killing queens?

[Erichalfbee]

you could kill them by putting them in the freezer.

I have two in my freezer.
I have heard tell that if you absolutely must find your queen and can't you can defrost a dead one, pin her to one of the top bars and close up. Ten minutes later you'll be able to find your queen trying to kill the pinned one.

 

[Finman]

I have a friend who lives in a little village in France and his neighbours do the same.
Perhaps it's a french thing?

Here they do the same.

You knock the head against stone.

.

 

[Goran]

I read how one beekeeper make nursing home for old or queens which are failing. Because of his personal respect to bees. At the end one survive ( internal duel in autumn) and do well later on.. This has no some economic value, more sentimental or as say human..

 

[prana vallabha]

ahh you see I'd have to ask how he did it, then offer to neuter the adults for him.Humans are bloody vile sometimes. You have to wonder if the people who bury them alive are devoid of intelligence, humanity and empathy. Surely they realise that this is cruel?
It's probably why I have been involved in animal welfare most of my adult life which has got me into some awful scrapes, like when I was nearly arrested for attacking a young bloke who kicked his very elderly and probably deaf German shepherd dog because it didn't sit when he told it to. I was 7 stone and 5 foot 2 and he was a big chap of about 6 foot but bugger I was savage (fen word for very angry) Apparently 2 men had to pull me off him :/ I just cannot stand by and do nothing. They have no voice and it's my duty as a human being to protect the weak and speak out for those which cannot.

i totally agree with you

 

[Luminos]

I have a friend who lives in a little village in France and his neighbours do the same.
Perhaps it's a french thing?
I went over once armed with anaesthetics and a few "tools"and we knobbled all the toms we could catch in a week

I think so - especially in rural France.
I once told a hunter, who had caught one of my cats in an illegal leghold trap, that all my cats were not only neutered, but also microchipped; he refused to believe me. It's not common here, not in this part of France at any rate, sadly.

 

[Finman]

.
We were on the lake in Finland and children played with living fish which was in a bucket. A German relative said that in Germany that is forbidden in the law.
I asked,
- Do you have in your law that you are forbidden to hit your wife?
He
- No, we have not

.

 

[Anduril]

Have you floor or freezer in your garden or in your forest yeard?

Is is better to drive on with car? That is at least human.

When I check swarming hives, I may break 100 queen cells. Am I a human?


A hivetool for queens - or fingers

.

IKEA are now into beekeeping.

 

[keith pierce]

As for killing cats, why would anyone use killing as a method of birth control for domestic pets? There is such a thing as neutering.

Around here they mostly get neutered with the front wheel of a car.

 

[onymee]

Around here they mostly get neutered with the front wheel of a car.

I find that very distressing. I am an animal lover and while I understand some cultures are cruel to animals, it just hurts me to think about people deliberately being cruel. Personally I find the current wave of cat hatred to be worrying. It's like the human race is reverting to being medieval where owning a cat means that you are in league with the devil and humans are violent and cruel to each other.
I wonder why people are so bloody arrogant to to feel that they can kill someone's beloved pet? So if someone runs over one of my cats because they don't like cats, am I entitled to take a house brick and modify the paintwork on their car because I don't like Fords/Fiats/Jap cars etc? If not, why not?
How would a cat killing beekeeper feel if people used fly spray on their bees just because they didn't like bees?
Sorry, just noticed you are from Ireland which explains about the cruelty.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I find that very distressing. I am an animal lover and while I understand some cultures are cruel to animals, it just hurts me to think about people deliberately being cruel. Personally I find the current wave of cat hatred to be worrying. It's like the human race is reverting to being medieval where owning a cat means that you are in league with the devil and humans are violent and cruel to each other.
I wonder why people are so bloody arrogant to to feel that they can kill someone's beloved pet? So if someone runs over one of my cats because they don't like cats, am I entitled to take a house brick and modify the paintwork on their car because I don't like Fords/Fiats/Jap cars etc? If not, why not?
How would a cat killing beekeeper feel if people used fly spray on their bees just because they didn't like bees?
Sorry, just noticed you are from Ireland which explains about the cruelty.

I don't think he meant it was done on purpose, if you have cats near a busy road then you are going to lose a few - unless you keep them in all the time.
I once ran over a valuable working sheepdog - he just ran out from the farmyard and (unusual for farm dogs as car chasing is a sport for them) right under the landrover, he ran back into the yard after being run over so I went after him with profuse apologies to the farmer. The farmer's words - silly bugger that'll teach him.

 

[CleanShirt]

hi, i´m still fairly new to this, but i´m quite sure i read that, the reason you need to kill the queens can be these. 1, after her 2nd year, egg laying will slow down as she gets older, when the bees notice her production rate decline they rear new queens, they pick one and replace her. its called superseding. but there is a chance that the main body of the colony could leave with one of the new queens to look make a new hive. (this is usually why swarms happen). so by killing the old queen and replacing her with a strong young queen you are controlling the situation and keeping them in your hive and happy. this should also stop them creating queen cells.

 

[John M]

I agree. Also, replacing with your choice of queen rather than just what they produce may allow you to modify traits - gentleness, propolis, honey production etc.

