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I think you can kill all stages of wax moth by freezing for 48 hours, but do scorch the boxes. I agree with the soapy water for dispatching the wasps, but finding their nests is difficult. If you do, you can soak a rag with petrol and put it over the entrance at night, but using pesticides is...

Yes, I did try a long hive, but it had extra deep frames which made handling them more difficult to remove without disturbing bees as the frames have to be lifted higher to remove them. I found that the frames were the wrong orientation for my working, as it meant moving arms across the bees...

Just worth sacrificing her drone brood as a varroa check, since they will pass on her traits. It seems to be a very worrying trend, and it would be such a shame to have aggressive honeybees at large even more than they have been.

This year, the virgins from my gentle strains of bees ( over 15 years) also came back and produced really nasty bees. I suspect that they met some of the drones from some similar to the only vicious swarm I had to collect a couple of years ago, which attacked and followed, stinging all the way...

I am coming up to 80, and do find things getting a bit heavy, with the top brood box weighing up to 60 pounds, it's OK moving across, but putting it back up without squashing bees is harder. Lifting full supers on top of those is quite a process! I enlisted a younger person who wanted to learn...

When one of mine had laying workers, I left a new, drawn frame in the box on the original floor, took all the other bees in their box a long way away and shook them out. There were new eggs laid within two days of their finding their way back, so what I had been told about the laying ones not...

Of course, if climate change is too fast for bees to adapt , I might have to reconsider which bees will find the conditions bearable....

To be fair, I gave up on the imported bees after the first and her subsequent generations. Obviously, I cannot prove that other bees would not thrive, here, but most of our society members have come to the conclusion that local bees seem to be right, here. As to the environmental needs, I...

In answer to the question about my reasons for wanting local bees- I started out with an Italian queen, who seemed OK, but after the next generation, it is as if there is a slight mismatch of genes with local bees? They then seem to get too feisty and need requeening. I then had swarms from...

We picked up a tiny cluster of bees locally, and the queen is small and very black, so I did mark her. She is laying and brood looks healthy, but her nature is yet to show. Local bees are usually suited to our environment, so another strain will be good, as long as they are not unruly or spiteful!

I am still wearing my BB suit after about 16 years, though when I wanted a second one for working in other apiaries, the sizes had got bigger. Suit and zips still going after many washes!

Mistakes are the most impressive way to learn, but working alongside an experienced beekeeper will give you more understanding, and then you will find your own ways to handle things, but it saves a lot of heartbreak to listen... Don't worry, we will all make mistakes, as bees keep throwing up...

It isn't worth rushing, but it is important that those nasty genes don't get spread by her drones, if you can take those drone combs out. Bees know if the eggs are related to them and will probably remove them if they are not, and will chew down queen cells if they can get to them, but if...

Let me explain that I have dealt with defensive colonies and requeened them. A couple of years ago, I went to fetch a swarm, which was a frequent thing to do, and they normally concentrate on staying with their queen whatever activity was being done to pop them into a suitable container. Never...

Just a few wasps beginning to appear, maybe they are just late. Usually, we get masses because of the soft banks and thicket cover, and the smaller variety have demolished small colonies, as they get into the hives easily, even with reduced entrances. Annual battle....

When moving a box to requeen grumpy bees, I did find it helpful to have a couple of boards to pop on top of them as you do the moving, as it minimizes those who want to come up... yes, you can put a frame of BIAS from a nice-tempered colony in a box with drawn comb and maybe a frame of stores...

Thankyou for your valid points- Normally, I could deal with the feisty few and the enthusiastic young guard bees, but these have been beyond tolerating, and could pose quite a threat to people beyond my apiary, so I cannot take chances. I do understand the half-sisters will not be the same, but...

If you found a virgin, the previous queen is likely to have swarmed, and often more bees go out with her than should, and they return to keep the balance right for both colonies. If she didn't swarm, they may be superseding and could stay in there together for a while.

Sometimes, it takes up to four weeks before they lay, and some queens are small and hard to spot. Give them time, but to stop laying workers, you may have to put a frame of brood in all stages occasionally. If they are queenless, they will raise another.

If bees are rubbing together a lot in transit, they may have their hairs broken and let any virus in, but it probably has to be in that environment already, and will pass from bee to bee, so they throw affected bees out.