Subject: Re: Warding off Robber Be
 
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<quotes>
>Date: Thu, 22 Sep 1994 08:37:42 -0600 (MDT)
>From: Allen Dick 546-2588 <dicka@sun>
>To: Jean-Marie Van Dyck <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Re: Warding off Robber Bees
 
   We used a technique for controlling robbing behavior in Northern
California that worked very well.  When we entered a yard and knew that
robbing was likely to occur, we went around to all the colonies and removed
their lids, leaning them alongside the hive.  That put all of the colonies
on the defensive, rather than on the offensive, and we could work without
concern.  Neither did we encounter undue hostility on the part of colonies
-- perhaps they were more on the lookout for robbers than for us.
 
                                                        Adrian
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   In the days long gone, here in central California, when we extracted
honey in the bee yards with a portable extractor bult on the back of a
old Morland truck, and good crops started at a "case" or two per hive.
(a case was a wooden R/R shipping box that held 2-5 gal cans). To
prevent loss from robbing we would pull all the tops off the beehives
soon as we entered the bee yard. If robbing got out of control, (bees
killing bees), we used burlap sacks under the tops arranged so some hung
over the edge and would flap in a breeze. If all else failed we would
paint around the top edge of the hives with creosote. We would also, at
rare times shovel dirt on the entrance to keep robbers out. We also used
lots of smoke, and used old fish net for fuel. Fish net was made of
cotton in those days and was oiled and make great clouds of cool smoke,
I have never found anything to replace it, the closest would be press
sack from a wax rendering plant. I am sure the smoke you use as a boy,
like the honey you eat, becomes implanted on your brain as the best...I
have a bit of fish net set aside and if I need to feel real mellow I
take it out with me and light it up...it really is kind of magic and
takes me back to better times when a beekeepers main problem was finding
enough equipment to hive a few late swarms.
 
   This was the good old days when chicken feed came in nice printed
cotton flower sacks. The woman would sew these sacks into what we
called a "fly", and we used them to cover up any equipment or supers of
honey on the truck if robbing became a problem. They were made over size
and being light weight would also flap in the breeze, and this movement
seemed to confuse the bees and limit robbing.
 
   I don't remember that we ever lost a hive to robbing, I am sure we
did, but it was not a problem we lost more to the combs melting down
honey and all then to robbing. I was only a swamper or beekeepers louse,
so it was sometimes my job to travel back out to the yards after dinner
to check if the robbing had stopped, and pick up the sacks and open any
hives.
          Oops my smoker fuel has burned out,
                                              ttul Andy-