 

[onymee]

I don't think he meant it was done on purpose, if you have cats near a busy road then you are going to lose a few - unless you keep them in all the time.
I once ran over a valuable working sheepdog - he just ran out from the farmyard and (unusual for farm dogs as car chasing is a sport for them) right under the landrover, he ran back into the yard after being run over so I went after him with profuse apologies to the farmer. The farmer's words - silly bugger that'll teach him.

Sadly I have lost several cats on my quiet, single lane road outside. Mainly because there are open fields either side and it's a straight 2 mile stretch. Boy racers come past to cottage of 60MPH (and up) before slamming their anchors on at the junction. If they spot a cat on the road, they aim for it deliberately and I have become known locally as the mad woman because, if I'm in the front working, and I hear such a car racing towards me, I casually step into the road from behind a shrub.Although I have been known to leap out if one of the young cats who don't yet understand about cars and humans, looks like it is about to run home to safety from across the lane.It certainly slows them down fast I can tell you, and just after they kack themselves, they hopefully will realise that they might have killed me and if next door's 2 little lads had chased the ball into the road, they would have killed them. Young lads simply just don't think sometimes. Somehow the action of sitting in poop filled underpants with the sweat pouring off a cold clammy brow seems to inject some intellect into them.One day I'll get hit, and then the council and police might enforce the speed limit with much gnashing of teeth and "there are lessons to be learned" and "we weren't aware of any problems" and "it's not our responsibility". The really crazy thing is that 30 odd yards down the road is an unfenced village green and children's playing field where there have been many near misses. Sadly cats have become demonized though and many are hit on purpose, like one of mine where tyre marks were on the verge some 3 feet off the road where I found his body. Mostly they don't even slow down or stop to make sure it's dead and not writhing in agony. It's only a cat after all

 

[onymee]

I agree. Also, replacing with your choice of queen rather than just what they produce may allow you to modify traits - gentleness, propolis, honey production etc.

I will make sure I watch them to see that they are well beehaved bees and if they are unruly, I shall cull the queen then. Someone on ebay sells little bee head snipper off'ers :O

 

[sunhivebee]

It has been interesting to read this queen and cat killing discussion. As for myself, I have never seen a reason to kill a queen in sixteen years of beekeeping. I have been fortunate not to have experienced a "nasty" colony in my apiaries. But I have also noticed that the mood of the bees can be much affected by people. They can be decidedly jumpy around some people and perfectly calm with others.
I have no views on others' queen culling activities. But I suggest that queen and drone culling is not imperative to successful beekeeping. Indeed it would be a pity if people starting out were to consider it imperative. The fact that it is recommended in certain beekeeping books means little in this context, in my view.

 

[Walrus]

It has been interesting to read this queen and cat killing discussion. As for myself, I have never seen a reason to kill a queen in sixteen years of beekeeping. I have been fortunate not to have experienced a "nasty" colony in my apiaries. But I have also noticed that the mood of the bees can be much affected by people. They can be decidedly jumpy around some people and perfectly calm with others.
I have no views on others' queen culling activities. But I suggest that queen and drone culling is not imperative to successful beekeeping. Indeed it would be a pity if people starting out were to consider it imperative. The fact that it is recommended in certain beekeeping books means little in this context, in my view.

Sounds great, does that mean you have never had a drone laying queen, or that you have but they superceded her? I have heard of cases where they don't supercede and that spells doom for the hive unless the beek intervenes...


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[Finman]

. As for myself, I have never seen a reason to kill a queen in sixteen years of beekeeping. I have been fortunate not to have experienced a "nasty" colony in my apiaries. ... .But I suggest that queen and drone culling is not imperative to successful beekeeping

That is rare, that you have not had not even a drone layer in your hives during that long time. Or the hives have met "natural dead" in you garden.

Succesfull beekeeping... Queen breeding, queen selection and killing old queens is essential part of succesfull beekeeping.

JOining hives is normal procedure and the worse queen is ready to heaven.

.

 

[Goran]

Still not decided, to kill or not to kill?

If you have some extra time and assets. In a new hive on a new place in apiary put frame with old queen ( and bees on it)+one frame with food ( with bees) then frame or two with foundation, then again other old queen+one frame with food, then again frame or two of foundation, then again other old queen+one frame with food. The bees won't fight, during the time they build the frames they unite without killing queens. But in autumn usually they leave only one queen which they thought to be the best ( sometimes in spring you can find two queens left). This is from experience of one experienced beekeeper and I trust him. He call it "nursing home for queens".

 

[Erichalfbee]

Now, that IS interesting.
Thanks for that Goran

 

[Finman]

Still not decide, to kill or not to kill?

The bees won't fight, during the time they build the frames they unite without killing queens. ".

What advantage is in that? To put 2 queens to lay when the hive ought to get main yield?

During main yield it is advantage if there are much bees but not much brood.

Second thing is that I want to see how good a the new queen is in laying. If it is not good enough, I have time to change it.


I have enough mating nucs and I change the queen if I am not satisfied on it.