my apiary and angry bees

[ratcatcher]

I took two more hives over to my woodland today, not the greatest of weather to be playing with bees, but needs must and all that, I wanted to check the supers on hive 2, which were a swarm I housed back on 12th june, I knew whose hive they came from (they were given to me) and they informed me they could be "angry"

cant remember the name of the member on here, but they had posted about wearing two bee suits, so once the weather had brightened up, I did just that, felt great in my suit of armour, hopefully a week or two more, and that top super will be ready for my first cut comb

question for anyone else that does cut comb, does it need to be kept refrigerated until sold, or just "on the shelf"

http://youtu.be/DlyuzQgUrds

 

[Nige.Coll]

Twist the crown board as the cracking noise drives them nuts.
Same with supers use hive tool under the corners then twist to break brace comb. You don't lift the lower frames then.


I had bees in a wood similar to yours and they went nuts. I moved them and they went back to being nice again.

 

[ratcatcher]

Twist the crown board as the cracking noise drives them nuts.
Same with supers use hive tool under the corners then twist to break brace comb. You don't lift the lower frames then.


I had bees in a wood similar to yours and they went nuts. I moved them and they went back to being nice again.

trust me, twisting would not have worked, it's like double strength super glue, we shall see how the other three hives turn out, as they are all docile bees, but these were angry bees before moving here

 

[Nige.Coll]

good luck.
nasty bees suck all the enjoyment out of beekeeping

 

[ratcatcher]

good luck.
nasty bees suck all the enjoyment out of beekeeping

I'd agree with you on that one, as when I inspected them last week, I actually ran away like a little girl, but wearing the two bee suits gave me the extra confidence needed to deal with them, went in, saw what I needed and left, no stings, as soon as the top goes back on, they calm right down

I have to admit, when I first got these, I thought ok, I'll re queen them next spring with my docile bees, but the fact that in less than a month, they have nearly filled three supers, makes me think I should just leave them bee, can strains of bees be good honey producers, or is it just down to numbers in the colony?

as my two established hives at home don't fill supers this quick

as they are in our woods, they are miles from any houses, so angry bees not a problem

 

[Fatbee]

Absolutely - if you have large numbers of bees it's probably means you have a prolific laying queen. It's just Sod's law that they are nasty. However, you can have both and don't give up on trying a re-queen. And your others at home may be as prolific but have less forage. Without having both side by side to compare you will never know for sure. Having testy bees is never fun.

I have two apiaries with same stock but one apiary outperforms the other marginally which I put down to forage.

 

[TryingToLetThemBee]

Absolutely - if you have large numbers of bees it's probably means you have a prolific laying queen.

I look at it as a matter of odds, too. With 100,000 or so bees, the chance of having a real, well, bee, is much higher than when I had just a few thousand earlier in the year. Every so often I get a couple of real psychos but I can't judge their colony, even if I can identify it. It is horrid though.

 

[Canary Honey]

question for anyone else that does cut comb, does it need to be kept refrigerated until sold, or just "on the shelf"

The sealed comb lasts keeps for ages in the hive until required, extracted honey is kept at room temperature. If you are covering the comb in honey it will be fine, if you have a slab in a box then it wouldn't be much different to in the hive?