what to do with devils spawn

[BERNIE]

Hi, everyone I have one very aggressive colony at my works garden.they are collecting honey very well and have been filling a super a week. But they are very aggressive once you open the hive,bees flying straight to your face pinging off the veil and following for 25 meters and not giving up the chase. one managed to get in my suit and i got stung on the forehead on my last visit.I am thinking of splitting this hive into two nucs with new mated Queens or splitting into three using the hiive as well and killing Queen and let them make a new one.Question is would new Queen turn out just as bad as old.any suggestions.

 

[northernsoul]

I've resolved such a colony in the past by re-queening.
It worked for me.
I found that very aggressive colonies seem to have come from 2nd generation carnolian crosses, i.e. first generation carnolian queens are great if you can keep them from swarming but their daughters crossed with something local are from satan himself!!!

 

[itma]

Certainly a new Q from a different line (whether bought-in or derived from your other hive) is called for.

Whether you want to also experiment and see what their next generation might be like is your choice!
Anyway, it'd be good to minimise the number of drones that this lot are sending out to join the local gene pool.

 

[Sean.]

Queen excluder under the hive ASAP! As ITMA has already said, you don't want these in the gene pool.

See the following post. http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=24824

 

[Ailsaboat]

Sorry to thread jack, but what is the Qe under the hive for? Just to stop the queen escaping??

 

[pargyle]

Sorry to thread jack, but what is the Qe under the hive for? Just to stop the queen escaping??

Keep the drones in the hive - stops them getting out to mate.

 

[For want of a better word]

Cull the queen If you can find her!
Check for eggs before culling here and allowing the colony to raise a new queen.
Bees will continue to bring in nectar,............. I have found Carniolians particularly aggressive when queenless... perhaps that is the problem?

 

[Sean.]

Sorry to thread jack, but what is the Qe under the hive for? Just to stop the queen escaping??

Please read the other thread posted

"A swarm that arived last year is bad tempered. My plan is to find the queen and leave her in a queen cage for a week. So that all the eggs will be to old to make into Queen cells, then the following week remove her... A few days later will give them a nice queen from my own stock.

If I can't find her, then I will do an Artificial Swarm, to get all the flying workers and bleed the hive of bees. Then check again the next week. The AS will be given a ripe sealed queen cell in a cage.

Have placed a QE under the hive, to make sure that there are no drones contaminating the gene pool.

Sean "

 

[derekm]

Hi, everyone I have one very aggressive colony at my works garden.they are collecting honey very well and have been filling a super a week. But they are very aggressive once you open the hive,bees flying straight to your face pinging off the veil and following for 25 meters and not giving up the chase. one managed to get in my suit and i got stung on the forehead on my last visit.I am thinking of splitting this hive into two nucs with new mated Queens or splitting into three using the hiive as well and killing Queen and let them make a new one.Question is would new Queen turn out just as bad as old.any suggestions.

Are you sure someone isnt baiting the hive?

 

[For want of a better word]

Are you sure someone isnt baiting the hive?

I have not heard that term before?
Is it like carp fishermen do bait the swim?

 

[derekm]

I have not heard that term before?
Is it like carp fishermen do bait the swim?

baiting as in annoy/ tease

 

[Tom Bick]

Have placed a QE under the hive, to make sure that there are no drones contaminating the gene pool.

Sean "

Its a bit late to worry about the drones and I bet they are a very small threat in the big scheme of things.

One sure thing that will anger an aggressive hive even more is to trap drones in the hive.

 

[Hivemaker.]

Its a bit late to worry about the drones and I bet they are a very small threat in the big scheme of things.

One sure thing that will anger an aggressive hive even more is to trap drones in the hive.

Agree, the mature drones will be in many different hives in the area which the colony comes from,...if you really want to get rid of any drones in the colony then it would be easier to place the queen in an empty hive with excluder between floor and brood box, shake all the other bees out in front of the hive and when they are all in, block the entrance, and remove the floor with excluder and place fresh floor under brood box, then you will have removed all of the drones in one go, and no need to keep them trapped inside causing more stress.

 

[BERNIE]

what would be a nice gentle stain to go for.

 

[Hivemaker.]

what would be a nice gentle stain to go for.

Light mahogany.

 

[BERNIE]

very funny hivemaker i meant strain.

 

[Tom Bick]

This thread could now run and run but for me it has to be Buckfast

 

[iombeeman]

filling a super in a week.i could do with bees like that.don`t care if they are nasty.

 

[madasafish]

Even semi moribund bees could fill a super in a week in the flow we have had.

 

[PaulCarroll]

Baiting

Derek,

I have not heard of baiting - would
be keen to understand this in more detail.