Get a grip woman!

themadvix

Oh SL, sorry to hear that. Will you rehome them with someone else and continue to look after them or simply rehome them?

debtfreeoneday

Sorry to hear that. 

rtandon27

Oh boo - sorry to hear the bees have been misbehaving!

Karmacat

So sorry to hear that, SL - and yes, I hope you can get the timing and the new location sitting right with everyone concerned, including the bees.

enthusiasticsaver

Oh dear. Sorry you have to move them. Do you have somewhere in your garden away from the boundaries to keep them or are you rehoming them? I guess the noise of the strimming close to the hive made them feel threatened? 

SandyShores

What a shame Suffolk_lass.  I didn't think bees stung, I've only ever been stung once when I picked up a plum and the poor bee must have already been on it and got a shock.  I've been stung a few times by wasps though.  Have you got somewhere to move them to?  Hope it goes well.

Suffolk_lass

One of my neighbours has offered her field. I suggested that if they are productive we use her location for a tithe of some bee products or honey. It is known as an out apiary. We might split them too so we go to four hives in total - it is so the single colony at the farm has a second nearby - it makes moving a frame of brood and bees a lot less stressful for everyone when they are next to each other.

@SandyShores among honey bees only worker bees sting - the others (drones and queen) don't.

Suffolk_lass

A bit of money juggling. Our nearest physical bank branch closed two weeks ago and so I have cancelled the SO and moved the balance to the main bills current account. Not only has the branch closed, there is no secure messaging facility and the call options are for pay to call numbers - so it can sit there empty, rather than me closing it.  I don't need that palaver.

DH has not been contacted for his second vaccination but others younger residents who are patients at the same surgery have. I think we have vaccine envy. I have mine tomorrow but of course we have not been booked in together because we have different surnames. I'm definitely Mrs GOW (grumpy old woman) at the moment. I go with my bees that are still here.

We are (still) trying to find somewhere to move the bees to for a few days that is more than 3 miles away so they have to reorientate so we can bring them back to a local site and they don't all fly back here.

LadyGnome

Hello Suffolk Lass I've just been catching up.  Sorry to hear your bees are grumpy - the out apiary sounds like a good solution.  The weather definitely isn't helping.  We had a single hive started from a nuc last year which we split 3 weeks ago as they were getting quite full and we were seeing more and more queen cups.  We put the old queen in a new hive with a couple of frames of brood and some extra nurse bees and fed them.  They seem to be building up well.  The old hive created a load of queen cells so we took out most of them.  They were a couple capped over a week ago but the weather has been so rubbish we haven't been able to open them up to check.  I am hoping we now have a mated queen - if she has been able to get out on mating flights! I am nervous for the good weather later this week, if they are going to swarm it will be then.  I want to get in and look for the queen and make sure there are no more queen cells.  
It's a great hobby when the weather is good . 
Is it just one colony that is stinging?  They may calm down with a new queen or perhaps you could look to requeen from a better behaved hive in due course.

Suffolk_lass

Thanks @LadyGnome (and good to see you "back" and posting again! - Yes, our bees arrived on double brood last year, from a beek giving up because of allergy.

We did the same as you but because they were so huge when we split them on 24th April (cue signal for sh***y weather!) we did not see our unmarked Queen and she stayed in H1. This was the hive that swarmed, six days later, leaving us two queenless colonies in the garden. H3 (the swarm) was quickly joined at the out apiary by N(uc)4, two smaller cast swarms from H1, just after we saw they had a virgin Q. Not sure if this hive has a Q yet, and if they do, if she is viable!

So we have four colonies, on two sites, with potentially 1 mated queen between them. We got into H2 (split) yesterday and they are lovely and calm but no brood - meaning they have accepted the virgin queen they made but she is either not laying, or laying drone brood (we suspect the latter) - given the weather, mating has been on hold here. There were loads of drones in there.

We will look at the other three today if the weather is warmer (1pm predicted 14c here!). My fear is three queenless or unmated virgins (terrible timing here).

Our plan is to shake all the bees in broodless hives into an empty brood box and take a frame of BIAS into the original brood box with a QE between the two (original on top) so Her maj and most of the drones are below and can be despatched/ejected and they can make an emergency Q from the brood. If H3 is not up and running we will ask if any neighbouring beeks can sell or donate a nuc to get us back from hopelessly queenless as a result of the weather. One of the Master beeks has Queens available soon and we are due at the training apiary this weekend. All is not yet lost.

Not all bees here, I am off to shop as cat supplies are low... and thank goodness it is almost the end of the month