drstitson
Queen Bee
- Joined
- Aug 4, 2010
- Messages
- 7,656
- Reaction score
- 3
- Location
- surrey, lincolnshire etc.
- Hive Type
- Dadant
- Number of Hives
- 14
Got up this morning to find both my Dadants knocked over (due to deer or boar activity). One was on it's side with roof and crownboards off, the other was upside down (again without roof or crownboards).
Did a quick emergency foray where i righted the hives, draped pillowcases over the frames and balanced roof over top.
Then got suited up, smoker lit and carefully repositioned frames in both hives and relocated them onto their stands with crownboards back in place.
Bees were surprisingly pleasant to work despite the damage they'd suffered. quite a few bees stuck dead and dying in the stores. Luckily not too much lateral movement of frames as both hives had recently had a block of insulation added behind a dummy board plus the castellated runners helped somewhat. Also wasn't too cold last night - both thermo-hygro monitors on the hives registered a minimum of 9C (the colonies having been a stable 24.5C inside yesterday).
shame as they'd both been really happy and active in the unseasonably warm weather we had yesterday (T-shirt and shorts!!!).
after a few hours both hives seem settled - pollen being brought in and dead/dying bees removed.
Hopefully both Queens are still ok - the hives seem calm and once righted there was plenty of signalling at the entrance so presume both still Queenright. they've been traumatised enough today so don't want to disturb again but any feelings as to how a newly queenless hive would be behaving at this time of year????????
Am going to fix a couple of stakes beside the hives to stop them being overturned again (although difficult to stop fully grown boar or startled deer from doing damage - the hives are only 6m from lounge door!).
Did a quick emergency foray where i righted the hives, draped pillowcases over the frames and balanced roof over top.
Then got suited up, smoker lit and carefully repositioned frames in both hives and relocated them onto their stands with crownboards back in place.
Bees were surprisingly pleasant to work despite the damage they'd suffered. quite a few bees stuck dead and dying in the stores. Luckily not too much lateral movement of frames as both hives had recently had a block of insulation added behind a dummy board plus the castellated runners helped somewhat. Also wasn't too cold last night - both thermo-hygro monitors on the hives registered a minimum of 9C (the colonies having been a stable 24.5C inside yesterday).
shame as they'd both been really happy and active in the unseasonably warm weather we had yesterday (T-shirt and shorts!!!).
after a few hours both hives seem settled - pollen being brought in and dead/dying bees removed.
Hopefully both Queens are still ok - the hives seem calm and once righted there was plenty of signalling at the entrance so presume both still Queenright. they've been traumatised enough today so don't want to disturb again but any feelings as to how a newly queenless hive would be behaving at this time of year????????
Am going to fix a couple of stakes beside the hives to stop them being overturned again (although difficult to stop fully grown boar or startled deer from doing damage - the hives are only 6m from lounge door!).