Extremely aggressive bees. Help needed

[Brian Bush]

At this very moment I would be tempted to put it down to the weather not the bees' temperament - close, oppressive thundery weather always turns a colony into a boxful of psychopaths

I agree with JBM. I would be very wary of opening any hive with these levels of humidity and heat.
Leave them alone.Add some feed when it is cooler or raining and let them sort themselves out for the winter. They may well be a different proposition come spring!!

 

[enrico]

I agree with JBM. I would be very wary of opening any hive with these levels of humidity and heat.
Leave them alone.Add some feed when it is cooler or raining and let them sort themselves out for the winter. They may well be a different proposition come spring!!

If you are going to do that then on the first inspection when numbers are down and the queen is easy to find don't hesitate, kill her and combine immediately with another hive. They will probably be fine for a couple of inspections but if they have the same queen they will revert to angry as the season progresses.

 

[LeoFraser]

I started my bee keeping journey in June and boy has it been a baptism of fire! Started with two nuc’s that went into hives and one has became aggressive to the point I can’t see out as I am covered in them attacking me when I open the hive.
The advice I have got is to split the brood box into two nucs and leave the supper above it with new frames in so i now have two hives and two nucs. This was done on Saturday and now I need to find the Queen to take care of her and requeen one nuc and the hive to then combine the two nucs in a new hive.
As a very new beekeeper this aggressive hive has nearly put me off this hobby but I am going to keep going and hopefully this will work and I’ll get 3 chilled hives

 

[Curly green finger's]

I started my bee keeping journey in June and boy has it been a baptism of fire! Started with two nuc’s that went into hives and one has became aggressive to the point I can’t see out as I am covered in them attacking me when I open the hive.
The advice I have got is to split the brood box into two nucs and leave the supper above it with new frames in so i now have two hives and two nucs. This was done on Saturday and now I need to find the Queen to take care of her and requeen one nuc and the hive to then combine the two nucs in a new hive.
As a very new beekeeper this aggressive hive has nearly put me off this hobby but I am going to keep going and hopefully this will work and I’ll get 3 chilled hives

Purchased nucs from a supplier?
Odd that one went rogue and the other was fine pretty much straight away .
Both colony’s related? Did they both expand ok ? Stores were good at the time they became aggressive?
I had a colony in my second year which was horrible but some of it was my fault .

 

[Erichalfbee]

So today I hope to introduce a nice queen today.

Let us know how that goes, would you? You’ve got rid of all the foragers after all, but I might move them all again before you put in your new queen and I would seriously consider a push in cage made if varroa mesh not the plastic ones you can buy at suppliers

 

[Erichalfbee]

Started with two nuc’s that went into hives and one has became aggressive to the point I can’t see out as I am covered in them attacking me when I open the hive.

Hi Leo.
Not good if they were from a commercial supplier.

 

[Erichalfbee]

As a very new beekeeper this aggressive hive has nearly put me off this hobby but I am going to keep going and hopefully this will work and I’ll get 3 chilled hives

Get some nice Buckfast.
And before anybody says locally adapted black bees are better. Buckies, from a reputable supplier, are a good gentle bee for a beginner to start with before experimenting with others

 

[Anduril]

Hi Leo.
Not good if they were from a commercial supplier.

This depends on the commercial supplier, whether the queens were open mated or instrumental insemination, open mating is like a bit of Russian Roulette. I say this but it is not meant to knock commercials. Also other factors that determine defensive behaviour are the gloves being worn. The leather ones attract the most stings, one time using them I had over a hundred stings some on the leather but they also hate the gauntlet attached which received the majority of the stings. Also the manipulation of the hive tool moving propolised frames and crownboard can set them off from the outset. I've identified 2 hives in one of my apiaries that need a change of queen, they are not as bad as the ones in this thread, but i don't want the next generation to be worse. This is in an out apiary, but I'm also mindful of the farmer who brings sheep into the field and hay cutting.

 

[ericbeaumont]

now I need to find the Queen

Are you certain that there is one? Seen brood in all stages? Temper can be awful in a colony that swarmed but failed to re-queen.

 

[Curly green finger's]

Are you certain that there is one? Seen brood in all stages? Temper can be awful in a colony that swarmed but failed to re-queen.

