dlawr42103
New Bee
- Joined
- May 25, 2013
- Messages
- 55
- Reaction score
- 0
- Location
- oxford
- Hive Type
- Commercial
- Number of Hives
- 8
I have one real bugger of a colony that appears determined to remain Queenless.
They became queenless quite a few months back when their Queen just seemed to disappear without trace. Strangely they didn't prepare any queen cells. Looking back I should have been more suspicious at the time, perhaps they had her locked up, hidden in a secret cell somewhere.
I did then give them a frame of eggs to draw queen cells from, which they did, and they hatched... and then they appear to have mysteriously disappeared, perhaps they abdicated, no queens were seen after hatching.
... since then they have also got rid of 2 expensively bought in queens, one within a few days, the other after a couple weeks when she had just started laying quite well!
They didn't bother making any emergency cells again, clearly now thinking its not so bad without a queen, who needs them? This idiot beekeeper keeps topping them up with bees from somewhere so they don't need a queen anymore!
After a week I gave them another frame with loads of eggs and very young larva. Two days later I find they have got rid of all the eggs and larva! - What an earth? These bees are crazy!
I have no such problems elsewhere. I have concluded these are clearly communist bees and have decided they shall all be the same, no Monarch lording it about demanding clean cells, no greedy babies eating all the good stuff . . . . No... we are all the same classless society here, everyone equal.....
Now my concern is, what if they infiltrate my other hives and they start spreading their communist propaganda...?...
This must be a common problem, what is the normal method of manipulating the political persuasions of a colony of bees? I am thinking some kind of leaflet dropping campaign.
... unless the original queen is still in there... a tyrannical ruler operating in the shadows, hidden behind multiple layers of security and a fog of secrecy and lies pretending not to be involved but sneakily picking off any potential competition... oooh... that's how these communist states always turn bad!!
They became queenless quite a few months back when their Queen just seemed to disappear without trace. Strangely they didn't prepare any queen cells. Looking back I should have been more suspicious at the time, perhaps they had her locked up, hidden in a secret cell somewhere.
I did then give them a frame of eggs to draw queen cells from, which they did, and they hatched... and then they appear to have mysteriously disappeared, perhaps they abdicated, no queens were seen after hatching.
... since then they have also got rid of 2 expensively bought in queens, one within a few days, the other after a couple weeks when she had just started laying quite well!
They didn't bother making any emergency cells again, clearly now thinking its not so bad without a queen, who needs them? This idiot beekeeper keeps topping them up with bees from somewhere so they don't need a queen anymore!
After a week I gave them another frame with loads of eggs and very young larva. Two days later I find they have got rid of all the eggs and larva! - What an earth? These bees are crazy!
I have no such problems elsewhere. I have concluded these are clearly communist bees and have decided they shall all be the same, no Monarch lording it about demanding clean cells, no greedy babies eating all the good stuff . . . . No... we are all the same classless society here, everyone equal.....
Now my concern is, what if they infiltrate my other hives and they start spreading their communist propaganda...?...
This must be a common problem, what is the normal method of manipulating the political persuasions of a colony of bees? I am thinking some kind of leaflet dropping campaign.
... unless the original queen is still in there... a tyrannical ruler operating in the shadows, hidden behind multiple layers of security and a fog of secrecy and lies pretending not to be involved but sneakily picking off any potential competition... oooh... that's how these communist states always turn bad!!