Bee colony in August

In August, we continue the work started in July, including feeding the bees with syrup. Remember to do this in the evening to avoid stimulating robbing, about which a few words follow. Also, make sure not to flood the hive with food so that the queen has space to lay eggs. This is extremely important!

 

Aggresive behavior in bees

Photo 1: A robbing bee attacked by a guard at the 5 o’clock position, and at 4:30, a black, hairless, old robbing bee. Robbing bees, due to old age or squeezing through other bees and fighting, often lose their hair because of being groomed by guards. However, caution is advised as one of the viral diseases of bees also manifests as darkening of the exoskeleton and hair loss. Bee colonies, as well as each worker individually, can defend themselves against aggressors. What or whom they consider an aggressor depends on the genetic characteristics of the bee family as well as the degree of actual threat to the life of the worker or the swarm.

A single worker bee will only sting if crushed or grabbed, while a swarm as a collective organism may behave differently. The beekeeper’s task is to mitigate the bees’ defensive instincts, which can be achieved by handling the bees with utmost care and gentleness, avoiding sudden movements, and not crushing the workers. Crushed bees release pheromones in the form of bee venom, which activates the other bees to heightened alertness and quickly leads to aggression.

Factors that most commonly trigger aggression in bees include:

– Crushing bees during inspections, which can lead to a mass attack by the swarm.
– Sudden and rapid movements near the hive entrance can provoke attacks by guard bees from families that have them. Some families hardly have any guards.
– Strong odors and dark, hairy clothing, including the scent of perfume and sweat, are associated by bees with threats like badgers or bears. Bees in observation hives, which are constantly exposed to household smells, tend to be much more neutral to them because they are familiar with the scent from birth and do not associate it with danger.
– Opening the hive in unfavorable weather conditions such as before a storm, during strong winds, rain, or cold when the hive contains many old bees.
– Hungry bees can be very aggressive when the hive is opened, so if there is no forage nearby, bees should be fed syrup for two consecutive days before the hive is opened.
– In the second half of summer, bees are more aggressive than in spring and autumn due to the age structure and strength of the colony.
– Excessive use of smoke on hungry colonies can paradoxically irritate the bees.
– Knocking on the hive and teasing the bees for a prolonged time increases the number of guard bees, leading to increased aggression around the hive entrance.
– During robbing periods, bees are set on attacking or defending, and both families involved can exhibit increased aggression.

Mitigating aggression involves breeding gentle lines of bees, handling them delicately, and avoiding factors that trigger aggression. It is important to note that bees in observation hives are much gentler than those in regular hives. This is due to the small entrance hole, which hinders guards from quickly recruiting additional attacking workers, and the low strength of the colonies in these hives. Such colonies reach about 5% of the strength of a full colony in a conventional hive.

Robbing bees

Bees have a searching instinct. They love to look for sweet substances and have an excellent sense of smell. Old, worn-out foragers, during periods without forage, when few plants are blooming or they are not worth attention due to low nectar yield, search for food in foreign hives. If the entrance is weakly defended, they easily access the honey and fly back to their hive filled to the brim, recruiting other robbing bees. If the robbed family does not start defending itself, it can soon lose all its food reserves. If they resist, fierce fights occur around the entrance and inside the attacked hive. If the robbers greatly outnumber the defenders, the attacked family will stop resisting once their queen is killed. Some workers from the attacked family may even join the robbers. Robbing most often occurs after the linden blooms when abundant forage in the area ends. The dangerous period lasts until autumn in some places, and in others, until late-summer plants start blooming.

To prevent robbing, avoid feeding bees outside the hive, as this provokes bees to perform round dances, suggesting very close food sources. The bees then search nearby areas, invading homes and other hives, which can cause problems and lead to robbing. Feeding bees from a feeder should always be done after bee flights have ceased, except in cases of extreme starvation at other times of the day.

A characteristic sight during robbing is fights at the hive entrance and heavily laden, barely flying bees taking off from the robbed hive. If there are no fights, wait until evening. After bee flights have ceased, close the entrance of the robbed hive for one day. The next evening, after flights have ceased, close the hive that was robbing and reopen the robbed hive. This way, the robbing bees will learn that there is nothing left in the robbed hive. This alternating closing of hives should be done for at least five consecutive days. If this does not work, continue until forage becomes available or the weather significantly worsens.

Sometimes, moving the bees to another location is the only way to end robbing.

In summary, avoid situations that can trigger robbing, such as feeding bees during the day and placing honeycomb, honey, or syrup on the balcony or windowsill. This excites the bees and leads to scouting flights in the immediate vicinity.