behavior

[Alfred]

What does pre-swarm or a robbing look like?
I noticed today one hive behaving differently to the others
It's been a cold wet drizzly morning(I did smile as I watched them all huddled inside the entrances like indignant cats)
and no one came out in any quantity until 4pm.
However the smallest swarm colony was then very very active,with lots bees flying around the front a lot more than the other hives.I couldn't stay long enough to see if they were clustering
I've given them feed and a super,they have plenty of room in the brood to go,and I didn't see ant QC last week.They were very placid.
They are next to a large colony but I've throttled back their entrance just in case
I'm like a new parent worrying I know...

[Patrick]

Hi Alfred.

Is the big colony being fed as well? It is possible that one of the other hives has found a free source of syrup (albeit in somebody else's colony) and is taking advantage of it. It is not unknown where one colony's being fed and others are not. Are there any dead bees under the nuc entrance? It is quite possible one of your other colonies is correspondingly apparently doing much better than its neighbours

Tbh, a nuc (especailly a new nuc) is usually not resourced to mount much of a defence. There are several tactics you can try to reduce robbing but once they have got it underway it us usually too late to reduce the entrance - that works much, much better as a preventative measure which is why I run all my colonies (of whatever size) on relatively small entrances all year round. Similarly it means wasps are never an issue however common they are locally.

The only way to stop robbing for sure is to block up the entrance in the evening and move the nuc over 3 miles away as the crow flies for a while, keep it with a small entrance so it can build up unmolested then bring it back home.

[Alfred]

Thanks Patrick
Yes they are all being fed
It's just not being able to recognise behaviours is my problem for the moment.
It wasn't particularly aggressive,just moderate swirling by lots of bees.
Rain Stopped Play yesterday but I hope to go back today for a quick inspection.

[Chrisbarlow]

Could be new bees on orientation flights round the colony.

If it's robbing you tend to see a grease look appearing around the entrance. The grease look being honey/nectar/pollen / syrup that's being brought out of the colony

[AdamD]

If you are concerned about robbing, try closing up the entrance of the 'potential 'victim' hive in the evening. In the morning when bees are flying, see if there are bees around the victim hive. If there are, then it's the robbers trying to get in. If not, then you're OK.

[Alfred]

Thanks guys.
I have sponge chunks on the entrances of the smaller hives which they also like to drink from.
I haven't seen any corpses but there are keen pheasants lurking so I might not be quick enough anyway.
What does swarming prep look like-they were extremely docile last week compared with the previous inspection.I have given them a reasonable environment I think.
One of the new frames I provided has been drawn with a lobe of comb down the side so I can't be sure there wasn't a QC hidden between.
I have a feeling this hive is the cast of the monster next door as they arrived within hours of each other and 30ft apart.

[Alfred]

Had a look late this evening and they seem quite settled,as were the other hives.
So panic over
Thanks

[AdamD]

Swarming doesn't appear to us as much until it happens. If you are in the apiary, you tend to realize that there is a buzzing sound and look up to see lots of bees flying and them rushing headlong out of the hive. Prior to this, inside the hive, bees are doing 'buzzing runs' and crashing into each other to whip up some excitement to get the bees and queen out.
And once they have swarmed, there are still bees coming in and out of the hive, so if you see a swarm of bees hanging from a bush by your hives, it's difficult to know where the bees came from.

[Jim Norfolk]

If you want to know where in your apiary the swarm came from catch a few hundred bees from the swarm in a jar, dust them with flour and release them away from the swarm. The white bees will fly home.