wondervet
House Bee
- Joined
- Aug 8, 2010
- Messages
- 102
- Reaction score
- 0
- Location
- west yorkshire
- Hive Type
- National
- Number of Hives
- 6
last year we had a horror colony which were unmanageable for us. hundreds of them flying at veil as soon as the crown board was off.
we requeened them successfully late July (checked a month later than replacement queen was present and laying) and then left them reasonably undisturbed through the autumn while the old queen's progeny were replaced.
opened them up this week. all 4 other hives perfect. the formerly horrible lot.........nightmare! Managed to get as far as the dummy board out before engulfed in angry bees.
questions:
1) is this just bad luck? we have a sister queen from another queen cell from the same hive at the same time and her hive is completely reasonably behaved. Is it possible the hive could be full of nosema or something?
2) Can't be done with a season of this. I'm currently thinking next week we'll tape up the hive. Fill it with carbon dioxide from a fire extinguisher and hoover out the inactive bees 10 mins later (and burn 'em). Then at least we can recycle the stores and combs. Anybody who's actually done this have any advice for us? Will the remaining sealed brood survive and if we donate this to a weak hive will it turn the weak hive into another hive from hell?
help!
many thanks in anticipation
WV
we requeened them successfully late July (checked a month later than replacement queen was present and laying) and then left them reasonably undisturbed through the autumn while the old queen's progeny were replaced.
opened them up this week. all 4 other hives perfect. the formerly horrible lot.........nightmare! Managed to get as far as the dummy board out before engulfed in angry bees.
questions:
1) is this just bad luck? we have a sister queen from another queen cell from the same hive at the same time and her hive is completely reasonably behaved. Is it possible the hive could be full of nosema or something?
2) Can't be done with a season of this. I'm currently thinking next week we'll tape up the hive. Fill it with carbon dioxide from a fire extinguisher and hoover out the inactive bees 10 mins later (and burn 'em). Then at least we can recycle the stores and combs. Anybody who's actually done this have any advice for us? Will the remaining sealed brood survive and if we donate this to a weak hive will it turn the weak hive into another hive from hell?
help!
many thanks in anticipation
WV