On 13 Oct 2003 at 14:59, Bogansky,Ronald J wrote:

> There was at least 5 -6 lbs of dead bees.  The entire bottom
> board was covered as was the entire inner cover.

  Was there a lot of cappings mixed in with the dead bees on the
bottom? Bees can get very robby this time of year, particularly if
there's a good flow on and it's stopped suddenly by frost. Bees are
somewhat robby even here in SC where goldenrod is at peak.
Apparently they aren't getting a lot.  At this time of year, it's easy to
get them started when you work the bees. A little wet burr comb left
on the ground to give them a taste is all that's needed to get it
started.

  If you had honey supers on with a hole or crack, that's another
place where robbing often starts, as they don't guard it as well as
the main entrance. Then, once they are going, the colony loses
morale and they can enter anywhere.  I've seen yellow jackets also
take a weak colony too. In fact you can see a movie of one such
attack a couple falls ago on my web page.

Time, at least in northern USA, to reduce the entrances...and check
for other openings.  Duct tape is the beekeepers friend for the
latter...


Dave Green  SC  USA
The Pollination Home Page:  http://pollinator.com     or mirror
http://pollinator.info

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