My thoughts exactly, that’s why I asked how they expanded

 

[enrico]

I started my bee keeping journey in June and boy has it been a baptism of fire! Started with two nuc’s that went into hives and one has became aggressive to the point I can’t see out as I am covered in them attacking me when I open the hive.
The advice I have got is to split the brood box into two nucs and leave the supper above it with new frames in so i now have two hives and two nucs. This was done on Saturday and now I need to find the Queen to take care of her and requeen one nuc and the hive to then combine the two nucs in a new hive.
As a very new beekeeper this aggressive hive has nearly put me off this hobby but I am going to keep going and hopefully this will work and I’ll get 3 chilled hives

Where are you Leo, maybe some help nearby

 

[Erichalfbee]

My thoughts exactly, that’s why I asked how they expanded

Enough to split into two nucs by the sound of it.

 

[ForageFlight]

One of my colonies is from a captured swarm (this years and from an unknown source). I've dealt with aggressive colonies in the past and whilst it can be a bit unnerving I always manage to get the job done. But not this time.
I harvested honey from my other two colonies yesterday, nice and easy with no drama, however today going into the third colony I was attacked from the off, and the level of aggression was frightening. I had at least 3-4 bees continually stinging each glove and my veil was covered by so many I simply couldn't see well enough to work. What I did see was that there was brood well up into the second super and the amount of stores in the hive was relatively low for the time of year, maybe 30%. But that was a quick take as I had to retreat. It took me six visits to reassemble the hive and then half an hour to be free enough of attackers to get into the house.

Clearly the queen has to go but I'm not confident enough that I'll be able to get in there and find her, with the levels of aggression. And I'm concerned for the safety of family and neighbours, I live in an urban environment.
So what to do? I need to resolve this quickly?
Any good advice you can offer would be much appreciated

The one of option you can take is to take one super off at a time using a clear board and porter bee escapes in the clear board, until it down to the brood chamber. Transfer the rest of the bees and frames to a Nucleus box. this can be done in stages from now to next April. In April it should be easy enough to find the queen and take out. In 6 to 7 days time take out all queen cells and give them a brood frame with eggs on it from your best colony. Mark the frame. come back in 6 to 7 and reduce the queen cells down to around 2 or three and make sure the haven't made any queen cells on the other frames. If your chosen colony is short of brood you can make a swap of brood frames. If the weather is poor during the time they are rearing new queen cells give them a feed you will have better queens. This is just another option you may find useful.

 

[user 819]

Seems like a split consensus from he big brains on how to handle things.....good old beekeeping.
I'm going to sleep on it and decide tomorrow when the pain from the stings isn't clouding my thinking.
Thanks for all the advice

The kill option is the easy option but doesn't teach one anything.

 

[blackcloud]

The OP has spelled out the situation without need for any further fact finding.

This is not a hive in a remote corner of a cosy rural garden.

This colony is stinging outside the hive and is in an urban environment.

With great regret the species nowadays has to co-exist with the two legged monoculture of snowflake.

Even a temporary moodiness will cause problems with neighbours.

I have a honey sign outside and have had angry knocks on the door from one neighbour who got stung.
I have no bees at home...

Further tarnishing of the practice will result if the situation continues.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

slice of gammon anyone?

 

[Curly green finger's]

Enough to split into two nucs by the sound of it.

Sounds like they may of swarmed , two strong nucs from a single brood would have to be a strong colony

 

[Erichalfbee]

You best ask him. I have no idea.

 

[Mabee]

Let us know how that goes, would you? You’ve got rid of all the foragers after all, but I might move them all again before you put in your new queen and I would seriously consider a push in cage made if varroa mesh not the plastic ones you can buy at suppliers

I had a spare queen in one of my nucs so I added her in the wee yellow plastic one but i’ll go back on Thursday I think and see how they are treating her and use a push in cage. I agree, I far prefer those, I do have a metal one I made. I’m hoping they’ll be a bit calmer as well.

 

[Lolly Bee]

So this is really interesting about the drones. (Ignorant learning newbie here). I was on the verge of destroying a colony of nutballs but was persuaded - by some here - not to go down that route. I went in on Sunday and they were actually not aggressive for the first time this year. Glad I didn’t kill them all off but am still co side ring requeening next year. Thank you for the advice!