Allen Dick wrote (30 August):

>I realise that I would have to list at least 20 things if I were to mention
>them all, but my all-time favourite is the idea of stopping a robbing
>frenzy by taking off all the hive lids in the yard (assuming the robbing is
>not originating elsewhere).

    Someone else responded:

>  I looked in the archives and found a post by somebody who said he had
>been taught this but had never tried it.  Has anybody here tried it?  What
>  happened?

    Allen Dick replied:   "It works for me."

    I believe I was the person who first suggested the technique, as
taught by my revered beekeeper uncle, Clarence Wenner.  We employed
that technique routinely while working a bee yard under less than
ideal conditions.

    It seems to me that one could enhance that technique by removing
all covers in the yard and then quickly spray a little sugar solution
on the top bars and entrances of all hives.  Pure sucrose solution
has no odor, so bees would concentrate more on a simulated nectar
flow than on robbing.

    Maybe someone would want to try out that addition to the
cover-removal technique.

                                                Adrian
--
Adrian M. Wenner                (805) 963-8508 (home office phone)
967 Garcia Road                 [log in to unmask]
Santa Barbara, CA  93103        www.beesource.com/pov/wenner/index.htm

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*    "T'is the majority [...that] prevails.  Assent, and you are sane
*       Demur, you're straightway dangerous, and handled with a chain."
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*                                    Emily Dickinson, 1862
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