Have my bees outgrown my garden?

[MartinL]

One of my hives is now very large and irritable.
Its a 14 X 12, full of brood which has overflowed into the first super.
The queen superseded last Autumn I think.

Until now they have always been mild mannered and far from aggressive. However, at the weekend my neighbor (building a timber deck about 5m from the hives),was stung, once Saturday and again on Sunday.

I have the offer of a new site but it's only 5-600 meters from my house. My thought was, to split the offending hive into two (14 X 12) nuclei, leave the supers in place (on top of a new brood-box), move the two nuclei to the new location and let nature take its course (perhaps with a little feeding).

Hoping to have one queenright and one queenless nuc in the new site, with the flying bees returning to the new hive and the remaining brood and nurse bees, to be requeened in about 5-7 days.

Not doing this for the honey production, what are your thoughts?

 

[Silly Bee]

Is it bad weather making them irritable?

 

[Hivemaker.]

However, at the weekend my neighbor (building a timber deck about 5m from the hives),was stung, once Saturday and again on Sunday.

Ask your neighbour to confine activities in his garden to night times (after dark only)

 

[Excession]

Is your hive screened to push the bees up as they leave or was it a straight flight to your neighbour?

Interested to know as I am relying on my screen to keep neighbours safe.

 

[Poly Hive]

Tinky bees are not going to not sting because of a screen.

Sorry but that is how it is.

BTW I think post #3 is a tongue in cheek comment.

PH

 

[AnotherNewBee]

Are the bees just annoyed about the noise (and bad weather), or has your neighbour built the deck so high he's put himself in the flight path?

If the former, the problem will probably go away when he's finished banging about and using power tools. You might want to put up temporary screening or move the bees to an out apiary until things quieten down a bit.

If the latter the problem probably won't go away so you might want to try permanent screening to raise their flight path, or look for a permanent out apiary.

If you do move them out you might also want to consider putting an empty hive in their place. If he continues getting stung it can't be bees from your empty hive - and probably wasn't your bees the first two times.

 

[Swarm]

Time and again someone suggests an empty hive to 'catch out' the disgruntled neighbour.
In his garden, bees 5m away, stung twice. It's not his fault he was stung. Consideration of the fact that some people are/would be afraid and that they have a right to enjoy their garden without being chased out of it or stung.

I think it's a mean person who would ignore the situation and rub salt in with the 'prove they're mine' argument.

I moved my hives when I had one or two followers and some buzzing. I was certainly not going to leave them there and risk some incident when the neighbours next fancied a barbeque.

 

[Silly Bee]

Time and again someone suggests an empty hive to 'catch out' the disgruntled neighbour.
In his garden, bees 5m away, stung twice. It's not his fault he was stung. Consideration of the fact that some people are/would be afraid and that they have a right to enjoy their garden without being chased out of it or stung.

I think it's a mean person who would ignore the situation and rub salt in with the 'prove they're mine' argument.

I moved my hives when I had one or two followers and some buzzing. I was certainly not going to leave them there and risk some incident when the neighbours next fancied a barbeque.

 

[Poly Hive]

Absolutely right swarm and some need a serious reality check re bees and neighbours. It can and does get very difficult indeed. I strongly suspect which side the law is going to support. The literally injured innocent party or the owner of tens of thousands of stinging insects..........

Thought for the evening!

PH

 

[honeymaker]

Time and again someone suggests an empty hive to 'catch out' the disgruntled neighbour.
In his garden, bees 5m away, stung twice. It's not his fault he was stung. Consideration of the fact that some people are/would be afraid and that they have a right to enjoy their garden without being chased out of it or stung.

I think it's a mean person who would ignore the situation and rub salt in with the 'prove they're mine' argument.

I moved my hives when I had one or two followers and some buzzing. I was certainly not going to leave them there and risk some incident when the neighbours next fancied a barbeque.

I really struggle to understand people that ignore the neighbours because they know its OK and not as bad as some other hives. The vast majority of people have a fear of bees and don't really care you don't think its not too bad, you see the same arguments on allotments all the time. You wouldn't be too happy if the neighbour started putting insecticide on his plants in the middle of the day when the weather is fine, the bees wouldn't last long.

