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Good lord Don't you ever have bad days?

Definitely get rid of the gloves. I use these, turned inside out (because black isn't a good colour to use with bees I think), and stings very rarely get through https://www.amazon.co.uk/Marigold-Extra-Tough-Outdoor-Gloves/dp/B00ECCA6O2 Unlike leather gloves, they can be bleach treated as and...

They aren't protected, just to be clear. This is a good group to join and ask advice from. They'll be plenty on there who can do chimney removals. https://www.facebook.com/groups/759123678164015/about/ EDIT: DON'T under any circumstances take the advice you have been given to light a fire...

Trying to sting your pockets? Did they or didn't they? Doesn't sound particularly aggressive, to be honest. Sounds like a one-off defensive reaction. Maybe they could sense a change in the weather coming. Who knows.

How many stings did your gloves etc take?

To be fair, 7 weeks from a sealed queen cell is long enough to wait. Some unites of colonies end up in carnage. It's just life.

Testing whether the BBKA website censorship nonsense has been fixed as agreed by the moderators ... https://www.bbka.org.uk/shop/healthy-hive-guide Oh dear It was the one practical change you agreed to take on board...

Welcome. You'll be at 6 hives next year, just accept it.

Yes. Including not me!

Welcome to the forum, and sorry for all the terrible things happening to your country.

3 weeks after the queen cell should have emerged, personally. Sometimes 2 weeks if I am feeling impatient, but 90% of the time I do that I wish I had waited 3 weeks.

I could patent a design for a bait hive with a drone strapped to it. Just send it up and hover the bait hive next to the swarm. Can't see how this wouldn't work. Admittedly you would get some minor minceage of flying bees, but hey ....

Interesting blog post from the Apiarist today - apparently researchers found that what bees prefer to build emergency cells on is eggs, not larvae. Who knows.

You can do this, and I often do. To improve the effectiveness I use a water sprayer to spray a mist over the bottom of the frames, once I have tipped the box. This makes the bees move away and you can see every detail of the bottom layer of the frames, so you shouldn't miss any cells that are...

They were at the height of a 3 storey building ... but I know what you mean

Tree protection order, sadly

Yes. Pretty definitive I would think.

There are some scratty looking bits of wax hanging down, but not sure they would qualify as combs yet. Would have been a virgin queen. Maybe she got mated, and they decided it was time to find somewhere and settle down .....

UPDATE: Heard a roar, looked up, and off they were going. The swarm just decamped from the tree top and roared off eastwards. 13 days at least since they bivouacked on it. They went straight past my swarm trap and I definitely heard one laugh as they did so. So, there we go. 13 days.

It's June, so there are lots of virgin queens going on mating flights in the area. The drones head out to find them, and all do so at the same period of the day. Drones make a louder noise than workers when flying, so such periods can sound crazy in an apiary.