[crackerbee]

Last month I post a thread(Assassins from the apiary)that while mowing near my hives,that the bees got really agitated were so viscous they attacked and killed 2 out of 4 of my chickens(and me on the mower)with hundreds of stings to each.So I called the state inspector to come take a look,and resulted in her collecting samples from all 4 hives to have tested for AHB.
She called the following week and said hives 2 and 3 were cleared not being AHB,but were retesting the other 2.Today she finally called(you know how quick the government works:rolland said hive # 1 results came back negative,however hive #4 was full blown AHB.

So I'm taking tomorrow off,and have finally located some queens,and going to requeen all 5.Not to confuse the numbers,I did a split on hive #1 last month that was full of swarm cells,so now I have 5,and most likely the virgin queen from the split got hooked up with some of the AHB drones in hive #4,another reason to requeen.
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Wish me luck,I'm not looking forward to requeening hive #4 that's for sure.:chased:

 

[PerryBee]

Ugh! :sad: Anybody near to give you a hand Cracker?

 

[Marbees]

Wish me luck,I'm not looking forward to requeening hive #4 that's for sure.:chased:

Leave hive # 4 for the very end. Best of luck :thumbsup:

 

[Ray]

This is a perfect chance for an experiment! Fat Bee Man claims that the flowers?/buds?/fruit? of the staghorn sumac placed in the smoker calms hot bees. I'll wait up here in MICHIGAN for your results. good luck

 

[tecumseh]

good authority informed me that you might wish to break up #4 into smaller population and then requeen. no matter what size or population in the process I would rake all the drone brood in #4 when I did the dirty deed.

 

[crackerbee]

Ugh! :sad: Anybody near to give you a hand Cracker?

No Perry,unfortunately,the only person close to me is member R.E. Jones,and I just wouldn't impose on someone I met only once a year ago.But thanks for the food for thought.:thumbsup:

good authority informed me that you might wish to break up #4 into smaller population and then requeen. no matter what size or population in the process I would rake all the drone brood in #4 when I did the dirty deed.

Tec, you're getting a little spooky on me here:lol:.Your post quoted almost word for word the advice that the state inspector gave me today.
I can always count on good advice coming from your way.

Thanks:thumbsup:

 

[crackerbee]

This is a perfect chance for an experiment! Fat Bee Man claims that the flowers?/buds?/fruit? of the staghorn sumac placed in the smoker calms hot bees. I'll wait up here in MICHIGAN for your results. good luck

Ray I'm sorry I don't quite get your meaning..

 

[tecumseh]

the black cat can do the spooky thing from time to time.

fully africanized bees can be difficult to requeen especially in a large hive with a robust population.

 

[arkiebee]

May the force be with you......and be sure your suit is zipped!

About how long will that take to get those little heifers worked out of the system?

 

[crackerbee]

May the force be with you......and be sure your suit is zipped!

About how long will that take to get those little heifers worked out of the system?

Arkie yesterday marked 2 years I've been at it. and to date I've not dealt with AHB. Should be interesting to say the least.

 

[Ray]

Sorry crackerbee, i just meant I would offer advice from a distance, a looooong distance.

 

[riverbee]

wishing you luck from up north cracker........:grin:

 

[crackerbee]

Sorry crackerbee, i just meant I would offer advice from a distance, a looooong distance.

No problem just didn't get it...the wife says so all the time

 

[Gypsi]

I did this last summer in 100 degree weather on a cordovan ahb cross hive, the workers acted pure ahb.

Smoke, never mind the sugar water. Duct tape all openings, wear a thick shirt and heavy jeans under your suit. Wear boots, and either tuck suit pants in and duct tape, or wear suit pants outside boots and duct tape down. Do the hottest hive last, others proportionately..

Advice for the hottest hives: if 2 boxes on, get a queen excluder between them 2 weeks in advance, or as early as possible. block hive front exit with screening or something. Have 2 boards the size of the bottom board or larger (without an exit) to set the top box on, with lid, when you go queen hunting. Remove top box with lid and set aside. Check bottom box for brood and queen, if you find her apply hive tool. If you do not find her, use 2nd board to cover bottom box, then check the top box. Agree with Tec on destroying the drone brood. and give it a few days queenless, then go back queen hunting, they are sneaky, love to kill your purchased queen when their choice hatches.

