To add to last week.
I got some logs delivered for my woodburner and the next day I was bringing
5 or so inside last thing at night (as you do)
I just got inside the house with them when I felt the most amazing pain in
the end of one of my fingers. I dropped the logs which luckily missed my
recently broken ankle.
I didn't know it was a wasp, but I suspected it, and I had forgotten how
much a wasp sting hurt. It's years since I had a sting and this was a big
saved up all the poison one that has been painful for 4 days.
Anyway she crawled out on my carpet away from the logs.

Part of me wanted to stamp on her. I didn't. I gathered her up on some
wood and put her outside. No doubt to go back to my woodheap. I like wasps.
Normally.

Tina



Anyw

On 31/12/2011 01:50, Christina Websell wrote:
To add to last week.
I got some logs delivered for my woodburner and the next day I was bringing
5 or so inside last thing at night (as you do)
I just got inside the house with them when I felt the most amazing pain in
the end of one of my fingers. I dropped the logs which luckily missed my
recently broken ankle.
I didn't know it was a wasp, but I suspected it, and I had forgotten how
much a wasp sting hurt. It's years since I had a sting and this was a big
saved up all the poison one that has been painful for 4 days.
Anyway she crawled out on my carpet away from the logs.

Part of me wanted to stamp on her. I didn't. I gathered her up on some
wood and put her outside. No doubt to go back to my woodheap. I like wasps.
Normally.

Tina



Anyw


Ouch! That's very unfortunate, Tina, but I'm glad you spared it's life.
I was stung by a wasp in the garden years ago and it was incredibly
painful. I was in shock, and felt unwell for about five days. Like
you, though, I like them and frequently rescue them from being trapped
indoors, or drowning. They are very useful insects. It's a pity they
eat spiders, though :~{

I hope your finger is getting better.

--
Spider
from high ground in SE London
gardening on clay

"Spider" wrote in message
...

I was stung by a wasp in the garden years ago and it was incredibly
painful. I was in shock, and felt unwell for about five days. Like you,
though, I like them and frequently rescue them from being trapped indoors,
or drowning. They are very useful insects.
Spider

And they attack and rob bee-hives :-(

Bill

"Bill Grey" wrote in message
...

"Spider" wrote in message
...

I was stung by a wasp in the garden years ago and it was incredibly
painful. I was in shock, and felt unwell for about five days. Like you,
though, I like them and frequently rescue them from being trapped
indoors, or drowning. They are very useful insects.
Spider

And they attack and rob bee-hives :-(

That's hornets. I saw them do it in Germany.

In article , Spider
writes

indoors, or drowning. They are very useful insects. It's a pity they
eat spiders, though :~{


The common garden orb-web spider makes up for that by eating a good many
wasps. It's nature's way.

--
Sue ]

On 02/01/2012 17:34, Bill Grey wrote:
wrote in message
...

I was stung by a wasp in the garden years ago and it was incredibly
painful. I was in shock, and felt unwell for about five days. Like you,
though, I like them and frequently rescue them from being trapped indoors,
or drowning. They are very useful insects.
Spider

And they attack and rob bee-hives :-(

Bill


So do humans.

--
Spider
from high ground in SE London
gardening on clay

On 02/01/2012 21:33, Darkside wrote:
In , Spider
writes

indoors, or drowning. They are very useful insects. It's a pity they
eat spiders, though :~{


The common garden orb-web spider makes up for that by eating a good many
wasps. It's nature's way.



Yes, I've seen wasps in spider's nests. I have trouble knowing which
way to cheer :~/

--
Spider
from high ground in SE London
gardening on clay

"Spider" wrote in message
...


Ouch! That's very unfortunate, Tina, but I'm glad you spared it's life. I
was stung by a wasp in the garden years ago and it was incredibly painful.
I was in shock, and felt unwell for about five days. Like you, though, I
like them and frequently rescue them from being trapped indoors, or
drowning. They are very useful insects. It's a pity they eat spiders,
though :~{

I hope your finger is getting better.

Took 7 days but OK now.

