Rescuing an Aggressive Beehive and Moving It From an Allotment

So I'm on a little bit of a road trip today. I'm off to go and collect 4 colonies of bees from an allotment where they've been causing quite a lot of trouble. I have absolutely no idea what I'm going to expect when I get there. They might just be killer bees from hell. Either way, even if they are horrible, horrible bees, I'm going to take them. I don't think a colony should ever be put down because it's so easy to requeen them, turn them from a really angry colony into a really friendly colony. So in this video, I'm driving down there. I'm going to show— Mmm. So in this video, I'm driving down there. I'm about 20 minutes away now. I'm going to go and collect the colonies, get them in the back of the truck, take them back to one of my apiaries, and then when the weather looks a bit better in the morning, we'll get inside and see what we've got. So here's one of the hives down at the allotment. We taped it up ready to go. We're not putting travel screens on these ones because we're just too worried about opening them up and then them going absolutely crazy. It's quite late here at the moment, but I don't want to open them up, get the bees flying, and then have to wait around trying to get them all in. Bees know when you're messing around with them, and the last thing you want is sending angry bees into the air when people are trying to work on their allotment. So this is one of the hives that's come in. We've taken one of the supers off, you can see on the floor, that's not got any bees in it, but there are some very feisty, angry bees in this one here. It's on brood and a half, this one. So single national with a shallow queen excluder, nice wooden equipment. We strap that one up, and over here we've got 3 extra hives that are going. One that's on a national deep queen excluder with a super on, One that's got two supers on with these bees here. They are very, very feisty. About half eight in the evening, they know that something's going on. So we're gonna. So as I just said that, you didn't get to see that one. I just got stung in the face. They know something's going on. These are funky bees. That's got two supers on, and then that one over there, that's got two supers on as well. We're gonna strap them all up, get them in the car. Probably gonna go and put my bee suit on. So I had to limit the amount of filming that I did at the allotment there. Firstly, because it was getting a little bit late. And secondly, because they were really, really angry bees. There was not much that I could do there in the light. So I showed you that little snippet there just to show you them in position. I got them into the back of my pickup truck and I brought them back home. I got stuck in the absolute worst traffic on the way back home. All of the roads were closed. Normally like a 30-minute journey took me about an hour and 45 minutes because I had to go the long way round. And then I had to do all the rest of it in the pitch black at this apiary. So it was great fun. And I received a lot of stings to the face, to the hands, to the arms. even though I had my bee suit on for the majority of the time in the vehicle. I'm back here today though. The bees are all completely orientated to their new site. I'm gonna go through them, each and every single one. I'm doubling up the gloves because these bees are feisty. Really, really spicy, feisty bees. There's no way I'm doing the video sitting in front of these colonies here because it won't just be the odd sting that I get from a passing bee. I will get attacked by these. They're not friendly bees at all. So I'll get my bee suit on and I'll show you the 4 colonies that I've taken away from an allotment because they're too angry. Right, so the colonies that you can see behind me, these are the 4 colonies that I picked up from the allotment, and you can already see quite a lot of activity around me. I know for a fact when I go into these colonies, they're gonna go crazy at me. So I'll position the camera, I'll go through each and every single one of them just to give you a snapshot of whether they've got a queen in it, whether they've not got a queen in it, what the brood pattern's looking like, and then we will assess what we're gonna do with these colonies going forward. But as I said, if they're angry, if they're aggressive, we're gonna requeen all of them. But we might leave one of them just for a bit of a comparison. I'll have to wait, go and see, see how they're getting on. So I'm going to start off with the one that's the least active, and I'm going to finish with this one here, which is by far and away the biggest and definitely the most aggressive as well. Let's get inside, see what they're looking like. So this is the entrance of the first one, and I have to say, they're not really going for me that much. I'm quite surprised. Like, I'm sitting right in front of the entrance here, I've got 2 sets of gloves on, I've got my BBwear Ultra Suit on. There's no way I'm taking any stings, but it's not that active, but they're really not too fussed about me. They're not too fussed about the camera either. So this is the top of the super. So this box here is on a standard national deep configuration with a queen excluder and a super on, and they've pretty much filled a super full of bees, and it looks like there's a decent amount of honey in there as well. So really nice Perspex crown boards, very good for the bees to have started so early filling up those supers. Let's crack them open, see how much honey they've gathered. So before I forget, I've got my smoker with me. Don't want to be without your smoker when you're dealing with bees that you just don't know what they're like. So I've got some hessian sack in here, really nice light smoke, going to get that smoldering just in case things go wrong. So wasn't quite expecting to see lots of worker brood up here in the super. Also a frame, loads of pollen in there, bit