Hive Splits and Robbing Behavior Trip Up New Beekeepers

“NW Iowa second year beekeeper I had 2 hives going into September. One (split I made in May) decides to swarm first week of and the new queen never got mated correctly. I combined it with my original and very strong hive last night and am wondering about how many boxes is too many overwintering. Currently my original hive was going to overwinter with a deep + medium for brood, with a medium on top of queen excluder for honey stores. I set my second hives deep ontop of that medium yesterday with t”

“new beekeeper getting ready for winter. have two large deeps for my hive, as I was putting in my apivar strips I realized my hive has more bees than I’ve ever seen in it, like they’re packed in…. should I add a medium box to it or leave them packed in for the winter? I’m in SE PA. also wondering if the ribbing screen/mouse guard I put on last month is keeping them stuck inside? it is open, I see bees going in and out submitted by /u/Beekeeping_101 [link] [comments]”

“Hello hive mind. We are in New Zealand so southern hemisphere spring. I got a nuc of bees in September which are going great guns. Last week in my weekly check I thought I had found queen cups but this week I found them as charged and capped queen cells. Setup before today was one brood box, queen excluder and one super. I know I will need to split but this is my first year and I need to get another base and roof. In the meantime I have done this: Split the brood box into two boxes separated by”

“Colorado zone 5A- 3rd year beekeeping after 5 year hiatus. I've never dealt with robbing- what can I do, I know they can desimate the give quickly. Both hives fighting at the landing. Warre hive, currently being treated, added forming pro strip 2 days ago. Struggling hive all year. There is easily 4x the amount of bees that don't belong- Langstrof hive next door just finished treatment and has done great all year. submitted by /u/intothezen [link] [comments]”

“SC first year beekeeper. Moved into a new place and mistakenly put bees in shady spot- now having some new beetle issues. Want to move them to the sunniest spot in the yard about 30-45 feet away. Was going to shimmy it like 3 feet at a time but thats a lot of work and it would be in a super dark spot for the week and a half it would take to move them. Would they be basically chill if I did it in one night? submitted by /u/Mountain-Ad-7382 [link] [comments]”

“Novice bee keepers, here. We've had one or two hives for the last three years, but our number of hives exploded this year catching swarms, and taking a few hives from people getting out of the hobby. So though We've been doing this a few years, we're still very new. Anyway, we pulled honey frames from our most established hives two weeks ago. At the time, we were swamped and set the frames aside until we could harvest. Today we pulled the honey and thought all was well. We found litt”

“Here’s a little video of my father and me putting a young queen into our queenless hive. I don’t know all the details, but we failed to find the old queen, and my father decided to do this anyway. ​In terms of beekeeping experience, I’d say he’s somewhere between an apprentice and a journeyman. My grandpa (his father) was a grandmaster — sorry for the terms, I read a lot of fantasy! About 20 years ago, he had a ton of beehives (and I mean a lot). I’ve heard so many stories about him, and his hon”

“Hi everyone, This summer I acquired a beautiful property in rural Norfolk UK which has half an acre of very mature garden. The garden is super productive and yields over 15 different varieties of fruits, and I’m actively planning to add further planting. My gardener and I have been talking about acquiring honeybees, and I wanted to check if anyone had any basic advice or rules of thumb for when there’s enough forage that you’d trust adding a hive wouldn’t materially affect the local bee populati”

“I'm in Colorado. This swarm of bees decided to make a nest in one of my pine trees. If there's a queen in there, I might grab a beekeeping kit and capture them. Or is this temporary behavior? submitted by /u/Foreign_Customer6050 [link] [comments]”

“Hello all, I will be starting my journey next spring. I will be doing so in a suburban environment and I am zone 7a. I am actually in a neighborhood about a mile and a half from the Ohio river. I have already bought a hive with 2 deeps, 2 supers, and all the other fun stuff that comes with a starter kit. I wanted to make a post in here to see if anyone has any interesting tips or tricks to keep the hive going well and to keep my neighbors from being pissed at me lol. So shoot away!! submit”

“I'm in southern California and my wife moved an empty hive box containing a few empty frames. It has become home for a robust colony and I want to move it across the backyard. About 50 feet to my apiary (1 robust hive). It's still running around high 90's to 100*F and it's expected to remain in the upper 80's to 90's for the next month. I know I need to move them 3 feet or 3 miles. I just need to know how often I can move them 3 feet. TIA submitted by /u/Kikbu”

