Came home from work early so I had time to condense the hives for winter. To say they were not happy is a slight understatement. Eight stings in the first frame. Even had to resort to gloves, which I hate as they make you clumsy. Even with the gloves got two more through them.
Got one hive done but will do the rest on the weekend during the day and, hopefully, they will be calmer. Bit of a dearth here at the moment, so they will probably be stroppy again. Looking forward to that little encounter
It was late in the afternoon and quite a bit cooler. This hive has been toey for a little while, previously it was very quiet. It had drone brood which is unusual for this time of year (autumn). I am going back in this weekend to see if I can find the queen, maybe something has happened to her. If I have no luck there its shake out time and let them beg their way into the other hives.
