Robbing season PSA: keep inspections under 10 minutes — and the nuc I lost learning that lesson

Every August I tell this story to our club's first-years, so here it is for the forum's. Years back, during a hard Georgia dearth like the one we're in now, I opened a nuc for what should've been a quick look. Got distracted by a phone call. Twenty minutes, open hive, exposed comb. By the time I hung up there was a tornado over that nuc. By evening it was stripped — every cell empty, dead defenders on the ground, wax cappings drifted on the landing board like sawdust. A strong colony can repel robbers at a defended entrance. Nothing survives a broadside with the roof off. My rules now, June through first frost: inspections under 10 minutes. Never more than one box cracked at a time, and a towel over any open box. No comb or syrup exposed, ever — a drip on the hive stand is a homing beacon. Robbing screens on every nuc and single. Work strong hives first, weak last, so you're not trailing honey smell toward the vulnerable ones. Ask your questions, first-years. Cheaper to ask than to learn my way.