- Joined
- Jan 8, 2020
- Messages
- 1,663
- Reaction score
- 1,797
- Location
- Bracklesham Bay, West Sussex
- Hive Type
- National
- Number of Hives
- It's a fairly fluid thing.... more than 10, less than 15
The aggressive hive only had capped brood, no eggs or young brood and I checked the frames twice to be certain. No QCs. They must have been queenless for a while, I wouldn’t be surprised if he had inadvertently dispatched the queen watching how he handled them, would that have made them more feisty? He is selling as the owner of the land where the out apiary is, has to move out soon. He is a member of our local BKA so I have advised the chairman of the reason we are not buying his bees as they were advertised in the monthly newsletter.With colonies that are already agressive and pinging at that distance even if he has QC's that will produce queens that are going to be open mated there are still the genetics there and there's every likelihood that the agressive traits will be maintained. No responsible beekeeper should ever be selling agressive colonies ... certainly not at full price. Sounds like he's on the less respectable fringe of beekeeping. Did he give you a reason he was selling them ? From the sounds of it they have not been well inspected in recent weeks which does not bode well ....