Sacha wrote:
I was stung by a wasp in the garden years ago and it was incredibly
painful. I was in shock, and felt unwell for about five days. Like you,
though, I like them and frequently rescue them from being trapped indoors,
or drowning. They are very useful insects.
Spider

And they attack and rob bee-hives :-(

But the bees gang up and kill them. I watched my bees do it and very
Hitchcock it was. Of course, the trouble is, the bees die, too. ;-(

Nick lost his queen before CHristmas to a wasp attack. He was given a new
one just after Christmas, but the hive didn't take to her, and 2 days later
she was dead too. :-(

Christina Websell wrote:
And they attack and rob bee-hives :-(
That's hornets. I saw them do it in Germany.

That may be hornets as well, but it's definitely wasps. I've seen them do
it, in the UK.

Sacha wrote:
But the bees gang up and kill them. I watched my bees do it and very
Hitchcock it was. Of course, the trouble is, the bees die, too. ;-(

Nick lost his queen before CHristmas to a wasp attack. He was given a new
one just after Christmas, but the hive didn't take to her, and 2 days later
she was dead too. :-(

I'm trying to remember my bee-keeping days and what the experts said
about that. I never experienced it myself but IIRC, it's better to take
the new queen with a small number of worker bees to form a new colony.

She was given to him with a small set of attendants.

I *think* the old colony will then produce queen cells of its own and
it's up to the apiarist to reduce those to one cell. I'm sure there
must be a bee keeping society in your area though.

It was the bee society people who gave him the new queen. Apparently it's
just "try your luck, they may take to her, they may not".

Sacha wrote:
It was the bee society people who gave him the new queen. Apparently it's
just "try your luck, they may take to her, they may not".
Oh well, they must know what they're doing - bad luck on the queen
though. Can he take off a nucleus from his current hive and put it in
another instead of trying another new queen? These are suggestions
only from me - it's a long time since I kept bees but afaik, that does
work but it would mean having two hives/colonies.

I'm confused. You mean ending up with 2 queenless hives? His plan, I
think, is to try and integrate his queenless hive with his other 2 hives
(elsewhere), but the bee types are different, and they may not get on.
Although the queenless ones are New Zealand bees, and are apparently very
submissive, so they may be ok.

Sacha wrote:
He needs to ask the bee-keeping group this but from what I recall, the
two hives would supply their own queens by forming queen cells, if the
workers are old enough and not mainly brood. That way, there is no
danger of the queen being killed off because she's one of their own.
They do this queen cell producing naturally anyway.

But ... there's no queen, so no-one to lay an egg to turn into a queen?

Some bee-keepers
remove the queen cells so as to prevent a swarm round a new queen when
she takes flight. Others believe that doesn't work and that when they
want to swarm, they will.

Actually, I think that that's what caused the queen to be killed in the
first place. Nick had a queen cell being formed, he removed it, and left
some sticky stuff outside the hive cos he's a bit careless. That brought
the wasps in, who attacked the hive and the queen got killed.

In 14 years, my bees never swarmed, the
queens superseding naturally. Is it possible the old queen wasn't
dead? Because that will certainly lead a colony to kill off a new
queen.

I believe there is absolutely no question about the queen's deadness.

And if you're introducing a new queen, it's necessary to have
no queen cells in the colony, iirc. Timing of introducing a new queen
is important too - something to do with the workers having time to
realise they have no queen but accepting a new one who smells different
to the pheromones they're used to. I think she's introduced in a
special cage or container so that she can take on the smell of the
colony and they can 'feel' her with their antennae but can't get to her
to harm her.

Yep, she was put in in a little queen container thing, her attendants were
let out to go talk to the other bees, so they didn't get upset and attack
them in the container and accidentally kill the queen. It just ... Didn't
Work.

It's all very complex and extremely interesting but that
kind of manipulation of a colony may be easier with some expert help
and advice on hand. But from what I know, you can't just put two
colonies together. It's like two warring tribes and mayhem is likely to
result! It's those pheromones which enable each bee to recognise its
own colony and hive out of dozens and dozens, all located in one place.

