Moving colony & temper

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I’ve had to move a tetchy colony yesterday, Sunday. Queenless with virgin that emerged last Thursday (I gave a cell).

How long do you think it could take to settle?
 
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I’ve had to move a tetchy colony yesterday, Sunday. Queenless with virgin that emerged last Thursday (I gave a cell).
Virgin won’t be ready to mate though til this week to coincide with better weather. Don’t think she will have started orienting but will be v soon. I took another hive away last week (for a separate apiary) and I suspect some flyers from that joined this one as well as other colonies. So it’s a full colony.

Brought it home yesterday as causing a few issues and couldn’t leave where it was. Now at least 40 metres from our house down our field. Boy were they upset yesterday. Couldn’t shake off followers. Has a lot of flying bees now and c 9 frames sealed brood and 3 supers. Didn’t go through it of course but took a couple of steps (below) that I thought I should do.

I took a super off, with the bees to move it home and united to another colony to attempt to reduce the size. Going to have to leave them alone to settle down but I have put in a test frame of young larva yesterday ev, to check the virgin emerged / is there. Gave them another brood box, with mix of drawn comb and foundation along with the test frame as rammed with bees too and plenty of stores (1 1/2 supers, super I took off was also full).

Is the increased defensivess / following down to the move, fact they’re queenless, or with virgin only just developing her pheromones and lots of flying bees, or all of the above? They are in a harder climate up here but loads of trees coming out and yesterday evening was heading for heavy rain last night so expect a good flow when weather improves tomorrow.

How long do you think it will take to settle? Encouraged hubbie to wear bee suits round the garden as a precaution until they do! Anything more I should consider or think about in your experience? Massive learning for me dealing with a tetchy and following hive, not had to tackle before…😩
I find full colonies (like you have reported) don't like being moved, particularly ones that are not nice and calm in the first place. Others report no issue. Probably all the factors you mention above have contributed. They could take as much as couple of weeks to settle down I reckon.
 
I find full colonies (like you have reported) don't like being moved, particularly ones that are not nice and calm in the first place. Others report no issue. Probably all the factors you mention above have contributed. They could take as much as couple of weeks to settle down I reckon.
Thanks, thought so….
Meanwhile had an interesting day yesterday and both colonies are settling down. Much less following. Thank goodness!

Have requeened the queenless hive of the two with a frame of young larva from my best colony and removed the temp queen strip I put in.

Next door the colony with the virgin queen and flying bees, started a mating flight . She is 5 days old, so spot on for starting her mating flight. Previous queen had been clipped and given away to another friend. My bee buddy and I went through the colony thoroughly and one open cell only, as I planned. Not a swarm!

Heaps of bees on the floor in front of the hive. Amazingly we found the virgin! I popped her back in the hive through the entrance. However just 5 minutes later they were on the floor again!! Our conclusion is she has a wing problem and can’t fly properly. We found her again in the lump of bees and put her in a sealed cage with tab on and left her in the hive until a new plan was hatched.

Think I will cut out a good cell from my colony with the frame of larva next door and unfortunately virgin with wing problem will have to go. Will take a bit longer to requeen this way but it’s from my breeder queen this year so will be worth the wait. Will have 2 nicer hives from the 2 tetchier ones.

What an experience! Tonnes of learning here about moving colonies, temper and made some mistakes, but I’ve learnt and fixed it with help from a buddy. Isn’t that what good beekeeping is about?!
 

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