Dealing with aggressive colony

[melias]

I have 5 hives in fairly close proximity to each other (about 3 feet apart).
One colony has been extremely aggressive all season and it's got to the point where it's really tough to inspect.
I actually want to reduce the number of colonies, but rather than destroy all the bees in the nasty hive, I would like to preserve some bees, perhaps to boost the other hives.

I was thinking of moving the nasty hive 30 feet or so from the apiary with the hope that foragers would eventually find and be accepted by the adjacent hives on either side of the nasty hive. I would then destroy queen and brood in the nasty hive.

Has anyone tried doing something like this?

 

[Hivemaker.]

Re-queen them... or just kill the queen in that hive and unite them to another hive.

 

[melias]

I was thinking that this might be a kind-of shortcut to uniting them
It also avoids having to open the brood box and find the queen!

 

[Hivemaker.]

I was thinking that this might be a kind-of shortcut to uniting them

But it's not.

 

[snelgrove]

Move the agressive hive about 20 feet away temporary, wait half an hour the agressive bees will flown back to orginal spot where you left an empty box for them to cluster. You can now check with relatively young calm bees and find and kill the queen.

 

[melias]

And is that because the foragers won't find and be accepted by adjacent hives? (question for Hivemaker)

 

[Hivemaker.]

And is that because the foragers won't find and be accepted by adjacent hives?

They will be accepted, more readily during a honey flow though, but thousands will stay with the queen, plus thousands more as brood, all of which you intend to kill.

 

[Finman]

.
If you share those bees to every hive, then your all bees are agressive. You do not want that.

The hive will be agressive the rest of summer, untill the last bee is dead.
Consider that you move it out off your home, and perhaps donate it to some, which is able to work with it.

 

[Michael Palmer]

Oh for Pete's sake. Just requeen them and be done with it.

 

[birdsandbees]

Having made a split/AS from a very aggressive but prolific colony earlier this year I ended up with two aggressive colonies! No surprises there really, this weekend I've requeening the split with last years angry queen and will wait to see what the offspring of her daughter turns out like before deciding her fate, I have had enough of getting stung every week, and it always being the same hives, currently sat here with a swollen left arm and hand!

As has been said, requeen them, it's not instant and may take a couple of months to remedy properly but with others I've done in the past I have noticed an improvement in temper almost immediately?

 

[Finman]

..
Two years ago I had weak colonies in spring, and I bought a 2- box hive, that I donate the brood frames to weak colonies.

I strengtened 6 small colonies with those brood and bees at once when I brought the hive home.

My hives were all calm before operation. The bought hive happened to be quite mad. Then after operation I had 7 mad hives.

.. A big mistage...
.

 

[For want of a better word]

..
Two years ago I had weak colonies in spring, and I bought a 2- box hive, that I donate the brood frames to weak colonies.

I strengtened 6 small colonies with those brood and bees at once when I brought the hive home.

My hives were all calm before operation. The bought hive happened to be quite mad. Then after operation I had 7 mad hives.

.. A big mistage...
.

Petrol sorts them out... but do not ignite it!

Nos da

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Move the agressive hive about 20 feet away temporary, wait half an hour the agressive bees will flown back to orginal spot where you left an empty box for them to cluster. You can now check with relatively young calm bees and find and kill the queen.

Precisely - then you have a choice - requeen, unite or split and make a few nucs with bought in queens to overwinter for the spring.

 

[Obee1]

All those who suggest requeening. What is the best way to requeen aggresive bees? Assume they more likely to kill a new queen than a calm colony?

I have two very aggressive colonies myself that I need to requeen.

 

[birdsandbees]

So far I've been okay by using mated and proven queens and by using a press in cage that I made, I also watch to see how responsive the bees are to her, if they look like they are trying to kill her she stays in the cage a while longer.

 

[Finman]

All those who suggest requeening. What is the best way to requeen aggresive bees? Assume they more likely to kill a new queen than a calm colony?

I have two very aggressive colonies myself that I need to requeen.

Searching queen in such colony is difficult. You must use much smoke and the queen escapes and often hiddens.

Make an AS with them.

Take from a calm colony a frame, which has some brood. Put them on foundations. You get at same time swarm control trearment and you get new combs.

When the new colony has settled into the hive . They have capped emergency cells. You may take the whole frame off. They accept easily a new laying queen.

System is complex, but it isa minimum, what you need to handle those gansters and open brood frames. And you get minimum dosage of stings.

 

[MuswellMetro]

in the 1960's My grandfather used Condor Navy Cut Pipe tobacco in his Bee smoker if he was inspecting very aggressive bees to requeen them,

i seem to remember the bees being very slow moving on the frame and comb once heavily smoked with tobacco smoke

Has anyone tried smoking bees with two or three cigarettes in a bee smoker?

 

[Finman]

Has anyone tried smoking bees with two or three cigarettes in a bee smoker?

Yeah. My mentor had always a pipe between teeth. He got lung cancer and when cancer went into brains, he died in two months. The year was 1975.

 

[Anduril]

in the 1960's My grandfather used Condor Navy Cut Pipe tobacco in his Bee smoker if he was inspecting very aggressive bees to requeen them,

i seem to remember the bees being very slow moving on the frame and comb once heavily smoked with tobacco smoke

Has anyone tried smoking bees with two or three cigarettes in a bee smoker?

I've used condor pipe tobacco as a last resort, works well.

 

[Anduril]

..
Two years ago I had weak colonies in spring, and I bought a 2- box hive, that I donate the brood frames to weak colonies.

I strengtened 6 small colonies with those brood and bees at once when I brought the hive home.

My hives were all calm before operation. The bought hive happened to be quite mad. Then after operation I had 7 mad hives.

.. A big mistage...
.

I have moved brood frames from one angry colony to a calm colony, the calm colony remained calm.