merylvingien
Field Bee
- Joined
- Aug 5, 2009
- Messages
- 536
- Reaction score
- 0
- Location
- Near Andover Hampshire
- Hive Type
- Commercial
- Number of Hives
- 7
I am after some different opinions from more experienced people on a highly aggressive colony that i have the pleasure of keeping.
It was a swarm that i exctracted from a loft last year around this time. They built up slowly and never produced anything last year, and this year is not much better.
Last seasons temperment was "ok" but a little frisky. However this year is totally different, lots of pinging, and they only tolerate 5 mins MAX of inspection before the whole lot rev up and basicly go ballistic.
The strange thing about this colony is, the queen is laying well, but for some reason they do not appear to building up in numbers much, just stay the same and also do not do much. 11.00 am when everyone else is hard at it, they just seem to waking up and having a coffee before deciding whether to venture out or not. Not much honey in the supers either.
I am going to requeen in the next couple of weeks and i hope this will sort the problem out (maybe she is just old?) but i am suprised that they havent superceeded already and get thier arses in gear.
Just curious as to others thoughts on the matter?
It was a swarm that i exctracted from a loft last year around this time. They built up slowly and never produced anything last year, and this year is not much better.
Last seasons temperment was "ok" but a little frisky. However this year is totally different, lots of pinging, and they only tolerate 5 mins MAX of inspection before the whole lot rev up and basicly go ballistic.
The strange thing about this colony is, the queen is laying well, but for some reason they do not appear to building up in numbers much, just stay the same and also do not do much. 11.00 am when everyone else is hard at it, they just seem to waking up and having a coffee before deciding whether to venture out or not. Not much honey in the supers either.
I am going to requeen in the next couple of weeks and i hope this will sort the problem out (maybe she is just old?) but i am suprised that they havent superceeded already and get thier arses in gear.
Just curious as to others thoughts on the matter?