in the
neighborhood. These were my nice, gentle bees, turned bad by my
actions.
So I stopped. The advice of the oldtimers was right. It does
create robbing. It does make angry bees. Look under the clean
capping and frames and you will always find dead bees. They did
not get that way from grooming honey off each other.
And my friend, who had forty hives, now has none. AFB, a very
preventable disease if you are observant, killed them all.
Bill T
Bath, ME