Agressive bees

[Erichalfbee]

Good queens are available but you have to hunt them down. Again in my experience,the change in demeanour of the bees is immediate with a change of queen, and beekeeping is much more enjoyable for all concerned.

Any chance of a recommendation from members?
Nice to be forearmed, so to speak , for when I might need to requeen.
(sorry to hijack the thread)

 

[Tom Bick]

Hi wannabee you have not hijacked the thread you may just have started a whole new debate.
As for recommendations I am limited but Norton on this forum is highly recommended

 

[BKF Admin]

Norton is good,otherwise there was another link to a queen supplier who is a member of the forum on a thread yesterday.

Edit: found it,they are Honeybeesupplies-dot-co-dot-uk

 

[Finman]

Norton is good,

Yes, and sells often "Sold Out"

 

[rich]

Yep, can't beat Norton, he even phoned me the other day after I received some queens to see if everything was ok .... communication is spot on as well.

The queens I've had from him have been placid and build up really well in our climate.


Rich

 

[KarenB]

Dear all

Many thanks for all advice (and offer of home from Polyhive - thats exceptionally kind).

I am getting 2 new queens from P.Kemble next week and going to move my hives elsewhere and capture/kill any remaining flying nasties this weekend.

Cheers

Karen

 

[Tom Bick]

Hi Karen
Providing you are moving the bees more than three miles and you close them in the evening after they have stopped flying you should have no problem.
Give it eight weeks and the hives will be completely different all the nasty bees will have gone and beekeeping will be once again an enjoyable.
Good look

 

[wightbees]

What type of Queen bee have you gone for ?

 

[Bilsdean]

Aggressive bees

Hi

Just new to this site (and to beekeeping). Our colony was reared from a nuc last August. They were fine for ages - we could stand within a couple of feet of the hive and watch them coming and going. For the last week to ten days they have been acting out of the ordinary; at night, there would be a cluster on the outside of the hive at the entrance and if we got too close we'd be sent packing by one or two rather protective bees.

Since Sunday, the clustering on the outside has all but disappeared, but they are exceptionally cranky. Even being within fifty feet of the hive is upsetting them. Today, they even appeared to be hanging around the front door waiting for us!!

There's no OSR within a couple of miles and the weather here for the last week or so has been really quite warm and sunny during the day, with some rain overnight on a couple of occasions.

Hubby checked them over tonight and was stung around 15 times even with all the gear on!! I can't get my grass cut either and this didn't bother them previously.

Is re-queening the best (or only) option????

Thanks in advance :0)

 

[VEG]

Does the hive have a queen?

 

[oliver90owner]

Bilsdean,

Is re-queening the best (or only) option????

No, you could move them away. That was to the 'only option' part of the question.

On the information supplied, which is scant, I would think that they may have superceded or even swarmed. I am probably wrong.


BTW, welcome to the forum.

Regards, RAB

 

[beesandsheep]

It was interesting that you mentioned that the oil seed rape was far away, because my bees all get cranky at the end of May when the oil OSR nectar runs out. I am told that this is because foraging bees convert to guard bee duty. Prehaps your nectar ran out too.
If they still have some eggs this is a likely cause.
It is mainly because of this annual cranky stage that I stopped keeping my bees in the garden. I have a local dark strain of bee (Fife).

 

[troyca]

Don't mess about. Change the Queen or your beekeeping becomes a frightening ordeal.It isn't meant to be torture!

 

[beesandsheep]

Requeen aggressive hive

Have you ever requeened Troyca? and if so did it help?

 

[Incatatus]

i am about to requeen because of aggresive bees, i will keep you all posted

 

[Bilsdean]

Does the hive have a queen?

Yes, there is a laying queen. There are a lot of eggs in the new frames put on just around a week ago.

We will move the hive to a more shaded place by the water to see if this helps as they are in full sun at the moment. This will also take them further from the house. They were moved up into the garden to catch a bit of winter sun.

As there seems to be an issue with cranky bees at the moment, we will persevere and hope that the next rainfall (not forecast for a few days) will help with the nectar flow.

Thank you all for the advice.

 

[Skyhook]

With requeening its pot luck really what the offspring will bee like. So again its worth raising ypour own queens they always come in handy.[/QUOTE] Surely the point with re-queening is to introduce a new strain- so NOT worth raising your own queens if you have nasty bees, as you will have a nasty new queen. Buy a mated queen of a good strain, and in a few weeks you will have nice bees.

 

[troyca]

Have you ever requeened Troyca? and if so did it help?

I did requeen Beesandsheep and it did help. The madams are still cows[if you see what I mean] but not quite so vicious.Although I thought I would get away with topping up the food of the Millar feeder without smoke the other evening. WRONG. I have a swollen ankle to show for my assumptions. I have to keep reminding myself these critters are not pets,they don't care who the hell I am ,and if they want to send in the heavy mob, they will!Piss off homo sapien we are busy beeing bees! Can't wait till July when they will all be dead and their calmer sisters will prevale! Sounds horrid but true. Till then it is full battledress and armed with a smoking barrel. And to think before this season I had only ever been stung twice!