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Plain Talk: Late Winter Robbing (273) · Honey Bee Obscura Podcast

0:01
Jim Tew: Hi listeners, I just got suited up, leaving the shop.
0:07
Jim Tew: I wanted to take the walk back to the bee yard.
0:14
Jim Tew: Of course it's mostly melt now, so the ground's kind of soggy.
0:22
Jim Tew: It's about 40 degrees.
0:24
Jim Tew: I'll be really surprised if the bees were flying.
0:28
Jim Tew: and I want to take a hike back here
0:30
Jim Tew: to see what's going on.
0:32
Jim Tew: Listeners, I'm Jim Tew.
0:34
Jim Tew: I come to you once a week
0:36
Jim Tew: here at Honey Bee Obscura.
0:39
Jim Tew: I try to have a conversation with you
0:40
Jim Tew: about something to do with just plain talk beekeeping.
0:44
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0:46
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0:49
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1:17
Jim Tew: This is the moles route.
1:20
Jim Tew: Digging up my backyard.
1:23
Jim Tew: I've had other groups tell me that moles are a good thing because they eat grubs in the ground.
1:35
Jim Tew: I wonder if that tractor will start.
1:37
Jim Tew: I haven't started it since last fall.
1:40
Jim Tew: I came out here a few days ago, and the back door was standing wide open.
1:43
Jim Tew: I don't know how long it had been open,
1:46
Jim Tew: and I didn't know if I had animals in here, if I should close it or not.
1:51
Jim Tew: There's a little bit of flight.
1:54
Jim Tew: Oh, it'd be so easy just to draw conclusions, listeners,
1:56
Jim Tew: but it would be unfair.
1:59
Jim Tew: The only one that's flying and is flying readily
2:04
Jim Tew: is the one from the insulated,
2:08
Jim Tew: expanded polystyrene insulated box.
2:13
Jim Tew: Does that mean anything?
2:14
Jim Tew: I don't know.
2:17
Jim Tew: The others are quiet.
2:19
Jim Tew: All kinds of deer activity here.
2:25
Jim Tew: All right, do you remember when I came out here the last time and did that little piece,
2:31
Jim Tew: and I was completely stumped at how many bees I had alive?
2:38
Jim Tew: And I came out with all that activity and flying, and it was a real pleasant surprise.
2:42
Jim Tew: and I specifically ask you or ask myself if that was robbing going on.
2:53
Jim Tew: And at the time, I thought, nope, it's not too early for robbing.
3:01
Jim Tew: But I've got to tell you that it's not too early for robbing.
3:06
Jim Tew: And that's what I wanted to talk about.
3:08
Jim Tew: I've talked about it over and over again.
3:10
Jim Tew: I'm going to go to a state meeting here this weekend, and I was checking to see what the topic was that I discussed the last time I was there.
3:19
Jim Tew: And in 2023, I was talking about robbing already.
3:24
Jim Tew: So I guess I've kind of driven this into the ground.
3:28
Jim Tew: But I've just become a real proponent for this whole concept of robbing.
3:35
Jim Tew: The biggest thing wrong with, I think, is what we've named this thing.
3:42
Jim Tew: We named it robbing, you know, like thieving, like bad.
3:47
Jim Tew: And I don't know that it's bad.
3:50
Jim Tew: So let me see if I can do this.
3:53
Jim Tew: I asked Chat AI to describe robbing to me.
4:01
Jim Tew: and I asked if it was some kind of a, get ready for it,
4:08
Jim Tew: kleptoparasitic phenomenon.
4:11
Jim Tew: And chat came right back.
4:12
Jim Tew: I've got to close the door.
4:13
Jim Tew: It's cold here.
4:16
Jim Tew: Chat came right back and said, no, honeybees are not kleptoparasitic,
4:21
Jim Tew: meaning that they have a system and a design and a technique
4:26
Jim Tew: and a routineness for robbing each other.
