Author Topic: Hot Hive! (Read 21669 times)

riverbee · « **Reply #20 on:** March 07, 2015, 10:08:49 pm »

vosse~
"Requeening every year is a waste of good Queens imo, just split when they start making queen cells and the queen puts an egg in it, then it's time. Old queen in new give, she thinks she swarmed and won't do it again old hive has no queen and half the bees, thinks it swarmed won't do it again. At the end of winter join both together and voila"

pete~
" If you wait until you have queen cells present to split your hive, you will often end up with one or more cast swarms."

like vosse i don't requeen every year, and agree a waste of a good queen.
pete, not always true, this takes timing.

Jen · « **Reply #21 on:** March 08, 2015, 06:26:21 pm »

The hot hive bees are after us, can't go in the backyard, can't go in the front yard. I was hoping that adding the new medium might quiet them down. NOT! But it's only been 3 days.

Tell me, if I requeen this week, will the bees calm down because there is a new queen, or do we have to wait until she produces the gentler bees?

rrog13 · « **Reply #22 on:** March 08, 2015, 07:54:16 pm »

A hot hive is no fun at all.

Check out this video to get idea of what you can expect.

Richard

LazyBkpr · « **Reply #23 on:** March 08, 2015, 08:39:51 pm »

It depends on why the bees are angry.. if its because of the queen, IE lack of pheromone, or poor mating etc a new queen will make a difference in less than a week. If its because that queen IS hot, it will be at minimum 21 days, plus how ever many days it takes the queen to be released, and then check out her new digs and start laying.. so maybe four to five weeks before the new bees are emerging, and six to seven weeks before the last of the old queens brood is starting to die off.

Jen · « **Reply #24 on:** March 08, 2015, 09:15:29 pm »

WhhhhooooEEEee Rrog! That is a nasty mean hive! Mine aren't anywhere near that, but they are stinging me, the neighor, my dog. But mostly one or two bees buzzing assertively within 1 minute of entering the backyard. I live in a close knit neighborhood, can't have that.

Real Good Video as well! My bee veil is off to you for taking the time to video that. That was you wasn't it?

rrog13 · « **Reply #25 on:** March 08, 2015, 09:19:36 pm »

Nope....glad to say, not me. Thank goodness!

Jen · « **Reply #26 on:** March 08, 2015, 09:32:48 pm »

Hahahha, thanks for clarifying that! Who ever it was, my veil is still off

Scott, thanks for explaining that, it freshened up what was lingering in my mind from last spring and introducing new queens. Either way, if queen has low pheromones or she hot, I see the need to requeen. Calling to tomorrow

vossejongk · « **Reply #27 on:** March 09, 2015, 09:27:38 am »

Jen, if you get a chance to work with a Carnica queen, grab her with both hands! This honeybee race is among the most gentle and will hardly ever sting unless you flip their hive upside down and start to yell at em lol. I have both my hives with a queen of this race and it's the best thing I ever did after I started with normal dutch black bees.

"It has a panopoly of characteristics that are increasingly important to beekeepers, including gentleness, less-than-average propolis collection, and little inclination to rob, the real bugaboo of its cousin,
Apis mellifera ligustica, the Italian honey bee. It is known as the “spring” bee for it builds population rapidly early in the activeseason. More importantly it closes down its brood rearing quickly when environmental conditions deteriorate, resulting in less food consumption and a potentially increased winter survival."

Jen · « **Reply #28 on:** March 09, 2015, 12:59:52 pm »

Hey Vosse, would this be the queen that produces the very light carmel colored bees, they even have lighter eyes. If so, these are the queens I introduced last spring, and it was heaven, soo gentle. Thanks for the tip!

Just came back to my desk with the reciept of last years purchased queens. It says Italian queens.

vossejongk · « **Reply #29 on:** March 09, 2015, 05:22:13 pm »

No the carnica bees are more darker. The Italian ones have more orange but are much more eager to rob their neighbours as where carnica almost love theirs. Just don't open up a super too long when there's not much to be found elsewhere, no matter what race of bees you have its a dinner bell for all

I really love the orange bees they're beautiful, we call them buckfast (do you in the states as well?) But the carnicas are from the balkans, Slovenia mainly and have a longer tongue so they can reach the nectar in deeper flowers as where other bee races cannot, Carnica is also the most varroa resistant promising race they've found thus far, so the choice over buckfast (hard workers, make big hives, swarms and can make some serious amount of honey) was still easy, I keep bees for the bees, not for profit or honey

Jen · « **Reply #30 on:** March 09, 2015, 05:31:05 pm »

"I keep bees for the bees, not for profit or honey"

Me too Vosse! I'll look for these bees you talk of. Right now I'm finding that the queen breeders are backed up into May. I may just have to move this hive off of the property or awhile, that would make me sad

But it's better than my neighbors getting stung everyday. So far I'm getting stung everyday even if I'm on the other side of the yard ~ Thanks!

iddee · « **Reply #31 on:** March 09, 2015, 05:59:13 pm »

Jen, those bees came from one mother, but many fathers. Kill her and let them raise one. The new bees will have different genes from their fathers. Many, and I'd say most, times the new bees from the daughter will be much gentler.

barry42001 · « **Reply #32 on:** March 09, 2015, 06:39:41 pm »

Buckfast bees in USA tend to be darker then italians. After first supersede can be very nasty.

Jen · « **Reply #33 on:** March 09, 2015, 08:43:48 pm »

Hi Iddee- "Jen, those bees came from one mother,

I'm going to ask a couple questions to get the science down

1. This hive is a combine from last fall, that would have been two mothers?

2. Are these bees still my winter bees? probably not?

LazyBkpr · « **Reply #34 on:** March 09, 2015, 08:49:19 pm »

No, those bees are gone. These are bees from the queen currently in the hive.

Jen · « **Reply #35 on:** March 09, 2015, 08:59:00 pm »

Mkay, that would make sense then, Thanks Scott

Jen · « **Reply #36 on:** March 10, 2015, 01:42:41 pm »

I'm going to make some calls today to see if I can find a queen. If I can't this time of year, I'll prob have to send my queen to the gallows and let them make their own. It's only mid March so they should be up and running by mid April. That would give ample time to honey up I think

iddee · « **Reply #37 on:** March 10, 2015, 02:14:26 pm »

I would pull a NUC. Make sure to leave eggs. Then when the new queen is laying, you can kill and combine, or sell the nuc.
Give you practice in making a split.

Jen · « **Reply #38 on:** March 10, 2015, 02:32:41 pm »

Hmm, I'm out the door, I'll get back with ya on that

DavidD · « **Reply #39 on:** March 10, 2015, 02:36:46 pm »

Quote from: iddee on March 10, 2015, 02:14:26 pm

I would pull a NUC. Make sure to leave eggs. Then when the new queen is laying, you can kill and combine, or sell the nuc.
Give you practice in making a split.

I like the way you think. Make a new queen an keep production going