Ernie Huber wrote:

> I have tried the upside-down version of the Queen Isolator that
>Tom alludes to, as described in the ABJ. It didn't work...
>        About the only method that I have consistently had success with
>under the above described situation is to MOVE THE HIVE a short distance and
>then leave behind a nucleus colony to recapture the foragers from the moved
>colony.

The method described by Ernie was recommended to me as a new beekeeper faced
with an aggressive colony by a local queen breeder.  I also recommend it for
all small scale beekeepers or those who have their hives close at hand so
travelling time is not a consideration.

This method avoids all confrontation and works within the instinctive
behaviour pattern to make life easier for the beekeeper and still achieve
the desired manipulation.

It is not necessary to move the hive far.  I simply turn the aggressive hive
at 90 degrees and place the new hive box in the front.  I do not introduce a
queen to the front hive. It may help the bees settle if a frame of sealed
brood is placed in the front.  After a few days, all foragers will have
returned to the front hive and the original hive can be searched with
minimum smoke since it will then be populated mainly by the queen, drones
and nurse bees.  After culling the queen (with great satisfaction), the hive
can be united and a new queen introduced.  Since the front box has not been
exposed to a competing queen, they will accept an introduced queen with
alacrity.

One hint for locating hard-to-spot queens.  If queen is in bottom brood box
(I use queen excluders), smoke entrance lightly and wait 1 minute.  Open
hive and remove any supers.  Remove outside frame, examine for queen and
lean against front.  Do the same for other outside frame.  Now, leaving a
space between frames and the hive side, lift one frame at a time working
from one side to the other, looking ONLY for the queen (no distractions, no
admiring of brood pattern, no egg inspection).  30 seconds a frame is
usually enough.  Smoke the entrance if bees start to run about on the frame
but not the top of the frames.  If the queen still eludes you, repeat the
frame inspection.  It is very rarely that I cannot find the queen within 3
minutes using this method.

With practice, the queen can be located by identifying where the majority of
bees are.  As the queen moves across the frame, workers will turn their
heads towards her leaving a small space around her and this pattern is easy
to detect.  As long as the hive has not been alarmed, the queen will be
going about her duties.

By continually selecting lines for docility and productivity and culling
aggressive hives (measuring the level of aggression against the other hives
in the apiary on that day) I rarely encounter the aggressive behaviour of my
early hives.

Because of travelling time to apiary sites, I now use the Queen Isolator
described by Tom.  The queens to be culled are known before I arrive in the
apiary and I take extra care to pause after smoking and to move very, very
slowly in removing frames.  I carry the queens in introduction cages to the
apiary and plan on requeening 10 - 12 hives in one day, as well as working
30 + hives for honey.

Betty McAdam

HOG BAY APIARY
Penneshaw, Kangaroo Island
J.H. & E. McAdam<[log in to unmask]
http://kigateway.kin.on.net/hogbay/hogbay1.htm

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