Hello all, I have been a bee keeper now for 6 to 7 years. I don't know all and probably never will. I have a dead out hive. It was a late caught swarm and I know they didn't have much chance but I figured I would try. Anyway they froze to death about a month ago in a cold spell. The hive has some frames on honey left in it, I took full frames and put in the freezer leaving only a little bit. I was going to let my other hives just rob them out and put it to use. Today I noticed large amounts of fighting in front of it. Dead bees here and there. I have never seen this before out of robber bees. Do they fight other robber bees over resources as this? Just seemed kinda weird that they would fight over a hive that died out a month ago. Anyone else see this or might know what is going on?
Weird Honey Bee Activity
- Thread starter DB1200
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CloverKnollFarms
Elite Member
I've never seen fighting unless the bees are defending their hive. Odd to see them do this to a dead out. I've seen deadouts robbed and zero carnage. I have also seen live colonies robbed and massive carnage. Not what you describe. However I also subscribe to, bees know what they are doing, and they don't need many to tell them they are right or wrong.
I wouldn't think that would be the case. Here in NC we don't typically get bees that mean. I have caught some means ones but not to that extent. It has me curious if a swarm is about to move in and sent guard bees to defend until they do. I'm very interested to see if anything happens out of this or just some weird stuff.
LittleBittyBigJohn
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Odd, was it out long enough for a swarm to move in? I've already seen swarms around my part of the country.
It's cold now by me right now. We have an insulated ish type hive and bees that were late arrivals, but stayed active. On some of the warmer days though, we've seen nothing. The wife says bad news will wait. We'll be watching, but half expect yellow jackets to be the first sign of activity.
CloverKnollFarms
Elite Member
If it's 50F, honey bees will be flying. If not, they are deceased
NorTracNY
Platinum Member
Just reading your post, when you said "I was going to let my other hives just rob them out", I thought "NO!"
You never want robbing to occur in your apiary. It is common to have robbing bees fight. I believe this is primarily if they are in close proximity of their hive. I take all of my wet frames that I want to let the bees clean and put them above a high empty box on their hive, or hundreds of feet from an apiary and leave them out.
If you have 3 hives in your apiary and one of them is a dead out, you need to get that dead out out of the apiary. If one of the surviving hives is much stronger than the other and robbing starts at the dead out, it could very easily continue to the weaker hive. Robbing in an apiary is not a good thing and you never want to do anything to start or encourage it. It's a reason many beekeepers no longer use the entrance feeders.
You never want robbing to occur in your apiary. It is common to have robbing bees fight. I believe this is primarily if they are in close proximity of their hive. I take all of my wet frames that I want to let the bees clean and put them above a high empty box on their hive, or hundreds of feet from an apiary and leave them out.
If you have 3 hives in your apiary and one of them is a dead out, you need to get that dead out out of the apiary. If one of the surviving hives is much stronger than the other and robbing starts at the dead out, it could very easily continue to the weaker hive. Robbing in an apiary is not a good thing and you never want to do anything to start or encourage it. It's a reason many beekeepers no longer use the entrance feeders.
Gem99ultra
Veteran Member
I've also seen on TV about a certain wasp that attacks bee hives. You might watch the hives closely and see if that's the situation in your case also.