4:32
Jim Tew: And so Chet concisely explained that it was a seasonal thing,
4:37
Jim Tew: an opportunistic thing, but otherwise bees were adapted for visiting flowers,
4:42
Jim Tew: collecting pollen and nectar and gums, water,
4:47
Jim Tew: and that was the primary thing that they did.
4:50
Jim Tew: So that was a mutualistic response.
4:53
Jim Tew: But I pushed Chad, and I said, it really looks like that robbing is something they do have a plan for.
5:01
Jim Tew: They are good at it.
5:04
Jim Tew: So Chad came back and said that, and described robbing like this.
5:10
Jim Tew: It is a kleptoparasitic phenomenon embedded in what is otherwise a mutualistic lifestyle.
5:23
Jim Tew: So I guess what Chet was trying to say is that under the right conditions, bees can rob, but under normal conditions, bees would rather be out foraging on flowers.
5:38
Jim Tew: And I'm surmising that that's less dangerous than just going over and pilfering your neighbor's colony.
5:47
Jim Tew: I got a thought here, and I just can't put it into words.
5:50
Jim Tew: This whole concept, robbing, I'd like to call it reappropriation,
5:55
Jim Tew: just to get away from the stigma of thieving bees.
6:00
Jim Tew: It looks to me like that it's just an alternative for doing something in the off season to be productive.
6:13
Jim Tew: If they're going to be flying around, they're looking for food, they're looking for water, maybe.
6:17
Jim Tew: they're looking basically I guess they could be looking for future home sites but more often than
6:24
Jim Tew: not they're looking for food so how would it be that robbing is seen as a bad thing I think robbing
6:31
Jim Tew: is seen from a beekeeper's perspective that it's a bad thing if you go out and open all these
6:37
Jim Tew: colonies when there's a dearth and you got some weak ones then you're going to agitate the bees
6:42
Jim Tew: get them all upset and then you're going to get robbing started and then those weaker colonies
6:47
Jim Tew: are going to be killed off, and that's a bad thing.
6:50
Jim Tew: Is that what our concept of robbing is?
6:53
Jim Tew: Because in the wild, delicate food reserves,
7:00
Jim Tew: valuable food reserves,
7:02
Jim Tew: are reappropriated to those that still have a chance
7:06
Jim Tew: at surviving and swarming and propagating themselves.
7:11
Jim Tew: And just to leave those reserves there to be abandoned
7:15
Jim Tew: and some other animal take them,
7:18
Jim Tew: certainly does not seem to be useful.
7:22
Jim Tew: I don't have a clock running,
7:23
Jim Tew: but I think it's about time to take a break
7:25
Jim Tew: and hear from our sponsor,
7:27
Jim Tew: and it'll give me a chance to get my thoughts back together.
7:30
Jim Tew: I'm standing out here in the cold
7:31
Jim Tew: and trying to talk to you
7:33
Jim Tew: and trying to make some sense out of this.
7:37
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8:25
Jim Tew: Okay, thanks for that short break.
8:29
Jim Tew: I feel better now.
8:32
Jim Tew: I'm trying to say that this concept that we've named robbing
8:37
Jim Tew: is a valuable procedure that the bees use in seasons or times when nothing else is going on.
8:47
Jim Tew: And I argue in defense of those bees robbing that this is a sensible thing to do,
8:55
Jim Tew: to take over, to commandeer, to loot the resources from lesser hives that's going to rob out.
9:02
Jim Tew: some are going to die out, not rob out, that are going to die out.
9:07
Jim Tew: That throws me into a quandary because I have to say then that from a beekeeper standpoint,
9:13
Jim Tew: this is terrible.
9:14
Jim Tew: From a natural beekeeping standpoint, it probably makes survival sense.
9:20
Jim Tew: When I came out here, it's been about two weeks ago now,
9:24
Jim Tew: we had that really nice warm weather and all these bees were flying.
9:29
Jim Tew: And I was so surprised to see some of the colonies that, again, today they look dead.