“NY, NY 2 hives. 1 yr My son and I are urban beekeepers. I took a wet frame and put it in that super which is just covering the top feeder. Could this be robbing behavior? What do you all think? submitted by /u/weirdblitzboy [link] [comments]”

“Hello again, I made a post a few days ago regarding my hive potentially being robbed. The days following the post and the day of the post, we had pretty heavy rains. Yesterday I noticed and increased in activity as the rain ceased in the afternoon. I couldn’t add additional videos to the main post and have now attached a video showing something similar to what occurred on that day. Many people in the original post said that it wasn’t robbing. A few said it was. Please let me know if you think th”

“So I’ve got this one weak hive from a split I in retrospect probably made too late in the season. They’ve filled out this box, but not much else. My plan is to rob a deep super of brood and bees from another hive that is currently too large to winter in a double. To donate to this hive. I was wondering what you all thought of this strategy and any suggestions you might add or considerations to be had. For those with experience beeekeeeping in Canada, I’m curious to hear what your experience is w”

“Bees are making their way across a hive stand and begging their way into another hive after a shakeout combine. I'm posting to show that a shakeout combine works. Yesterday morning I did a shakeout combine. My normal method for a shakeout combine method is to shake all the bees out a few meters in front of my other hives and remove the hive, bottom board, and the stand. The hive was on an occupied double stand, so I couldn't remove the stand. The bees returned to the stand. However by la”

“I am looking for a book or resources to study over the winter about splitting hive or swarm management. My hive is strong and I know that's not a guarantee it will make it over the winter but if it does I want to be ready to deal with spring time and potential swarms or requirements to split to avoid a swarming. So what I am looking for is a book or other resources How to recognize signs of a hive that is too full and needs to be split Swarm management Or other things related to those subjec”

“I am new to bee keeping and just came home from work to see a lot of activity that looked unusual. There are bees fighting, chaotic activity and a lot more noise than usual. I am in Victoria, Australia. I placed a wet towel over the hive as I assume that they are being robbed, is this correct? submitted by /u/amiddlelifeman [link] [comments]”

“Need help encouraging stubborn bees into the hive. I just moved to Panama city FL and I had strong colony under my shed. Immediately I was thrilled because ive always wanted to keep bees. I called a local keeper to help with a cutout because I was not equipped to do it alone I'll summarize the process with a brief timeline. Saturday we cutout and moved brood into the hive. Monday we reassessed and found the queen still in the cavity, captured and caged her. Wednesday released the queen onto”

“This is new too me. I just moved to my new home, 20 Miles away. Relocated my hives about a week ago. No issues. Woke up to both my hives going crazy 😅 its August, so not sure if they are swarming and even so what are chances both hives would be? Never seen them this active. submitted by /u/Gojiraninja12 [link] [comments]”

“Had this hive for a few years. Never got bees. It was here when we moved here. Bees moved in end of July. Everything seemed normal. But this afternoon they are doing this. Is this normal? submitted by /u/AngstyAF5020 [link] [comments]”

“Backstory. This year my son wanted to keep bees. I was a little apprehensive because we live in a subdivision but relented because our house backs up to a seldom used dead end road. We learned a lot and had a lot of fun, but we both are ready for the next hobby. It will be nice to mow the back yard again. Free colony to an EXPERIENCED beekeeper. I'd like to keep the equipment in case we ever decide to try again. submitted by /u/Oakens_Trading_Post [link] [comments]”

“I have 4 hives and help take care of one more quite the distance away. Like 50km. All four as of a week ago had capped drone cells, a lot of them, and a bunch of drones inside. The season is winding down, it feels like fall out here- Atlantic coast, Canada. So why would they be making more drones and not kicking out the old ones by now? Only one of these hives seems weak, the rest are full of bees and honey 🤔 All treated for mites. submitted by /u/One-Bit5717 [link] [comments]”

“I was removing frames from my supers for harvest. There must be a wasp nest nearby, as there were wasps intermingling with the bees. I guess they are robbing while I opened the hive. The bees were going crazy, even with a lot of smoke. I seem to have gotten a lot of stings in my wrists, through the long sleeved gloves. Are bee stings less bad if the bee has to sting trough fabric. I'm guessing they can't get you as good as they would if you had bare skin. My current stings are irritating”

