HELP! my bees are posessed by the anti-christ.

[merylvingien]

There is lots of sound advice here. I too have had a colony turn nasty due to being queenless. They got me 3 times on the head and twice on the leg last week. So I have adopted a full body armour approach which allows me to get in and see what their issue is. Two of everything ...hats, gloves, jackets, trousers, etc.

Once back in command we found they had killed the queen we introduced from a small colony so we have now put in a frame with eggs from our docile colony and managed the queen cells to hopefully hatch a docile girl. Don't wish to buy a queen in but are hopeful of a docile lady in a week or so time. In the donor colony our 2nd gen queen was docile so we hope the third is the same.

They have space to work with and we have warned the farmer that they may be a little tempermental for a week. Since they created queen cells they seem to have calmed a little but until we can see the whites of their eyes...body armour.
Sam

I dunno, these people with vicious bees

How did you get on with the swarm? Did they stay?

 

[MuswellMetro]

nasty bees= nasty drones DNA

Nasty Drones = more nasty Mated Queens

i think a better approach is a new queen two or three brood frame nuc with all drone brood removed and give 250ml or petrol or 50ml of Tetrachloroethylene to the remaimg bees in the nasty hive

sorry ,but why just requeen then still populate the drone mating ares in your area with poor DNA, or are you wanting to get at other local beekeepers

 

[Polyanwood]

I agree MM that considerate and sensible beaks will drone cull when they have nasty/over defensive bees. I wouldn't kill them though unless they were dangerous. Getting stung as a beekeeper is not unusal.

I found that within a couple of weeks of requeening, previously ill tempered colonies relax.

 

[beebreeder]

In the case of my hot hive, I decided to wait until dusk to do an artificial swarm, i.e. split them into not two but three separate colonies, two with queen cells. It did help a bit with following, but handling bees at that time of day isn't ideal (I wanted to avoid neighbour problems as much as anything: it is really antisocial to inflict furious guard bees on sunbathing neighbours, especially when they're as nice as mine are). It was really worth the effort. After splitting the colony into smaller boxes with lots of space and new frames to draw out, they have completely relaxed. Smaller colonies are much easier to deal with, and the fine weather means that the two queenless colonies have each now got a new, mated queen and new brood. I can now go right up to each of them and handle the frames without gloves.
Just think about it, you have split a nasty colony into three so now you have three queens with 50 per cent genetic makeup of the nasty colony. There is now a good chance depending on drones that when they build up you will have three nasty colonies, new genes is the answer.
Kev

 

[Dishmop]

Sound like radicalised bees.....

 

[MuswellMetro]

if they just attack me, i can deal with it, but bees that follow are a no no, how far is safe, 10yds, 20 yds, 50 yds ,100yds, well the one i killed were on borrowed time at 30yds Q+ and went because Q- they followed 100yds plus

I listen to a beekeper john mumford Hertfordshire BKAA four years ago at a talk on calm breeds, he breeds very calm bees and sells them to very few people , ie only those who he think fit

and why are they calm, because he selects perhaps one out of twenty new queens and kills any that follow more than 4ft to 6ft from the hive so even when queenless 20ft following is the max

 

[Gardenbees]

In the case of my hot hive, I decided to wait until dusk to do an artificial swarm, i.e. split them into not two but three separate colonies, two with queen cells. It did help a bit with following, but handling bees at that time of day isn't ideal (I wanted to avoid neighbour problems as much as anything: it is really antisocial to inflict furious guard bees on sunbathing neighbours, especially when they're as nice as mine are). It was really worth the effort. After splitting the colony into smaller boxes with lots of space and new frames to draw out, they have completely relaxed. Smaller colonies are much easier to deal with, and the fine weather means that the two queenless colonies have each now got a new, mated queen and new brood. I can now go right up to each of them and handle the frames without gloves.
Just think about it, you have split a nasty colony into three so now you have three queens with 50 per cent genetic makeup of the nasty colony. There is now a good chance depending on drones that when they build up you will have three nasty colonies, new genes is the answer.
Kev

I appreciate the point, but the thing is they aren't nasty bees. They've been excellent except for one week; this was in fact the colony that I was particularly anxious to split. There was a good reason for their behaviour, which was not typical. Now I can handle them without gloves again, and they're calm and manageable. It's not always the fault of the bees!

 

[greatbritishhoney]

It's not always the fault of the bees!

I totally agree. Find out the cause first THEN take action. If they are always aggressive followers then, fair enough, get rid of them, but if they are temporarily aggressive due to some external factor then IMO it's criminal to destroy them.
Same with any animal really - if my usually docile dog suddenly displayed aggession I would work out why first (health problem, pain, fear etc) rather than rushing her to the vets to be put down.

 

[Gardenbees]

If you possibly can then it's certainly worth trying to sort things out, especially with a normally-calm colony.

Just went to have a look at the girls this lunchtime. Pussycats now! Saw the queen in one of them: a nice, plump, glossy-looking lady who has apparently been laying eggs like a machine seen I last checked. So far so good.

At least this way I'll have a choice of queens to unite colonies with if one or two of the colonies turn out to have problems. And I was intending to trap drone brood in any case, so they're unlikely to perpetuate themselves much in the interim.

 

[Deerless]

Is location ever an issue. I ask I artificially swarmed a gentle colony earlier in year. It was split into three, two remained on my garden (original queen and one with queen cell) the other was moved to my allotment 300 yds away.

Shortly after, I collected a swarm and housed it on allotment. This swarm turned out to be a real nightmare, couldn't even stand within 5 yds without being buzzed and followed.
Once this colony gone, new queen noted in my original hive which has exploded in numbers. Problem is that after any inspection, I have to walk away and leave for remainder of day as they follow, pinging my head until off site.

Last straw last night when one entered green house and began buzzing in that very upset tone they have. I decided it was best to walk out but as I did so, it buzzed and followed me until outside and then stung me behind ear which now has a golf ball size swelling below it.

I can move it to a safer location whilst I decide if a re queen is the answer. My thoughts were that location may be a factor. There are several small ponds on adjacent plots and a large pond 150 yds away so water not an issue. It has an 8ft mesh fence around to lift them over adjacent plots.
Any thoughts?

 

[Tom Bick]

Do you know the strain of the bees / Queen in your original hive?

Some bees have a fantastic reputation of gentle nature but it can all change when a queen or subsequent queens are raised from the original queen.

Plenty of things can make bees grumpy from time to time but if you already have grumpy bees the situation can only get a lot worse.

 

[Deerless]

The original colony was collected as a swarm to get me started. The bees were large and brown, a friend said they were carnies.
The 1st split colony that stayed at home look exactly the same but the problem one at allotment are smaller and much darker. much like the hell swarm I had briefly.