Topic: Honey Production/Robbing

Honey Production

Honey bees have no moral values in human terms.  Robbing usually occurs in the spring or after the honey flow in the late summer when no nectar sources are available.    Honey bees unable to gather nectar from flowers in the field will begin to look for other sources.  They can become quite a problem around any place that has available  honey like substances such as the molasses mixed with feed for livestock, open supers of honey in a building, or even other bee hives.   If a hive is weak, it becomes a quick target for other bees in the area during such times

Hives fail for a number of reason:

• Disease -- One of the greatest dangers of robbing.  Bees will take AFB contaminated honey back to their own hive which in turn spreads the disease.
• Failing queen -- a situation that can be corrected if caught in time.
• Lost queen/laying workers 
• Poor management

If a queen is lost during the beekeeping season the bees will first try to raise an emergency queen.  In many cases the bees will be successful and the new queen will be mated.  However, during the period it takes to raise an emergency queen the population of the hive will steadily decline.  It will take the hive 12 days to produce the newly hatched virgin queen and another ten days will pass before she begins to lay eggs.  That is a total of 22 days without a laying queen.  And of course, the virgin queen may be lost during a mating flight and never return to the hive.  The beekeeper can expect very little honey production from these hives or none at all.  And as soon as a nectar shortage arrives, the rest of the bees will discover the hives weakness.