Recent content by ZambianVet

Hi all so even by Thursday night there was still no change soI went ahead and pulled the supers off as they were. Did the first brush and transfer right there next to the hive so that most don’t get lost and then repeated it down the road under a light hung in a tree. Escape boards were on in...

Yes, they are more aggressive in general but these two hives are particularly bad. We have only had them for 3 years and are still learning so perhaps we just keep hassling them at the wrong time, wrong weather etc but it always seems to go badly with these two hives. The weaker hives don’t mind...

So there is no harm in leaving the boards in for a few more days then? we only have one other porter escape board which hasn’t worked as well as the 8 way in the past. will try spot the queen but like I said these African bees are angry things. I only ever manage to do a full inspection on the...

I thought that a large hive would be less likely to move down if there was over crowding? Hence the empty super underneath to try provide more space for them. We will take it off frame by frame if we have to but I’m really not keen to try that. These hives are so aggressive that we get hammered...

Hi there Got a serious problem here in Zambia. Any advice and help will be greatly appreciated. Our 8 way bee escape boards seem to have failed us. We have about 2 months left of flowers so want to do one final harvest. Only plan is to take one super off the strongest hive and half the frames...

I did leave the hive in the exact same spot where the pole was but they weren’t interested in going into it. They flew off far into the bush there was no way of following them let alone catching them once the flew off. Hopefully they find a new spot to form a hive away from anywhere that they...

It’s weird though because I once opened up a tree in my yard here that was giving us trouble so I pulled all the comb out and burnt the tree down. The bees ended up swarming in a tree nearby and stayed there for 4 days before they left so I was hoping these ones would be similar. I guess not...

Update So I went over yesterday afternoon, cut the pipe off and pulled out all the comb. While I was doing that all the bees formed a bunch just above where the pole used to be. I fixed as much brood as I could get into my frames then waited for more bees to land in the bunch (rookie error I...

So darkness is worse than daytime? I have a friend here who only works with his bees at night. He claims it’s easier. Although I have checked my own hives during the day and never had an issue so I prefer daytime. Didn’t think there was too much difference in aggression though. Sent from my...

Thanks for all the advice. Would love to work with them in the day but I am worried about human conflict. A lot of people use the road through the gate during the day and I don’t want them getting stung while I work. Will definitely keep you all updated, probably going to attempt to get them...

Sadly I don’t have enough time to use a bee escape but thanks anyway. Your idea about using a smaller pipe is great I will see what I can find! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Hi MC, thanks for the advice. I was thinking of doing the whole operation late in the evening so that all the bees would be home by then. Is it better to do it during the day like you suggested and then leave the box there for the foragers to find? Won’t they just go straight back to the pipe...

Hi there, I am new to this forum. I’m from Zambia and I’ve got two hives currently. Got into bee keeping when I needed to move some bees from the garden and decided to try look after them rather than just kill them. I have an urgent query if you don’t mind. A friend has some bees down a hollow...