Robbing

In warm dearths, desperate wasps and other honey bees may try to rob from your hives, decimating them. You can help this by:

1. 1. Reduce the entrance down to the smallest size, possibly even block with a rock to only the width of 2 bees at a time
   2. Purchase or build a simple robber guard. (And the most fast, cheap version can be viewed here) Yes, your own bees may be confused when they first come back from foraging of how to get in the maze. They will figure it out eventually. Robber guards create a maze that only the bees that live there know how to traverse.
   3. In extreme robbing events, throw a soaking wet sheet over the hive so it drapes towards the ground for the day. Remove when the robbers leave.

Syrup Recipes

In spring, 1:1 sugar to water by weight is fed to newly establishing bees for about 2 weeks. In the fall, 2:1 sugar to water by weight is fed to hives needing to put on more feed for the winter.  Ratios can be measured as follows..

1:1 Spring feed – 1 pound (2 cups) of sugar to 1 pound (1.92 cups) of water. In small amounts this ratio can be rounded off to 2 dry cups of sugar to 1 pint of water.  The uneven ratio only becomes a big deal as you mix larger batches of nectar

2:1 Fall Feed – 2 pounds (4 cups) of sugar to 1 pound (1.92 cups) of water. Same ratio round off as above fine with smaller batches.

Winter Feeding Options

• Sugar – Optional if low on honey or for security – No Syrup!

  • • Mountain Camp method – Newspaper with cuts on top bars, 10 pounds of dry sugar
  • • Candy Board – 1 x 4 inch Frame filled with dry sugar than sprayed with enough water to harden
  • • Fondant Patties

• Protein

  • • Winter Patties – lower protein $17.50 10 lbs at BetterBee.com
  • • Pollen Patties – Spring higher protein

• Crabby Patties – From Bee nutritionist Dr. Dale Hill of The Hive and the Honey Bee

  • • Mix 4.5 lbs sugar, 1/2 lbs pollen substitute powder, 7 oz warm water (90% sugar : 10% protein)
  • • Place in 1-gallon Ziploc baggies with 2 pieces of wood ¾” x ¾” x 3”. The wood lays perpendicular to the bars to keep it from collapsing completely down on the bees.
  • • Cut a few slits between wood pieces and set cut side down on top bars then put insulation above it to fill in whatever shim box or medium super you placed above the bees to make room
  • • Increase to 70% Sugar: 30% pollen sub beginning of March on till first pollen flow

Crabby Patty with wood inserts – image provided by Dr. Dale Hill

Bee Friendly Planting

How to Garden for Pollinators
provided by the Sonoma County Beekeepers