9:34
Jim Tew: But I realized there's bees in these boxes.
9:37
Jim Tew: They're just very quiet, sitting by their metabolic fires.
9:43
Jim Tew: And I asked, with all this bee activity, was this robbing?
9:47
Jim Tew: Because it had a look about it.
9:49
Jim Tew: It had a look about it, listeners.
9:52
Jim Tew: And as I stood there on that spring day with not a thing in sight,
9:56
Jim Tew: There was not a single pollen load coming back.
10:00
Jim Tew: It was just a nice day, and that's when I got all sappy
10:03
Jim Tew: about all the defecation spots that were out there.
10:08
Jim Tew: And I had some thoughts about that.
10:10
Jim Tew: That was a huge odor field.
10:12
Jim Tew: How long does that odor field linger?
10:15
Jim Tew: But that's another subject, another rabbit hole,
10:18
Jim Tew: and another what-if-ing.
10:20
Jim Tew: So when I saw these bees flying,
10:22
Jim Tew: I thought they could be starting to rob,
10:26
Jim Tew: but I've done nothing.
10:27
Jim Tew: These colonies, I've confessed to you,
10:30
Jim Tew: these colonies have not been opened.
10:32
Jim Tew: What did he say?
10:34
Jim Tew: I said these colonies have not even been opened
10:38
Jim Tew: in about three years.
10:40
Jim Tew: I've done nothing.
10:42
Jim Tew: So I don't want to get too far on that.
10:44
Jim Tew: This is almost the point where I just say,
10:46
Jim Tew: don't try this at home.
10:49
Jim Tew: Most of you know my situation for the last four years,
10:52
Jim Tew: and so I've been distracted by everything,
10:55
Jim Tew: and the colonies had to go their own way.
10:57
Jim Tew: When I came out here and these bees were all robbing and, well, flying, active, pooping,
11:03
Jim Tew: the beekeeper in me said there's some robbing activity going on.
11:07
Jim Tew: How did they find it that fast?
11:12
Jim Tew: Listeners, so these bees are wired.
11:15
Jim Tew: The first time they can fly, these bees know to go check other doorknobs,
11:21
Jim Tew: And I don't know if the bees that day were all going to each other's hives
11:26
Jim Tew: and there was a lot of confusion going on because they were all saying,
11:30
Jim Tew: is this possible to take this away from you?
11:35
Jim Tew: I think that it's an anomaly.
11:38
Jim Tew: There's about eight beehives here, and they're close.
11:41
Jim Tew: Three of them are side by side.
11:43
Jim Tew: That's an anomaly.
11:44
Jim Tew: I mean, that's too close for naturalness.
11:48
Jim Tew: So I know that I'm causing some confusion.
11:51
Jim Tew: by having these three separate colonies that close together,
11:54
Jim Tew: and they will readily kill each other,
11:57
Jim Tew: but I'm doing it because of grass cutting and walking back here.
12:01
Jim Tew: So the question I'm trying to ask myself is,
12:03
Jim Tew: how do they know so instinctually?
12:06
Jim Tew: Is that an odor field?
12:09
Jim Tew: And they keep checking all the colonies,
12:12
Jim Tew: and if they find no resistance,
12:13
Jim Tew: those two packages I bought last spring, they both died.
12:17
Jim Tew: The one was really surprising.
12:19
Jim Tew: One built up really nicely, and I'd never dreamed that it would die.
12:25
Jim Tew: Do I dare say this or not?
12:27
Jim Tew: Because I don't want to encourage anyone to do what I'm doing.
12:32
Jim Tew: But the two colonies died that I opened the most.
12:37
Jim Tew: And the colonies did not all die from the ones that I've not opened.
12:41
Jim Tew: And of those colonies, two swarms moved in, abandoned equipment, and took up there.
12:48
Jim Tew: But I'm off the subject now because I want to stay on the robbing thing.
