Dave Cooper

Put on an excluder < 1". visible robbers were about 200. numbers appear to be going down.

David Livingston wrote:I personally would reduce the entrance to the hive to give your girls more chance to defend to hive from the robbers right down to maybe four inch width because if there are fifty robbers there must be a great deal more robbing going on .

David

Good call!

Thanks!

Redhawk, thanks for the reply!

I was hoping that the dead bees and larva were a good sign considering the mites. ie. the bees are doing their part to minimize the impact.

As for the honey supers, I removed the 2nd full honey super and still need to process. My plan was to keep the 1 honey super on for the winter for food (with supplemental) and use the 2nd box to keep a top feeder.

I removed the queen excluder because it looked like I may need to do a split in the spring and thought it would be beneficial if they replaced honey in the super with brood. Am I wrong?

My plan was to leave the hive at 3 boxes for winter. Did I do this too soon?

The hive has been strong all summer and this is the first sign of any problems.

Dave

Hello, I am a first year beekeeper with a first year hive. I am seeking some input from experienced beekeepers on some recent observations.

    1. Varroa Mites - Not too many, first observed early September. I have not done an internal inspection yet. I have decided not to treat.
    2. Shortly after the first mites spotted, dead young bees and larva on the landing board. Is this housekeeping related to the mites or preparing for winter?
    3. Robber Bees - first noticed about a week ago. Just a few being fought off on the landing board. This morning there were maybe about 50 robber bees on the hive and landing board in cool wet weather. No signs of successful robbing yet (wax cappings and debris on landing board).

My bee's are Italian's (the robber's appear to be Carnolian?) and my hive is an 8 frame Langstroth with all medium boxes. Current configuration is 2 brood boxes with 1 honey super with no queen excluder.
Last inspection was in late August when I removed a honey super for harvest. I did not find the queen, but found plenty of eggs and larva.

I am hoping to determine if these observations are normal for season or something that requires intervention.

I will keep an eye on this thread for a week or so to check for responses and any questions you may have to help diagnose.

Thank you in advance for your responses!

Dave