At 20:10 -0400 10/10/98, David Gaida wrote:
[snip]
> Anyway, everyone told us to let the bees clean up after you extract. [snip]
 
>1.      The italian bees would rather rob than work goldenrod and aster.  Once
>they got used to robbing, they started on each other. [snip]
 
>2.      The yellow jackets and hornets got a taste for the honey from the
>honey
>room.  Then they turned on the hives. [snip]
 
This is exactly what happened to me. I had one strong hive and a hive that
had a failing queen. I requeened the weak hive and started a split from my
strong hive for a friend. Everything appeared to be fine and I decided to
extract three boxes from the strong hive. I let the bees clean up the
frames, then just as you experienced, they started raiding my two weak
hives, followed by marauding wasps and yellow jackets. I lost the split and
my weak hive.
 
I got away with letting the bees clean the frames when I had only one hive
but I've learned my lesson now.
 
1) Don't let the bees clean the frames outside the hive, just put them back
on the hives.
 
2) Use entrance reducers on weak hives, they make it much easier to defend
against marauders.
 
3) Use a single brood box, or even better a nuc, with a weak hive or split.
My weak hive consisted of two 10 inch brood boxes and a 6 inch super. The
bees could not defend it.
 
Paul