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Thread: They've started!!

  1. #11
    Senior Member Jon's Avatar
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    Hi Emse.
    What race of bee was the original queen in your 5 frame nuc?
    Temperament quite often goes downhill somewhere down the line if you cross one strain of bee with another.
    AMM crossed with Carnica has a particularly bad reputation.
    If your colony has developed bad temper associated with a change of queen I would wait until next spring and then requeen with a queen from a local beekeeper who keeps the type of bee prevalent in your area.
    If you get a bad tempered colony - and everyone does from time to time - you have to bite the bullet at some point and requeen it.

  2. #12
    Senior Member EmsE's Avatar
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    I think my original queen was a mixture of breeds. The first queen from her this year, I took over 20 miles away to mate with a feral colony my friend (a fellow bee keeper) has had in the eves of her house for the past 25 years- I thought it would be good to get some new genetics into the local area. The feral bees are reportedly placid. Another bee keeper managed to get a swarm from the ferral colony and has reported they are well behaved.

    My original queen was superseded (the 2nd queen from her) and this daughter was left on the apiary. Her brood are just as lovely as her mothers (although you do still need gloves!).

    I gathered a sample of the stroppy bees yesterday for the Morphomety workshop next week. One thing I did notice was that they seemed smaller- unless it is my imagination

  3. #13
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    As a rule of thumb I would suggest that any hive that can't be inspected without gloves in reasonable conditions ought to be requeened, vicious bees are hard work. there should be someone in the area can sort you out with a local queen.

  4. #14
    Senior Member EmsE's Avatar
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    I'm lucky our local society is very good in that way and one day hope to be contributing to the efforts myself (with docile bees of course)

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