Love listening to you “punch yourself out” over bee behavior. Life is way too short to not be passionate about things and getting to share that with others in this manner is one of the few good things about social media. Keep em coming, love your articles, and bring on the robbing AND wash boarding discussions!
Does robbing occur in the wild? In the forest? Or is it a phenomenon purely resulting from the inadequate spacing between kept colonies? If it does occur in the wild it does seem that not only is robbing a mechanism of survival of the fittest but also a natural spacing mechanism between hives which maximizes the harvest of the natural resources available in the area.
Thomas, yes, I suspect - as usual without scientific support - that robbing is a maximization process. Essentially, all honey bee "herds" gather what they can from the available resources. Appear to be greedy. Then, after all nectar collection possibilities have passed, they will then allocate all resources to those colonies with greatest probability of surviving the winter (largest, healthy population via robbing.). Nothing is wasted. Fittest survive.