of drone brood down at the bottom as well. So I suspect they've overwintered on brood and a half, and then the queen excluder has been put in at some point. I'll have to check downstairs as well, see what's going on, see where the queen actually is, if there is a queen in here. But at the moment, we've got a bit of a mix going on up here. Got worker brood, drone brood, lots of pollen, full of bees, but they don't seem too bad yet. If we give you a little bit of a zoom out there, not flying up, not going crazy, kind of interested in the camera, but definitely not killer bees just yet. So I've taken the super off that first one, and okay, They're very flighty. You can see this, this is not what you want in an allotment. You don't want the bees to fly up like this. They're coming on my veil, and I can just kind of imagine doing this in a position where other people are around. I'd feel really, really awkward. I've had places like this where you can see people kind of a little further away, and you're thinking, please don't come any closer. But if they were right next to me on the allotment next door and my bees were doing this, it would be really, really difficult. Cool. So I'm not taking any stings to the gloves anyway. Very flighty around the face. I'm gonna take a look inside this brood box now. Bees look nice, bees look healthy, brood looks in really good condition. They're just very flighty bees. So I'll just show you my little kind of DJI camera thing that I've got here. It's got these gizmos in it, which means that the bees really don't like the sound of it. And when I've got angry bees, they tend to kind of flock around it like that. And you can see it's giving them quite a lot of attention. We'll go and try and get some videos of that brood nest now. Right, so I think this probably explains why they're very unfriendly at the moment and why there's been such a turn in behaviour. Now, I wasn't aware, I didn't get a chance to have a full chat with this guy, but I know that he was in the process of requeening. He'd actually ordered some queens for me to requeen. So I don't know if you can see here though, we've got some emergency cells. These aren't swarm cells, they're not supersedure cells, That is what happens when you take away a queen, and then they're going to pull them out as emergency cells. You can see that from the way that they're bent over 90 degrees. They're not full cells that are coming down. They've got a right angle kink in them. So the fact that there's no eggs in here either, really, really easy to diagnose what's going on with this colony here. He's killed the queen. They've turned really, really angry because he's killed the queen halfway through the manipulation. We can finish that manipulation off though. Going to be a really, really easy fix. We'll do that in another video though, but very easy here. All I'm going to do is go through both the super and the brood box, shake off all the bees, take off all those cells, and we'll need to give them a new queen because I don't want them requeening from unknown genetics. Right, so the plot definitely thickens a bit because you look at some of the cells on this frame here. And I'm thinking now, you know what, I'm not sure that the queen has died in here, and maybe they're just looking to swarm. Like, you look at a couple of those and you think, okay, there may be emergency cells, but that one there, that is not an emergency cell. That is 100% a swarm cell. So maybe kind of caught them halfway through attempting to swarm anyway. Going to do the same though. I'll go through, I'll see if I can find that queen. Can't see any eggs yet. I'll take down all the cells and I'm going to requeen. But that has really thrown me because that is definitely not an emergency cell, that is a swarm cell. So this frame here is a perfect example of why it's so difficult to have frames like this where you're looking for swarm cells. Just look how gnarly and some of the gaps and crevices. Like, I found at least 3 swarm cells in there, or emergency cells, I'm still not kind of decided on which one's which, that were really, really hidden from view. Very, very difficult to see. When you're requeening a colony, you need to make sure you get through and clear out all of those emergency cells or swarm cells. Again, that is definitely not an emergency cell. There's no queen in here though. It's a capped cell. I reckon this colony swarmed, you know, because they're kind of half filling that brood box. I'm still surmising. I'm still going through and trying to work out what's going on in my head. There was emergency cells in there. I'm also seeing swarm cells. If you're seeing both of them, it's highly likely that they are just all swarm cells, and some of them are just a bit of a weird shape. That there though, you couldn't get any more obvious. Bottom of the frame completely drawn out. That is a swarm cell, and there's no queen in here. So I'm still going through, taking down all of these cells, see if we can see anything further. Right, I've been through the entire brood box. It's kind of carnage, isn't it? I don't know what's happened there. I'm seeing emergency cells, I'm seeing swarm cells. What I do know 100% though is there is no queen in there because there's no eggs, and it's giving me the indication that this is why the bees are so So angry. Even a calm colony, take away their queen, they can get angry. And I'm not taking too many stings. Like, I've got colonies, super angry colonies, that they'll just blitz your fingers. And I'm looking at my fingers here, I'm double gloved in case anybody's noticed. So they're not super stingy bees, but again, as I've said, would you want bees like this on your allotment? Probably not. I can see why he wanted to get rid of them. So that's one colony done. I'm just going to quickly shake through that super as well, just make sure there's no emergency or swarm cells up in that super. Super, and then we'll move on to the