Boomarang swarm

[merylvingien]

Some while ago some of you will recall Mike A and myself donated some brood frames and bees to Rosecottage.
The bees from my lot were particularly nasty as Sam found out "head on"

Whilst we were sorting the frames out, i caught the nasty old queen and we dabbed some war paint on her.
Over a fortnight ago she swarmed (before i could kill her and requeen them) and went oopp top of nearby oak tree. They have spent the last two weeks happily doing nothing attached to said tree until today when they decided to move on. Swarmed down the garden, round the side of the house and over the road.
Good, i thought, finally they have pissed off.
10 minutes later they were back, in the tree at the bottom of the garden and reachable. So i have popped them in a box, in case they decided to home themselves in the chimney or some other unsuitable place.

Now i am not quite sure what to do with them. The aggressive tendancies of this bunch make them undesirable and the swarm isnt the biggest ive seen, in fact its now quite small as they have been hanging about for 2 weeks.
I dont want to palm them off on some unsuspecting poor soul, so am at a loss.
Do i kill them or let them go somewhere else?

 

[nonstandard]

Couldn't you knock off the queen and then unite the flying bees into another hive?

Sent from my HTC Desire using Tapatalk

 

[Mike a]

Paul have they always been a bit feisty or has it just been this year?
I have a colony which I put on the OSR this year and since bringing them back they have been vile tempered, so much so I've given up twice inspecting them but tomorrow they are getting the full works provided the weather is reasonable enough.

If I were you dequeen them and pop in a frame of brood and let them try again. Failing that several members of my association are taking their basic exam in July... Need I say more

 

[psafloyd]

Is there something abt the OSR that makes them d that or is it just that the have a large cache of stores?

 

[RoseCottage]

Paul,
A moment of irony...

I recommend trying to save them and turn them around. Perhaps site them a little away from your other hives, dequeen them, don full body armour, and introduce a frame from a preferred colony. I can offer a frame from a very docile one (you may recognise them) if you like...

The risks are a couple of weeks of discomfort and the risk of a poor mating with undesirable drones.

The benefits are a better behaved colony that you saved.

All the best,
Sam

 

[merylvingien]

Hi Sam, if i had the gear i would probably do something with them, but i am at full capacity at the moment. I am evening knocking plywood brood boxes together believe it or not.

I will consider my options in the morning. Dont really fancy killing them though.

Mike, there is no oil seed rape in the immediate vacinity, so i cannot imagine that is the reason. They were a little bit fiesty last year, but this year they have progressivley gotten worse.
In fact, all the hives at the top of my garden have gone the same way this year, whereas on my second location only the one colony is bad (queen reared from home grown frames last year).
Maybe there is something local that is turning them aggressive????