Bees turned bad tempered

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thorn

Drone Bee
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An Essex boy stranded in Leeds
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National
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It varies.
I’ve three hives in a friend’s orchard. One swarmed on Sunday.
Today I got a call to tell me that the bees have suddenly, overnight, become bad tempered, going for anyone and anything in the vicinity. Could it be the queenless colony. Alternatively, there’s OSR about half a mile away. Could that be the trigger? Have you any thoughts or ideas. Could it be a short lived thing? I recall that about this time last year one colony was very aggressive when I inspected them one week, but were as nice as pie the following week and for the rest of the summer.
I’m off to identify the offending colony tomorrow, and am hoping that this evening’s rain may have calmed them down.
 
Have had similar with my New Zealand Italian colonies.... farmer was mowing the grass for a first crop of silage... was told this is a pheromone reaction to something in the grass... nice and gentle as my Amms the following week!
 
Have had similar with my New Zealand Italian colonies.... farmer was mowing the grass for a first crop of silage... was told this is a pheromone reaction to something in the grass... nice and gentle as my Amms the following week!

That’s interesting. I went out this morning to investigate the problem, did a full inspection of all three hives, didn’t get a single sting in my gloves and no followers when I returned to my car.
The grass around the orchard was being mown yesterday. Could be the same reaction.
 
That’s interesting. I went out this morning to investigate the problem, did a full inspection of all three hives, didn’t get a single sting in my gloves and no followers when I returned to my car.
The grass around the orchard was being mown yesterday. Could be the same reaction.

But I weekly cut the lawn on which my hives are situated, and strim round the hives and - apart from one ill-tempered soon to be requeened hive - have no problems at all despite the lovely smell of cut grass - and a compost bin full of decomposing grass within 5 meters.
 
Could it be the vibrations or the noise and potentially the amount of time it was going on? I have a touch on me like a baby elephant and my girls are always very good until i do something dopey then the a little ratty for a few mins after then settle down when i go back to being a normal person
 
Bee certainly emit a smell resembling Banana aldehyde.. the aroma of banana.

I have not seen any research into the make up of the bee banana smell emitted as an attack pheremone.

Rhubarb leaves seem to have a calming effect... as does rosemary water.

I also wonder what else is in the cut grass smell... as the farmers are planting different grasses for feed than on the average lawn?
 
Bananas are in the grass family allegedly. https://www.botanical-online.com/platanosangles.htm Not sure if it's a decent source.

Bananas are NOT in the grass family - they are monocotyledons but so are garlic, lillies and orchids. I would treat any source that says they are with suspicion.


Bee certainly emit a smell resembling Banana aldehyde.. the aroma of banana.

I have not seen any research into the make up of the bee banana smell emitted as an attack pheremone.

Well you haven't looked - there's loads. Here's a wikipedia article to start with.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_honey_bee_pheromones

That comes over rather more abruptly than it is intended :(
 
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Can get grumpy on the osr

I have noticed a change in mine since they have found the OSR, from being gentle and slow on the comb they have gotten a tad lively jumping from the top bars onto my nitrile gloves and also dinging of the veil and following me a short distance.
 
I’ve three hives in a friend’s orchard. One swarmed on Sunday.
Today I got a call to tell me that the bees have suddenly, overnight, become bad tempered, going for anyone and anything in the vicinity. Could it be the queenless colony. Alternatively, there’s OSR about half a mile away. Could that be the trigger? Have you any thoughts or ideas. Could it be a short lived thing? I recall that about this time last year one colony was very aggressive when I inspected them one week, but were as nice as pie the following week and for the rest of the summer.
I’m off to identify the offending colony tomorrow, and am hoping that this evening’s rain may have calmed them down.

Unless my bees are on top of fields of OSR, they tend to ignore it, so I doubt it was the OSR, but a consequence of being queen less. When I had them, my black bees used to become even more aggressive if there was no queen. Hopefully your bees will settle once they become queen right.
S
 
But I weekly cut the lawn on which my hives are situated, and strim round the hives and - apart from one ill-tempered soon to be requeened hive - have no problems at all despite the lovely smell of cut grass - and a compost bin full of decomposing grass within 5 meters.

Same here.
 

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