Overly aggressive hive

[Brad H.]

I've already run this issue last bk. But I'd like to get the rest of your thoughts as well. I did a reversal on my one hive that over wintered on Friday evening. They were fairly calm during the process, let me do my thing but I noticed they followed me back to the house when I was done which I thought was odd.

Ever since my inspection the bees have been acting horribly aggressive. The bees are 100 yards or better from my house, and we can't even walk out the door without getting bumped and swarmed. My wife was outside for about 1 minute this afternoon trying to enjoy the weather and she got stung on the forehead.

Any ideas as to what is going on here? I did not see the queen, but was gentle in my work, that's not to say I couldn't have injured her while putting framed back in.

Also, Africanized bees are not a problem this far north.

Thoughts?

[shawn]

Sorry Brad, I can't help but have to say that stinks. I have a strong stomach but, bugs give me the heebee jeeebies and don't know how you folks do what you do. I hope you find the answer you are looking for.

[bk]

Interested as well in what you all think.  Gave Brad H my short list of what I think might be going on, but won't share that now for fear of directing the discussion.

Think most of us beeks have had some pissy bees from time to time - just like we deal with pissy people from time to time.  But there is a big difference between pissy and aggressive / territorial.

Brad H's present bee challenge is very strange indeed.  Ladies are not being ladies for sure.

[histopicker]

I would suggest they are queenless. The girls will get pissy when they have no mama. It is easy to roll or otherwise injure a queen. Just thinking outloud.
Another thought is; Russians are nearly as aggressive as Africaized bees.

[farmertrappe]

Queen is all that comes to mind for me too, I was gonna do some looking in a few books last eve. But by the time I sat down for the evening I just did not have it in me.....

[bk]

I'm with you histopicker and farmertrappe.  Think there is a good chance they are queen less.

My list of causes in order was: 1. Queenless,  2. Bees were being harassed and so becoming very territorial, 3. They weren't Brad's bees, but rather a feral hive or one from another beek, and 4. Out of resources and in a robbing mode.  

Brad suited up and with a good look at the hive and proved I was wrong on my third cause - they were his cranky bees.  They didn't seem to be interested in the two empty hives beside them that still had honey in frames so likely my 4th cause was just smoke in the hive.  

They seem to have settled down, and we have a minor flow on with the first flowers of spring.  My native apricots just popped yesterday.  Hopefully Brad's bees will be to busy now to be a pain, and if they are queenless they should be raising their own replacement by now.  

Guess ss the old beekeeping rule, when in doubt, do nothing applies once again.

Good luck Brad H, and keep us posted.

[Brad H.]

Apr 20, 2016 6:49:52 GMT -5 bk said:

I'm with you histopicker and farmertrappe.  Think there is a good chance they are queen less.

My list of causes in order was: 1. Queenless,  2. Bees were being harassed and so becoming very territorial, 3. They weren't Brad's bees, but rather a feral hive or one from another beek, and 4. Out of resources and in a robbing mode.  

Brad suited up and with a good look at the hive and proved I was wrong on my third cause - they were his cranky bees.  They didn't seem to be interested in the two empty hives beside them that still had honey in frames so likely my 4th cause was just smoke in the hive.  

They seem to have settled down, and we have a minor flow on with the first flowers of spring.  My native apricots just popped yesterday.  Hopefully Brad's bees will be to busy now to be a pain, and if they are queenless they should be raising their own replacement by now.  

Guess ss the old beekeeping rule, when in doubt, do nothing applies once again.

Good luck Brad H, and keep us posted.

They have seemed to calm down now, in that they are at least letting me out the door. Sure makes you question why you are doing this when they act aggressive like that, but I guess if they are queenless it was likely my fault so I don't blame them for being a little cranky.

[histopicker]

When I split mine a couple of weeks age they were cranky for about a week. I just had surgery and can't lift over ten pounds for the next month so I hope they are doing well and have produced a new queen!

[Brad H.]

Update on this. My brother and I worked this hive yesterday and they were still terribly aggressive. We found plenty of eggs and larvae to indicate the hive had been queen right the entire time.

We are going to attempt to replace the queen, as research and experience indicates this is the only solution to calm the bees down. Hope to find an apiary with some queens available this week, and if not my brother will have some queens raised and ready in about a month.

If replacing the queen doesn't work then they will he dumped in soapy water and we start over from scratch. This is last resort and hope to god it doesn't come to this.

[Brad H.]

Well I broke down and ordered a queen from California. She ships out tomorrow and arrives on Thursday. Tomorrow we bust into the hive and try to find the existing queen and kill her. Looking forward to getting that crabby ol' beech out of there and replaced with a friendly new lady!

[shawn]

Good luck, I get the heeby jeebies just thinking about it.

[histopicker]

May 10, 2016 22:53:02 GMT -5 shawn said:

Good luck, I get the heeby jeebies just thinking about it.

I do too!

