Ultimate Bottom Board

   ^{See it}

See also: bottom board, landing board, Ultimate Bottom Board

requeening   ^{See it}

See also: dequeen, Package Honeybee and Queen Suppliers

robbing   ^{See it}

During robbing, bees are worked into an aggressive frenzy and start fighting each other in their attempts to consume the food as quickly as possible and transport it back to their hive.  Robbing usually occurs when a beekeeper exposes a hive or a frame from a hive in the apiary for an extended period, especially through additional hive entrances, and external field bees discover the ready food source.  Robbing can even occur among bees from a single colony when honey is freely available in close proximity to their hive.  This can occur either when a beekeeper unwittingly places a honey frame near the hives for external feeding, or when they are removing full honey supers and leave the supers uncovered during the removal process.

Robbing is a very undesirable situation, as many bees can be killed and the colonies involved often develop a nasty, aggressive temperament.  Aggressive colonies make it more difficult for the beekeeper to work with the bees, and the risk of stings near the apiary is greatly increased, even for casual observers.  Robbing that occurs inside a hive by foreign bees can deplete the store of nectar and honey quickly, and it is even possible that the queen can be killed during robbing.  If honey is placed near the hive, as shown in these pictures, this results not only in robbing, but the exposed honey can attract small hive beetles (SHB), which can invade the hive and destroy entire apiaries in a matter of days or weeks.