I went to see 2 of my colonies today with HJBee in the lovely warm, dry weather. As there is a good flow on at the moment, the hawthorn is out and the horse chestnut is now flowering and the rest, I was expecting all to be well with the bees, but 1 colony had other ideas
The hive received its usual gentle puffs of smoke at the entrance, supers removed and the double brood box separated so we could go through the bottom box. 2nd frame in and everything had to come to a halt as the bees began behaving badly resulting in someone being stung outside the apiary ( they were aware that we were opening the hives) We closed the hive back up, left the apiary and waited at least 20 minutes for the bees to leave us alone, but they continued to try and get in the bee suits. In the end we had to go into the garage to be clear of the bees but a couple were waiting for us to reappear.
The bees had to be moved so tonight we took them to a different sight.
So where has this change of personality come from? Last week they were happy, no problems at all. Only 1 hive was misbehaving, the other was as placid as you can get.
Could it be that they are almost at optimum strength and so showing their true colours? Could it be environmental factors? The other colony was fine so I think this is less likely, however, there is a track in the vegetation straight to this hive made by some kind of animal- could it be upsetting the bees in the night?
Anyway, I've split the hive in 2 so that it could be transported easily and in the hope that by reducing the colony strength will also reduce its temper. I will need to go through the 2 halves to see which has the queen, and which is to raise queen cells.
I'm hoping that the move and the split will address the temperament in the short term but think they should really be re-queened in the longer term.
Is there something else I could be missing?
When the other half raises a new queen, is this also likely to produce a feisty colony or is gentleness to dominant gene (wishful thinking here)
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