[Brad H.]

May 11, 2016 7:40:09 GMT -5 histopicker said:

May 10, 2016 22:53:02 GMT -5 shawn said:

Good luck, I get the heeby jeebies just thinking about it.

I do too!

If I didn't have my monthly stings in already, I have a feeling today it will happen.

[Brad H.]

The de-queening went well. Found her about 15 frames into the search. It looked like she was slimmed down and all evidence pointed to a swarm happening very soon. Might have done this at just the right time.

The new queen is in transit and will be introduced tomorrow.

[histopicker]

May 11, 2016 19:43:56 GMT -5 Brad H. said:

The de-queening went well. Found her about 15 frames into the search. It looked like she was slimmed down and all evidence pointed to a swarm happening very soon. Might have done this at just the right time.

The new queen is in transit and will be introduced tomorrow.

They are going to be really pissy tomorrow! Have fun sir. Being that aggressive, you might want to make sure the queen can't get loose for a few days.
Some of these mean bees in this area can't be requeened. They just kill the new queens; the little Africanized buggers!

[Brad H.]

Yes, they were pissy, but mission is accomplished. UPS guy seemed happy to get a bee out of his truck and I was happy to take it off his hands. Introduced her to the hive about an hour ago, and they were not happy to see me again. I had to walk down to the creek before they left me alone, which was a solid 300 yards from the hive.

Hopefully they accept her and she lays nice, calm eggs instead of the beechy ones they last one was laying. Time will tell.

[Brad H.]

Update on this. This hive is noticeable more calm. I used to get chased from 100 yards away before the requeening. I was able to mow around the hive yesterday and work the garden today with no aggressiveness.

I will break into the hive in the next couple days and see how the new queen is doing. I suspect she is laying nice calm brood already, and it's just a matter of the life cycle of the aggressive bees to come to an end.

Glad things are on the upswing. Being stung all the time takes the fun out of beekeeping pretty quickly.

[histopicker]

May 26, 2016 21:48:11 GMT -5 Brad H. said:

Update on this. This hive is noticeable more calm. I used to get chased from 100 yards away before the requeening. I was able to mow around the hive yesterday and work the garden today with no aggressiveness.

I will break into the hive in the next couple days and see how the new queen is doing. I suspect she is laying nice calm brood already, and it's just a matter of the life cycle of the aggressive bees to come to an end.

Glad things are on the upswing. Being stung all the time takes the fun out of beekeeping pretty quickly.

Getting stung also takes the joy out of life! I am glad they are calming down. I had one hive getting a little hot but some un-natural selection took care of that one also. I gotta know; what kind of nut does it take to raise bees?

[Brad H.]

Good question! When I was in Utah I got to talking to a guy about keeping bees, and he said "Oh I love honey, maybe I will start, is it hard?"

I think the look on my face may have said it all.

[bk]

May 27, 2016 14:11:33 GMT -5 Brad H. said:

Good question! When I was in Utah I got to talking to a guy about keeping bees, and he said "Oh I love honey, maybe I will start, is it hard?"

I think the look on my face may have said it all.

What was the look on your face, Brad H?  Just asking....

[Brad H.]

Well fellas the saga of this hive comes to an end. I broke into it today expecting to find tons of brood and I found none. They must have rejected the queen that I introduced. The hive was as cranky as ever, following me back to the woods before finally leaving me alone. The wife went out on the deck (150 yards from the hives) and got stung shortly after I got in from working it.

Enough is enough. I'm not going to live in fear of this hive all summer, so away it goes. I will be drowning bees tomorrow and finally ending the fight. The good news is they brought in a ton of nectar and I have almost a full deep of capped honey, so at least I can taste what angry honey tastes like.

[histopicker]

Jun 8, 2016 20:12:19 GMT -5 Brad H. said:

Well fellas the saga of this hive comes to an end. I broke into it today expecting to find tons of brood and I found none. They must have rejected the queen that I introduced. The hive was as cranky as ever, following me back to the woods before finally leaving me alone. The wife went out on the deck (150 yards from the hives) and got stung shortly after I got in from working it.

Enough is enough. I'm not going to live in fear of this hive all summer, so away it goes. I will be drowning bees tomorrow and finally ending the fight. The good news is they brought in a ton of nectar and I have almost a full deep of capped honey, so at least I can taste what angry honey tastes like.

It is a shame but these things do happen. I use Dawn in the water, It seems to kill them very rapidly. If you set an empty up where the hive was, the foragers will return to it so you can dispatch them also. Otherwise they will haunt you for some time.

[Brad H.]

It went as well as it could have possibly gone. Didn't get stung once, and dispatched tens of thousands of bees. It sure was sad seeing foragers coming back to the hive full of pollen only to be dumped into soapy water.

My brother is doing some splits this weekend and is going to bring over two new (calm) hives. Hopefully this will light my fire for this hobby again. Sure has been a frustrating couple of months.