This morning the battle continues. I can't tell if the robber screen is effective or if the bees at this hive are so confused by it that they are not doing well.There are bees everywhere, angry buzzing, and battling bees falling to the ground in front of the hive. At the same time there are a huge number of bees crawling under the hive - I do have a screened bottom board and maybe they are trying to get in that way - which won't happen because there's no opening.
There is a small entry level opening in this robber screen. The pattern for it on the Internet says that it should have one entry level opening in case a virgin queen is developed and needs to get in.
The opening is evident in the middle picture. The bees can get in where I didn't make the shim quite flush with the bottom of the screen (will do better on the second robber screen that I will build today). I may need to block that with duct tape or a piece of wood. You can see bees going in to the hive there.
I am also worried about the bungee cord. I may need to drill holes in the sides of the frame for the hooks for the bungee so that the cord can hook there since the bees seem (in the third picture) to be very confused by the bungee.
What I am calling confused bees may be the robbers who are trying to get into the hive entrance. I am trying hard to be a beeKEEPER rather than a beeHAVER but this robbing behavior is quite a challenge.
One approach to pause the battle is to put on a sprinkler. The bees think is it raining and leave.
ReplyDeleteI had a similar setup with hives on my deck and the deck also had a screenhouse. I extracted the honey in the screenhouse in late august during a drth of nectar flow. The robbers were attracted by the smells. I had five hive and the weakest has gettig hammered.
The sprinkler at least allowed the hive to get there defenses organized along with a restricting the erances.
The attackers were from hives about a 1/2 a mile away.