Any idea whats going on here?

[Ian123]

Bit of an emergency, so would really appreciate some advice.

Came home today to find the hive with the old queen was preparing to swarm. I have absolutely no idea if they have a new queen as on a previous inspection over a week ago I noticed the old queen was laying well and the queen cell that was in there had been removed by the bees completely - so could have hatched or not.

Today we found the hive had kicked out the old queen and she was on the floor outside surrounded by about 700 bees. We scooped her up and put her in a clip, then put her in a nuc with some drawn frames and honey. We made a ramp and her supporters are making their way inside. I have no idea if the nuc will be viable, but may as well try and keep them going. There is probably about 4000 bees left in the hive.

Is the following a good plan: Release the queen when all of her supporters are in and move the nuc to the other side of the garden - about 30m away and behind a hedge and bank of trees. Block the entrance up for 24 hours and then see what happens.

Later today, open the old hive to see if there is any new queen cells / new queen - or should I just leave them?

Thanks in advance!

Who did you buy an Australian queen from?

 

[JamezF]

My turn! I did a tour of hives this afternoon. The first bait hive I checked looked like this:

There are bees going in and out of the entrance and the hive is in the shade so it seems unlikely that they're too hot. There are signs that the bees on the front have been there a while as well, as there are spots of wax visible on the front of the roof.

And then another:

Same situation -- bees going in and out of the hive, no obvious reason for some to be clustering out the front. Floors are solid in both cases.

I'm wondering if two swarms have tried to occupy the same box and one has been pushed out?

James

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

My turn! I did a tour of hives this afternoon. The first bait hive I checked looked like this:

ah! a Basutho hive stand!!

 

[JamezF]

ah! a Basutho hive stand!!

Well, it's been a Goodyear for swarms...

James

 

[JamezF]

I have attempted to put the loose bees into new hives now. The first lot weren't too bad, though quite a few just sat in the UFE "tunnel". The second were completely clueless. I ended up scooping handfuls of them into the hive until there weren't too many left outside.

Hopefully they're eventually work it all out.

James

 

[Tony Slater]

I have found myself wondering if the old "shirtsleeves" adage doesn't come from an earlier time when people were rather more hardy. Certainly by the time it was comfortable be to out in shirtsleeves here this year it was way too late to have started inspecting -- colonies were already taking off and then some.

Next year I might seriously consider starting inspections as soon as I see a reasonable number of bees flying even if common wisdom suggests it is too cold, given that some of my home colonies were flying on sunny days even if it was barely above 5°C.

A couple of months back quite a few people here were posting "It's too early!" and I'd not have disagreed, but given the way things are changing I think we may need to re-think what "too early" actually is.

James

 

[Tony Slater]

I’ve become obsessed with true meaning of “shirtsleeve” weather. The only logical explanation is that it referred to the typical beekeeper of 100 years ago who wore a three piece suit (even working men such as the gamekeeper in Lady Chatterley’s Lover would where this) When it got warmer, he removed his jacket (often called a coat in those days) but left his waistcoat on (a gentleman would rarely remove his waistcoat). Therefore you could see his shirtsleeves but not his shirt. This implies much lower temperatures than those where you would strip down to only your shirt.

 

[JamezF]

I’ve become obsessed with true meaning of “shirtsleeve” weather. The only logical explanation is that it referred to the typical beekeeper of 100 years ago who wore a three piece suit (even working men such as the gamekeeper in Lady Chatterley’s Lover would where this) When it got warmer, he removed his jacket (often called a coat in those days) but left his waistcoat on (a gentleman would rarely remove his waistcoat). Therefore you could see his shirtsleeves but not his shirt. This implies much lower temperatures than those where you would strip down to only your shirt.

I don't care whether this explanation is correct or not. It's a great idea

James

 

[Gilberdyke John]

I’ve become obsessed with true meaning of “shirtsleeve” weather. The only logical explanation is that it referred to the typical beekeeper of 100 years ago who wore a three piece suit (even working men such as the gamekeeper in Lady Chatterley’s Lover would where this) When it got warmer, he removed his jacket (often called a coat in those days) but left his waistcoat on (a gentleman would rarely remove his waistcoat). Therefore you could see his shirtsleeves but not his shirt. This implies much lower temperatures than those where you would strip down to only your shirt.

