Robber Bees in Your Honey Bee Hives? You Must Stop The Bee Robbing Right Away!
Robber Bees Can Harm the Queen Bee
The robbers are typically honey bees from a stronger, more populous hive. They have been known to even kill the queen bees in beehives they invaded. We at Vegas Bees have not seen this in our own hives, but we are diligent in watching out for robbing behavior.
Honey bees live in large family groups called colonies, with populations that can reach up to 60,000 bees during peak season.
Each colony consists of three types of honey bees - the queen bee, worker bees, and drones. The queen bee is the reproductive center of the colony, laying up to 2,000 eggs per day to maintain and expand the population.
Worker bees make up the majority and handle all responsibilities related to gathering food, raising young, producing wax, and defending the hive. Drones are male bees whose sole purpose is to mate with a queen from another colony.
In the case of robbing events, the culprits are usually worker bees from a strong, healthy colony with ample food reserves and a large defensive force.
Generally, these colonies have a prolific queen and a population in the tens of thousands, allowing them to produce excess bees and honey. Their large numbers provide confidence in launching raids.
In lean times, the survival instincts of the worker bees drive them to seek out alternate food sources to sustain their colony through winter. Weaker nearby colonies make easy targets for such robbing missions.
The Hive Robbers' Victims
The hives targeted are often those struggling to survive - small colonies with problems like queen loss, disease, food shortage, or recent swarming.
A queenless colony is marked by a dwindling population as no new bees are emerging from brood cells without a laying queen. These distressed colonies often have only a few thousand bees or less, making defense against thousands of invaders impossible.
Weakened by hunger and inadequate numbers, they have no choice but to succumb. Besides queen problems, colonies also face increased threats from pests, pathogens, pesticides, Varroa mites, and extreme weather events due to climate change, making it harder for them to stay healthy and vigilant.
A recently swarmed colony is similarly vulnerable as over half its population leaves with the departing swarm, needing significant time to rebuild its numbers.
The Nature of Robbing
Robbing involves bees from a strong hive forcefully entering another weaker colony’s hive space to steal their carefully stored honey.
They invade in groups of hundreds to thousands, overwhelming defenders and ransacking the vital food supplies of the victim colony. It is a violent assault that triggers fierce fighting at hive entrances as the resident bees try desperately to repel the attack.
Guard bees face off against the invaders, grappling and biting in efforts to block entry and protect their colony’s survival. Once the entrance is breached, the robbers pillage honey frames and devour stored honey ravenously.
They show no restraint, even tearing through wax caps in their frenzy. The vicious nature of these surprise attacks leaves little chance for the weaker colony to mount an effective defense.
In many cases, hundreds of resident bees are killed as the victims pay a deadly price for the stolen honey.
The Consequences of Beehive Robbing
The aftermath of such an attack can be utterly devastating for the victim hive. Not only is their winter store of honey plundered, but thousands of their bees are killed trying to protect the hive.
The loss of guard bees makes the colony even more vulnerable to future attacks. If robber bees discover undefended honey stores, they will return for repeated assaults until every last bit is gone, showing no mercy.
Bereft of adequate food reserves, the strength and resilience of the victim colony rapidly fades. As the population plummets, they enter a fatal downward spiral unable to replace dying bees or forage effectively, eventually culminating in colony depopulation and collapse.
Even if they manage to survive the winter, the colony remains weak and unlikely to recover from the heavy losses. The robbery essentially condemns them to a slow, agonizing demise.
The Battleground Location
Beehive robbery can unfold virtually anywhere colonies reside, whether in commercial apiaries with hundreds of hives or small-scale urban rooftop beekeeping operations.
The victims are generally weaker hives struggling with tough environmental conditions, disease pressures, and limited forage availability. These stressed hives emit specific pheromones that signal their vulnerability to stronger scout bees, drawing the robbers in.
Large apiaries tend to suffer more robbing as the concentration of many hives in one place allows robber bees to easily spot and access victim colonies once robbing is underway.
Weaker hives on the fringes of an apiary are especially prone as they cannot benefit from the aggregate defensive response of surrounding colonies. Urban rooftop locations are similarly isolated without supportive neighboring hives to aid in deterring robber attacks.
Hive Entrances
The actual confrontations primarily erupt at the hive entrances, where guard bees are stationed to monitor all traffic in and out of the colony.
As the first line of defense, these guard bees attempt to halt the swift advance of the invading robbers. Outnumbered, the guards clamp down, blocking entryways and scrapping fiercely to gain advantage and repel the attack.
However, overwhelming robber forces combined with the alarm pheromones of dead guard bees ultimately attract more robbers to the entrance, and the defenses eventually falter.
Once one or two bees infiltrate past the entrance, chaos ensues within the hive as the robbers run rampant through poorly protected honey stores. Most casualties are suffered at the entrance battlegrounds, where guard bodies pile up by the thousands.
Timing of Robbing Events: Seasonal Occurrence
Beehive robbing predominantly takes place in late summer and early fall when colonies are harvesting and storing the last honey flows preparing for winter.
Natural nectar becomes increasingly scarce as blossoms fade with the onset of fall. It is during this time of dearth and heightened hunger that robber bees grow more desperate to augment meager stores.
As cold weather approaches, securing surplus honey is imperative to survive up to 5 long months of winter when no new supplies can be gathered. The life-and-death stakes of this seasonal transition push the strong to prey upon the weak in a bid for their very survival.
