# One Mean Hive



## k9 (Feb 6, 2008)

Nice sunny cloudless day, been too dry but otherwise a great 82 degree afternoon. Open the outer cover and then quietly and gently open the inner cover, the pitch in the hive changes instantly and there is a cloud of bees on my face screen, stung through the suit and blue jeans, so many mad bees in front of me I can't see what I'm doing. Walk away from the hive to let then settle a bit and a swarm of then follows me over 200 feet. It sounds like a hail storm outside my hood with bees bouncing off of it. There is a mass of bees on my gloves stinging the leather and leaving a trail of innerds. Good times.


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## arnie (Apr 26, 2012)

did you smoke them . I wonder what type they are some strains are known to be more aggressive 'if new where did you get them from , I have heard tales of people getting "HOT BEEs " . bees do get more aggressive when the supers are full .seems they go into defence mode . I have differint tempers between hives the tame bees I got in he mail and a wild swarm that just moved in . one I can check on without worrying and the others I dare not without a suit and smokeing .


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## sisterpine (May 9, 2004)

Holy crap! We these africanized bees? Are you alright?


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## Michael W. Smith (Jun 2, 2002)

k9 said:


> Nice sunny cloudless day, been too dry but otherwise a great 82 degree afternoon.


It's been dry here too. 

I'm running behind (as usual) this year and had several swarms I caught this Spring still living in a single deep. I figured I needed to get another deep on top.

When I took the lid off, a few bees came out. As I pried the inner cover off, lots of bees came out. Once it was off, as I'm sliding the new hive in place - more bees are coming out.

I got it done, but luckily have a ventilated suit that they can't sting through. And once I was done, they just followed me. I moved from tree to tree trying to lose them and at the last tree stood there for 5 minutes while at least 5 bees continued their attack. When they finally flew off - I walked out along the tree line to get to the front of the house to get in.

I would say between the stores they have and the dry weather which makes pollen and nectar gathering harder, - they just aren't in a good mood!


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## k9 (Feb 6, 2008)

arnie, 

This is the second time I have worked this hive, they were bad the first time too, I had smoked them and that just seemed to irritate them, they were trying to sting the smoker, and one went so far as to fly down the chimney into the smoker. When I emptied the smoker after I was done it's mean little charred carcass was in the smoker. So this second time I only give a couple of lite cool puffs thinking it might go better, it did not. 

This hive I am sure threw a swarm, I caught a swarm just outside of it in a bush and managed to place it in a hive where it stayed and so far is a nice well behaved hive with the old queen. But the old hive with I assume a new queen may have mated with a drone that was Africanized as the guy I got the nucs from keeps bees in the south around Georgia I believe. So I'm not sure if they have made Georgia yet or not. Anyway they are an unpleasant lot to work with. 

sisterpine-
yes I am fine thank you for asking. If I could find that queen I would squish her but tis a little difficult to do in that cloud of berserk bees. I believe they would kill an animal like a dog if one was there when you tried to work them.


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## Terri (May 10, 2002)

Well, I hope you can squish the queen soon! That hive sounds like not much fun to be around!


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

I would smoke the crap out of them I mean really smoke them till the smoke starts rolling out the intercover hole and walk away for a good 15 to 30 minutes. then I would man up and go after that queen. Smush her as an example to the workers. I don't think I would even let that hot of a hive make their own queen.
If you have a queen cage get a queen from a calmer hive and cage her after the hot one has been queen less 24 hours and put that queen in the hot hive in the cage with the release holes stuffed (I use burr comb wax at times and hand release) with fondant. Let the calm colony make a new queen.
Still will take about 60 days to get back to a calm hive. Aggressive workers have to die off which will take 6 weeks or there aboughts.

 Al


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## Terri (May 10, 2002)

alleyyooper said:


> I would smoke the crap out of them I mean really smoke them till the smoke starts rolling out the intercover hole and walk away for a good 15 to 30 minutes. then I would man up and go after that queen. Smush her as an example to the workers. I don't think I would even let that hot of a hive make their own queen.
> If you have a queen cage get a queen from a calmer hive and cage her after the hot one has been queen less 24 hours and put that queen in the hot hive in the cage with the release holes stuffed (I use burr comb wax at times and hand release) with fondant. Let the calm colony make a new queen.
> Still will take about 60 days to get back to a calm hive. Aggressive workers have to die off which will take 6 weeks or there aboughts.
> 
> Al


As I am terrible at finding queens, this is what I would do if I had enough woodenware.

1. If you cannot find the queen to kill her! 

I would put one frame of brood in each nuc or hive box. Then I would come back the next day and see if I could tell which one had the mean queen. If I could not tell the next day then I could tell the day after that, as my queenless hives are lazy and less active. Also the queenless nucs will want to make queen cells if they can find any young brood.

Once you have the queen on her single frame you can probably find her. 

2. If you cannot find her then, at least you will have most of the young bees and most of the brood in nucs. Combine them, destroying any queen cells, and give them a frame of young brood from a better queen. 

3. In EITHER case, check 2 days later to be sure you got all of the queen cells from the mean queen, because you sure do not want any more like her!

It is better and easier if you can kill the queen, but I have trouble with that. At least with "Where's Waldo", Waldo is not running off! 
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

I ended up with mean bees when I bought 2 packags this spring. They were not as mean as yours but they WERE the meanest I have ever had! I started noticing the difference after 6 weeks as there were not as many bees trying to follow me into the house, and after 60 days here were NO bees trying to follow me into the house, though the hive still had several hot bees. 

It has now been 90 days, and I have decided to dig out my face veil use on the hives instead of a full bee suit, as the hives are now calmer and responds more to smoke. I have had calmer hives but these are now very much better than they were!

I will still wear my gloves for a bit, though I prefer to work bare handed. First things first!


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

If you can't find that queen. were it me I would load the hive on a little wagon and haul it off some place. Set up a new hive where that one came from then frame by frame sweep the bees in the grass giving each frame time to go back to the old hive area. In the end the queen will be in the grass unable to fly back.

But that is the last ditch effort.

 Al


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