How to Kill Off a Colony??

[alanf]

It prompted me to read up on the effect of co2 and found n2 is also used , btw. Chloroform has less permanent effects on the bees than n2 or co2.

You mean here?: http://jeb.biologists.org/content/27/3/302.full.pdf

Interesting that CO2 is used for queen II as far as I read. Are there any suggestions of it shortening the active life of an II queen?

 

[Hivemaker.]

I think it may be a little harder to get hold of chloroform these days

Let me know if you ever need any.

 

[newportbuzz]

just noticed an ommision form all the sugestions. noone said to agitate the removed brood box in the devide idea.
i find that just moving the hive and leaving it does %"£%!£$%^ all to get rid of the older bees you have to get them into the air somehow. best way i have found is to piss them off with a few well aimed thumps on the side of the box. not to many as that will demoralise them but up to 5 or so does a good job repeat this every 20 mins or so for an hour or so and you will have hardly any older/guard bees left as most will have come out to investigate the thumping. and returned to the old hive position.

a few other ways i have heard of is to introduce a protected and caged virgin queen and your queen will be close to her in a few hours.

same principle but use a dead queen stuck into a frame with a needle and the queen should go to that frame to try and kill her already dead rival.

i have not tried the last two ideas yet but i have used the first one to good result.

 

[Hivemaker.]

Well, at least the original aim was not needed. Can't really accept/understand the mentality/ability of people, calling themselves beekeepers, who would ever kill off a whole colony for no better reason than to remove the queen. Not beekeepers in my book.

RAB

I agree RAB,not beekeepers in my view either.

 

[Moggs]

'Bees in the garden' debate anybody?

 

[Arfermo]

If you took 'floor' as meaning 'the ground'. I could see you may have a problem. I didn't - I wrote floor as meaning floor. I wonder how many thought that?

The brackets? well that would mean that if there were a super above a Q/E, one could expect that the queen was already below that and, further, if nearly all the bees are cleared from the frame one can more easily check that the queen is certainly not one of those left behind. Just simple really; the idea is simply to ensure the queen is where you want her - beneath the Q/E. Nothing fancy, just enough to be sure.

Thanks for clarification. Broadly what I would do anyway. Anno domini and senility sufferer.

 

[Dewin Dwl]

This is for O-90-O & other with concern about my thread:

1. I am not in the habit of wishing harm to bees. Plenty of bee-keepers in my family history so I have a responsibility to behave myself.

2. Original post written an hour or two after an afternoon in hospital under observation for bee-sting reaction. Definitely a little tired and emotional

3. These were nasty bees. I've done enough with psycho bees to know the difference between feisty and dangerous. Their behaviour suggested excellent defensive genetics for the true wilds but not where people could foreseeably come into contact (nor in an apiary). Releasing her defensive-genetics (via drones) into the general area didn't seem responsible to my beekeeping neighbours.

4. Isn't re-Queening simply killing a colony by subtle means? One genetic line dies off as the new one builds up?? I just created an interregnum.

5. It felt like a good topic title to stir some comment!

Just in case you thought me some horrid bee hating monster who, at the first sign of trouble, thinks in terms of fly-spray!

 

[oliver90owner]

It (the thread) got the comment it deserved.

Others read this forum. New beeks, even tree huggers or bee huggers.

Culling a queen is not the same as destroying the whole colony.

You could have 'terminated' the thread much earlier than this.

 

[victor meldrew]

I have culled two colonies in 20 odd years of beekeeping !
I had no compunction whatsoever !
The colonies in question were dangerous , stinging followers ,with the potential for spoiling other colonies . In both cases, re-Queening was not an option !.
The aggressive gene is a dominant gene and best removed from the breeding cycle !
VM

 

[Bcrazy]

Hi V M
I must totally agree with your thoughts and actions regarding bad , nasty tempered bees if this happened to me i would not hesitate to destroy the colony.

Mo

 

[victor meldrew]

Hi Mo!
I wonder how many newbies have been flogged Carniolans , found them too swarmy for their limited knowledge and subsequently discovered their new buzzy friends have turned into demons from hell and given up the hobby before getting into it so to speak?
VM

 

[Chrisfnvs]

Hi Mo!
I wonder how many newbies have been flogged Carniolans , found them too swarmy for their limited knowledge and subsequently discovered their new buzzy friends have turned into demons from hell and given up the hobby before getting into it so to speak?
VM

 

[xgeordie]

Hi Mo!
I wonder how many newbies have been flogged Carniolans , found them too swarmy for their limited knowledge and subsequently discovered their new buzzy friends have turned into demons from hell and given up the hobby before getting into it so to speak?
VM

I was that man....although I didn't give up - just bought some thicker gloves and more packets of piriton.

 

[peterbees]

Have a word with Wally Shaw at Dwyran. He will know what to do.

 

[Dewin Dwl]

Aha, you rumbled my fallback position. Geraint or the Shaws were to be my ultimate weapon. My bees came from and elderly beekeeper in Bodffordd, a renowned feisty lot so little wonder an offspring could go rogue! Not carnolians going off the plot.

Perhaps I'm a little stubborn but I try to self-solve as much as possible. Being shown sometimes results in having a routine but not always the understanding behind it. If someone hadn't mentioned "deep-freezer" early on I'd have used the "move from usual base" method again with some banging to get the flyers out & about and off to the old location.

As is, a whackey idea has given me the result I was after. Nasty-Q removed, bees and comb redeployed to support a small & polite hive. Now I have a hive with plenty of bees and comb. It is all looking fir for winter along with the others....phew. The introduced bees have even calmed a little under their new queen!

Good judgement comes with experience. Experience quite often comes from poor judgement!

I don't recommend using a freezer. If you wait too long you risk freezing (& losing) the lot. Trying to isolate and catch the Q when the weather is fighting you doesn't help the cause. Best to depose bad Qs in the summer when the flyers fly more and the colony can recover under new leadership.

 

[mbc]

Good result and wise words regarding gaining experience