Triggering Factors
Certain beekeeping activities can further fan the flames of robbing pressures at this sensitive time. For example, accidentally leaving honey frames exposed during late summer hive inspections signals an easy target that lures marauding bees from colonies up to 3-5 miles away.
Once experienced with stealing open honey, these bees are primed to attack weaker hives as well. Supplemental feeding methods that involve open dishes of sugar syrup can also spark robbing in apiaries as news of an unprotected buffet spreads.
Such mistakes remove inhibitions and nurture thieving tendencies. Commercial migratory beekeepers also unknowingly transplant problems when they truck colonies across the country to warmer climates each winter.
Transporting pests and pathogens in these migratory hives leads to weaker regional colonies already robbed.
The Motivation Behind Robbing: Resource Scarcity
The fundamental motivation catalyzing hive robbery is resource scarcity. As blooms fade and nectar dries up seasonally, honey bee colonies face extreme nutritional stress if stockpiles are inadequate.
A healthy hive requires around 60 pounds of stored honey to survive winter, with temperatures sometimes dipping below zero for months.
Poor summer forage conditions from droughts or lack of diverse habitats can limit colonies from gathering enough on their own. Supplementing shrinking reserves by pillaging weaker hives enables robust colonies to stockpile sufficient insurance against starvation. It is a survival strategy hardwired over 30 million years of evolution.
Survival Instinct
This ruthless behavior stems from an innate drive to sustain the future of the hive at any cost. As social insects, honey bees have evolved complex group behaviors centered around safeguarding colony survival above all else.
The needs of the individual worker bee are secondary. Robbing is the ultimate manifestation of this extreme form of communal survival instinct.
Collective power is leveraged for mutual benefit. Long winter months ahead drive bees to secure resources by any means to protect the queen and ensure continually new generations.
The colony functions as a superorganism with programmed behaviors to access vital provisions when their survival hangs in the balance. The life of the hive supersedes all else.
Prevention and Management to Stop Robbing
Conscientious beekeeping practices are essential to curb honey bee hive robbing and protect vulnerable colonies in apiaries.
Strategies aim to deter robbing events and prevent escalation if an attack is underway. Maintaining strong, healthy hives headed by prolific queens with no signs of disease makes them less tempting targets and better able to defend themselves.
Monitoring for robbing risks when nectar is scarce and installing robber screens on hive entrances allows guards better control. I had to use a robbing screen in the past when a smaller hive was being invaded.
The amount of bees flying around the front of the hive was a call to action. When I saw that many bees around the hive that had a small population, I knew something was wrong.
Strategically, using a hive entrance reducer can help deter robbers who want to enter the hive. In this way, they assist in defense by funneling invaders into smaller access points.
Avoiding open feeding stations with sugar syrup once robber bees are active reduces the likelihood of inciting further robbing. Developing more diverse and abundant forage areas around apiaries ensures colonies adequately build up honey stores so they do not face winter shortages.
Most importantly, promptly identifying and resolving underlying conditions in failing queenright hives will protect them from ruthless exploitation by desperate robbers.
The Ecological Impact
The ecological impact of robbing behavior in bee colonies is multifaceted and can be understood within the broader context of natural selection and ecosystem dynamics.
Natural Selection Process: Robbing behavior in bees is a natural phenomenon that can be seen as part of the natural selection process. Stronger colonies that successfully rob weaker ones often have better chances of surviving adverse conditions, especially during resource-scarce periods. This survival of the fittest dynamic is a fundamental aspect of natural selection, where traits beneficial for survival, such as the ability to effectively rob other hives, may become more prevalent in the population over time.
Resource Reallocation: From an ecological standpoint, robbing can be viewed as a mechanism for reallocating resources within the bee population. While detrimental to individual weaker hives, this behavior ensures that available resources are utilized by colonies that have a higher chance of survival. This can be seen as a harsh but effective way to maintain the overall health and sustainability of the bee population in an area.
Impact on Biodiversity: The impact of robbing on biodiversity is complex. On one hand, it can lead to a reduction in the number of weaker colonies, potentially decreasing genetic diversity. On the other hand, by ensuring the survival of stronger colonies, it can contribute to a more resilient bee population capable of withstanding environmental stresses.
Human Influence: Human activities, such as the use of pesticides, habitat destruction, and the introduction of non-native species, can exacerbate the challenges faced by bee colonies, potentially increasing the incidence and impact of robbing. Sustainable beekeeping practices and conservation efforts are crucial in mitigating these challenges and supporting the health of bee populations.
Role in Ecosystem Balance: While robbing is a natural behavior, its frequency and intensity can be influenced by environmental factors and human activities. Maintaining a balanced ecosystem, where natural forage is abundant and diverse, can reduce the need for colonies to resort to robbing, thereby supporting a more stable and healthy bee population.
Robbing among bee colonies is a natural behavior with significant ecological implications.
It plays a role in the natural selection process, resource allocation, and the overall balance of the bee population within an ecosystem.
It doesn't make a beekeeper happy to see dead bees and colonies destroyed by this behavior. We must understand and mitigate the factors that exacerbate this behavior so we can help maintain healthy and sustainable bee populations.
Betsy and Pete
Las Vegas, Nevada
About Us: The Authors
We're Betsy and Pete, passionate Las Vegas beekeepers trained by a master in the field. With hundreds of successful bee and bee swarm removals under our belts, we're not just experts; we're enthusiasts committed to the well-being of these incredible pollinators.
We manage dozens of beehives, both natural and honey-bearing at our Joshua Tree Preserve.
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