Seriously hacked off moody grumpy stingy things!!!

[Hivemaker.]

but really we don't lose face with anyone by coming back another day.

True.........but you may lose half your bee's.

 

[jimbeekeeper]

Merylvingien,
After reading through this thread, I get the immpression that you are inspecting too often, and you now say your going in again on Monday. Can I ask why you want to look so often?
Optimum inspection times are 7/8 days to check for queen cells at this time of year.
Also on another track, not sure where you are in the UK but the weather plays a VERY large influence in bee behavior, and our summer (sic) has not even come yet and its the longest day in three days time.
You should try and remember what the weather was like on the days you looked inside or even went near the hives.
I make a note of temperature in c, and what cloud cover there is, in my records.
Rule of thumb for me is, if the barometer is falling rapidly stay away from the girls, they know more about the weather than we will ever know.
Just my thoughts.
Oh and one other thing. I never smoke the entrance.
Best of luck Bob.

Merylvingien as with many things on the forum, you are the only one that has seen the problem first hand, but reading your posts it is quite confusing what you are trying to do!

As many have said you appear to be trying to "inspect" quite a lot, and your reference to "smoke and need to smoke them " more comes up quite a lot.

A question that has been asked but you have not answered, is do you know if there is a queen in there? Maybe on hiving the swarm you did not get the queen or killed her in the operation.

Yes you have you other hives to compare to so that possibly rules out weather factors, but this is a swarm you appear to have housed in a nuc and feed quite a lot when possibly in your area (like most) there will have been a strong flow on, and they will have grown rapidly?

Additionally your initial confrontation with them, has now enhanced your perception of them hence your chainsaw trousers etc, they will pick up on your “attitude “ to them and you might not realise you are handing this hive differently…they are women after all!

Either push on and get the inspection done in 5 mins tops, or leave them until the next fine sunny day.

 

[merylvingien]

Hi Jim, i think there has been a misunderstanding.

The inspections that you are refering too are not inspections as in full inspections removing frames.
I did the routine inspection when i first found out that were like this, the day i posted this thread. at that point they had an initial feed of maybe 1/2 a litre just to get them drawing out the frames. Upon reading over and over again about nucs not being fed, and or them filling the comb with syrup preventing the queen from laying, i stopped feeding.

When i posted this thread someone then mentioned that they could be starving, so i gave them another half a litre which they took overnight. This appeared to calm them a bit, so i put another 1/4 litre in.

Thursday i went to add another 1/4 litre and it all kicked off again. These are not inpections, just very quick top up on the feeder.

On the original inspection which was a week after i haved them, there was eggs present, so i can only assume that they are queen right, but i cannot garantee how long that will be for, because either she is doomed to squashemdom or the whole colony is going to have suprise blown in the entrance if they dont change thier ways.

I am probably over cautious with protective gear becuase i know what can happen and have frequently been on the end of massive attacks from wasps.
So forgive me if i dont take silly risks and leave myself open to attack and waisting the NHS's time and money.

Edit: I would love to actually do a proper inspection, but at the moment they dont give me chance, its full attack as soon as the lid comes off. No provocation.

 

[jimbeekeeper]

Hi merylvingien

Thanks for the addtional, I realy does help.

Now you have them in a full sized box things might settle down a bit more.

Also maybe ease up on the feeding, and maybe consdier in the future the use of a rapid feeder which does not invlove exposing yoursel to the bees to top up.

No one is sugesting reducing you protective clothing, but do cosider what you will use.

only the other day I did one of those quick "I dont need full PPE" type inspections, (normally I always use full white suit and wellys, with suit legs over), but this time I just wore my top half veil section, and some brown work boots.

On looking down, there must have been 50+ bees all going mad and stinging the brown leather shoues and inparticular the brown worn/furry type laces.

Again not trying to preach to you, but marigold gloves are I would say more sting resistant and do not hold sting pheromones unlike leather.