Robbing
In warm dearths, desperate wasps and other honey bees may try to rob from your hives, decimating them. You can help this by:
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- Reduce the entrance down to the smallest size, possibly even block with a rock to only the width of 2 bees at a time
- 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.
- 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.
