Thanks for the tips. I will try the sheet method to slow down robbing. I think the rainy cooler weather will dampen down their aggressiveness. I did pose the question to Carolyn at OSU. She is referring the question to Dewey. I'll let all know what the final answer may be. Thanks again.
That first picture is fascinating. I've never seen anything like them. Perhaps Brad can send it to Dewey. I'll take it with me when I go up to the Washington State Honey Bee Conference the first weekend in October.
If it were my hive, I would move virtually all the food resources to another hive. Since it's been queenless for awhile, the bees left in the hive are not winter bees. To make myself feel better I might shake the bees in front of another colony and remove (or close up) the hive. But in reality I usually just let them live out their days in the hive with the little bit of food I've left for them.
One of the talks at the conference is by a wonderful researcher, Meghan Milbrath, on Dealing with Deadouts. I hope to give a brief summary at the October meeting.
If you don't have a robbing screen (fyi - the feed store didn't have any when I went yesterday) you can try the wet sheet method. I took a wet bed sheet yesterday and draped it over the front of my hive. Your bees will figure out how to get in and out but it will confuse and disorient robbers. I had a lot of fighting on my hive front yesterday so put this on to give my bees some extra help.
We have seen some black bees. There are Irish and German black honey bees and also some wild bees that are black. Do you have a ribbing screen to put in front of the robbed hive. That might help.
Need your opinions about black bees. I have a queenless hive that has been that way for a number of weeks and is slowly dwindling. For that reason, they are highly susceptible to robbing. This has started this week, but I noticed the robbers that arrived are extremely black, especially their abdomens. There is a striking difference with my home bees that are probably Italians with bright yellow striped bodies. Would these happen to be Carniolan or Caucasians? They are very aggressive in cleaning out a hive, and now at the same time, they have discovered a young nuc colony that is well stocked with bees in a single deep with a reduced entrance, but there is a major battle going on with these black bees trying to break through the hive's guard bees. Any thoughts or opinions. Images included.