Brilliant news Nigel that you finally got the long awaited Island mated Queens...the weather could have been a little better though..
Regarding the aggressiveness of usually gentle hives i now know what the problem is with mine..(wasps) in good numbers.. i have been viewing the entrance every evening of the four colonies in my H/pool apiary after work and i see the odd wasp hawking around the entrances with a ball of bees around each tunnel entrance..nothing is getting in and the wasps i seen sharp give up...so i put a trap right near the hives two days ago and i checked it tonight..it is in a ceder brood box + eke with only the trap part sticking through a plywood board above the eke..(ceder hives full of propolis seem to attract wasps for some reason even empty)..anyway the trap was packed full of dead wasps that obviously have been hassling the colonies and making them a tad feisty...tonight i viewed the entrances and very few bees where guarding the entrances so the trap must have mopped up the troublesome Jaspers..
Regarding the aggressiveness of usually gentle hives i now know what the problem is with mine..(wasps) in good numbers.. i have been viewing the entrance every evening of the four colonies in my H/pool apiary after work and i see the odd wasp hawking around the entrances with a ball of bees around each tunnel entrance..nothing is getting in and the wasps i seen sharp give up...so i put a trap right near the hives two days ago and i checked it tonight..it is in a ceder brood box + eke with only the trap part sticking through a plywood board above the eke..(ceder hives full of propolis seem to attract wasps for some reason even empty)..anyway the trap was packed full of dead wasps that obviously have been hassling the colonies and making them a tad feisty...tonight i viewed the entrances and very few bees where guarding the entrances so the trap must have mopped up the troublesome Jaspers..