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GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. / Re: Rehived absconded package, and this happened ..
« Last post by The15thMember on March 28, 2024, 09:22:51 pm »Quote
b. Would Italian bees try to "rob" a hive that doesn't really have a store of honey? (They all have the same jars of syrup.)I have local mutts, so I can't speak from experience, but I'm under the impression all bees will rob when the situation presents itself. What you are describing sounds like it could be robbing.
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a. Is there any significance to bees being clustered only on the wall of the hive box??In my experience, bees who are clustered are unable to work for some reason. I agree that it sounds like the queen is probably there based on your observations. I noticed you said all the hives have plenty of syrup, but are they actually drinking it? Are any of the hives drawing wax yet? 40F overnight sounds like it may be too cold for them to take it, because the syrup is too viscous and/or they know it will reduce their body temperature too much. Syrup has a pretty high heat capacity, meaning that it takes a long time for it to warm up to the ambient temperature, and if your daytime highs also aren't very warm, the syrup may never warm up enough for them to take it. If they are unable to eat, they are unable to work, and so they have just entered conservation mode and are sitting on the wall trying not to expend energy. If you can warm the syrup somehow it may enable them to drink it. I did this with my first two packages during a cold snap; I just popped the jars in the microwave before I brought them out to the hives every time I fed them.
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Any other comments/suggestions?I think you probably learned this based on your experiences hiving the packages, but I just wanted to articulate something that I find helpful to remember: When you have a hive open, try to be methodical and be sure you don't miss something, rather than rush and forget something that you'll need to disturb them to fix later. When you encounter a situation with a hive open and you aren't sure what to do, it's very easy to get overwhelmed, make a hasty decision, and then realize later with a clearer head that it wasn't the best decision. Whenever I find this is happening to me, I like to physically take a step back from the hive, and take a moment to think through what I need to do, how I'm going to do it, and why I'm doing it, before I begin to make the motions of doing it. The only time that speed is equally paramount is when the bees are angry, and even then being thorough is no less important. When you are a beginner it's really hard to remember all the steps and all the facts because everything about beekeeping is really foreign, so feel free to give yourself the space to be sure you've got all the boxes checked. The bees will not mind, and they may thank you for it. I think you did a good job handling the curveballs thrown at you during this process, and I just wanted to pass that along to you, in case you are feeling a little overwhelmed.
I also just wanted to mention, in case it needs to be said, that the cluster of bees on the ground was absolutely no danger to anyone. Those bees were for all intents and purposes a swarm in that moment, and unless stepped on they wouldn't have stung anyone. Just in case you needed some backup to convince your daughter-in-law.