OH Helen how could you!?!
As the source of these feisty bees, we have seen this here too.
Our compost heaps are 10m from the hives and do need turning over regularly.
This has attracted, usually only 1, ‘miss buzzy’. As I refuse to wear a beesuit
to churn the compost I have taken to removing the lids and walking away for 15
mins. The digging then goes ahead unchallenged.
On the grass cutting it seems that a strimmer is allowed but not a mower ( a
bee died in the last incident…)
Regards Brian.
From: oxnatbees-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <oxnatbees-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf
Of Helen Nunn
Sent: 20 May 2020 19:21
To: oxnatbees <oxnatbees@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [oxnatbees] Re: three aggressive bees?
Dear all
I must confess to having a low tolerance level of those single guard bees who
get above their station and think they can chase me away. Of course they are
successful as I hate being buzzed like this - but next time I go to my
allotment I take a small pond net, and a quick swish followed by a quick squish
(well away from the hives) solves the problem. I hope I don't get sackfuls of
email protests! We all have to share space.
By the way, the swarm we collected on Sunday is already taking in pollen - does
this mean it's a prime, not a cast? The queen must be laying??? I did leave a
lovely clean, empty comb in the hive, so she would have somewhere to lay.
Helen
On Wed, 20 May 2020 at 19:13, Oxnatbees <oxnatbees@xxxxxxxxx
<mailto:oxnatbees@xxxxxxxxx> > wrote:
I think all will settle down in a day. The suggestion of giving honey, even a
small amount, is not needed and might even cause other issues.
In general it is worth reminding new folk - don't ever feed your bees honey
from another apiary (risk of disease transfer), and if you do feed their own
honey back to them, do so within the hive body, not externally as it can
trigger robbing by other bees.
Btw, I find bees who attack my lawnmower (nasty noisy thing) have forgiven me
by the next day
Paul
On Wed, 20 May 2020, 18:50 Ann Welch, <ann.welch123@xxxxxxxxx
<mailto:ann.welch123@xxxxxxxxx> > wrote:
Hi Gilliane,
I wouldn't suggest this at the back end of the year for fear of wasp attack but
I wonder if you can distract them and maybe calm them down a bit by putting a
little honey on the landing board? It will certainly distract them whilst they
mop it up and maybe give them something else to think about. I wonder if a
bee or two got squashed when you closed them up again and that's what's making
them temporarily aggressive.
Hope they calm down soon
BW
Ann
On 20/05/2020 18:18, Gilliane Sills (Redacted sender gillianesills for DMARC)
wrote:
I hived a cast from Brian and Faith's hive two weeks ago and they've been
building comb quite quickly, so I opened the top bar hive this afternoon to
give them some extra space. They didn't seem to mind - only a few bees flew
out and I put in three extra bars. I then had second thoughts, given that it
seemed to have gone with so little disruption, that perhaps it would be better
just to add one bar at a time, so as not to change their environment too much
in one go. I therefore removed the roof again and took two bars out. Again,
only a few bees flew out and they didn't seem bothered. However, while I was
reassembling the hive - the eke, the insulation and the roof - one bee became
quite aggressive and flew round me, buzzing, trying to get at my face. I was
wearing my bee jacket and gloves so I just finished what I was doing and moved
away and the bee didn't follow. Then about half an hour later I was in the
garden about 20 yards from the hive when a bee flew at me and followed me when
I tried to beat a retreat. It stung me, which presumably meant it died -
certainly I had a sting in my arm. Then twenty minutes later, sitting in the
garden with my husband and now probably 50 yards from the hive, a bee came and
buzzed very aggressively. We both got indoors without being stung - but I
haven't experienced this sort of aggressive behaviour before - is there
anything I should now do, or not do? How long will it be before the bees
forget I opened the hive - assuming this was the trigger for their subsequent
behaviour? Until this happened, I'd been close to the hive (though carefully
not in the flight path) every day without any reaction from the bees.
Gilliane