“Im in Essex in England. I’m hoping someone can give me a suggestion what to do here. Yesterday I noticed this mass of bees just flying round and round, close to the ground outside my neighbours front door. There’s a small hole in the ground, but I’ve only seen the one bee that I happened to catch in this video go in, most will occasionally pause by it but not enter. They never seem to fly away, just keep going round and round. My neighbour had a small strip of the front garden dug for a cable a”

“I just split a beehive (the bigger one) and added a new queen (to the smaller one) now the new hive seems to be chaotic and the bees are going into the shed and hanging out in the windows. What could this be? Are they not adjusting well to the new queen. Pittsburgh PA submitted by /u/Yeaheatsoup [link] [comments]”

“I checked for queen cells last week and there were several uncharged and none that were capped. I assumed washboarding, but they are too heavily stacked for that. Thoughts? Edit: Zone 6b. It's currently 66F outside, so I don't think they are cooling. submitted by /u/TheGoblinPopper [link] [comments]”

“Started with three hives, might be going into winter with two. One strong one, one with a lot of issues. I’ve learned a mighty lot. Still, I might come out of winter with only 1 hive. Honestly, if that happens, I will still consider my first year a success 😅 what do you guys think? Here’s hoping 🤞 submitted by /u/BeeShepherdess [link] [comments]”

“1st year beekeeper so please be gentle. In central south carolina. Moved like 7 minutes, 3 miles away 5 and a half weeks ago. Moved from an area with apparently no competition to the most bee competitive spot in my city. Hive was doing super well, just harvested about 4 pounds of honey in 1 box, still left them with like a box and a half. Didn’t use an entrance reducer because it was super hot so they bearded a lot. Kinda realized a week ago they might be getting robbed when I did an inspection”

“Third year beekeping in Massachusetts, first year growing sunflowers (they just recently bloomed) Is this normal for them near sunflowers, or did I catch the start of a swarm? I don't see a queen in there and there is some travel back to the hive. Also the new batch of brood just had their orientation flight, which is why I was checking and saw them grouped up. submitted by /u/FakeRedditName2 [link] [comments]”

“my location is ohio. im usually a night person and i often go outside to check on my fish or rabbit. last night i fell asleep early and went outside around 6am and bees were swarming my back porch light. i ran in the house thinking thats odd maybe there is a nest under the vinyl of that light. so i got a flashlight and went out my front door to the back again and bees were all over that light in middle of house, and another light far right of my house. and also on all kitchen windows since light”

“North Texas 2 of my 6 hives have a singular frame like this- tons of drone brood at an odd pattern. Both of these hives are very populous and have tons of honey stored and we do have a mild flow of Snow of the Prairie coming in. In each hive, the rest of the frames are normal in regard to brood pattern. One of the hives with this frame has 8/10 frames being used with the outer two frames completely undrawn but with rolled wax on the frame. It also has a super with drawn comb that they could be u”

“First year Beekeeper SE Wy So I apparently smashed my queen in one of my hives. Panicked when I saw "swarm cells" and smushed those too, along with the newly hatched queen I thought was "extra." Checked yesterday and 0 brood or eggs. So reddit people, can I just take a frame of new eggs from my one hive with a queen and put in fhe queenless hive and let nature run its course? Or does anyone know someone with queens to purchase in my area? submitted by /u/Iorek0317”

“Hardiness zone: 9a Location: Central Texas My husband and I just got our 1st hive. A colony moved into our compost bin and we hired a local bee keeper to relocate them into a bee box. When the bee keeper moved the bees he didn’t check for a queen and recommended we just let them bee in there new box for at least a week. My husband and I inspected the box today for the first time and didn’t see a queen or any obvious signs of one (eggs or larva) but the combs is kind of a mess from the relocation”

submitted by /u/soupmcgoose [link] [comments]

“First Year beekeeper. I just walked out to see my hive completely covering the front of the box. The second photo is closer to what we are used to seeing. I'm in a pretty dry area and we did just have rain come through suddenly. Is this swarming or some weird reaction to the sudden downpour? Edit: I'm in Western Colorado. submitted by /u/YortRulz49 [link] [comments]”

