# Notes from a bee hating wife



## 6e (Sep 10, 2005)

My husband and a friend of his decided to get into bees. They brought home 4 nucs full of Minnesota Hygenic bees. 2 months later and we now have 9 hives full of the orneriest bees ever to grace this area of the state. LOL 

The bees are located almost 300' from the house. Every time the guys work with them I can't even go out in my own backyard or work around my fruit trees do to the bees coming out in mass to see what's going on. For someone that is terrified of bees........this is not a pleasant experience. 

Today, almost 7 hours after the guys worked the bees, my son is out playing in the "front" yard and one flies up and stings for no reason. A little bit later we're out playing with the horses only to have a group of them come up and harass and finally my husband had to retreat into the house because they kept flying up under his glasses. They finally became such a nuisance that we all retreated into the house. 

So, I have decided after much thought, that I hate bees even more than I did and I want them no where near my house. Sigh :-( I've seen pictures of guys working with their bees in short sleeved shirts and no gloves and my inlaws have a large hive in the side of their barn that you can walk right by and none of them come out to so much as say hello. I have to say I am seriously disillusioned. These the guys have to clothed as though they're going to take on a swarm of Yellow Jackets that are ticked off. 

Hmmm.....come to think of it, the wasps we have around the house are less aggressive than the bees.


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## DoubleBee (Nov 13, 2006)

I can't speak to Minnesota Hygenics. 
I have a hive of Italians that you can sit within a couple feet of and a hive of Illinois feral bees that you can stand right next to the hive. I wouldn't put up with mean bees. I'd requeen.


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## crickett (May 31, 2009)

perhaps you have africanized bees? they are much more aggressive than other types.


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## 6e (Sep 10, 2005)

crickett said:


> perhaps you have africanized bees? they are much more aggressive than other types.


That's crossed my mind, but these bees came from Minnesota and I didn't think the AFHB were that far north yet?

The guys are moving the bees tonight thank goodness. We have 5 bees patrolling the front porch that have been there all day. I know our friend is very much fretting though about moving them and them leaving and guess who will more than likely get blamed for it if they do leave? LOL But I hate not being able to go out and enjoy my own yard because of the bees. Sure makes life miserable around here!


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## 6e (Sep 10, 2005)

9acres said:


> I can't speak to Minnesota Hygenics.
> I have a hive of Italians that you can sit within a couple feet of and a hive of Illinois feral bees that you can stand right next to the hive. I wouldn't put up with mean bees. I'd requeen.


We're thinking about requeening with Carny queens. But our friend says that the really hot hives like that are better at defending themselves. Maybe, but we almost lost our puppy to them. She got too close to the hive and the guys got her, but she had over 50 stings by the time they got her up here. Poor baby. They were wiping bees off of her the entire time they were running up here. She's just a tiny thing and so two doses of Benedryl later and she seemed to be OK, but she has lots of little scars now.


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## tyusclan (Jan 1, 2005)

I'd requeen as well. Those sound way too aggressive.


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## Iddee (Sep 25, 2005)

Regardless of what you bought, you DO NOT have Minn. Hygienic bees at this time. Requeen all hives with bees from a non-africanized area. Your bees are not typical European bees. 

These are typical European honeybees......The way true Minn. Hygienics would be if your queens had not been replaced by an unknown strain of bee.


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## Terri (May 10, 2002)

Man. I would NOT want those bees! 

When/if you requeen, you will have calm bees in a couple of months time. The hives you have now sound dangerous!

Look again at the picture above: that is what my bees have ALWAYS been like! I never use a veil unless I am going to open the hive, and even then I rarely need gloves!


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## no1cowboy (May 2, 2004)

I have hives 20ft from the back door,
and this is how im dressed when working them.


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## tom j (Apr 3, 2009)

That's crossed my mind, but these bees came from Minnesota and I didn't think the AFHB were that far north yet?

