By mid-August the honey flow has slowed right down, and that means one thing in the Penshurst apiary: wasps. Every year around this time I start seeing more wasps hanging around the hive entrances, and every year I have to remind myself to take it seriously from day one.
Robbing is when wasps (or sometimes bees from other, stronger colonies) try to steal honey stores from a weaker hive. It can happen fast, and a colony that's slow to defend itself can be stripped of its stores within a day or two. The tell-tale signs are wasps or bees fighting at the entrance, bits of wax debris on the landing board, and a generally frantic, jittery mood around the hive that's very different from the usual calm hum of a healthy colony.
A few things have made a real difference for me over the years:
- Reduce the entrance. A smaller entrance is much easier for guard bees to defend. I fit entrance reducers on every hive from late July.
- Don't leave spilled honey or syrup lying around. Feeding in the open, or clumsy inspections that drip honey near the hive, is like ringing a dinner bell for wasps.
- Keep an eye on the weaker colonies. A strong hive can usually see off wasps on its own. A weak one needs help, sometimes even a temporary closing of the entrance to just a bee-space or two.
- Wasp traps nearby, not on the hive. I hang a few simple traps a good distance from the apiary to draw wasps away rather than concentrating them right by the entrance.
None of this is glamorous beekeeping, but it's the kind of quiet, unremarkable work that decides whether a colony goes into autumn strong or limps in weakened. I'd rather spend ten minutes fitting entrance reducers now than lose a hive's stores in a single afternoon.
If you keep bees yourself, this is the time to walk the apiary a little more often and just watch the entrances for a minute or two. You'll soon get a feel for what 'normal' looks like, and that makes it much easier to spot when something isn't.
Happy beekeeping from Penshurst Bees!