Started feeding syrup yesterday and robbing broke out within an hour — how do I feed without triggering it again?
Second year in İzmir with three hives, and yesterday was awful. The hills are bone dry, nothing has flowered since July, and my smallest colony was light, so I made 2:1 and put it in a front-entrance feeder at about 3 in the afternoon. I also spilled a little on the landing board.
Within an hour there were bees fighting on the board, dozens tumbling in pairs on the ground, and a roar in front of the hive. I pulled the feeder and stuffed grass in the entrance but it went on until dark. This morning there are maybe 200 dead bees in front of it, and the strong colony next door is calm as anything.
I clearly did this wrong. How do the experienced people here feed in a dearth without starting a war? And is the small colony finished, or can it recover if I do it right from now on?
#robbing#fall-feeding#dearth#beginner
▲ 9 votes💬 4 replies
4 replies
muglabalci · Sep 9, 2026
Everything about that afternoon was a robbing recipe: a front feeder any bee can smell from the entrance, syrup on the board, mid-afternoon with the whole apiary flying, and the weakest hive as the target. In Muğla we feed only at dusk and only inside the hive — a frame feeder or a top feeder under the lid — and every colony the same evening so no hive smells different. Entrance to one bee width on the weak one for the rest of the month. Spilled syrup gets washed off at once. And watch the pines: once the honeydew flow gets going, usually from mid-September here, the pressure eases a lot.
AbejasCarla · Sep 9, 2026
Agree with muglabalci on all of it. In Andalusia I put a robbing screen on anything weak from August until the first rain, and I never open a hive for more than a few minutes in a dearth. The colony isn't finished if it still has a queen and a few frames of bees — robbing usually stops once the entrance is defensible and the syrup is out of reach. Check for the queen in two days, quickly.
InesMel · Sep 9, 2026
One more thing: throw the front feeder away, or keep it only for water. Nobody in a dry climate should own one. Alentejo is the same dust bowl right now and my only feeding is at last light through the crown board. If the robbing restarts tomorrow, a wet sheet draped over the weak hive for a day confuses the robbers without stopping the residents.
elif_arici · Sep 10, 2026
Thank you all. Feeder is in the bin. Entrance is down to one bee width, and I fed all three tonight after sunset through the crown board. Quiet this evening, no fighting. Found the queen in the small one, so we live to fight another day. Watching the pines now, muglabalci.