Lesson 50: Robbing

When bees steal from other colonies: spotting it, stopping it, and preventing it

Robbing is when bees from one colony break into another colony and steal its honey. It usually happens when nectar is scarce: during a dearth, after the main flow ends, or in fall. Foragers with nothing to collect go looking for easy food, and a weak colony's honey is the easiest food around.

Robbing is serious. A colony that's robbed can lose all its stores and die, robbing bees fight and kill defenders, the whole apiary can become defensive, and robber bees can carry mites and disease from colony to colony.

Who gets robbed

• Weak colonies: small, queenless, sick or new, with too few guards for the size of their entrance.
• Colonies with openings other than the entrance: gaps, cracks, a lid out of line.
• Colonies near spilled syrup, honey or wax.
• Any colony you leave open too long when nothing is blooming.

Italian bees are known for being easily provoked to rob weaker neighbors (lesson 15).

How to recognize robbing

• Frantic activity at the entrance: many bees zig-zagging in front of the hive and darting at the entrance, rather than flying straight in and out.
• Fighting at the entrance: bees grappling and rolling on the landing board, guard bees attacking intruders, dead bees piling up in front of the hive.
• Bees trying to get in anywhere: at cracks, the seams between boxes, around the lid and around feeders.
• Inside: ragged, torn cappings and bits of wax on the bottom board where honey was ripped open.
• Robber bees often look shiny and dark, with hair worn off from fighting. (Some diseases also produce shiny, hairless bees harassed at the entrance, so look at the whole picture; lesson 62.)

Don't confuse robbing with orientation flights. On warm afternoons, young bees fly in gentle loops in front of their own hive, facing it, learning its location. That's calm and normal. Robbing is frantic, with fighting.

Stopping robbing in progress

1. Reduce the entrance of the colony being robbed to a small opening, one or two bee-widths, so the defenders can guard it.
2. Close every other gap. Tape shut cracks and seams, and make sure boxes and lids sit square.
3. Close the hive up. Stop any inspection and put the lid on.
4. Clean up any syrup, honey or wax nearby.
5. Remove entrance feeders from all hives in the yard.
6. If robbing is severe, some beekeepers cover the robbed hive with a wet sheet for a while, or move the robbed colony to another yard.

Preventing robbing

• Keep entrances reduced on small or weak colonies, and during a dearth (lesson 17).
• Feed inside the hive, not with entrance feeders; enclose feeders in an empty box under the lid (lesson 22).
• Never spill syrup or leave honey, frames or wax scraps lying around the apiary (lesson 38).
• Work fast and keep hives open briefly when nothing is blooming; inspect in the early morning or evening if robbing is a risk.
• Keep colonies strong, and combine very weak ones (lesson 47).
• Keep equipment tight: no cracks or gaps.

What to remember

• Robbing happens when nectar is scarce; weak colonies get robbed.
• Signs: frantic, zig-zagging bees, fighting at the entrance, bees trying to enter cracks, torn cappings.
• Stop it: reduce the entrance, seal gaps, close up, clean up syrup, remove entrance feeders.
• Prevent it: reduced entrances in a dearth, internal feeders, no spills, quick inspections.

Quick check

1. Why does robbing usually happen during a dearth?
2. What's the first thing to do when you see a colony being robbed?
3. How can you tell robbing from young bees' orientation flights?

Adapted from: UF/IFAS Extension, Welcome to the Apiary! (4H446), "External Observations"; UGA Bee Program, Getting Started: A Synopsis of Bee Management in Georgia, Beekeeping Equipment, Races of Honey Bees and Honey Bee Disorders: Viral Diseases and Honey Bee Parasites; Mississippi State University Extension, Beginning Beekeeping in Mississippi (P3594); Purdue Extension, Advanced Beekeeping (4-H-1059-W).

Adapted from university Extension sources. Experienced Georgia beekeepers are reviewing these lessons. See something that doesn't match your experience? Tell us.