# What on earth is going on with my bees?



## redgate (Sep 18, 2008)

We have been raising bees for about 3.5 years, so we are still newbies, but have learned more each year. This year, due to the long winter, we had to start over with 2 new packages of bees. The came from somewhere in GA (our local club arranged it). We put them in the hives in late April (in central IL). Everything seemed normal. I checked on them every 2 weeks, roughly, and all seemed normal. Learning from past mistakes, I was careful to keep the brood chambers open, stack on extra boxes to give them plenty of room, etc. They even started with some leftover honey in the comb from the 2 hives that froze out over our bitter winter, which gave them a head start. One hive has done everything as would be expectedâ¦.they made brood nests in the bottom 3 boxes (we use all mediums), with bee bread and honey in the end frames. The 4th box was full of honey (we harvested a bit recently) and the 5th was being built out (we use a lot of empty frames). The other hive, however, didn't do as expected. 

By mid June, I noticed only 2 boxes had been claimed for brood, and no substantial honey amounts were being gathered. The bee bread seemed plentiful though. At the same time, however, the population seemed to just explode. In mid June, despite the careful attention, I discovered supersedure queen cells. I let it go and kept an eye on things. At the end of June, I discovered a very small (tennis ball size) swarm from this hive nearby. I caught it and searched all through it, and could not find the queen anywhere. Just in case, I put the swarm in a new hive. For the next 2 days, the bees congregated in several different areas, never wanting to go back to the new hive nor the old hive, but also not leaving. They would also split up, leaving little golf-ball size groups in different areas. They just seemed totally confused. They finally disappeared. 

By mid-July, when the good hive was thriving and making honey, the "bad" hive had the new queen established and laying. The brood all seemed fine, but still hardly any honey at all. The strange thing, though, was their level of aggression intensified seemingly overnight. Of the 9 or so hives we have started, I have never dealt with aggression like that. I am pretty convinced some AHB genetics came into play. The aggression increased over the next month, such that by early August, someone got stung almost daily--up to an acre and half away. They attacked my horses out in the pasture one day, chased my kiddos, swarmed our chickens and dogs. It was awful! When I suited up to check the hives for my every-2-week inspection, I had to duct tape ANY potential crack in the zipper, and I still got dive-bombed and stung THROUGH the leather gloves and protective suit. My suit would be covered in HUNDREDS of stingers by the time I was finished with my inspection. Then, the bees would follow me over an acre away, dive-bombing and trying to sting through the mesh. It usually took over 1/2 hour of walking through our forest of brush and honeysuckle an acre away to finally get them to go away. Even then though, once I emerged from the woods, I had to make a run to get to the house before the smell lured them back to me again. No one could go outside or be within 2 acres of these bees for the rest of the day when I inspected the hives. It was INSANE! Convinced something had gone wrong, I decided to requeen. 

FTR, our hives are located in a securely fenced orchard/pasture, and the entire area inside the fence is patrolled by livestock guardian dogs. The dogs don't mess with the bees, but they totally rule out any type of predator picking on the hives. NOTHING gets by these dogs! There is just no sign at all of any reason for their behavior. 

Now, the good hive had also turned quite aggressive, just not as bad as the bad one. Nonetheless, I decided to requeen both hives with different genetics. With the bad hive, I happened to find the queen one evening, and just killed her right then (the weekend). Our new queen was scheduled to arrive 5 days later, so the day before, I went into the bad hive and destroyed all potential queen cells. I also went into the good hive, found, and killed that queen so they could be queenless for 24 hours (Wednesday). Due to the aggressive nature of these hives, and the way they attacked the queen cages the next day (Thursday), I opted to leave the cork in place for 24 hours. The next day, they were acting more accepting, so I took out the cork, but left the candy (Friday). I was unable to check on Saturday, but on Sunday afternoon, all candy had been eaten and queens released. I couldn't find the queen in the bad hive, but I did find a whole new set of queen cells, placed sporadically all throughout the hive bodies. I found a couple of queen cells in the good hive, but also found the queen crawling around. I again destroyed all queen cells. We ordered both queens marked so I would be able to tell if they survived or not. 

That was a week ago. I wanted to give them a week or so before checking to see if she was laying. Tonight, I was doing chores, and discovered a soft-ball sized swarm outside the bad hive. I caught it just before dark, so I was unable to look for the queen. Nonetheless, I put them into an empty hive and closed it up. 

What is going on with this crazy hive? The good hive, except for a little aggression, seems to be doing everything "by the book" and always has. This other hive, however, is still just seemingly exploding in numbers, but I never find hardly any bees in the top boxes--not even any building going on. They only use the bottom 2 as brood chambers, the 3rd as a mix of brood, beebread, and a little honey, and that's pretty much it. I seldom see pollen on their legs, and they are constantly hanging out on the outside of their hive bodies during the day. They've thrown tiny swarms twice now, and they are extremely aggressive. I am expecting to see swarm cells when I go in this weekend (guess I have to find out what's going on after today's swarm). I am just baffled though. Has anyone experienced anything like this, or have any ideas?


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Don't know what is causing the behavior you described. Requeening should have fixed the problem. 
I would split the 3 mediums and place the one they won't work between the other two to fix that problem.
The aggressiveness and not allowing a introduced queen in the colony I don't have a clue. I would probably throw up my hands and get the hose end sprayer filled with dollar store dis soap and take care of them once and for all.

Even with a new queen it is going to take almost a month before her brood hatches and takes control of the work in the and out of the hive.

 Al


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## cotton45c (Jun 23, 2014)

i would requeen the crazy hive.
about too late to do much for them at all now tho.


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