Dear Sr Catherine,
 
What a pleasant surprise to find your email in my internet mail.
 
I hope that you, Sr Paul and Sr Monica are all keeping well and that you
had a good honey harvest.
 
I was quite disappointed with mine.  The yield wasn't great and a lot of
the honey couldn't be extracted because it had granulated.  To make matters
worse it was granulating very quickly after extraction, even during
straining.
 
Now to your two questions.
 
a) The best way to handle a bad tempered colony.  Is the colony only bad
tempered at this time of year or all year round?  It is to be expected that
bees will be a little nasty both when they have a good crop of honey
collected and even more so after it has been stolen.  At this time of year
keep manipulations to a minimum and use smoke and gentle handling when
working them.
 
b)  Dequeen your stock and in 5 to 6 days ensure that there are no queen
cells built by destroying them.  Two days or so later introduce a mated
queen of a gentler strain in a cage.  Leave for 2 weeks.  Check for brood.
Feeding them will ensure that brood rearing is kept up.
 
Hope this is of help.  Write to me (or email me if you prefer) and let me
know how the operation went.  I hope that from now on your bees will be as
gentle as lambs.
 
Sincerely,
 
John Cunningham.