Minn. Hygienic is just a name ,,of a type of queen that was developed at the
U MN ,, it has nothing to do with were your queen came from .. Nine out of ten your queen and bees , came from the south ,Ca , Ga ,Fl or the likes .. and may very well of been bred with AFHb. drones 
If you got them 2 months ago ,, they did not come from here in mn .. the girls here were just coming out of winter


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## 6e (Sep 10, 2005)

tom j said:


> That's crossed my mind, but these bees came from Minnesota and I didn't think the AFHB were that far north yet?
> 
> Minn. Hygienic is just a name ,,of a type of queen that was developed at the
> U MN ,, it has nothing to do with were your queen came from .. Nine out of ten your queen and bees , came from the south ,Ca , Ga ,Fl or the likes .. and may very well of been bred with AFHb. drones
> If you got them 2 months ago ,, they did not come from here in mn .. the girls here were just coming out of winter


Supposedly the nucs were delivered from a man out of Minnesota, then came to another man here in Kansas who delivers them to states such as Colorado, Arizona and so forth. We got it from the man that delivers from here. 

From what we've been reading the Minnesota Hygenic bees tend to be a tad on the testy side from what we've read from others that own them, although they're supposed to be more even tempered than most of the other kinds.

At any rate, the guys moved them to the back 40 last night. The one hive has built up so fast that the guys have already had to split it 3 times in the couple months they've been here. They said the queen does look like a MH queen. Hopefully, they won't give us any more trouble now that they've been moved away from the house! Pity to any trespasser or critter that messes with those hives!!


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## indypartridge (Oct 26, 2004)

6e said:


> I've seen pictures of guys working with their bees in short sleeved shirts and no gloves and my inlaws have a large hive in the side of their barn that you can walk right by and none of them come out to so much as say hello.


That's exactly how it's supposed to be. My bees are in my yard and never bother me, my wife, my kids, horses, dogs, etc. I've had 4-H kids come over to go thru the hives with me without any aggressive behavior. Last week I was up at Purdue Univ for a bee meeting in their bee yards: 20 to 30 beekeepers standing around in the middle of 50 or so hives, most of us in tee shirts and shorts. No problems.

Your husband and friend have mean bees that need to be re-queened.


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Right now we have 30 colonies spread out in the front and back yard. Most of our colonies are our own queens which started about 5 years ago from SMR carnoloin queens. I mow all around them weed whack under the stands and sit next to the hives with a nice cup of tea.
Kare doesn't like it when we have a colony that is in your face all the time. She didn't like it at first when I would go into a colony like that and kill the queen. But we don't have to wear a hot thick suit when we work our bees nor do we some them but rarely.

Requeen the hot hive with a new queen. It takes a bit for all the workers from the old queen to die off (about 6 to 8 weeks) and 28 days for the new queens brood to hatch.

 Al


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## Terri (May 10, 2002)

6e said:


> The one hive has built up so fast that the guys have already had to split it 3 times in the couple months they've been here. They said the queen does look like a MH queen.


Um.... WHEN did those bees come in? 

The man who gets bees from down south usually shows up with them near the end of March. If that is when you got yours also, I would suspect that they were from the south also! And, sometimes a young southern queen will mate with an Africanized male. The queen WOULD be purebred, but the drone who fathers her offspring is whatever one she chooses.

If you WANT to, you can order new queens, perhaps from someone who advertizes calm bees? 

I can get Italian queens in the Mail for $15 + postage: I do not know how much a queen of the Minnesota hygenic would cost! I DO know that I would hate to work the bees that you have!


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## Iddee (Sep 25, 2005)

>>>>The queen WOULD be purebred, but the drone who fathers her offspring is whatever one she chooses.<<<<

Just a note to clear things up. A young queen is not modest. She doesn't stay true to one fellow. She mates with 15 to 20 drones, so the offspring can be quite mixed.


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## Michael Bush (Oct 26, 2008)

It doesn't matter if they are EHB or AHB, if they are mean, you should requeen. Now.

http://www.bushfarms.com/beesrequeeninghot.htm


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## crickett (May 31, 2009)

By all means, RE-QUEEN those bees! Even far away, if a hiker or animal comes within range, they could be doomed and not know it!


