Swarm control and the weather

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Joined
Nov 13, 2011
Messages
127
Reaction score
0
Location
Suffolk
Hive Type
WBC
Number of Hives
6
Hi Folks I had the following message from a friend who lives a scant half a mile from my own apiary the difference in attitude of the bees is incredible as I am sure you will agree;
This is the message from my fellow beekeeper; Hi Michael, I checked my feeders today and found all the sugar had been taken down (except not my weak hive which seems to have a mind of its own).
The bees in all 4 hives seemed hyperactive from the outside and very angry when I took the lids off even though I did not remove any frames. I gave the ungrateful beasts more sugar. Strange behaviour - ?the OSR phenomenon mentioned by your forumite, tho' never recognised by me in the past. At least pollen was entering all hives = brood present.
What do the forumites say about the merits/demerits of going thro' the hives checking for Qcells in this cold weather? I am sure today it would have been quite impossible to do swarm control because they were so angry. How about yours?
Well mine have also taken down the syrup and I too went and opened the roof to assess, going back I again removed the roof's and topped up feeders, bees were apparent but not interested in me at all! They have been out today on the OSR and I did note an amount of dead bees around the area beneath the hive. Apart from that my experience is the complete opposite of the experience half a mile away.
My friend who is also my mentor with 40 years beekeeping experience rode his bicyle from his apiary with his beesuit fully on! He wonders as you can see whether the temporament change is down to lack of OSR. What does the forum think?
 
bees can get very grumpy if there is a lack of forage, if the weather is bad, I have had this with my bees gave up looking at them one day last year. Went a few days later and they were back to normal. Sometimes there is no reason.
 
Same as Drinkstones friend

I'm in Suffolk to and visited my main apiary yesterday- the full hives were not happy to see me. They had smoke and as soon as i lifted the roof they were all over me- not happy bees! I had to walk away. They then proceeded to hang out the entrance of the hive for 10 minutes while I shut them back up.

By contrast my nucs that I have been feeding were mainly lovely, even saw a queen land on the top of one before the rain started. On a mating flight maybe??

I have now vowed to only get into the main colonies when the weather is much improved and to feed.

"We surrender! Please can we have some sunshine now...?"not worthy
 
bees can get very grumpy if there is a lack of forage, if the weather is bad, I have had this with my bees gave up looking at them one day last year. Went a few days later and they were back to normal. Sometimes there is no reason.

:iagree:
That is what mine are like they are little Hell Bats.I am having to suit up to feed the ungrateful little madams.
 
I found mine - except one colony - to be no problem in this weather. No suit needed...

(But I wore one anyway just to be safe).

I try to choose a warmer less windy time to top up feed.. (Top Bar in fame feeders).
 

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