queen wasps in hives

[gill68]

has anyone any experience of this? I managed to do my first very thorough inspection of my hives over the last couple of days and , out of 6 hives, 4 had a queen wasp sitting on the bottom of the hive. One was dead, but the colony was also queenless , so I don't know whether the wasp was responsible. The other colonies are building up well and didn't seem too bothered by their squatter. I did get rid of it though.Should I be worried? I have a waspbane trap up nearby and it has caught nothing so far apart from the odd fly. We only moved the bees here a couple of months ago so i don't know if wasps are a major issue normally here. I don't know if it's relevant, but we use a 'dartington style' floor mainly because the bees (usually!) seem better able to defend it.I've kept bees for a few years now and this is the first time I"ve come across it.

 

[madasafish]

I get queen wasps in the top space of TBHs. I evict them peacefully..

Happens every year. No damage done.

 

[enrico]

They hibernate in there!
E

 

[gill68]

I thought they'd have come out of hibernation by now?

 

[bontbee]

I had four queen wasps under the roof of one hive this year, hibernating. Only today there was a rather dead queen wasp outside the backdoor colony. Natural selection in action!

(Maybe the wasp that was nest-building in my No. 1 bee shed suffered the same fate - she had only built the nest to the size of a golf ball before she failed to return, sadly.

 

[Erichalfbee]

I have a waspbane trap up nearby and it has caught nothing so far apart from the odd fly.

Wasps are tempted by sweet stuff only when the nest matures and the worker wasps are no longer fed by the larvae. You're looking at August onwards.
The best defence against wasps is a strong colony.

 

[jonnybeegood]

Wasps are tempted by sweet stuff only when the nest matures and the worker wasps are no longer fed by the larvae. You're looking at August onwards.
The best defence against wasps is a strong colony.

Queens are attracted by sweet stuff thats why you see them gathering nectar now, ive had them on our gooseberries & blackcurrants these last couple of weeks.

 

[Fatbee]

Found three this year on cover board and one hornet queen.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Queens are attracted by sweet stuff thats why you see them gathering nectar now, ive had them on our gooseberries & blackcurrants these last couple of weeks.

That's true, of course but one queen doesn't pose much of a threat to a colony which is what OP wanted....partly.

 

[yeogi75]

found this in my shed today

 

[oliver90owner]

A lof of rubbish posted. Erichalfbee is on he money. Queen wasps are trying to survive while founding their own nest. If they fail, they will die. They won't be founding a new wasp nest actually in a bee colony.

Nothing at all to do with a bee colony being Q-. Waspbane traps are totally irrelevant at this time of the year.

Recommend you read up about wasps and stop guessing about queen wasps in spring.

 

[jonnybeegood]

That's true, of course but one queen doesn't pose much of a threat to a colony which is what OP wanted....partly.

No i agree it doesnt pose a threat, i was merely saying they dont just go for sweet stuff when their brood has ended in Autumn as you said.
I had a queen wasp land on an upturned roof last week whilst doing an inspection, it was on a drop of spilled honey from a piece of brace comb on the bottom of a frame. Nothing to worry about though. I dont mind wasps.

 

[Karol]

Just a little cautionary note. Hibernating queen wasps often 'appear' dead frequently covered in dust and grime. Don't be tempted to pick them up with bare hands because the heat from your fingers will be enough to wake them pretty sharpish (no pun intended). Queen wasps hibernating in hives is quite common and not a problem as they won't be hunting at that stage. It would also be a high risk activity attacking a hive with every likelihood that the queen wasp would herself die in the process so simply they don't take the risk.

Wasps hibernating in a hive is quite clever really. The extremities of the hive will be cold enough to hibernate in whilst the bees will keep the sleeping wasps in relative safety. Queen wasps don't come out of hibernation until temperatures reach circa 10°C in the shade. So if you have an apiary exposed to a breeze where the hives are shaded by over hanging trees it is quite possible that the temperatures in the extremities of the hive have stayed below 10°C.

Emerging queen wasps do sweet feed for a brief period until they get their brood going so do do quite a bit of pollinating work. Unlike honeybees however, they are much more susceptible to neonics expressed in nectar. This is the second year of the ban and wasp numbers appear to be recovering based on the monitoring that we do. I'm not going to rehearse all the arguments but just thought the observation was an interesting coincidence.