next colony. And there you go, that's why it's always good to check down there in the supers as well. Obviously, if it was just a standard super and there was no indication of any brood up there or eggs, I wouldn't have done that check. But because there was worker brood up there, there's always a chance that there's going to be some sort of emergency or swarm cell up there as well. And there's a couple on this frame here, I'm just going to remove those. Whether they're viable or not, I'm not really sure, but it gives me confidence that we're going to get down every single Queen cell, get them hopelessly queenless, then we can requeen them. Right, that's colony number one done. No queen, loads of swarm cells, taking them all down. We're going to requeen this colony because they are too flighty for my liking. I'm also going to add a super as well because they're a little bit low on space, and I know I'm taking them down, knocking them back, but I might as well get this additional super on, use those bees to draw it out, make the most of those resources. Right, we're on to colony number two then. I'll try not to labour the point, but. But would you want to be on an allotment with bees that are as flighty as this, with someone sowing the carrots or something next door? Be a little bit awkward, wouldn't it? I can see why I wanted to get rid of them. Let's get in number 2 though, see if they're any worse. So this colony here, nothing in that top box. The configuration is a National shallow, queen excluder, and then these are on brood and a half. So it'd be fun to see what they're looking like down there, whether they've got a queen or not. I do not know, but that top box there, nothing in it at the moment. So this is the top shallow box of a brood and a half configuration. Very healthy bees in terms of how well they're thriving. Like, the bees are doing well, they're doing what bees do, they're growing, early spring expansion, and they are thriving. Let's get into these shallow frames and see if there's any eggs, any queens, or any cells. Right, so first off, I can already see eggs. First frame that I've pulled out, I've got brood in kind of most They've not capped anything over yet, but I have got eggs in here, so there's definitely a queen knocking around in here somewhere. I'm going to save this colony. I'm going to do a separate video on this colony showing you how to requeen an angry hive with an F1 Buckfast queen, and we'll publish that one later on in the year. If you want to see all the steps all the way through, you can follow it on our channel membership pages, but I'm going to park this one and move on to colony number 3. So another different configuration here. We've We've got a standard national deep, standard floor, queen excluder, and then 2 supers. And then it doesn't look like there's any bees in that top super. Let's get down to the second one, see if we can see any bees. My gloves have taken a bit of a battering there. No worries, I've got some good gloves on underneath. I was just doubling up there to try and give me some extra protection. Right, this is the second box down, probably 50 or 60% covered in bees. Is it going to be honey? Is it going to be brood? We don't know. They're already starting to Sting me and sting me. So let's get inside, see what's in this top shallow. First frame out, beautiful frame of honey. This is looking really nice already. I've gone a little bit further in, you probably can see it there. That's just a frame of brood in all stages, but I can't see any eggs. I reckon this is going to be the same as colony number 1 in that there's no queen in there and they're just trying to requeen. So I reckon we're going to find some cells in this one. So the fact that we've found brood in there, not seen any eggs, I'm just going to follow the exact same procedure, shake them all out, see if there's any cells. And then we'll move off down into the brood box. So I didn't see any eggs in there. There were no swarm cells, no emergency cells either. So still don't know what's going on with this colony. Could find the queen downstairs, could see eggs. Let's get inside the brood box, take a look. As you can see again, I don't know whether you can see that they are bombarding my little camera here. This is always a really good sign of a colony because even some of the gentle colonies go for this. But yeah, they are really, really going for it. Doesn't look completely full, but still a decent amount of bees. That is a dead giveaway to see what's happened here. Manipulation has taken place because all those drones can't get down into the brood area, can't get through the queen excluder. So probably overwintered on brood and a half and then slipped the queen excluder in at some point. We might find the queen down there. Alternatively, we might find some cells down there. Let's take a look, see what we see. Right, so we found some No cells, no eggs in here. The queen's gone. She's either been killed or something's happened to her. I am starting to think, and I know the guy who gave me these bees is watching these videos, so if you want to put it in there, you can give me a shout and let me know exactly what's going on. I think he's gone through to kill the queen to requeen them. That's why he ordered the Buckfast queens from me. But I have to say, just look at this frame here. What a belting frame that is. And I'm not suggesting, oh wow, you've got a good frame of brood, there we go, let's breed from this colony. No chance. They are really aggressive bees. They're pinging me loads, they're stinging me. But what a really, really well-mated queen. That is very good to see. So I'm just going through, I'm taking off all of those emergency cells, and I am convinced now they are emergency cells, even though some of them do look like swarm cells. And they might have been on the brink of swarming when he went through and killed those queens, but it's too much of a coincidence for me that you've