Passive Aggressive hive

[WingCommander]

I keep one of my hives on a friends piece of land (about an acre) - he keeps it as a nature garden and loves having them down there. I had to move one of the hives last year as it became very aggressive and he kept getting stung. I performed my first proper inspection last weekend having not been able to get in before. The hive was as busy as expected and lots of activity, brood and some decent honey in the super, which had been below. They were also typically passive and chilled out. I didn't get 'bombed' at all and they were really lovely.

After I left however my friend was stung 4 times. He said he was just walking past the hive and not interfering with them at all and that he got bees stuck in his long girly hair (not that long!!). He hasn't been stung this season yet before this and has been down a lot.

I'm getting increasingly worried about having bees on his land at all, not least as I want to re-home the other hive and my rescued bees seem to be still going in my poly-nuc so I was hoping to have 3 hives down there. Is there anything that he may be doing that is causing aggression or should I just accept the inevitable and find a more remote location for them?

 

[beeno]

Hi WingCommander,
Sorry, you need to move them whether it is true or not!

 

[domino]

Would it be worth putting netting around the hives to lift them up?

 

[drstitson]

lots of hair + product smell = stings.

this is the problem wife had - bees in hair = stings = anaphylaxis.

hair tied back if near bees and no scented stuff = all ok.

 

[itma]

It is absolutely true that 'smells' (good or bad for humans) CAN antagonise the bees.
Ripe banana is quite close to bees sting/alarm pheromone and does call in the kamikazes to target where they think there has already been some trouble.

Regarding scents, you should have a look at this recent thread => http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=28451

What you do about it is a different matter. Move or screen seem the best options.

 

[psafloyd]

Hi WingCommander,
Sorry, you need to move them whether it is true or not!

Maybe it's not the bees, it's just him.

 

[itma]

... my friend was stung 4 times. He said he was just walking past the hive and not interfering with them at all and that he got bees stuck in his long girly hair (not that long!!). ...

Dunno if he knows not to walk through the beeline to and from the hive.
Bees, quite literally, don't really look where they are going. Think of it as "flying on instruments". Hence they are not good at avoiding *unexpected* (and mobile) obstacles (er, like people just walking past the hive).

The way of avoiding collisions is to keep out of their way (or screen the bees to go a different way or height), or wear a bee veil if you must work close to the hive.
Because, as DrStitson says, after such a collision the bee will get entangled in the hair, panic and sting.

 

[beeno]

Maybe it's not the bees, it's just him.

Probably, but it is his land and he is the one getting stung! You can't really tell him to cut his hair, wash it, put it in a pony tail!

 

[psafloyd]

Probably, but it is his land and he is the one getting stung! You can't really tell him to cut his hair, wash it, put it in a pony tail!

I know, beeno. I was merely being facetious...