12th August - Sorting out an offensive colony

A few weeks ago a hive was donated to the Association Apiary. Rapidly it was noted to contain a colony of bees which were aggressive (defensive as a description didn't even come close).
Offensive behaviour included attacking anyone outside the apiary fence and following all the way to the car park. Sometimes it was necessary to drive some distance away before stopping and removal of the beesuit.
Over three weekends we hunted for the queen without success. Going through the hive two or three times with more than one set of eyes watching didn't work, neither did pairing frames. Today another search was fruitless so two of us resorted to seiving the bees through a queen excluder.
Working methodically through the frames she was nowhere to be seen. Brushing the remnants from the brood box into the seive was equally unsuccessful. Finally I brushed the remnants from the old floor and having driven all but the last tablespoonfull of bees down through the excluder I finally found her. She was small and a dark brown which was hard to see amongst the workers.
Needless to say she will not be passing on her genes to any more bees in the area. To quote Monty Python she is now an ex-queen.

 

[ABUNDANT HONEY GROUP]

Good friend, but it is easier to take little smoke to start the review and find the queen in the breeding racks there will be easily found, another technique is to place a frame of another hive without bees in the center of which we want to find and the aroma the frame that brings the smell of the other hive will attract it and after a few minutes there will be the queen.http://www.abundanthoneygroup.com/implenentos-para-apicultura