“Northwest Kansas So I went on vacation for 3 weeks and meant to add a 3 box to my hive before I left and did not. My mom said she would, but apparently did not understand what i meant. So now it's the end of August and I have 2 brood boxes at 90% capacity and frankly they just look like they are overstuffed in there. What do I do? submitted by /u/megalegann [link] [comments]”

“This is my first year with a lot of hives. Had a robbing situation so I built these screens. Just noticed all seven hives have a pile of pollen out front now. Is it correct to assume these screens are somehow making the bees drop the pollen? The mesh is so small they have to crawl over it, so it is not because they are squeaking through. submitted by /u/MarvinMoonwalk [link] [comments]”

“Figure I would post here since I am foreign to this situation. My neighbor in my subdivision has recently put a bee hive in his side driveway at ground level in plain view from the street. It is situated about 20 feet away from my property line, having no buffer with the bees exit being directly pointed at my yard. I asked politely if he could relocate it to his privacy fenced backyard, but he just gave an excuse of having a dog and was the only place with lots of sun he could put it. Beekeeping”

“Weird question. I'm very pro bee and have a big pollinator yard in a neighborhood in the northwest US. Neighbor who owns the house next door and had been renting it out is now moving in and apparently bringing hive/hives with him. My yard currently gets a huge variety of bees and other pollinators. Will it be a more the merrier situation, or will the hive drive off or cause problems for the local bees, especially the solitary and carpenter bees? Anything I can do in advance to support the be”

“New York City, NY. 1 yr. 3 hives. My son and I have a rooftop apiary in midtown. Our first hive had a full medium super but I waited a couple weeks. Hive was split in early July. Clearly the bees consumed their own honey. Do they use the honey super honey before brood nest honey to feed brood? Brood nest continues to feel heavy with packed stores. I expect another flow in late Aug/Sep. Any thoughts? submitted by /u/weirdblitzboy [link] [comments]”

Hello, First year beekepeer. Currently it’s 5:30pm where i’m at, and it’s dearth period. I gave my bees sugar syrup 3 days ago during evening period around 9pm when it was slightly…

“So for the last couple of days we have seen bees swarming around our ring camera early in the morning. Just hundreds of them buzzing around the porch light. We eventually figured out that (thankfully) they were not creating a hive in our attic but instead a hollow part of our pepper tree. It's not uncommon to see hundreds of bees pollinating that tree every spring, but this is the first time we've seen a hive form. At least I think it's a hive. The hole is very small. Should we leave”

“On the foundation of a home. Appears to be bees? They fly, huge conglomerate of them on the ground. Don’t see a nest. Any idea what they’re doing? What they are specifically and how to treat? submitted by /u/JojoDaJoel [link] [comments]”

“Hello, Coastal SC First year I have a robbing problem. The little hive has been struggling since I installed it from a nuc in spring, however it is definitely queenright and trying to thrive. The issue is every single time I feed them(top feeder inside a closed box), the large strong hive next to it completely robs it. I took some honey frames out of the strong hive and put them in the weak one instead of feeding, they still went over and completely ransacked those frames. Basically any time the”

“Hudson Valley New York I bought a package of bees from a local farmer back in April. When I picked up the package, it looked like it wasn't as packed with bees as I've normally gotten in the past but figured I would give it a shot. I fed them later than normal and the hive never built past 5 frames in an 8 frame hive. I thought that they're likely a slower breed and since I wasn't planning on taking any honey this year, I'd let them "BEE". I didn't overdo my ins”

“My thinking so you can figure if I'm crazy, or not. I have two hives, first year packages, they are current the same config. 2 deeps(brood chambers), a queen excluder, and a medium super. The deeps are pretty full, and HEAVY. I was thinking about going into the future with a brood setup: 1 deep(bottom) and 1 medium(top), for weight issues. Hives are in eastern PA, I was wondering if I grab equipment now, I can split the deeps, into four hives, top all with mediums, and re-queen the two new o”

“Location: Central Virginia, USA New beekeepers here, getting stressed and frustrated with our second hive. Our first hive is quite docile and relaxed, and we went through the wringer getting the package to accept a queen. At this point, we can do simple inspections with no gear or smoke, they're happy as can be. This second hive has been a challenge. June 6, we brought them home, they were a split from our local club's apiary. We were told the hive was queenright when they wrapped it up.”