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## DownHome (Jan 20, 2006)

I'm curious why they wanted "MH" bees so badly that they would keep hives that are not only unenjoyable, but just plain horrible. I would encourage them to requeen, no sense in perpetuating awfulness. 

I had a family who wanted to do a beehive tour out this weekend and we had the hive torn down for way too long. Usually the girls take a peek at me just to say "hey", then they go about their normal business. On this day, when they got tired of being opened they starting flying around more, but not once did we get stung and right after we do that we can sit in a chair by the hive with no problems.

Don't feel bad for hating those bees, most beekeepers would hate them too and any normal person for that matter. Those bees sound like a liability. REQUEEN REQUEEN REQUEEN


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## 6e (Sep 10, 2005)

These nucs came from a man over East of Winfield. A LOT of people in this area get their bees from this man and I wonder if they're having the same problems we are with their bees. These bees came from north so the man said. We've had them since late March/early April I think. The nucs were SUPER full when we got them and the hottest hives are growing so rapidly that we can't hardly keep up with them and their expansion. We are going to requeen with Carny queens, but the guys aren't looking forward to requeening the hottest hive. You open it up and pop the top and you have 100's of bees surrounding you. Makes finding the queen very very difficult. They have yet to find the queen in the hottest hive. We are ordering 2 Carny queens this week and requeening the hottest and then work our way to the calmest hives and requeen them just in case. We have a few hives that are very calm, but there are a few that are just darn near impossible to work around. Hopefully requeening will help. Thankfully we have not had a split yet on them, so no wild bees to perpetuate that temperament. We are watching them very close for swarms. I have read that it is very difficult to requeen a hot hive as they have a tendency to kill the new queen. So, we'll keep a close eye on that also.

The reason we chose the MH is first of all that is what was available in our area in the way of nucs. We wanted nucs not packaged bees. Secondly, they are supposed to have a strong resistance to Foul Brood because of their cleaning habits and their honey production is supposed to be way up there.


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Personaly I would requeen the hottest hives first.
Start by finding the queen and killing her. Wait a day so the colony relizes they are queen less before installing the new queen.
doesn't matter what type of cage the queens come in* do not poke a hole in the candy.* Make the girls clean the candy all out to get the queen out so they get well used the her scent. I have had poor luck installing carrnies with a hole in the candy.

Maybe once the hottest the is requeened the others will calm down a bit. Has worked here for me.

 Al


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## AsaBSpade (Jun 23, 2009)

Any chance that wild animals such as a skunk could be getting at the hives at night?


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## Callieslamb (Feb 27, 2007)

I am really new to bees. I think you need to realize that bees only live a few days, weeks at the most. When the new brood hatches, they take over the places of the dying older bees. That is how you don't have MN Hy. bees anymore. I work my bees usually without any protective clothing. If I have to work them when more bees are in the hive, I use the jacket and hood. Honey bees do not normally act like yours are acting. I have two hives and we rarely even see a bee, unless we look towards the hives. 

Tell your DH to suit up good and tight and get those hives requeened ASAP.


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## Judy in IN (Nov 28, 2003)

Before your hubby and friend start working the hive, drop a hard candy mint in a sprayer full of water. When it dissolves, you've got peppermint spray. Anytime the bees start getting hot, mist the area with this water.

I did a cut-out of feral bees a couple of weeks ago with just the water, and no smoke. It masks the alarm scent, and the bees are confused and calm.

Try it on one hive. I think you'll like the result.


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## barelahh (Apr 13, 2007)

DownHome said:


> I'm curious why they wanted "MH" bees so badly that they would keep hives that are not only unenjoyable, but just plain horrible. I would encourage them to requeen, no sense in perpetuating awfulness.


To answer your question, I saved up 8 months taking half my grocery money to get these bees and i don't have the money to buy new queens. So i am stuck with trying to work around them until i can get money. 