From what I've been told, you can introduce the queenless colony to the
other colony in a kind of "let them out and find their way to it themselves"
kind of way, as long as they are prepared to be submissive to the existing
colony they are trying to move into. Which is fair enough. It's a bit like
bringing a new lodger into the house. You don't like the look of them, you
tell them to sling it. But these NZ ones are meant to be very placid and
submissive. (Which is probably why the wasps won)

"Christina Websell" wrote in message
...
To add to last week.
I got some logs delivered for my woodburner and the next day I was
bringing 5 or so inside last thing at night (as you do)
I just got inside the house with them when I felt the most amazing pain in
the end of one of my fingers. I dropped the logs which luckily missed my
recently broken ankle.
I didn't know it was a wasp, but I suspected it, and I had forgotten how
much a wasp sting hurt. It's years since I had a sting and this was a big
saved up all the poison one that has been painful for 4 days.
Anyway she crawled out on my carpet away from the logs.

Part of me wanted to stamp on her. I didn't. I gathered her up on some
wood and put her outside. No doubt to go back to my woodheap. I like
wasps. Normally.


For the first time in my life I found a queen wasp.
By touch, naturally.
I was moving some stuff out of my daughter's loft and picked up a piece of
board with the wasp under it.
I thought I'd touched a live electric connection at first.

The wasp did not survive the encounter.

There seem to be a lot of reported incidents this year but I don't recall it
being an especially good year for wasps around here.

Cheers

Dave R

--
No plan survives contact with the enemy.
[Not even bunny]

Helmuth von Moltke the Elder

(\__/)
(='.'=)
(")_(")

wrote in message
...
Sacha wrote:
He needs to ask the bee-keeping group this but from what I recall, the
two hives would supply their own queens by forming queen cells, if the
workers are old enough and not mainly brood. That way, there is no
danger of the queen being killed off because she's one of their own.
They do this queen cell producing naturally anyway.

But ... there's no queen, so no-one to lay an egg to turn into a queen?

snip

I am assuming that you would have to move some brood cells across with the
new colony.
As fas as I recall the queens are brought on by the feeding of 'royal jelly'
by the workers which brings them to sexual maturity instead of just being
workers.
For a fully functioning colony in the long term there would have to be
drones also, as the new queen would presumably need fertilising before she
was able to lay any eggs.

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_bee
"When conditions are favorable for swarming, the queen will start laying
eggs in queen cups. A virgin queen will develop from a fertilized egg. The
young queen larva develops differently because it is more heavily fed royal
jelly, a protein-rich secretion from glands on the heads of young workers.
If not for being heavily fed royal jelly, the queen larva would have
developed into a regular worker bee. All honey bee larvae are fed some royal
jelly for the first few days after hatching but only queen larvae are fed on
it exclusively. As a result of the difference in diet, the queen will
develop into a sexually mature female, unlike the worker bees."

This also says

"Virgin queens appear to have little queen pheromone and often do not appear
to be recognized as queens by the workers. A virgin queen in her first few
hours after emergence can be placed into the entrance of any queenless hive
or nuc and acceptance is usually very good, whereas a mated queen is usually
recognized as a stranger and runs a high risk of being killed by the older
workers."

So it may be that if you have some queen larvae developing then you can move
them to another hive with some workers and they will develop and be
accepted, but this still leaves the problem of fertilisation.

ah...

"If a queen suddenly dies the workers will flood several cells, where a
larva has just emerged, with royal jelly. The young larva floats on the
royal jelly. The worker bees then build a larger queen cell from the normal
sized worker cell and it protrudes vertically from the face of the brood
comb. Emergency queens are usually smaller and less prolific, and therefore
not preferred by beekeepers."

but still nothing about producing drones.

ah...

from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drone_%28bee%29

"The drones' main function is to be ready to fertilize a receptive queen.
Drones in a hive do not usually mate with a virgin queen of the same hive
because they drift from hive to hive. Mating generally takes place in or
near drone congregation areas. It is poorly understood how these areas are
selected, but they do exist. "

Well, well, learn something every day.

So presumably the aim is to either introduce a virgin queen to the hive if
you have one available, grow your own virgin queen if the hive is producing
one, or rely on the hive producing an emergency queen.

In all of these cases the hive relies on drones from other hives to
fertilise the virgin queen.
She just nips round behind the bike sheds where all the drones hang out.
Simples.

Does raise problems if you have a single isolated hive, though.

Cheers

Dave R
--
No plan survives contact with the enemy.
[Not even bunny]

Helmuth von Moltke the Elder

(\__/)
(='.'=)
(")_(")