Russ
New Bee
- Joined
- Jan 8, 2009
- Messages
- 15
- Reaction score
- 0
- Location
- surrey/kent border
- Hive Type
- 14x12
- Number of Hives
- 3
Hi There
I performed a shook swarm for the first time on one of my hives at the weekend. The colony was doing well with the queen laying and the bees have been bringing in plenty of pollen and nectar. The main reasons for shooking were to change from standard to 12x14 frames and to help in varroa control. The process seemed to go smoothly however today I have noticed that there is a lot of fighting going on as the bees fly on to the landing board.I am pretty sure that its not robbing (even though I am feeding syrup solution) Nearly every bee that lands gets greeted by a possey of guard bees and there seems to be continous fights. Is there an explanation for this behaviour, could it be that the shooking interferes with the transfer of queen substance within the hive? Also there is no pollen coming in, is this to be expected as there is no brood at present.
Thanks Russ
I performed a shook swarm for the first time on one of my hives at the weekend. The colony was doing well with the queen laying and the bees have been bringing in plenty of pollen and nectar. The main reasons for shooking were to change from standard to 12x14 frames and to help in varroa control. The process seemed to go smoothly however today I have noticed that there is a lot of fighting going on as the bees fly on to the landing board.I am pretty sure that its not robbing (even though I am feeding syrup solution) Nearly every bee that lands gets greeted by a possey of guard bees and there seems to be continous fights. Is there an explanation for this behaviour, could it be that the shooking interferes with the transfer of queen substance within the hive? Also there is no pollen coming in, is this to be expected as there is no brood at present.
Thanks Russ