If the gamekeeper only had his shirt on no doubt Lady Chatterley would take advantage of the poor fellow

 

[Bugbyte]

Hi all, an update and a question.

If you remember from the original post I split a colony into two hives. About a month ago the colony with the old queen pushed her out onto the floor with a small amount of followers. Feeling sorry for her I put her in a nuc with some frames. She is doing really well and we have bees on three frames with Brood on two of them. She is the most placid bee going. The two hives did eventually produce two queens but it has only been this week that they have started laying. I have found and marked one of them but the other is in hiding! Both hives are very calm but not particularly large as they have effectively not had queens since the start of May.

A friend of ours asked us to collect a swarm of bees a couple of weeks ago and they are also in a nuc - we took them because at the time we did not think the old hives had queens. They are however very feisty and we have been stung through our clothes - our old hives don't even bother when we open them up!

I don't want to keep the new swarm as I only really want two hives but can have three because I'm quite attached to our old queen. So this is the plan..... Kill the feisty queen and combine the two nucs into one hive using the paper method. Question is, after I have killed the queen how long do I leave it before I try and combine, or can I do it straight away?

 

[enrico]

Hi all, an update and a question.

If you remember from the original post I split a colony into two hives. About a month ago the colony with the old queen pushed her out onto the floor with a small amount of followers. Feeling sorry for her I put her in a nuc with some frames. She is doing really well and we have bees on three frames with Brood on two of them. She is the most placid bee going. The two hives did eventually produce two queens but it has only been this week that they have started laying. I have found and marked one of them but the other is in hiding! Both hives are very calm but not particularly large as they have effectively not had queens since the start of May.

A friend of ours asked us to collect a swarm of bees a couple of weeks ago and they are also in a nuc - we took them because at the time we did not think the old hives had queens. They are however very feisty and we have been stung through our clothes - our old hives don't even bother when we open them up!

I don't want to keep the new swarm as I only really want two hives but can have three because I'm quite attached to our old queen. So this is the plan..... Kill the feisty queen and combine the two nucs into one hive using the paper method. Question is, after I have killed the queen how long do I leave it before I try and combine, or can I do it straight away?

Immediately

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

after I have killed the queen how long do I leave it before I try and combine

do the unite immediately

 

[Bugbyte]

Thanks!

 

[Bugbyte]

The story continues.....

The unite worked, and the queen has been accepted. However, the hive is very, very angry. I can be sitting in the garden 20 yards away and bees bounce off me. On inspection today a great cloud of guard bees went on the attack, and I actually got stung on the face through the mesh!

As previously said, the accepted queen is really placid and her baby queens have produced very calm colonies. Its been a week since the unite, when can I expect things to calm down? or is this my life now, running screaming into the house whilst being bounced off?

 

[Sutty]

I'd expect things to get better in another couple of weeks or so as the old queen's offspring die off.
Ideally you'd take them somewhere out of the way of people & over 3 miles away until they calm down.

 

[Bugbyte]

I was planning on yeating them into next doors garden! (not really!)

Unfortunately, the old disposed of queen was very prolific in her laying and within about a week had laid eggs on 4 frames, so still a lot of her genetics to go.

 

[Bugbyte]

Right. Had enough. Working in the garden moving some ladders some way away from the hive one of the guard bees decided to sting me under the arm, to go with the ne on the chin. Two more then followed me into the house and dived bombed me whilst I tried to sort the sting out. I think I will move them to the far end of the garden behind a fence away from everyone else and just leave them for two months.

 

[Sutty]

Right. Had enough. Working in the garden moving some ladders some way away from the hive one of the guard bees decided to sting me under the arm, to go with the ne on the chin. Two more then followed me into the house and dived bombed me whilst I tried to sort the sting out. I think I will move them to the far end of the garden behind a fence away from everyone else and just leave them for two months.

Moving them will mean the flying bees will return to the old site & probably enter one of your other hives, so they will still cause trouble!
You could move them a few feet each day to avoid this.
I'd just grin & bear it for a couple more weeks unless they are troubling your neighbours.

 

[Newbeeneil]

As Sutty says the majority of fliers will return to the original site if you move them a short distance.
What I would be tempted to try is to move the hive and replace the hive with a box of foundation with 1 frame of brood. I would suggest this will make the flyers so busy trying to draw comb and requeen that they won’t have time to be so defensive.
You could unite in the future over newspaper with your new queen colony on top at the original site.
Just a thought.