 

[AnotherNewBee]

Time and again someone suggests an empty hive to 'catch out' the disgruntled neighbour.
In his garden, bees 5m away, stung twice. It's not his fault he was stung. Consideration of the fact that some people are/would be afraid and that they have a right to enjoy their garden without being chased out of it or stung.

I think it's a mean person who would ignore the situation and rub salt in with the 'prove they're mine' argument.

I moved my hives when I had one or two followers and some buzzing. I was certainly not going to leave them there and risk some incident when the neighbours next fancied a barbeque.

Nobody has suggested ignoring the situation. However, it is wise to establish facts. Placing an empty hive will help to establish whether the neighbour is making invalid assumptions, or if the problem really has gone away by removing the colony.

 

[user 6228]

Tinky bees are not going to not sting because of a screen.

Sorry but that is how it is.

BTW I think post #3 is a tongue in cheek comment.

PH

"tinky" not familar with that one, despite "stayin" 3 1/2 years beyond the pale

 

[Excession]

Tinky? New to me.

I wasn't suggesting that a screen changes a bees potential to sting. More that it changes the bees flight path and guard bees sight line, to prevent unintentional disturbance.

 

[AnotherNewBee]

Tinky? New to me.

I wasn't suggesting that a screen changes a bees potential to sting. More that it changes the bees flight path and guard bees sight line, to prevent unintentional disturbance.

If it's the sight line that's the problem turning the hive round might fix the problem. Aim the little devils at someone else!

 

[Hebeegeebee]

The poor weather has resulted in colonies being a bit more grumpy than usual. However if they are stinging the good neighbour, it's wise to do something about it or the good neighbour will become as grumpy as your box of insects.
If you split and make some part of the colony queenless, they may be worse. You might need to consider requeening if they are not nice to be near.

 

[Poly Hive]

Tinky= nasty, aggressive, stingy.

A Doric word which if not in the NE you will not hear.

PH

 

[susbees]

Tinky= nasty, aggressive, stingy.

PH

Five versions in the Urban Dictionary and no sign of that one. Mind after eight years in Aberdeen I was almost none the wiser about the cute lingo...much beyond :"fit like?" and "fitba"...

 

[MartinL]

The poor weather has resulted in colonies being a bit more grumpy than usual. However if they are stinging the good neighbour, it's wise to do something about it or the good neighbour will become as grumpy as your box of insects.
If you split and make some part of the colony queenless, they may be worse. You might need to consider requeening if they are not nice to be near.

Thanks Hebeegeebee,
You are the only one out of 16 replies to address at leas on of my issues.

Just to be clear;

1, My neighbor is not feigning being stung although when first stung and I asked have you taken anything for it (expecting some sort of antihistamine) his reply was "Ibuprofen, it really hurt"! My reply was "you mean it really stung"! He looks as if he's been in the ring with Mike Tyson, both eyes swollen and closed. After being stung the first time on Saturday I gave him a veil, so I was surprised that by the time we met on Sunday he'd been stung a second time. His reply was "I started earlier today and didn't think they'd be up that early"!

2, He is working well out of the flight path but the electric tools, hammering etc is drawing the guard bees across to him.

3, As already stated, my intention is to split the offending hive into three. I'm moving two nucs (one queenless and one queenright) to an uninhabited unused area of the village @ 600m away. I have the permission of the land owner to use the area and it is fenced off (aprox 1 acre).

4, There will (still be a hive with bees inside) in the position currently occupied by the large colony, which has brood across at least 7 frames of the first super (and will receive the returning flying bees). This will have a new queen introduced when I am certain that I have the original queen in one of the nucs.

5, I would be interested in your views on what, I plan to do with the bees, not the neighbor!

 

[susbees]

1. Move whichever bees are moving over three miles away for 2 weeks then back to 600m away

2. Resite your remaining bees in the garden by first turning them around for a couple of days then move them 3 feet a day to another part of the garden

3. Screening and turning the box around have been suggested already in posts other than the one you have chosen as acceptable

 

[Poly Hive]

I have addressed your issues twice but you choose to ignore that.

Move them out. Simple.

PH