I have nasty little stinging buzz monster bees

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I have nasty little stinging buzz monster bees
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Mrs Baggins

Joined: 21 Sep 2008
Posts: 837
Location: West Kent

Posted: Tue May 19, 09 7:16 pm Post subject: I have nasty little stinging buzz monster bees

We did our second inspection of our newly hived swarm on Sun - only to find more than 10 queen cells.

There were no queen cells or cups when we had carried out our previous inspection a week ago on Sunday and to our surprise, we even had one capped queen cell which had been built and capped within 7 days.

Being a bit panicked and not knowing quite what to do, we closed up the hive and came to look thru our notes and decide on a plan of action. On the basis of what we had seen we decided to artificially swarm and did this yesterday.

So here we are: a mere 19 days since we collected our swarm, we possibly have 2 colonies! The new colony is tucked up in garden store until next Monday - we are going down to spritz some water in there in a minute - and pray that they are raising a nice new virgin queen from the two plump queen cells we left them with and we guess that is all goes well she should fly out on her mating flight about Jun 18.

I admit to feeling nervous and really hope they survive... it feels so wrong to shut them in a hive for a whole week...

They have ventilation, syrup and water. I hope they don't all croak it!

Please wish us luck! Any possy bee survival vibes greatly appreciated!

Last edited by Mrs Baggins on Tue May 26, 09 9:03 pm; edited 1 time in total

Tavascarow

Joined: 06 Aug 2006
Posts: 8407
Location: South Cornwall

Posted: Tue May 19, 09 7:57 pm Post subject:
Glad your bees have made you see sense. You will have to buy more sugar & you probably wont get any honey this year but taking two hives through the winter is a whole lot more reasuring than just one. If the new queen fails to mate you can always reunite them back to the original colony.

Mrs R

Joined: 15 Aug 2008
Posts: 7202

Posted: Tue May 19, 09 8:00 pm Post subject:
woah, i know nothing about bees - sounds complicated- and great!

Mrs Baggins

Joined: 21 Sep 2008
Posts: 837
Location: West Kent

Posted: Tue May 19, 09 8:06 pm Post subject:

Tav - I was fully intending on following your advice but the bees decided that July was too long a wait!

There is tons of brood of all stages on all 11 frames - they had no space left! Have found the queen twice now and could have done a jig for joy when I spied her. (Am queen spotting expert now... ) Had (very luckily) bought a queen trap the day before I found the queen cells. Fate was smiling on me that day...

Ixy - It is complicated but simple IYKWIM?? It's the kind of thing that once you have done it a while and found your own style - it is 2nd nature.

I am not there yet and find it all very daunting... but in a fun way...

Mrs Baggins

Joined: 21 Sep 2008
Posts: 837
Location: West Kent

Posted: Tue May 19, 09 8:08 pm Post subject:
Ixy - is that a punk or a native AMerican goat in your profile pic?

jamanda
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 22 Oct 2006
Posts: 35128
Location: Devon

Posted: Tue May 19, 09 8:15 pm Post subject:
Sounds good! I want the weather to warm up again so I can have another delve into my brood box, but as she's started laying in the super I put on I think they are probably OK for now.

Mrs R

Joined: 15 Aug 2008
Posts: 7202

Posted: Tue May 19, 09 8:16 pm Post subject:

Mrs Baggins wrote:

Ixy - is that a punk or a native AMerican goat in your profile pic?

punk. definately.

Mrs Baggins

Joined: 21 Sep 2008
Posts: 837
Location: West Kent

Posted: Wed May 20, 09 10:17 am Post subject:
Checked my new colony last night and there are still signs of life. I am really worrying that I have done summat wrong and they will suffocate or starve... or just have a vitamin D deficiency due to the lack of sun... I so want this to work... wouldn't it be cool if you could witness the virgin queen's mating flight? Is that even possible? I have been dreaming of bees lately... can you tell??

Ginkotree

Joined: 26 Jun 2008
Posts: 2956
Location: south west wales

Posted: Mon May 25, 09 10:53 am Post subject:
what is it about these bees that makes us all obsessed...

Mrs Baggins

Joined: 21 Sep 2008
Posts: 837
Location: West Kent

Posted: Mon May 25, 09 11:07 am Post subject:

It's cos they are so COOL!

Well, today is the day we take our new colony out of storage in the stables and put it in its rightful place in the apiary. They have done really well surviving all week long and they have made quite a din. Hope that is a good sign...

Thing is it is chucking it down today and the kids will NOT go down for their nap. Always puts a spanner in the work when bees are concerned...

Mrs Baggins

Joined: 21 Sep 2008
Posts: 837
Location: West Kent

Posted: Mon May 25, 09 2:51 pm Post subject:
Scratch the bee plans. It's gonna storm. Typical.

Mrs Baggins

Joined: 21 Sep 2008
Posts: 837
Location: West Kent

Posted: Tue May 26, 09 3:54 pm Post subject:

We took advantage of a break in the weather and put our 2nd hive in the apiary. It was such a palaver that we never got the chance to check insode, but when we took the tape off the entrance block and hundreds of bees spilled out - we both got a bit of a surprise!

Two minutes later and they had brought out their dead and thrown them out onto the slabs. Such tidy little creatures! I like tidy!

Just hope the have been working hard on raising a nice new virgin queen. ANd that she mates. ANd that we really do have a second hive...

And to think I was worried about never getting started with bees!

goosey

Joined: 29 Apr 2009
Posts: 380
Location: Merry England

Posted: Tue May 26, 09 4:14 pm Post subject:
Great stuff! Hope She is ok , keep watching, you may see her on her mating flight, woudn't that be cool.

Mrs Baggins

Joined: 21 Sep 2008
Posts: 837
Location: West Kent

Posted: Tue May 26, 09 8:58 pm Post subject:

Okay. Have just had an interesting hive inspection.

We were looking thru the hive of bee that we artificially swarmed - ie the one with the original swarm in and about half way thru the frames they went absolutely ballistic.

It seemed like every bee in the hive piled out at once and started stinging us. Our suits are covered in stings and MrB got stung 15+ times thru his beesuit and leather gloves. We finished up quickly and calmly and closed up the hive. We were both absolutely covered in bees head to toe. There were still bees dive-bombing us and we walked all the way across the field (ca 100m) and stood quietly at the boundary for about 20 mins before they left us alone.

We waited a while but as we walked back across the field and as we got about 20m away from the apiary (ie 30m away from the actual hive) they came back out and had another go at us.

Based on the fact that they are persistently producing a lot of queen cells, we don't know the age of the queen and the fact that they are such malicious little bastards, I am inclined to re-queen.

Any suggestions on anything we did blatantly wrong - please, please tell us!
Any suggestions on where to source a nice Queen - please point us in the right direction!
Any suggestions on how to get my nerve back after staring death in the face - I'm all ears!

PS: Out of the whole escapade I got stung a total of ZERO times.

MrB thinks I have trained them and the geese to hate him.

richh

Joined: 05 Apr 2009
Posts: 11
Location: leicestershire

Posted: Tue May 26, 09 9:12 pm Post subject:

Mrs Baggins wrote:

Okay. Have just had an interesting hive inspection.

PS: Out of the whole escapade I got stung a total of ZERO times.

MrB thinks I have trained them and the geese to hate him.

re-queen re-queenr-requeen

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