Robber Screen for the Construction Challenged

I wish I had taken shop - I liked Home Ec but I wish I had learned more about hammers, nails and saws. My father is very "handy" and has complicated tools like metal lathes and drill presses. When I was little, I could watch him work in his workshop, but I couldn't help - only watch.

I did learn a few practical things by osmosis, I guess. I know to put soap on a screw before turning it and it will go in smoother. I know to think about where the screwdriver will go when it slips instead of using it and having an unforeseen accident. But I can't easily build things on my own.

So I was thrilled to find and adjustable window screen - 10 " high; 19" - 33" wide.
For $6.97, I was going to make a robber screen.

The robbers are attracted to the hive because of the honey. They are drawn to the entrance of the hive where they smell the honey. The bees who live in a hive are attracted to the queen. They will try to move heaven and earth to get to her.

The theory of the robber screen is that you are placing a barrier in front of the hive entrance - thus keeping out the robbers - and making a new entrance several inches above the original one that the resident bees will use. The residents will find it because they will work hard to find a way to get to the queen.

I cut a piece of molding 1.5"X.75" and nailed it
to the wood at the edge of the adjustable screen.
The screen at its original width was too wide for the front of the hive. With the molding nailed in, it blocks the main entrance and creates an entrance about 10 " up from the original.
I then took the contraption I had nailed together and used bungee cords to hold it to the hive.

The bees in Bermuda (where the screen has been attached) were furious. They declared it loudly from the front of the hive. I left for the evening hoping they would find their way into the hive.

Staving off the Robbers with an Entrance Reducer

I put an entrance reducer on the front of both Destin and Bermuda and went to work. The battle was still raging when I left, but not as bad as before the entrance reducer.

When I returned, there appeared to be peace in the bee world, but not for long.

The Beemaster forum people suggested that I might want to use a robber screen. I read all about it and went to Home Depot to buy my supplies.

The Battle of the Bees

At 6:30 AM my bees were at war. I could hear the buzz of battle through the closed windows of my porch, about 15 feet away from the hives.I went out onto the porch to find the bees engaged in the heat of battle.

Clumps of bees struggled until they wrestled a bee to the ground (in this case, my deck). The casualities of war lay on the deck below the hive stand.

I went onto the Beemaster forum: robbing was the thought expressed. The bees were robbing the hives. Since both hives were being robbed this morning, I was at first concerned that outsider bees were doing this. Then as the day went on and the robbing of Destin stopped, I realized that the Destin bees were now robbing the Bermuda hive and killing was happening everywhere.

The case of the too-short honey foundation

Remember earlier when I found that I had bought foundation that was too short for the frames I was building? I was curious to see how the bees adapted to my error. In this picture you can see that they have almost filled this frame with honey and have built comb to fill in the gap at the bottom.








On a couple of the frames, they had made bulged out comb as you see here to fill the gap but in 20 frames in two supers, there were only two in which they did this bulge thing. Since I am using the crush and strain method to get my honey, the bulge will not create a problem. If I were using an extractor, it would be more difficult to uncap the honey when it is all curvy like this.

The newest bee

I haven't added to this blog in several days because I have been busy learning to be a grandmother to my first grandchild: Dylan. Isn't he adorable? This is a picture of me holding him when he was just 11 hours old.

I can't wait until he is old enough for me to buy him a child-sized beesuit so he can bee a beekeeper too!

Propolis - the super glue of bees

When I inspected the hives today, there was lots of propolis . The propolis was sticking the frames to each other or sticking the honey supers to the hive body. It was under the inner cover, sticking the inner cover to the super below. I gathered this glob of propolis on the end of my hive tool.

The propolis in the picture is orange but it could be other colors. How it looks depends on what the bees are gathering. When bees use it to glue parts of the hive together or to fill empty space, beekeepers say that the bees "propolize" the space.

Was it sticky! I imagine getting this on the bottom of your shoe would be much worse than gum, for example. It felt resinous and it rolled into a ball with a smooth exterior.

Bees use propolis for many purposes, including cementing parts of the hive together. They also use it to keep the size of bee space
the same everywhere in the hive

Beautiful capped honey

When I inspected the bees today, I found beautiful capped honey. The first super was full with about 45 % of the honey capped. When the frames in the super are completely capped, I can remove the super and finally taste the honey that my bees are making.

The second picture is of the uncapped honey. It is really dark. We just ended the tulip poplar
flow and that honey is a darker honey. I'd like to think the bees are happy with their work, but mostly they were irritated with me for disrupting their day and intruding into their house!

So far when I work on the bees, I always wear my suit, complete with veil and gloves. I haven't been stung yet but I'm sure the day is coming. My little dog Haley has been stung twice now by bees that come into my house unbeknownst to me after I've worked on the bees. She got curious and pushed a bee around with her paw and the bee gave up her life to show Haley how mad she was about that treatment.

Bees huddling in the rain

Last night the heavens opened up and rain poured with no light shower preview and no warning. I looked out to see how the bee beards were faring. As I watched the bees who were clustered on Destin fell to the porch in clumps.

When they cluster like this last little group is doing, they cling to each others' legs. Wonder how they decide to let go? You do it! No, you let go first! Clumps the size of the palm of my hand fell to the front porch, let go of each other and went in out of the rain.

The cluster in this picture remained this way throughout the storm. They were somewhat protected by the cut out hand grip and the telescoping cover. I went out this morning expecting to find dead bees all over the deck, but there were no more than usual (4 - 6) scattered over the deck where the mortician bees had dragged them and there were 2 dead on the landing area of the hive.