Among the races of the Western honeybee, the Italian bee has been identified with an especially strong tendency to rob.
[1] Bees are immediately attracted when a hive is opened and honey supers are removed.
Beekeepers do not actually "rob" bees in modern times, but "harvest a surplus."
This killed the hives and required bee "keepers" to catch spring swarms to replenish their livestock.
In some extreme latitudes bees are still killed at the end of the season to take all their honey, then bees are imported from lower latitudes (or even the opposite hemisphere) to begin the next season, but this practice is also dying out, mostly due to expense and movement restrictions.