[Please forgive the cross posting to both Bee-L and [log in to unmask]]
I've had recurring problems with robbing from my one and only hive,
and I still haven't been able to reliably prevent it. I'm a
first-year beekeeper, which is why I only have one hive. My bees went
into Fall with plenty of honey and pollen, but most of it was gone by
early November, and I realized that the bee frenzies I'd seen around
my hive at various times had been robber bees doing their thing. I
hadn't reduced the entrance before that (oops) so I chalked it up to
"live and learn" for next year, and I subsequently installed a
homemade entrance reducer that only allows one bee at a time to pass
through. The notch at the front of the inner cover is the only other
entrance, and I leave that open for winter ventilation.
I've been advised that my hive must have been weak already for this
original robbing to have happened, and I shouldn't expect it to
survive the winter. But in the spirit of learning from this negative
experience, I decided to feed them to see if they might make it
through the winter after all, rather than let them starve, since this
is my only hive until next year. So in mid-November I fed some 2:1
sugar syrup during some cool weather, only to find that on the first
warm day, the robbers were back, so I removed the syrup feed out of
frustration, hoping they would lose interest.
I decided fondant would be the best way to feed the colony at this
point, and I thought the robbers would be less likely to detect the
presence of fondant than sugar syrup (not sure why), so I whipped up
a batch of fondant using the recipe in the October Bee Culture. The
weather's been cold here (highs in the 30s) for most of last week, so
I had to wait until a couple days ago to put some fondant on the top
bars of the hive. I placed a spacer over the fondant, then the inner
cover with the notch/entrance on the bottom, then the top cover. This
seemed to be the best arrangement for ventilation and my bees' access
to the fondant. When I did so, it seemed that there were plenty of
bees in the hive, but I am too new at this to accurately assess.
Well, today the weather is sunny and 50 degrees, and lo and behold I
looked out at the hive just now and sure enough, more robbing. I
don't feel I can close down the hive any more than I have without
stopping the ventilation, but I am going out to close up the top
entrance.
Is there a way to position the fondant and inner cover better to
prevent robbing without negatively affecting hive ventilation? Will
the bees be able to access the fondant in cold weather if I put it
above the inner cover, or will it be out of reach when they are in
their winter huddle?
I feel that no matter what I do, I'm just feeding someone else's
colony and weakening my own. Do I need to remove the feed anytime the
temp exceeds 50 degrees and bees are flying? Should I just quit
feeding them until the weather gets consistently cold? Seems like the
more I try to do to help them, the worse the problem gets...
Anne in southeastern PA
--
--------------------------------
Anne Brennan
[log in to unmask]
-- Visit www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l for rules, FAQ and other info ---
|