Hi, Chris here.

[Chris Hancock]

Re-reading this thread your comment " I have been keeping and teaching beekeeping for years, now," struck me as incompatible with killing colonies, simultaneous with wishing to save the bees. Each to his own I suppose but I can foresee a lot of colonies getting the chop if your message goes out to the general public or even new beekeepers.

Let me explain that I have dealt with defensive colonies and requeened them. A couple of years ago, I went to fetch a swarm, which was a frequent thing to do, and they normally concentrate on staying with their queen whatever activity was being done to pop them into a suitable container. Never before had I experienced stinging from a swarm, but on this occasion, in the middle of the common, well away from my car, even the movement of the branch brought a mass of attacking bees. As I could not reach the swarm without something to stand on, I needed to go back to the car. They followed, stinging all the time. I felt that I could not leave them for the public, so went back and eventually got them in the box. Many were still all over me and stinging in the car. I put them into a hive and hoped that the morning would bring happier bees, but they had gone. Somewhere, they probably found their own preferred space.
That was totally unlike our usual bee behaviour. And as I have told you, this year I had that behaviour from two newly mated queens' off-spring. I consider that to be a very dangerous temperament, and not to be safe. That is why they needed to go. It would have been irresponsible to keep them or leave them until they swarmed, giving that problem to someone else. Just saying that such bees are around and we need to be aware and deal with it.
I do hope that this will not be something you have to deal with.