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I've been keeping this blog for all of my beekeeping years and I am beginning my 19th year of beekeeping in April 2024. Now there are more than 1300 posts on this blog. Please use the search bar below to search the blog for other posts on a subject in which you are interested. You can also click on the "label" at the end of a post and all posts with that label will show up. At the very bottom of this page is a list of all the labels I've used.

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I began this blog to chronicle my beekeeping experiences. I have read lots of beekeeping books, but nothing takes the place of either hands-on experience with an experienced beekeeper or good pictures of the process. I want people to have a clearer picture of what to expect in their beekeeping so I post pictures and write about my beekeeping saga here.Master Beekeeper Enjoy with me as I learn and grow as a beekeeper.

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Saturday, June 10, 2006

The Battle Continues

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. Posted by Picasa

1 comment:

  1. Anonymous12:23 AM

    One approach to pause the battle is to put on a sprinkler. The bees think is it raining and leave.

    I 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.

    ReplyDelete

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