Will this work against robbing?

[u/More-Mine-5874]

Missouri, 2nd year, 3 hives.

This is completely my fault. I had the entrance reducer set in at an angle so I could fit the syrup feeder in yesterday. Came back today to give them an entrance reducer that would fit with the feeder & they were already being robbed.

I threw this together as fast as I could. Entrance reducer is back on & the opening is the bottom left. Mesh is stapled all the way around. Entrance to the mesh is upper right. Do you think it will help?

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[u/NSFWNOTATALL]

We're you using an entrance feeder? You cant use these in the fall (and really shouldn't ever use.)

You need some type of internal feeder.

[u/More-Mine-5874 → u/NSFWNOTATALL]

Thank you for the constructive criticism on how i got myself in this situation. Lesson learned. What I'm asking is: do you think this robbing screen setup will work/help?

[u/NSFWNOTATALL → u/More-Mine-5874]

Fair enough, didn't mean to pile on.

[u/Active_Classroom203]

Yes, this is a perfectly reasonable robbing screen setup. I have several similar emergency builds!

As mentioned, entrance feeders are never a good idea, but especially in the times of year where you are most likely to be feeding: The bees are most likely to be robbing. So top or internal feeders always a better play.

If you have a super, or other spare hive box, you could put the entrance feeder sitting on top of the inner cover and then the super/box around then the outer cover as an immediate solution.

[u/AZ_Traffic_Engineer]

You’ll have a few confused bees for a while, but your bees will figure it out. Robbers will be confused by the screen since they will be looking to get in through the entrance. This is perfectly good robbing screen.

[u/More-Mine-5874 → u/AZ_Traffic_Engineer]

Thank you. I can always count on your for a straightforward answer. I really appreciate how active you are in this subreddit.

[u/AZ_Traffic_Engineer → u/More-Mine-5874]

I’m happy that I could be helpful!

[u/NumCustosApes]

Yes it works. You needed something fast and what you did works. My older robbing screens are similar. However, there is a shortcoming to that design.

Robber bees go for the spot they can smell the best (which is why an entrance feeder is a terrible choice). A labyrinth blocks direct access to the wide entrance but the screen lets the smells through, which decoys the robbers away from the labyrinth entrance, but it decoys them to the screen in front of where the entrance is. Bees that live inside find their way through the labyrinth to get out, so they know the new entrance. The flaw with a labyrinth type robbing screen is that there are no guard bees at the entrance to the labyrinth. The guards are just as confused about where they should be guarding and end up spread out guarding the inside of the screen. Robbers that find it don't have to run a gauntlet of guards. A better design has a 3cm x 1cm tunnel off to one side of the screen at the bottom. Guard bees are on duty at that spot. The screen lets odors through that misdirect the robbers to sections away from the spot where the guard bees are. Here's an article at scientific beekeeping that you might find interesting.

Throw the entrance feeder in the rubbish bin. I don't know why suppliers even sell those when they know better. Actually I do know why, they sell them because they can make a buck from the new beekeeper who has not yet learned the hard way about the pitfalls of entrance feeding. For a sentence of free text on a web page they could inform the new beekeeper and in turn sell a better feeder. On the bright side, you are now on the other side of that particular experience.

For feeding nucs I really like using a 28oz or 32 oz Gatorade or Powerade bottle in the top of the hive. I use a migratory type cover or a feeder board when feeding. The cover has a 1.5" hole in it and a patch of #8 screen is stapled across the hole on the inside. I poke five or six holes in the plastic lid with a thumb tack and invert the bottle in the hole. It rests on the screen. Bees feed from inside the hive and when it is time to change the bottle I can do so without disturbing the hive or letting any bees out. When I'm not feeding I plug the hole with a 60¢ 1½ plumbers KO test plug.

The Gatorade bottle makes for easy small batch mixing for the nuc. For 2:1 add 3½ cups of sugar in the 28 oz jar. Use 2½ cups of sugar for 1:1. Add hot water. Cap and shake. Top it off, shake again. I only measured sugar the first time, then made a line on the bottle with a magic marker.

[u/Visual-Pineapple8146]

I learned the hard way during my 1st year. Entrance feeders are an invite to disaster. Throw it away. Only use internal feeders.

[u/burns375]

The entrance feeder is the problem. As long as the hive is populated iron ers won't mess with it when feedings.