got such big strong colonies like this, some with emergency cells, some Some with what definitely look like swarm cells, and the fact that the bees haven't swarmed and they're all in a very, very similar situation. So I'm pretty comfortable with what's happened. The bees have got aggressive. He's bought some Buckfast queens to try and requeen them. He's gone through the ones where he can find the queen, killed the queen, and all of these colonies here are kind of around like day 7, day 8 of the requeening cycle. I'll continue through this box here, shaking them all off. But look at that, that is a Right, so I'm going to put this colony back together again. No cells up in the supers, loads of cells down in the brood box. I've taken them all down, they're now hopelessly queenless, in a position for me to requeen. I'll stack them all back together again and let's go and look at the biggest, strongest, angriest colony of the lot. So this colony here was by far and away the worst one that we had to deal with. The bees would not go in, and as we were going there, we were just standing there doing nothing, and they were flying up and trying to sting us. No provocation or anything at all. And again, just look, the air is full of bees. I can't even begin to think what this would be like for the kind of people on the allotment if they're flying up like this. Really is a bit of a nightmare. I'm excited to see what's going on in this one because this is going to be a big strong colony of bees. Maybe we'll find the queen. Let's get in, see what we can see. So really interesting, this one. It's got by Far and away the most busy entrance, and the bees are the most pingy by a long, long way. Quite bright orange bees though, but that doesn't mean anything. Orange doesn't mean calm, black doesn't mean angry, doesn't work like that at all. I've seen some of the calmest bees ever and they are as dark as you can get. But I have to say, I was fully expecting this one here to be all the way up to the top, the big strong colony, and that top super does look like it's just starting to get drawn out. But it's not overflowing. This one here is on standard configuration, National Deep as a brood box, queen excluder, and then 2 supers. Let's get inside, see what they've made of this one. So the super closest to the brood box is kind of full, lots of activity in here. I reckon we're going to see more of the same in this one here, but let's get inside, see if there's any brood, see if there's any cells. I can already see from here there's quite a bit of honey. Lots of nice honey, loads of the frames looking like this. Capping it over, doing really nicely. Gonna go through now, see if there's any brood in this one. So very similar to the others, ring of honey, little bit of worker brood, no eggs in the middle, so no queen up here. Gonna go through those, shake them off, see if we can find any cells, take them down, and then we'll move into the brood box. So here's the brood box, and I have to say, I was really expecting this one to be so much worse than the rest of them. They've all been very, very similar. And I would say that the poor temperament— and it is poor temperament— is pretty much all down to the fact that they've not got a queen. So I'm not going to let them requeen themselves because they are a little bit pingy. They're not what I'd like to see. Let's get inside this one though and see if we can find the queen or see if we can find some more cells. Well, this colony has just completely bamboozled me. I do not know what's going on. Not got a clue because all I found in here— gone through it, Can't find the queen. No eggs whatsoever. So I'm assuming that he's gone through and killed the queen. All I can see is one solitary cell. It's not an emergency cell, and it's just one cell. So if I was going through my colonies and I found this cell here, one cell, I would say, right, that's a super seizure cell because there's only one, and I would expect to see a laying queen in there or a faltering queen in there. I wouldn't expect to see big massive slabs of. Brood with no eggs anywhere. So I'm really, really confused. There could be a queen in there. I can't find her. All I can do, take down this solitary cell that's here. Is it an emergency cell? Doesn't look like it. Is it a swarm cell? Definitely not, because there's only one. Is it a supersedure cell? Maybe, but that doesn't really make sense with what I'm seeing. All I know though is if I take this cell down here and the queen's not in there then they're hopelessly queenless. If I take this cell down here and the queen is in there, be it a virgin, be it the original mated queen, or any other queen for that matter, then they're not hopelessly queenless. I'm going to requeen all of these, so I'll be able to kind of come up and solve that conundrum in a few days when I do the introductions. If it's a failed introduction on that one, we know something's up. We know there's another queen in there. But how strange that there is a single cell that looks like that. Completely blown me, that one. I do not know what's going on. I'll take it down though. I'll close them back up and I'm gonna get all of these colonies requeened. So there we go, 4 colonies of queens, way too aggressive for an allotment. Are they the most aggressive bees that I've ever seen? Definitely not. Are they suitable for an allotment? Mm, yeah, don't think they're suitable for an allotment either. What am I gonna do with these? I'm gonna requeen every single colony here 'cause they're too pingy for me. If you wanna follow that, you can check out our channel membership options, follow it every single step of the way. If that's not for you, don't worry, we're gonna stitch together every single step of that video as well. And we'll release it later on in the year. If you wanna just see a standard method for requeening a beehive, check this video out here where I show you how to requeen a colony in under 5 minutes.