> I had a family who wanted to do a beehive tour out this weekend and we had the hive torn down for way too long. Usually the girls take a peek at me just to say "hey", then they go about their normal business. On this day, when they got tired of being opened they starting flying around more, but not once did we get stung and right after we do that we can sit in a chair by the hive with no problems.
> 
> Don't feel bad for hating those bees, most beekeepers would hate them too and any normal person for that matter. Those bees sound like a liability. REQUEEN REQUEEN REQUEEN


well their not a liability now since their far away. We're probably going to try and get a queen off of one of the calm hives and requeen with her and let the hive we steal her from superscede.


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## Iddee (Sep 25, 2005)

If it's just one hive like that and the rest are normal, dang, PM me your address and I'll buy you a queen. No one needs to keep a hive like that around. Bees are to enjoy, not be tormented by.

PS. I'm serious. PM me and I'll drop ship a Mn. Hyg. to you.


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## Terri (May 10, 2002)

If you squish the old queen, the bees will raise a new one. The new one will VERY PROBABLY be calmer! If not squish her as well. Sooner or later you will have nice, calm bees in EVERY hive!


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## barelahh (Apr 13, 2007)

Terri said:


> If you squish the old queen, the bees will raise a new one. The new one will VERY PROBABLY be calmer! If not squish her as well. Sooner or later you will have nice, calm bees in EVERY hive!


Yeah your right on the supercedure, but the same genetics get introduced into the new queen when the drones mate with her. Kinda pointless.


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## beeman97 (Jul 13, 2003)

if you pull frames of brood out of the nicer hives & start another nuc, they will draw there own queen cells in just a day or 2 , wait until you are sure you have queen cells developed in the new nuc, then kill your mean queen & wait a week, then go into the hot hive & remove all brood including the new queen cells that they make. Kill them all, & replace with the frames you started a week ago, this will insure that they have plenty of queen cells as well as some brood to rear while waiting for her to hatch out, it will also insure that they cannot rear another queen from the mean brood frames that you remove, 
I would tell you to put that brood into the other hives & let them hatch out , but there is no need to use them period if they are indeed that mean, just dispose of all the brood frames from the mean hive & use the frames with new foundation for the others to start over with. this will cost you nothing but time so it should be doable & cheap as well.
& oh ya, i would also kill any drones you can find in the hot hive as well, there is no need for them to be around either, it will lessen the possibility of that gene pool from propagating any further.
& by the way ,, moving them farther away from your house doesn't solve the problem it just makes it so the bee's are more likely to be someone else s problem as well as the beekeeper who tries to tend them. 
requeen & be done with them.
good luck


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## Terri (May 10, 2002)

barelahh said:


> Yeah your right on the supercedure, but the same genetics get introduced into the new queen when the drones mate with her. Kinda pointless.


This is what I have heard different beekeepers say: many of them swear by it. Personally I rarely have more than 2 hives, and I have never had a hive that hot!


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

OK I understand thelack of money thing, that ispart of thereason I started raising my own queens.

*Queen reaing made simple.*
(1.Kill the queen in the hot hive

(2.Remove a frame from the hot hive near the middle where the brood is.

(3.Then remove a frame from a calm hive that contains eggs and 3 day old larva (bottom of the cell will look milky.). Mark that frames top bar.
Insert the frame into the hot hive near that brood where the other frame came from.

(4. In 3 days go back into that hot hive and destroy all the queen cells on all the frames except the one from the calm hive.

It will take 14 days for the queen to hatch and she should be laying with in 21 days. Just because their are drones out there from the hot hive does not mean they will get to mate with the queen. Even so the queens traits may be stronger than traits the drone may provide.

Doing this will also break the cycle the mites have so your mite load should decrease.

 Al


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## Michael Bush (Oct 26, 2008)

I know all the logic, but I also know that when I get rid of a queen of hot bees the bees of her daughter are quite often much nicer.

I also know that many times I requeen and they are nicer within a few days. Logic would say the old bees have to die off, but maybe it's not just about genetics.


