Author Topic: Troubled hive (Read 6066 times)

Maesgwyn · « **on:** May 22, 2012, 05:36:06 pm »

i have a hive of bees, uncapped honey and some pollen, no sign of the queen nor brood but checking again in a couple of days. the bees are fine when working with them but away from the hive they are really nasty, I am going to move the hive to a new situation 17 miles away and then back to somewhere here well away from house, pigs stys etc and then maybe if still alive they will settle down, I have been feeding them,. Can someone please tell me where I am going wrong as I keep beign stung on the face and really fed up with them now

Bionic · « **Reply #1 on:** May 22, 2012, 06:34:49 pm »

Maesgwyn,
They are probably just nasty bees. If I were you I would re-queen them with a queen that you know is more placid. If she is nice and calm they should settle down.
Sally

Maesgwyn · « **Reply #2 on:** May 22, 2012, 06:45:14 pm »

Sally i agree with you but I have been unable to find the queen, If I replace her and then find she is actually still there will she not kill the new rather expensive queen?
Julia

Beeducked · « **Reply #3 on:** May 22, 2012, 11:58:37 pm »

The hive sounds queen less to me. No sight of the queen is hardly unusual but no brood this time of year isn't right at all. My hive is now on a double brood box and has 16 frames of brood. The one that didn't make it had bees, honey and pollen but no brood and no queen and rapidly faded away although that was a month ago now.

Being Qless can make them very bad tempered although mine was so placid it didn't make much odds. If she is not laying then they would have got rid of her anyway. Nasty (even normal) bees can kill an introduced Q which is why they are usually introduced sectioned off with a plug of fondant that they have to eat through so by the time they have they are used to her pheromones and accept her. Once they have a Q their stress levels go down and become much easier to get alone with.

All that being said you can just have nasty bees. My mum/mentor had a hive named the Darth Vader hive that attacked everyone/everything within 100m and killed 2 replacement Qs. Had to be got rid of in the end.

Moleskins · « **Reply #4 on:** May 23, 2012, 08:30:38 am »

Have you got 2 hives ?
If so take a frame with eggs on from the other hive, put it in the one you suspect is Queen less
take a look at that frame in a couple of days and if there's Queen cells on it you know the old queen has gone. Let them finish off making a Queen.
Or you can then confidently introduce a new Queen having killed off the cells on that frame.
Another bee keeper may help you with this if you only have one hive.
The theory is that it will take 6 weeks for the new Queens young to populate the hive and until then the 'old' bees will continue to be nasty, however I've heard that after 24 hours they all have settled down.

Maesgwyn · « **Reply #5 on:** May 23, 2012, 09:23:56 am »

I only have the one hive and a Langstroth one at that, everyone around here has wbc hives so what I am doing is buying in a new queen and hope that works, if not I will let the hive die out and start again with the hive well away from anyone and anything! I live in Wales and we have all been feeding up until last week though the hives at the group apairy are doing really well.
Julia

Moleskins · « **Reply #6 on:** May 23, 2012, 10:31:02 am »

I've sent you a PM.
Try to get onto National hives as the frames are the same for WBC.
Also don't be afraid to have a hive near home, I have one in the garden 6 yards from our back door, I hesitate to say this but ............ never a minutes bother ....... and we have our guest car park about 8 yards away.

I really hope I don't regret tempting fate with that one.

Maesgwyn · « **Reply #7 on:** May 25, 2012, 10:01:15 pm »

Tomorrow I am off to pick up a new queen bee, cant wait to find out if this is going to work as wearing a bee outfit to hang the washing on the line is no longer funny! My husband and a friend had a good look for brood today following a check earlier in the week and there is no sign of any but there is A LOT of very angry bees so fingers crossed things work out in their favour
Julia

Bionic · « **Reply #8 on:** May 25, 2012, 10:09:23 pm »

Julia,
Let us know how you get on. Good luck
Sally

Maesgwyn · « **Reply #9 on:** May 30, 2012, 10:00:53 pm »

So far so good, i bought in a new queen and within 12 hours I could walk outside without being bombed by angry bees, there are a few still around that want to attack but not nearly as badly as before, I have been told to leave the hive for a week and then go in and see if there are any eggs, she got out of her cage within the first 12 hours even though it was shut with masking tape so that the bees in the hive got to really settle with her but the masking tape had been broken through along with the fondant, we found this out when we went in to remove the tape. I have also been offered the chance to work along side the bee keeper to learn as much as I can as I am one that needs to do the work rather than try and read up about it. Thanks for all the help that I have received, been great

Beeducked · « **Reply #10 on:** May 30, 2012, 10:07:21 pm »

That's great news.

Bionic · « **Reply #11 on:** May 31, 2012, 09:42:30 am »

Well done, Long may it continue.
Sally

Plantoid · « **Reply #12 on:** May 31, 2012, 11:25:51 pm »

For any other keeper with possible queenles hive check with your associates to se if any one has any q cells and ask for one .

Cut it off the frame leaving a long neck keep it warm (your body temp is OK )and gently insert it in a slot in the bottom of the middle comb of your hive within a few hours of it being taken off the host comb , This should normal produce the required queen and also calm the hive as well as prevent workers laying eggs .

Some recent research appears to show laying workers have actually produced a viable queen instead of zillions of drones.