Dealing with aggressive colony

[Finman]

I have moved brood frames from one angry colony to a calm colony, the calm colony remained calm.

That is then easy way to make angry hives nice.

 

[Anduril]

That is then easy way to make angry hives nice.

LOL I was just replying to your comment of 7 mad hives, that it is not always the case.

 

[Finman]

LOL I was just replying to your comment of 7 mad hives, that it is not always the case.

You believe only on things, which are only always.

Very exceptional habit, LOL.

 

[Anduril]

You believe only on things, which are only always.

Very exceptional habit, LOL.

You have misread and misquoted!

 

[Finman]

LOL I was just replying to your comment of 7 mad hives, that it is not always the case.

Or do you mean that sometimes it can be 9 mad hives. Lol.
.

 

[Anduril]

Or do you mean that sometimes it can be 9 mad hives. Lol.
.

Mathematician or Magician?

 

[birdsandbees]

I purchased some of that Beecalm smoker fuel to try it out, supposed to be made with lavender to calm them, waste of time! It's hard to light and when you tip the smoker the stuff just rolls around!
Maybe I should have tried the pipe baccy instead? I'll have a go on next inspection of my nutters.

 

[Anduril]

All those who suggest requeening. What is the best way to requeen aggresive bees? Assume they more likely to kill a new queen than a calm colony?

I have two very aggressive colonies myself that I need to requeen.

A colony I ended up getting covered in bees head to toes, I swapped two colonies around, the aggressive colony with a calm colony in the same apiary. The next day went into the aggressive colony that is now much easier to handle. Killed the queen, then every other day destroyed queen cells until they were hopelessly queenless, then introduced new queen.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

A colony I ended up getting covered in bees head to toes, I swapped two colonies around, the aggressive colony with a calm colony in the same apiary. The next day went into the aggressive colony that is now much easier to handle. Killed the queen, then every other day destroyed queen cells until they were hopelessly queenless, then introduced new queen.

It's a good idea to make sure they can't get into the cage for a good few days as well.

 

[Anduril]

It's a good idea to make sure they can't get into the cage for a good few days as well.

I've had a queen cage in there for 6 days before releasing the tab.

 

[Obee1]

I used tobacco in the smoker in last year's mean green colony - it did help. Or maybe it ws that there were three of us and one was on permanent smoker puffing duties!

I've been using a homemade push in wire cage for introduction. On last two occasions the bees chewed through the back of the foundation and released her - within 2 days. One was fine but the other - they didn't harm her - till a week later when she disappeared, never having laid an egg.

I'm considering getting the bees to form an orderly queue and introducing HM to each bee individually, possibly with added curtesy. Maybe then they'll accept her!

 

[Obee1]

Searching queen in such colony is difficult. You must use much smoke and the queen escapes and often hiddens.

Make an AS with them.

Take from a calm colony a frame, which has some brood. Put them on foundations. You get at same time swarm control trearment and you get new combs.

When the new colony has settled into the hive . They have capped emergency cells. You may take the whole frame off. They accept easily a new laying queen.

System is complex, but it isa minimum, what you need to handle those gansters and open brood frames. And you get minimum dosage of stings.

Am I reading correctly? So you would have a colony made from the flyers on foundations (the A/S) plus a frame of brood from a nice colony which allows QC, but you later remove the whole frame. Then they accept your new queen. But how do you introduce her? Push in cage? Travelling cage? Run her in?

What happens to the original box - with the queen nurses bees and brood? They still have a queen so will not die off.

 

[Finman]

But how do you introduce her? Push in cage?

What happens to the original box - with the queen nurses bees and brood? They still have a queen so will not die off.

When flyers move to the AS, then original hive has half amount of bees, they are young and not at all so angry as old farts, which moved to the AS. And now you find the queen easier.

Now it is much more easier to work with orignal hive.

I do not know what guys want to do with those two hive parts. Join them or put a new queen into the boath. If you want honey, you should unite them.

But original problem was to catch the angry queen.

 

[Motobiman]

I cant find it now but I read somewhere the US pros suggest doing the first part of a walk-away split with such colonies that has far fewer bees in so she can be found, then requeen and reunite.

Sounds the same as Finmans solution.

 

[lilybetbee]

I have a similar situation but have a nuc with a new queen raised from a nice colony.
My thoughts were remove the aggressive hive to a new position, put the nuc in its place (in a hive) and the the flying bees will join it. Hopefully I can find and kill nasty superceedure queen and re-unite.
Will the fliers be accepted in the nuc colony? Don't want to lose that queen!

Or would it be better just to try to introduce her when they arequeenless?

 

[Excession]

Oh for Pete's sake. Just requeen them and be done with it.

This. +1

 

[Cussword]

I cant find it now but I read somewhere the US pros suggest doing the first part of a walk-away split with such colonies that has far fewer bees in so she can be found, then requeen and reunite.

Sounds the same as Finmans solution.

Snelgrove said that in post 5.

.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I have a similar situation but have a nuc with a new queen raised from a nice colony.
My thoughts were remove the aggressive hive to a new position, put the nuc in its place (in a hive) and the the flying bees will join it. Hopefully I can find and kill nasty superceedure queen and re-unite.
Will the fliers be accepted in the nuc colony? Don't want to lose that queen!

Or would it be better just to try to introduce her when they arequeenless?

Introducing a queen to a Q+ colony is bound to fail. Just do something like you describe - move the hive three feet or more away and leave anything in its place, go for a nice cup of tea, come back and all the fliers (which is the majority of the aggressiveness in your hive) will be in the new position giving you a much emtier and calmer hive to go through, find the queen and use her as a gatepost decoration. You can then either immediately introduce the new queen in her cage ensuring the bees can't get at the candy to release her.then move the hive back to the original spotb checking every few days to see if the bees have 'taken to her' before giving access to the candy.
Alternatively, on disposing of the queen put everything back as was and ensure the colony is hopelessly queenless before introducing the queen in the same way.But make sure you take down each and every emergency queen cell

 

[Motobiman]

Snelgrove said that in post 5.

.

So he did, missed that.

 

[Obee1]

Introducing a queen to a Q+ colony is bound to fail. Just do something like you describe - move the hive three feet or more away and leave anything in its place, go for a nice cup of tea, come back and all the fliers (which is the majority of the aggressiveness in your hive) will be in the new position giving you a much emtier and calmer hive to go through, find the queen and use her as a gatepost decoration. You can then either immediately introduce the new queen in her cage ensuring the bees can't get at the candy to release her.then move the hive back to the original spotb checking every few days to see if the bees have 'taken to her' before giving access to the candy.
Alternatively, on disposing of the queen put everything back as was and ensure the colony is hopelessly queenless before introducing the queen in the same way.But make sure you take down each and every emergency queen cell

But the question was can you move the nasty hive and put a queenright hive (a nuc promoted into a full hive) in its place. The queenright colony gets all the nasty fliers. Will there be a problem with them coming home to find a different queen. Will they kill her? We are all agreed on how to deal with the nasty queen box as it is now depleted of flying nasty bees.