Aggressive Bees, Swapping positions

[jamiep]

I have a highly aggressive hive which I want to requeen. They are full of bees. I also have a small hive (promoted nuc) with good stock, around 6-7 frames.

Our summer flow will start here in a week or two.

I plan on swapping the hive positions of the two hives to reduce the numbers before culling the aggressive queen, and hopefully bolster the small colony to take advantage of the flow. The aggressive colony will then be split to make nuc’s for winter.

My Question is how many of you would cage the good queen with a fondant plug before swapping positions.

Also, does swapping hive positions work OK in the dearth when incoming bees have little/no nectar.

 

[ericbeaumont]

does swapping hive positions work OK in the dearth when incoming bees have little/no nectar.

Disaster and much death will result; wait until the flow.

 

[ericbeaumont]

cage the good queen with a fondant plug before swapping positions.

Never felt the need.

bolster the small colony

You may end up with two defensive colonies. Sometimes the change in pheromone works to improve behaviour, but generally, I've found that until the defensive workers die the temper will persist.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I plan on swapping the hive positions of the two hives to reduce the numbers before culling the aggressive queen, and hopefully bolster the small colony to take advantage of the flow. The aggressive colony will then be split to make nuc’s for winter.

My Question is how many of you would cage the good queen with a fondant plug before swapping positions.

Also, does swapping hive positions work OK in the dearth when incoming bees have little/no nectar.

I wouldn't contemplate doing any of that - just requeen and let them settle before swapping hives over

 

[jamiep]

Never felt the need.


You may end up with two defensive colonies. Sometimes the change in pheromone works to improve behaviour, but generally, I've found that until the defensive workers die the temper will persist.

The hope would be that the most of the defensive bees would go to the younger queen and hive marked as “good for season” so the “new” aggressive hive would need little work until the foragers had been replaced.

Is the “disaster and much dead” a personal experience or educated feeling/guess? The other option is to move aggressive hive and collect in an empty hive before uniting over newspaper.

 

[jamiep]

I wouldn't contemplate doing any of that - just requeen and let them settle before swapping hives over

My concern with this is there are a lot of older, aggressive bees which will much less readily accept a caged non laying queen. I will want to move the original hive before finding the old queen as bees are boiling out of the entrance when the supers are gently cracked apart.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

My concern with this is there are a lot of older, aggressive bees which will much less readily accept a caged non laying queen

which will more than likely cause carnage in the nuc when they return from foraging to find a band of strangers sat in what used to be their hive

 

[ericbeaumont]

Is the “disaster and much dead” a personal experience

Yes.

During a flow bees will be accepted into another hive because a benefit will be gained.

I got it wrong once.