Bee keepers - Asian Hornets; bad and good news ..

[tigersteve]

It was April - quite scary and loud in a small garage !

[Peter Gillson]

Steve

end of April means that it was likely to be a queen. The Queens overwinter alone in small purpose build nests and emerge in spring to build a small nest, a primary nest, when she has produced about 100 workers they will move and build a secondary nest which will be much bigger and usually higher up. It is in this that the colony will really start to grow over the summer months, upto around 5,000 hornets. In autumn males will be produced for the first time, than some more queens which will mate and then fly off to build their small nest to overwinter until the Spring when it all starts again.

this makes me think yours was a queen.

we have what is called a Spring Queeing; which is a period when the public is warned about emerging queens and encouraged to look out for them and report any sightings. Each year quite a few queens are found and destroyed.

Peter

[Ancientmariner]

Have the European bees derived defence as the Japanese Bees have?
I saw a really interesting video where the hornet is mobbed in the hive and the bees beat their wings and cook it alive. Really interesting.

[Peter Gillson]

Have the European bees derived defence as the Japanese Bees have?
I saw a really interesting video where the hornet is mobbed in the hive and the bees beat their wings and cook it alive. Really interesting.

Not yet. i assume that the short period they have been in Europe is not enough time, although there have been a few reports from France of bees starting to defend the,selves. On the other hand there are reports of bees just cowering and doing nothing.

Peter

[GerryW]

Not yet. i assume that the short period they have been in Europe is not enough time, although there have been a few reports from France of bees starting to defend the,selves. On the other hand there are reports of bees just cowering and doing nothing.

Peter

Possibly depending on how aggressive the hive/queen is, would you think? Know that we've got hives here that you don't need a smoker to open, yet others won't let you stand within 10 feet of it!