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Thread: Feisty bee behaviour

  1. #21
    Administrator gavin's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mellifera Crofter View Post
    What is the best way of carrying a queen cell from one apiary to another, Gavin? How long can one keep a queen cell outside a hive? How does one keep it at the right temperature - or are all these questions a bit irrelevant?
    Matchbox or roller cage in a shirt pocket is the usual way.

  2. #22
    Senior Member Mellifera Crofter's Avatar
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    Thanks, Jon and Gavin.
    K

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    Feisty is not a word I'd use for yesterdays behaviour from the hive, more like downright nasty, as they were on the previous visit too. I have taken into account all the possibilities of reasons for this, - nightly disturbance, birds, air pressure etc. and the thought crossed my mind that they could in fact have a drone laying Queen. How would I recognise this to be absolutely sure ? There are little clusters of drone brood [ sorry no photo ], plenty of larva and capped cells and plenty of stores to keep them happy enough. This hive is one that I split from another colony where the Queen and bees were a joy to work with, so just a small starter colony earlier in the year, but now very prolific - just nasty. I haven't put a super on as yet, with them only starting out, so if I add a super, would it work in any way to calm them down ? Or would I have to re- queen them ? - which would be hard to do in finding a Queen here in Lochaber as we are currently varroa free and I wouldn't want to import one from somewhere else.

  4. #24
    Senior Member fatshark's Avatar
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    DLQ's generally lay in a standard circular/concentric pattern on the frame, drone laying workers scatter them about all over the place and - as mentioned here - deposit eggs on the side walls of cells. You don't mention eggs, just larvae and capped cells ... could the hive have swarmed or otherwise gone queenless? In my experience (though pretty limited) the presence of a DLQ does not change the temper of the colony. I suspect it's more likely the absence of a queen, lack of forage or the weather.

  5. #25
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    Quote Originally Posted by marion.orca View Post
    Or would I have to re- queen them ? - which would be hard to do in finding a Queen here in Lochaber as we are currently varroa free and I wouldn't want to import one from somewhere else.
    It sounds like a classic F2 hybrid case to me. If I am right then someone has already imported bees to your area.

    Steve

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    There are different levels of nasty. I usually find the worse is when a hive goes queenless. The bees tend to bounce off your veil and don't give up trying to sting you. You think the hive may have a drone layer. This is quite possible as we have experienced poor mating weather in the West of Scotland. The capped drone brood tends to be on the face of the comb instead of around the sides of the frame. If you leave it long enough the bees will make a mess of the whole frame. When you open a DLQ hive there are a lot of drones which also tend to fly out at you and as they make more off a buzz it makes you think they are nasty.
    If you confirm it is a drone layer I have in the past taken the whole hive a distance from the other hives and dumped all the bees out. The workers will fly back to the apairy to find their hive missing and will go to your other hives. In this way you can at least save some of the bees.
    Has anybody other suggestions on how to deal with a drone laying colony

  7. #27
    Administrator gavin's Avatar
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    Hard to tell. Plenty of larvae and capped brood suggests that either you still have a queen or have recently lost one, but then you should be seeing emergency queen cells from some of the larvae if that is the case.

    There is robbing going on in my apiary - could that be the case for you? Look for bees furtively trying to get in. That winds them up for sure!

  8. #28
    Administrator gavin's Avatar
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    I've done just that with a drone laying colony. I think that it was Steve who suggested the use of protected queen cells (if you can find a queen cell) to put right a laying worker colony. I've tried it and it does work. A DLQ may be easier to deal with as long as you can find the queen.

    However if the colony has good worker brood that is not the problem.

  9. #29
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jimbo View Post
    There are different levels of nasty. I usually find the worse is when a hive goes queenless. The bees tend to bounce off your veil and don't give up trying to sting you.y
    I agree that queenless bees are more nervous than queenright ones but they should never bounce off your veil. That, to me, suggests that the workers are naturally nasty but are held in check by a gentle queen. Take her away and they revert to their natural behaviour.

    Last weekend I showed a friend 2 stocks that had been queenless for about a month. They were still as gentle as can be and I went through the whole of both colonies with minimal smoke and without gloves. I hope the queen cells I gave them will yield queens as good as the last ones.

    This friend, by the way, is new around here and was planning to start a local nuc supply business based on carniolans. After seeing these and other local bees he's changed his plans completely and is in the process of requeening all his own stock. I didn't have to twist his arm, I just showed him the evidence.

    Steve

  10. #30
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    The hive stands on its own in the area - the nearest other [ known ] colonies are over 5 miles away - one of which is my own. I am almost certain that if there was another beekeeper close by, I would definitely know about it, given the small population of the village. I would therefore also presume that nobody has imported other bees into the area/ close by. they therefore also have exclusive access to forage in and around the village, and I've seen them in my own garden on the Hemp Agrimony. The capped drone brood is little clusters on the face of the frame, as opposed to around the sides. I intended to put a super on today - rain stopped play - but would that help at all ? If the weather improves tomorrow, I will try and get a photo at the same time of some of the frames to show a better idea and hope that they are just a wee bit calmer than they were and have a go at posting the photo. Thanks for all your helpful suggestions.

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