“Went on vacation after having to get a new queen, came back to find yellow jackets in and out of my hive within the 5 days i was gone. Started putting out traps and making a cardboard box to put in front of the hive to make a “maze” for them but not the bees. I also fed with the outside feeder and i think that caused this even more so… But today i see yellow jackets not so much anymore, but maybe other hives robbing it now? submitted by /u/sw3atypaws [link] [comments]”

“Hello! 🐝 It is my first year beekeeping with serious intent to make it a business. I’ve been beekeeping previously as a hobby for about 5 years. I have raised 2 unrelated colonies this spring from packages and they’ve done very well (both are currently double brood deeps). In my area (S.E. USA) we are due for a nectar/pollen flow in mid-late September. Right now, neither of my two colonies have any medium frames built up with comb. All my super frames are plastic foundation (painted with wax).”

“Cane back from holiday and we clearly have bees that have moved in. Should we be concerned? They’re not really bothering us but not sure if they’ll move all their mates if we’re a soft touch. As you may have noticed I don’t know anything about bees so any help much appreciated. We’re in London if that’s relevant submitted by /u/Hashtagbarkeep [link] [comments]”

“1 out of 3 of my hives are building out comb like crazy but not filling with honey / capping. This is only on the 2nd medium super, the lower one is mostly full. It's been about 3 weeks of all the frames having fresh comb but maybe 3% has capped honey. I also have a queen excluder in place if that makes any difference. I haven't seen this behavior before and wondering if there's anything to be concerned about. My other hives are slowly chugging along. Nectar flow seems pretty good (s”

“This was the same swarm where I set up a black sock with swarm commander and a queen cage. There was a steep hill so I decided against using the ladder and they were on a big branch I would have felt terrible trimming such a large limb off the tree. submitted by /u/joebojax [link] [comments]”

“So my pissy bees from previous post haven’t gotten better, they are now hopelessly queenless (MY TIME HAS COME!!!!) My “model citizen” hive provided larvae free frames w only fresh eggs (because that hive rocks) and my third party donor hive built up some queen cells because they needed a queen and made extra. Question is: will the pissy bees tear down a capped queen cell? These bitches are mean as hell, and by the time this queen would be laying in September, is it better to re-queen via a news”

“I live in Hailey, ID, and just checked my bee box. It is very full is it too late to add another box? submitted by /u/Foreign-Artist8577 [link] [comments]”

“Our hive swarmed into two clusters (Same hive swarmed a few weeks ago leaving queen cells and we were leaving nature do its thing and two queens must’ve hatched at the same time) we are just outside of stony plains. Looking for advice as they are higher up in a tree and our ladder doesn’t reach. The lower hive I was able to somewhat get into a Nuc box but the other is too high up. It’s a little late to split and we want as much of a healthy hive this winter as possible. First year beekeeper, par”

“Hello all. I have a workshop in the Castaic area that has become the home to what I believe is a large swarm of honey bees. If I get my landlord involved I don’t believe a humane collection will be performed and I’d hate to see that. My sister keeps bees in Indiana and I know she’ll often go collect an invasive colony in order to save them and I was hoping someone on here does the same or knows someone who does. I don’t mind paying someone for their time but I can’t afford to go crazy and would”

“So I have this hive that consists of three deep boxes. First two boxes (from bottom to top) is where the brood is and food for the brood. The third box is slowly getting filled with honey. As I was inspecting the hive, I noticed caped queen cels that are on the bottom or on side of the frame. There is only one queen cell per frame but there are even frames with brood that don't have any queen cells. I have confirmed that fresh eggs are present (so fresh that are still upright). So basically”

“At this point I now realize the mistake I’d made, which was letting this hive get away from me in the first place. Then the method of split I chose. I’m a new beekeeper. That being said, I’m wondering the best way to go from here. Here’s the full story: I live in growing zone 2B northern Canada. Captured this swarm last spring, they did really well over summer and filled 3 deep then swarmed into a neighbouring empty hive setup I’d had nearby. So I requeened the queenless hive. All seems well goi”

submitted by /u/AvaLaurice [link] [comments]