Culling a colony

[Parsonage Bees]

How do I do this? My first thought is put them in the freezer for a few days.

Because;

This bloodline has always produced followers and are defensive long after an inspection (I'm keeping them in the garden)
Half the population are drones and I don't want them passing on their bad habits
They were producing drones over the winter.
Small patches of worker brood (less than when I had a quick look in February)
They tried to supercede a month ago, if she got mated and this is the new queen I'm not sure.
If I shake them out the drones will disperse into the other colonies.

So looking at clearing them down into the brood box, sealing them up and putting them in the freezer. Then I can reuse the frames.

I've dithered about them long enough.

Thanks . . . . . Ben

 

[B+.]

I've dithered about them long enough.

Thanks . . . . . Ben

A better solution would have been to introduce a queen without these aggressive traits in July/Aug. Then, by the following Spring, all of the workers that survive will be the progeny of this new queen. You will have created a new colony with nicer bees and not wasted the comb/stores/foraging efforts of the old (nasty) queen.

 

[drex]

In my early days I had a hive from hell, and I could not find the queen. My mentor advised culling. A petrol soaked rag into a closed hive did the trick. Mercifully selecting from the best queens my hives are now generally well behaved, thos whose traits I do not like get requeened now. Not resorted to culling since. I did not like having to do it.

 

[Parsonage Bees]

I could unite with another colony (which has chalkbrood and will be requeened later).
'Nasty' trait drones will be past their best when I breed new queens in a month or so. ?

I've culled a couple of drone brood frames. They're in the freezer at the moment.

 

[Ian123]

Prep hive by closing entrance to minimum and take off any extra supers. Put some mesh over crown board holes. Return in eve and put some sponge in entrance remove lid and pour a mug full of petrol in the top through cb holes. You get a brief roar and job done

 

[Parsonage Bees]

Prep hive by closing entrance to minimum and take off any extra supers. Put some mesh over crown board holes. Return in eve and put some sponge in entrance remove lid and pour a mug full of petrol in the top through cb holes. You get a brief roar and job done

Freezing is a slow death but if I use petrol the wax and honey will be polluted. ?

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Nothing like a bit of disposable beekeeping

 

[philipm]

This is where having an out apiary just for emergencies away from your garden comes in handy. If you had somewhere away from the risk of people getting stung then you could requeen instead of culling a hive which at the end of the day are just defending themselves. Judging by previous posts this seems to be a big problem this year with garden apiaries.

 

[mjt68]

How do I do this? My first thought is put them in the freezer for a few days.

Because;

This bloodline has always produced followers and are defensive long after an inspection (I'm keeping them in the garden)
Half the population are drones and I don't want them passing on their bad habits
They were producing drones over the winter.
Small patches of worker brood (less than when I had a quick look in February)
They tried to supercede a month ago, if she got mated and this is the new queen I'm not sure.
If I shake them out the drones will disperse into the other colonies.

So looking at clearing them down into the brood box, sealing them up and putting them in the freezer. Then I can reuse the frames.

I've dithered about them long enough.

Thanks . . . . . Ben

The drones disperse to other colonies anyway. Some/many/most of the drones in a given hive will be from another colony. Unless you're running a serious queen rearing operation then one colony is unlikely to make a significant enough impact in the local drone population to worry about. A large feral colony will produce loads of drones and who knows what they'll be like. For example, see https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00218839.1991.11101235 or https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.1998.0533.

In my opinion: if they're too aggressive then think about requeening but it sounds like they might be dwindling away anyway (it would be helpful to know how much worker brood there is). If they were aggressive last year then why didn't you requeen then? Best thing is unite and give a boost to honey production in another hive. Slightly more cowboy option (especially in a garden) would to be shake them out. Very cowboy and cavalier option is to kil them.

 

[Parsonage Bees]

This 2017 queen took over from her mother last year after the OSR. Was hoping she'd be an improvement but not so.

The colony has no more than one National BB frame as worker brood (eggs seen yesterday) and 2 times as much drone. I use some foundationless frames. It's May, they should be thriving.

 

[mjt68]

This 2017 queen took over from her mother last year after the OSR. Was hoping she'd be an improvement but not so.

The colony has no more than one National BB frame as worker brood (eggs seen yesterday) and 2 times as much drone. I use some foundationless frames. It's May, they should be thriving.

I would euthanise queen and unite.

 

[philipm]

If the hive is that weak there is definitely a problem ,probably also being robbed out by your other hives which could be one reason they are stroppy. I don't know if I would risk merging them with another hive unless I was sure that they were healthy.

 

[Millet]

I have a mental hive here that is part of a artificial swarm the last thing I would do is kill them..there is several much better options..
The option I have chose with my angry colony is wait till I have enough frames of brood built up and then I will make three or four nucs from the hive splat the Queen and give each nuc a bought in mated Queen.

 

[masterBK]

Bees can be killed by spraying them with water with washing up liquid added. This doesn't contaminate the combs which can be reused. Better plan is always to requeen with gentler strain

 

[Beefriendly]

Any advice as to where these gentler strains can be easily obtained from?

 

[masterBK]

In my case I have 23 fairly gentle colonies plus one extremely nasty one. I have been culling the queens of bad tempered colonies and requeening from those bred from good tempered ones for many decades. Obviously without AI I have no real control over the drone side of things apart from drone flooding, by persuading other beekeepers in the area to select for similars traits like good behaviour and by donate my spare queens to them (Yorkshire beekeepers don't say usualy refuse something for nothing).
At the moment I am aiming to produce up to 50 queens (expecting about 30 decent laying queens at the end of the process) but really need less than 15 for my own needs and this will probably leave me with several spare queens.

 

[Parsonage Bees]

Any advice as to where these gentler strains can be easily obtained from?

Just about every other colony I have are gentler than this one (apart from the swarm I caught last year which was mental. She got dispatched).

This remaining troublesome strain came from an association member who keeps his bees by the side of a field where bad behaviour would go unnoticed. Any queen supplier would supply reasonable stock I'd have thought.

Planning a unite on Sunday when it warms up again. With QEs between brood boxes if I can't find the queen. Eventually I'll find her.

. . . . Ben

 

[Beefriendly]

Yes...so when the advice is re-=queen with a gentler strain...where do you get one from?
Practical advice is needed for many beekeepers here....not I'm alright jack.

 

[ShinySideUp]

if I use petrol the wax and honey will be polluted. ?

And that is what concerns you?! Ye Gods, give it up and take up golf or some other hobby where you can't do any harm.

 

[Parsonage Bees]

Yes...so when the advice is re-=queen with a gentler strain...where do you get one from?
Practical advice is needed for many beekeepers here....not I'm alright jack.

Billinghay Bees - currently 'Out of Stock' !! (Come on Toby, I'm giving you some free publicity)

I thought you were setting up masterBK.