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## barelahh (Apr 13, 2007)

Michael Bush said:


> I know all the logic, but I also know that when I get rid of a queen of hot bees the bees of her daughter are quite often much nicer.
> 
> I also know that many times I requeen and they are nicer within a few days. Logic would say the old bees have to die off, but maybe it's not just about genetics.



I don't know but i gotta go into them tomorrow and face a big hive. I spent some of today preparing to do that. I got 3 deeps on that hive 2 brood and 1 honey, and I am going to take the brood deeps and set them on bottoms and put tops on them. Then tomorrow evening i am going to hunt the queen down. That way the field bees will be in the honey deep and i can lessen the onslaught. It'll be much easier i think workingwith only one disturbed deep at a time than to mess with a whole hive of disturbed bees.


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Another thing that will help in the hunt is to not only smoke the girls and give them a little time to fill up, mist them with sugar syrup. If you mist them real good they will be busy cleaning them selves and each other.

 Al


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## barelahh (Apr 13, 2007)

alleyyooper said:


> Another thing that will help in the hunt is to not only smoke the girls and give them a little time to fill up, mist them with sugar syrup. If you mist them real good they will be busy cleaning them selves and each other.
> 
> Al


Yeah i found that out. But smoking these girls just ticks them off. I did that and once the smoke clears they come out hoppin mad.


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## tom j (Apr 3, 2009)

try suger spray and DON'T just mist them a little bit ,,,


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## barelahh (Apr 13, 2007)

tom j said:


> try suger spray and DON'T just mist them a little bit ,,,


well we did, and i only got stung twice tonight. Got stung 7 times this morning just breaking the hive apart.

caught that little witch queen and put her in a jar. GOing to take a pic of her when we pickle her for shipment to ag department. Their going to test her and see if she's africanized along with about 25 -50 bees we caught with her.


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## Michael Bush (Oct 26, 2008)

And if she is are you going to replace her?  And if she isn't are you going to keep her?


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## thequeensblessing (Mar 30, 2003)

Sara, I didn't realize these bees almost killed a puppy! We've never had bees that hot and we have some hot hives! Even our hottest hives don't go after passers-by or hang out around the house waiting for someone to come out! They only get irritated when we start messing with them, and then, a bit of smoke gives them something else to think about for a few minutes. We have a lot of black, feral bees we've caught in swarms, and they are our most aggressive bees, and our best producers.
If your hives are THAT hot, I'd say you've got a problem somewhere and a potentially dangerous one too. I too think you need to requeen. This time of year can be bad for getting queens though, even if you could afford it. I know the two places closest to us won't ship queens in the heat of the summer. You have to drive however many hours to go pick them up. 
Do you know any other beekeepers in the area that you can get a frame or two of eggs/brood from? That would be a good option. I wish you were closer to us, we'd give you some. Do you know how to graft a queen? That would be a good option too. 

I'd be suspicious of bees that are shipped all over and whose place of origin was so hard to actually determine. Who knows what they REALLY are at that rate?


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## 6e (Sep 10, 2005)

We were able to get a queen and the guys were able to get the queen out and put the new queen in. I don't know how long it'll take for them to get her out of the fox and hopefully they don't kill her when they do. 

These are by far the most aggressive bees I've ever heard of. Poor guys, they really got nailed quite a few times that day just in breaking the hive down to find the queen. I was up here praying they'd be able to find her and they did rather quickly. She looks like a MH queen sort of, but the temperament of the babies she's throwing sure don't act like MH. 

I would pity anyone that went out and messed with that hive without being fully dressed for the occasion!! Nasty tempered things.

I guess we won't know for a couple of months whether or not requeening worked. I hope it did. We'll see.


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## barelahh (Apr 13, 2007)

Michael Bush said:


> And if she is are you going to replace her?  And if she isn't are you going to keep her?


LOL


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## Iddee (Sep 25, 2005)

barelahh, I found you a smoker. This one will work.










:nana: :bouncy:


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