Allen wrote:
> Also, when hives are robbed, there is a sort of 'mud' left on the entrance 
> holes.
>
> Anyone know what that is?
>
> I don't know what the former is.  Could be propolis, but the latter does 
> not appear to be.

and Peter wrote:

I submit that the entire inside of the hive is covered with propolis 
eventually, and that the bees
cannot help but track it everywhere on their feet. This would account for 
the travel stain on fresh
honey comb and it accounts for the gobs of propolis all over the openings of 
a hive that is being
robbed.     end of quote

I do not know exactly what the "robber mark" is, and Peter has made a 
convincing
argument for propolis use throughout the hive, enough to alter the opinion I 
first held
about dark comb being due to cocoons for me.  But I do know how the mark 
comes
about, and it is quite interesting.  If you watch the robbers coming to the 
entrance you
can see that just before they take flight and just as they come into the 
light they take
the structure on the first pair of legs that is called the "antenna cleaner" 
and fold the
leg and clean their antenna.  Then they wipe off the debris on the cleaner 
on the wood.
I had always assumed that this was wax debris from uncapping cells in a 
hurry / fury.
But if all the cells are painted with propolis, then there would be some of 
this as well,
which would explain the colour and the gummy consistency.  But I think that 
wax is
a major component of the robbing mark.

Stan

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