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Irritates me them referring to the hive as a living thing, e.g. collecting pollen to keep the hive alive over winter... Rather than saying collecting to keep the colony alive...... Petty I know but still.

My aggressive dark bee colony is now queenless, where she went is a mystery. Suddenly brood production stopped and there were no eggs, just advanced uncapped and capped brood. I put in a frame of eggs from another colony and they have made queen cells - all but one removed. She should emerge...

Try browsing google earth for your locality to see if there are any areas of land that could be suitable. Visit or fire off emails to likely land owners!

Yes, it's being used to prevent queens passing through it - what it was designed and made for! :biggrinjester:

Your colony could be starting to release swarms. Check for mature queen cells. Put your 'swarm' in a nuc as your old queen could be with them until you are sure. If they stay in the nuc there's a queen in there!

The best advice for a beginner is to use equipment for the purpose it was designed and made for!

This could be part of the problem - imported carnolian? Surely better to breed your own or arrange to introduce eggs/ queen cell from a nearby beekeeper with calm local mongrels? Cheaper too.

Finman makes a good point. Ensure they have an unfilled super to move the nectar about.

If you want to be a beekeeper you need to accept that it will not always be the gentle pastime promoted by books and TV. Bees can be very aggressive and intimidating and it goes with the 'job' of beekeeping to manage the problem (not with petrol however). Keeping bees at home is risky unless...

Look like Bombus lapidarius http://youtu.be/2wMvVaDmOgU

If I need to inspect a colony I expect to be aggressive I normally gently remove the supers and place on an upturned roof with the crown board still on. I have mesh over the holes in the crown boards which help with ventilation for the short time they are in that position. I find that traps some...

Dealing with the problem without petrol is what beekeepers do. Try a frame of eggs from another colony as you may have squished their queen.

That will be your first instalment. Expect to be buying more equipment sooner than you think! If you can make hive parts from free wood apart from more complicated brood/supers it will keep the costs down. Sometimes best to be patient and gain some hands-on knowledge via a local beekeeping...

Trust the bees. They obviously think they have a viable queen!

Originally Posted by AndyJThompson .....I believe if i had a very big issue with my bees and they were causing another harm i would dispose of them. I am not a very experienced beekeeper and would follow a path I felt to be justified. I really do not believe we should be so judgmental of...

If you have 9 other colonies take a frame of eggs from the best one and pop it in. They will do the rest if there is no queen in there.

This scenario is one I fear the most because if I cop one on the eyebrow or nose my face swells up. Even worse when doing the last inspection before a foreign holiday. Apart from looking like Quasimodo for the entire holiday they may not let you on the plane unless you got the passport photo a...

To be honest when I found the first ones I took them out. However, since then I have just left them with one as they could be superseding due to knowing something is wrong with the queen. I'm only just getting down to my preferred colony numbers by slowly merging the AS colonies so don't want to...

I've had queen cells built in the AS side despite a newly mated queen. It is suggested that some new queens take a bit of time to start producing pheromones in enough quantities to stop new queen building. I don't know for definite but it seems to make sense.

All, apart from the queens born this year, will die out over the coming months. The queens will then hibernate over winter and emerge next Spring to start new colonies. It is possible a queen may take up residence in the bird box next year but not a certainty. If you want to deter them from...