Angry bees and an impenetrable hive

[annamac]

Hi

I wonder if anyone can give me any advice about a problem I have with some very angry bees. I was given this colony in a hive about a year ago and they have always been very bad-tempered. Given how unpleasant it was dealing with them, I rarely looked in the brood box as I could barely see for bees pinging off my veil.

They were very active though so this year, I decided to put a super on and harvest some honey. I put the super on in early April and left it for a couple of weeks before adding a queen excluder to give them some time to draw comb. I thought everything was fine until I went to harvest some honey yesterday and discovered the super was full of brood. I suppose I very stupidly trapped the queen upstairs.

I decided today to have a look in the brood box to see if there is brood or honey and I braved the attacks, took the super off and then tried to get out a frame. Problem is, I'm just not physically strong enough to get the frames out. They have been moved so infrequently (mea culpa) that they are virtually superglued in place. Eventually I managed to hike one out, but it came apart and left big pieces of comb in the box. It seems to be all honey but some cells are unfilled and very dark brown.

It's a big colony and seems to be very productive, so I guess the logical thing to do would be to requeen it, but I'm a bit of a novice and a bit nervous about intervening. Also, I'm not 100% sure where the queen is - i did have a look through the supers and couldn't see her but i'm not an expert in queenspotting. I also feel I ought to be inspecting and surveilling the brood box but it's like it's all stuck in one big propolis coated lump.

Has anyone got any brilliant ideas for what I should do? I'm at a bit of a loss.

For info, I do have another hive of lovely calm bees.

Thank you very much for any advice.

Anna

 

[flemage]

i am no expert but on other threads like this the advise has been to put another new brood box with new frames and foundation on top of the orginal brood box.

Let them draw this out and then hopfully the queen will move up in to it. Once you see eggs in the new brood box put in your queen excluder so that she is trapped up stairs. Give it a few weeks for the brood in the old chamber to hatch then remove completly the old brood chamber.

then, by the sounds of it re-queen.

Good luck!

 

[Chris Luck]

I've got some like that, (quite a few actually), but mine are deliberately left that way, apart from the ferocious temperament of some of the colonies that is, but I can live with that and if I really do need to get inside I just get on with it and take some stings through the suit. However I know how difficult it is to get used to working with thousands of angry bees, especially in these temperatures.

What type of hive are you using?

Chris

 

[Swarm]

If you have spare boxes you could try the divide and conquer approach. Remove the BB from its position and leave a spare there as somewhere for flying bees to return to. Move the original some meters away, go through the frames steadily, placing two or three frames per spare box or nuc, cover and take a small break to (hopefully) allow the comotion to calm. Now inspect each box to find and despatch the queen, before reconstructing the hive. You have a calm colony, so take a frame of eggs from those, mark it with a drawing pin and allow the bees to bring on their own queen. Break down any QC that is not on this frame. Good luck.

 

[For want of a better word]

If you have spare boxes you could try the divide and conquer approach. Remove the BB from its position and leave a spare there as somewhere for flying bees to return to. Move the original some meters away, go through the frames steadily, placing two or three frames per spare box or nuc, cover and take a small break to (hopefully) allow the comotion to calm. Now inspect each box to find and despatch the queen, before reconstructing the hive. You have a calm colony, so take a frame of eggs from those, mark it with a drawing pin and allow the bees to bring on their own queen. Break down any QC that is not on this frame. Good luck.

A 3 way split is a good way forward if you have 3 spare nuc boxes and some spare waxed frames.
Leaving for a week before checking for fresh eggs will tell you which of the three the queen is in.

You could try a frame of eggs from your nice colony to each of the queenless nucs to see if they produce a new queen... keep the laying queen however nasty as insurance!
I have 3 colonies of Carnolians that abide in the naughty girls apiary.. prolific but need respect as they are bitches from hell !

 

[annamac]

Thank you so much for your very helpful answers!

Chris, I have Dadant hives.

I will opt for the divide and conquer approach as I have a couple of empty hives and a spare nuc and I would love to get the bad girls' hive sorted out, even if I need a jemmy to get the frames out.

I will definitely introduce eggs from my calm bees. I absolutely have to requeen the hive - this afternoon, I wore a bee jumpsuit AND jacket and two pairs of gloves so I didn't get stung but I could barely see for bees aiming for my face while i was in the hive and it took 20 MINUTES for them to lose interest in me after closing up!!

 

[For want of a better word]

Thank you so much for your very helpful answers!

Chris, I have Dadant hives.

I will opt for the divide and conquer approach as I have a couple of empty hives and a spare nuc and I would love to get the bad girls' hive sorted out, even if I need a jemmy to get the frames out.

I will definitely introduce eggs from my calm bees. I absolutely have to requeen the hive - this afternoon, I wore a bee jumpsuit AND jacket and two pairs of gloves so I didn't get stung but I could barely see for bees aiming for my face while i was in the hive and it took 20 MINUTES for them to lose interest in me after closing up!!

Stupid question... you do have a smoker going full belt .. don't you ??

 

[annamac]

yes

 

[Swarm]

Yes, time to assassinate the queen. Have some frames handy as well, it sounds like you may need them.

 

[Chris Luck]

Where are you Anna? If you're near me I'd be happy to give you a hand.

Chris

 

[annamac]

As much as I would love to have some expert help, I'm in the Nievre, which is about 3 hours away from you so probably a bit too far - even with the promise of a very good lunch, but thank you very much for the offer!

 

[RoseCottage]

I recomend that you make contact with another beekeeper in your area, is there a local association? The additional help may be useful in manipulations and in coping with the angry bees,
All the best,
Sam

 

[susbees]

Where are you Anna? If you're near me I'd be happy to give you a hand.

Chris

Bourgogne...

 

[REDWOOD]

You know the queen is in the super so take it for a walk and requeen or perform a baileys comb change and then requeen