mn_newbee · Minnesota, US · Beginners · Aug 3, 2026

I started open feeding and set off a robbing frenzy — how do I shut this down?

First year, two hives, Minnesota. I put a bucket of syrup out in the yard yesterday because everything looked hungry and the flow is clearly over. Huge mistake apparently. Today both hives have clouds of frantic bees fighting at the entrances, bees wrestling on the landing board, and my weaker hive has dead bees piling up out front. There's a wasps-nest sort of roar to the whole yard that wasn't there before. I pulled the bucket an hour ago but the chaos hasn't stopped. Did I just doom my weak hive? What do I actually do right now, tonight, to stop this? I've read something about wet sheets but I don't understand how that helps. Please be gentle, I feel awful.

#robbing#open-feeding#dearth#entrance-reducer

▲ 11 votes 💬 4 replies ✅ Solved

4 replies

AbejaMiguel · Aug 3, 2026 · ✅ Accepted answer

Don't panic, this is fixable and every one of us has fed robbing at least once. Tonight/right now: 1) bucket stays gone, forever — never open feed in a dearth. 2) Reduce both entrances to one bee-width, literally 1 cm; a small gap defends itself. 3) Drape a wet bed sheet over the weak hive so it hangs to the ground — residents find their way under it, robbers mostly give up. Re-wet it as it dries. Usually calms in a day or two. Then feed INSIDE the hive only, in the evening.

AbejasCarla · Aug 3, 2026

AbejaMiguel covered it. I'd add: order or build robbing screens for both hives — in a dearth I keep them on everything weak. And check the weak hive in a couple of days once it's calm; if robbers got properly inside they can strip it fast, and a stripped hive may need syrup (internal feeder!) to rebuild stores.

DrentseBij · Aug 4, 2026

One more thing nobody said: check for gaps. Robbers exploit every crack — warped inner cover, hole in a box, badly seated feeder. Tape or grass-plug anything that isn't the front entrance. And don't open the hives for inspections for a few days, every opening restarts the frenzy.

mn_newbee · Aug 4, 2026

Update: sheet went on last night, entrances down to a pencil-width gap, and this morning the yard is almost back to normal. The weak hive lost some bees but the queen's fine, I peeked under the sheet. Internal feeders arriving Thursday. Thank you all, lesson painfully learned.

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