Spawn of satan

[Sam G]

I know this a topic well covered, but I'm on the edge of giving up on this particular colony.
It's the most aggressive hive I've ever known. They were an overwintered nuc with a pleasant temperament. The Queen however started this year sluggish and unproductive. It looked like they were attempting a supercedure a couple of times but never seemed to be successful and were getting grumpy. We removed that queen in the end and introduced a mated Queen in a cage. A week later she was there in the hive then was never seen again (it was still a small colony and she was marked so, easy to spot) . We waited, just in case she was there but slow to start. No sign of her and no BIAS for 3 weeks and nothing to rear a new Queen with now. They were now really angry bees. We gave them a donor frame full of bias. Which they did nothing with. Gave them another from a different hive a week later. Again, nothing. They're now like nuclear warheads when you lift the lid, smoking them has zero impact. I don't know what else to try at this point, they are beyond redemption it seems!!

 

[Gilberdyke John]

I know this a topic well covered, but I'm on the edge of giving up on this particular colony.
It's the most aggressive hive I've ever known. They were an overwintered nuc with a pleasant temperament. The Queen however started this year sluggish and unproductive. It looked like they were attempting a supercedure a couple of times but never seemed to be successful and were getting grumpy. We removed that queen in the end and introduced a mated Queen in a cage. A week later she was there in the hive then was never seen again (it was still a small colony and she was marked so, easy to spot) . We waited, just in case she was there but slow to start. No sign of her and no BIAS for 3 weeks and nothing to rear a new Queen with now. They were now really angry bees. We gave them a donor frame full of bias. Which they did nothing with. Gave them another from a different hive a week later. Again, nothing. They're now like nuclear warheads when you lift the lid, smoking them has zero impact. I don't know what else to try at this point, they are beyond redemption it seems!!

I'd wager there's a dud queen in there (been there and got the tee shirt with one of our association hives that terrorized our beginners a few years ago). You have a couple of options. Go through the colony with a fine tooth comb using the usual "tricks" to help find her - moving the box, pairing frames, sieving the colony through a qe etc or cut your losses either tipping them into a hedge or euthanisation. There's still time to perform a split with donor from a good hive. Once found and I terminated the "bad" queen then put a frame of eggs and larvae in the misbehaving ceased within a day or so.

 

[Anduril]

To confuse them use tobacco for that Condor moment.

 

[blackcloud]

Unless you're desperate for bees ,sieve and shake out.

 

[Anduril]

Unless you're desperate for bees ,sieve and shake out.

Similar to what I did a number of years ago, remove the hive completely, shake out the bees for them to beg their way into other hives and took the brood to another apiary and placed in hives. Problem solved.

 

[Hedgerow Honey]

See my posts on how to deal with aggressive colonies

 

[Sam G]

I'd wager there's a dud queen in there (been there and got the tee shirt with one of our association hives that terrorized our beginners a few years ago). You have a couple of options. Go through the colony with a fine tooth comb using the usual "tricks" to help find her - moving the box, pairing frames, sieving the colony through a qe etc or cut your losses either tipping them into a hedge or euthanisation. There's still time to perform a split with donor from a good hive. Once found and I terminated the "bad" queen then put a frame of eggs and larvae in the misbehaving ceased within a day or so.

Thanks, i think you're right about a dud queen, it's on this weekend's to do list and I really don't want to give up on them if I can salvage them so might try sieving with a QE, that's worked for us in the past. Then split them up.

 

[Sam G]

Unless you're desperate for bees ,sieve and shake out.

Nope, not desperate for bees, there's plenty of hives /nucs in that apiary, it's more stubborn determination on my part but I think I'm going to sieve them this weekend.

 

[Sam G]

Similar to what I did a number of years ago, remove the hive completely, shake out the bees for them to beg their way into other hives and took the brood to another apiary and placed in hives. Problem solved.

Another good idea, thanks, that's my backup plan now!

 

[Sam G]

See my posts on how to deal with aggressive colonies

Thank you, I'll get that looked at today