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General Q&A, Bee chat and only Bee chat please
 #11332  by Alfred
 27 Jun 2021, 17:49
I have the one colony that was on death row after an otherwise good performance over winter ,but has now turned around and made a go of it. ,upping their two seams to eight and still counting.
I had moved them to a quiet corner away from everything and everyone (except the deer and wild boar ) partly because they had the tendency of being mildy savage on occasion,and partly because I was too soft to cull them.
After the miraculous self -recovery the temperament has changed to (by my standards) really not bad.
Supercedure?
Mated with lads from the right side of the tracks and the usual degradation was reversed?
Does that happen?
Or being away from the other colonies and feeling less threatened,although they were the strongest of the apiary before their hard times.
Doesnt matter either way ,Im not looking that gift horse to much in the mouth
Its just why did it happen to me!!
 #11334  by AdamD
 28 Jun 2021, 06:53
If a colony survived winter ok and then faded and has now picked up, supercedure is probably the most likely cause. And there's no reason for temper to only get worse. Queens don't always become drone layers before being replaced; they can just slow down due to age so it's not as visible as a comb with random drone brood in it.
Result!
 #11691  by JoJo36
 10 Aug 2021, 17:50
I checked my four hives today and:
hive 1 queen disappeared around 2-3 weeks ago and I left a couple of swarm cells, saw a queen today and only a few eggs so marked her.
hive 2 WELL!! This hive wanted to swarm around 3 weeks ago so I left 2 cells below and put queen in a brood box above old one with queen cell separated only by a queen excluder. Today the bees were actually going nuts... They were pinging me and i smoked them and continued my check. One of the queen cells has emerged and other one side of cell broken into and empty. I think there is a queen somewhere and I'm wondering if their bad behaviour was due to my going in when the unmated queen was around?! I was tempted to put queen above down with the vicious ones but thought they'd probably murder her if an unmated queen was around?! I haven't put a feeder on these yet!
I've put feeders on mine and placed supers under the brood boxes to try this method this year. Does anyone know if its okay to mix the syrup with homemade 2-1 syrup later as I'm going to run out of ambrosia?!
Hive 3 and 4 nice tempered:)
 #11692  by Alfred
 11 Aug 2021, 06:56
I often look at those containers of readymade feed and am reminded of Peckham Springs bottled water .
This time next year we'll be millionaires Rodney.
Run the ambrosia as low as possibe before adding your 2:1 ( or just swap feeders) if you're worried but I cant see it making a difference
The bees won't care.
 #11693  by AdamD
 11 Aug 2021, 08:59
Hives 1 and 2 could both have had supercedure cells i nthem if just a couple - it's the time of year for it.
Hive one seems to have do it (supecedure) without fuss.
Hive 2, with one open and one broken down cell would also appear to have a virgin queen in it down below. Assuming the old quen is still in residence above, the behaviour of the colony would not be as a result of being hopelessly queenless as her pheromone will be permeating through the hive. If there is a virgin in the hive, that would not cause the colony to be flighty upon inspection. I often look at colonies in such a condition and there's no harm done unless the virgin is out and about mating - where she might get confused when she comes back.

In my part of the world there is very little forage at the moment, so once 2 or 3 hives have been open, bees will be following me around the apiary trying to rob anything that's open. [Indeed I can't reasonably look at my whole out apiary in one go for that reason. A month ago I could have left supers open on the back of the pick-up for 1/2 hour with hardly a bee being interested]. If you spent a while looking at hive 2 - and after looking at the others - then that could be the reason?

No worries mixing ambrosia and syrup.
I would usually put a full super under a brood box much later in the year - around the end of September.
 #11694  by JoJo36
 11 Aug 2021, 16:37
Thanks all for the advice well received!

I'll leave the vicious ones for a few days I think??!!:) Maybe I'll put the old queen in a nuc for insurance next year?! Hmm......

I'm hoping that by feeding and putting super underneath the brood, they will gradually fill up both as I've never tried it this way before??!!

Weather a bit unsettled but good in about a weeks time, although I expect the forage will be gone by then and/or the ivy will be out!!
 #11696  by Steve 1972
 11 Aug 2021, 19:33
Wasps and bees trying to rob any colonies at this time of the year will most certainly cause deffensive behavour..moving hives from a potential threats will calm them down...suprcedure and swarming is a tricky subject ..with too many vaiarables..just be happy you have a nice colony.. ;)
 #11701  by JoJo36
 12 Aug 2021, 04:29
I am :) and 3 of my hives are really quite close together, about 2-3 feet apart as in the garden!
I've got a feeling they wanted me out of the way because a virgin queen was around?! Maybe!!!
The original queen upstairs is very calm and sweet so she will go back if they continue to be wild things and the more I think of it I think I will keep her in a nuc box over winter as she was a queen from last year!