12:52
Jim Tew: I think that I'm guessing that these bees are able to know that by checking,
12:57
Jim Tew: by shaking, by ringing doorbells figuratively, that nobody is home here,
13:02
Jim Tew: and there's a hole deep of honey on that package colony that died.
13:06
Jim Tew: So there was a cloud of activity.
13:09
Jim Tew: And while I was standing there marveling that those bees had found this colony
13:14
Jim Tew: a few feet away, 15, 20 feet away, pow, I got stung.
13:18
Jim Tew: I made a comment that I was getting stung well that opened a whole arena of other questions
13:24
Jim Tew: why are these bees so aggressive I mean why they're not like trying to kill me but why am
13:29
Jim Tew: I being stung at all I haven't done a thing in the world I haven't touched any equipment I've
13:33
Jim Tew: done nothing but stand here and they're stinging me and I guess it's that old procedure that I've
13:38
Jim Tew: told people in the past that when their bees are feeling threatened they're not trying to
13:44
Jim Tew: hit a specific target. They're hitting any target that could be a pest. Could be the dog standing
13:48
Jim Tew: there with you. I don't know. Maybe it's why they were stinging me that day. But it really looks like
13:55
Jim Tew: that bees are using robbing, reappropriating other foodstuffs at a time of the year when nothing else
14:05
Jim Tew: is available. And I argue with those who say that this is not something with a name. This is not
14:13
Jim Tew: mutualistic. It's opportunistic. It's something. But it's pretty clear that when nothing,
14:21
Jim Tew: nothing is available, that they readily turn on any other colony. And what I don't know is how
14:28
Jim Tew: the colonies do this in the wild. Do these bees right here in my yard know where there's wild
14:34
Jim Tew: nest in the vicinity? And are they flying over to check that out to see if it's available?
14:41
Jim Tew: How far down this path did the bees go?
14:46
Jim Tew: Instead of working apple blooms in May,
14:49
Jim Tew: instead of working dandelion most of the summer,
14:52
Jim Tew: when there's nothing else available,
14:54
Jim Tew: they work their neighboring colonies as food sources.
14:58
Jim Tew: For carbohydrate, I don't ever know of them stealing protein.
15:02
Jim Tew: That would be an interesting thing to ponder at some point, too.
15:08
Jim Tew: I finish on this point.
15:10
Jim Tew: When I came out on that brief warm day, that was the first time the bees had been out and
15:15
Jim Tew: it had been brutally cold in the previous weeks.
15:19
Jim Tew: And these bees were already on the job, seemingly checking each other, a little bit feisty.
15:25
Jim Tew: And they were clearly checking out the empty equipment, nothing else being available.
15:31
Jim Tew: Now, how many bees were flying around looking at maple blooms that hadn't opened?
15:35
Jim Tew: How many bees were out there?
15:37
Jim Tew: Were most of the bees here?
15:38
Jim Tew: I don't know.
15:39
Jim Tew: I don't know.
15:39
Jim Tew: And I don't know.
15:41
Jim Tew: but I do know that robbing is not something that's beekeeper induced it's something that bees do
15:48
Jim Tew: to keep waste so much as possible to an absolute minimum it's not an ugly system it's a heartless
15:56
Jim Tew: system from our perspective but it's not an ugly system so just know that your bees are going to
16:03
Jim Tew: and you probably can't do much about it, but try to suppress it, keep it under control,
16:10
Jim Tew: but it's a natural thing, just like trying to control swarming.
16:14
Jim Tew: I've punched myself out. I don't mean to wear this subject out, but I'm totally intrigued by it
16:18
Jim Tew: because it's right there in front of us. It's a major beekeeping ordeal.
16:23
Jim Tew: And as you know, we don't have a lot of control for it.
16:25
Jim Tew: So I just always wonder, and look, and think,
16:30
Jim Tew: especially here in the long, dark winter when I've got nothing else to do.
16:33
Jim Tew: I look forward to talking to you next week. I'm Jim. And for now, I'm telling you bye.