Good luck.

 

[Iddee]

Get your smoker going good, drop a handful of sulfur powder in it and smoke them good. Install the next swarm you catch into the empty hive. They will take off good with the leftover honey.

 

[Gypsi]

Iddee has a point. Those workers are just going to kill your next queen - at least hive 4 may not be salvageable. Do a split and fill it later.

 

[crackerbee]

I did this last summer in 100 degree weather on a cordovan ahb cross hive, the workers acted pure ahb.

Smoke, never mind the sugar water. Duct tape all openings, wear a thick shirt and heavy jeans under your suit. Wear boots, and either tuck suit pants in and duct tape, or wear suit pants outside boots and duct tape down. Do the hottest hive last, others proportionately..

Advice for the hottest hives: if 2 boxes on, get a queen excluder between them 2 weeks in advance, or as early as possible. block hive front exit with screening or something. Have 2 boards the size of the bottom board or larger (without an exit) to set the top box on, with lid, when you go queen hunting. Remove top box with lid and set aside. Check bottom box for brood and queen, if you find her apply hive tool. If you do not find her, use 2nd board to cover bottom box, then check the top box. Agree with Tec on destroying the drone brood. and give it a few days queenless, then go back queen hunting, they are sneaky, love to kill your purchased queen when their choice hatches.

Good luck.

Get your smoker going good, drop a handful of sulfur powder in it and smoke them good. Install the next swarm you catch into the empty hive. They will take off good with the leftover honey.

Iddee has a point. Those workers are just going to kill your next queen - at least hive 4 may not be salvageable. Do a split and fill it later.

After reading these recommendations I think it's best just to do away with the AHB bunch and either save the stores for a swarm or cutout and/or split,or just donate the stores to the other 4 hives.I don't see the point to waste 20 bux on a high probability of failure of the AHB colony to accept a new queen.Besides they've already proven their deadly agenda,and my 2 remaining chickens have just last week started to lay again.

Thanks all for the more than helpful advice:thumbsup:

 

[kebee]

I like Iddee idea best of all, get complete rid of them.

kebee

 

[tecumseh]

I think Iddee is on to something worth considering and as you and other might know I myself have no 'touchy feelee' problems when it comes to honeybees. Or as the hillbilly side of my upbringing would say.... 'some folks just deserve killin'. If you do take this approach you can accomplish pretty much the same thing with just a pinch of sulfur incorporated into a 'hand rolled' cigarette which you can then place in a bit of copper pipe and then light and insert this into the front entry after lighting. you pretty much plug up everything else and hopefully trapping all adults inside. When I have done this I typically go in right at sunset when everyone is at home and by sunrise the dirty deed is done. Come the next morning shake out all the dead bees and stack onto something else that can use or at least cover the space.

the upside of this affair is now you KNOW you have several hives that are not africanized. you can use this information to your advantage.

I would guess by you explanation (first post) that the bee folks did a genetic test to determine africanization <which is evidently more time consuming but is also more conclusive.

 

[crackerbee]

I think Iddee is on to something worth considering and as you and other might know I myself have no 'touchy feelee' problems when it comes to honeybees. Or as the hillbilly side of my upbringing would say.... 'some folks just deserve killin'. If you do take this approach you can accomplish pretty much the same thing with just a pinch of sulfur incorporated into a 'hand rolled' cigarette which you can then place in a bit of copper pipe and then light and insert this into the front entry after lighting. you pretty much plug up everything else and hopefully trapping all adults inside. When I have done this I typically go in right at sunset when everyone is at home and by sunrise the dirty deed is done. Come the next morning shake out all the dead bees and stack onto something else that can use or at least cover the space.

the upside of this affair is now you KNOW you have several hives that are not africanized. you can use this information to your advantage.

I would guess by you explanation (first post) that the bee folks did a genetic test to determine africanization <which is evidently more time consuming but is also more conclusive.

Yes they did do a genetic test after several FABIS test showed inconclusive

As for the hand rolled sulfur cigarette,is that a right hand or left hand cigarette:lol::lol::lol:?

Thanks again for your help:thumbsup: