robbing

[tristan]

It's enough to make a stronger hive so it doesn't get robbed, am I right?

@Pokitren sorry i can't post in that section. seeing as you asked me a direct question i'll reply here.

hives are naturally strong enough to defend.
so its not that you make a hive stronger but rather you don't let it become weak.
hives become weak because of issues like mites, poor mite treatments, diseases, swarmed badly and hasn't recovered in time, or mistakes by the beekeeper.

in robbing season the hive should be fairly strong, as the hive will still decline as it goes into winter.

i've got some pics somewhere of large amounts of wasps at one site and we never had issues with wasps robbing hives. hives will defend.

the other thing you will most certainly hear about is people blame robbing for their hive failure, which is not true (most of the time).
the hive died from other causes which the beek cannot find/understand or is simply ignoring.
don't be those guys.

 

[tristan]

wasps galore. hives just fine.

 

[Pokitren]

@Pokitren sorry i can't post in that section. seeing as you asked me a direct question i'll reply here.

hives are naturally strong enough to defend.
so its not that you make a hive stronger but rather you don't let it become weak.
hives become weak because of issues like mites, poor mite treatments, diseases, swarmed badly and hasn't recovered in time, or mistakes by the beekeeper.

in robbing season the hive should be fairly strong, as the hive will still decline as it goes into winter.

i've got some pics somewhere of large amounts of wasps at one site and we never had issues with wasps robbing hives. hives will defend.

the other thing you will most certainly hear about is people blame robbing for their hive failure, which is not true (most of the time).
the hive died from other causes which the beek cannot find/understand or is simply ignoring.
don't be those guys.

How do hives in the wild deal with disease and mites? Not all hives in the wild are killed by mites...

 

[yesbut]

How do hives in the wild deal with disease and mites? Not all hives in the wild are killed by mites...

Conventional wisdom says yes they are, and what is seen as a wild survivor is actually re-occupation by successive swarms.

 

[AdamD]

There are supposedly some colonies in the UK that have adapted themselves to tolerate varroa mites. I think that's the exception rather than the rule and we have had varroa here in the UK for longer than you guys so bees have had more chance to adapt.
My best guess is that many times when someone says that honeybees have been in a tree for years, the trees have bee re-populated by new swarms rather than the bees beeign in continual occupation.
As for robbing, strong colonies are OK. A mini-nuc is not so strong and can be over-run late in the season by wasps.