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  • From: Randall Austin <ra41717 AT gmail.com>
  • To: Scott Sipe <cscotts AT gmail.com>, Orange County Beekeepers <ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [ocba] Robbing?
  • Date: Sun, 6 Aug 2017 22:30:53 -0400

If this situation is due to full-on, intense robbing, when you inspect the hive you may very well see lots of raggedy-edged cells where the robbers have ravaged the stores. Often you'll see wax flakes on the bottom board or underneath the hive where the robbers, in their frenzy, have ripped up the cell cappings.

I have no idea what would have caused the whittling away at the entrance reducer. That's a good one!

Let us know what you find when you look inside.

Randall


On 8/5/2017 5:14 PM, Scott Sipe wrote:
I have one hive, now in its third year, that has been going strong. I removed 2 supers full of honey about 4 weeks ago. I had not inspected since then, but things seemed good based on the number of bees hanging around the entrance and coming/going. Currently two 10-frame deeps.

I was out of town for 8 days and coming back today I noticed immediately that the volume of bees coming and going was dramatically reduced. Getting closer, the ground in front of the hive looks like total beepocalypse. Thousands of dead bees. I had mowed the grass in front of the hive exactly 8 days ago, so I know whatever happened was within the last week. The entrance reducer even looked like it had been gnawed on in some places? (See pics. I had smoked the entrance right before the entrance picture, so there's only one bee around--there were about a dozen or so hanging around before. I had the entrance reducer set so that there was the "large" entrance and also the small entrance facing up and barely open--the small entrance looks enlarged now?)

No signs of robbing today. I still see bees coming back with pollen, guard bees hanging out around the entrance, and so forth. I didn't have time to do a full inspection, but I pulled off the inner lid and it seemed like a lot of bees around the top.

Does this sound or look like the aftermath of robbing? Is there anything special I should look for when I do a full inspection? 

Pictures of the ground in front of the hive and the front of the hive are here:


Thanks,
Scott


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