Subject: Re: Warding off Robber Be to: [log in to unmask] <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 <end quotes> 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-