I managed to mess up a nuc this Saturday by allowing robbing to occur. A lesson to all! (Never done this before. 
I had opened the top of a demareed colony to steal a brood frame and mistakenly not put the crown board back on. This started the bees in the apiary getting excited and looking for the frames to rob. At a short distance the bees' round dance doesn't give any sense of direction so they were out hunting for the food I had left out for them. Whilst they were doing this I treated 4 nucs with apiguard with 1/2 tray each. The weakest of these had a just laying queen inside which I marked and closed up. By this time there were bees trying to get into every hive in the apiary so once I realised what I had done, I closed up the open hive and left them to it. I returned later in the day to see the weak nu being robbed 'like mad' with a cluster of bees outside it. I couldn't do much at the time so left them until 8 pm.
At 8, the bees were still clustered outside the hive and I gently lifted the roof off to revel no stores at all and no bees. They were all outside! I jolted the bees into a polynuc, noticed the white dot of the queen and added a couple of frames and sealed them up. I then found a frame with some sealed brood and stroes and took them all to a seperate location where I installed the brood frame and left them to it. There is a good chance they will make a good recovery.
The robbed out nuc remains - so any robbers realise that it is now empty and won't return. If I had removed it, the robbers would have found it gone and looked around for the nuc - and found another one to go for.
So it IS possible to start robbing in an apiary! I now have the T shirt!
I had opened the top of a demareed colony to steal a brood frame and mistakenly not put the crown board back on. This started the bees in the apiary getting excited and looking for the frames to rob. At a short distance the bees' round dance doesn't give any sense of direction so they were out hunting for the food I had left out for them. Whilst they were doing this I treated 4 nucs with apiguard with 1/2 tray each. The weakest of these had a just laying queen inside which I marked and closed up. By this time there were bees trying to get into every hive in the apiary so once I realised what I had done, I closed up the open hive and left them to it. I returned later in the day to see the weak nu being robbed 'like mad' with a cluster of bees outside it. I couldn't do much at the time so left them until 8 pm.
At 8, the bees were still clustered outside the hive and I gently lifted the roof off to revel no stores at all and no bees. They were all outside! I jolted the bees into a polynuc, noticed the white dot of the queen and added a couple of frames and sealed them up. I then found a frame with some sealed brood and stroes and took them all to a seperate location where I installed the brood frame and left them to it. There is a good chance they will make a good recovery.
The robbed out nuc remains - so any robbers realise that it is now empty and won't return. If I had removed it, the robbers would have found it gone and looked around for the nuc - and found another one to go for.
So it IS possible to start robbing in an apiary! I now have the T shirt!
May your bees read the same books as you do.
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