Thoughts on Aggression

[B+.]

That's interesting. I can smell Ariel and Bold washing powder from 15 yards and it gives me burning tongue syndrome. The bees have my sympathies. It takes about 10 washes before it washes out of the garment too.

Bees are also able to see at the ultra-voilet end of the spectrum, so, any "biological" washing powder/liquid will make you stand out more.

 

[foghornleghorn]

When I read about such aggressive bees, I suggest some beekeepers are closet masochists. Such behaviour is intolerable and should not be tolerated more than two weeks in a row.. At this time of year your drones will be contaminating the gene pool for others.... let alone providing a danger to any passers by.

Queens are relatively cheap .. and lots of advice is free on how to find the queen (Move brood box etc)... Far better than a visit to A&E for yourself or someone else.. (Think pitbulls on wings)

Sometimes you can be buying in worse, tried a few queens from what appeared to be a reputable breeder but they turned out to be the most aggressive bees I've ever seen, an angry black bee would be like a pussycat compared to these striped b******s, all queens are definitely still original.

 

[Teemore]

Any chance these bees have been foraging on Oil Seed Rape John? I have one stock that went cranky last year as the OSR was going out of bloom and on cue, they did the same this year - same Queen (2015). Moved them away from the OSR to allow maintenance work on an adjacent building and they are back to being calm and steady. Neighbouring colonies illustrated no change in temperament.

 

[Geohorn]

My bees went cranky around 3-4 weeks ago and I took 5 stings through suit and gloves, our dogs got stung and the gardener too! they were on OSR which is very close by, well within 1/2 a mile away. I took off two supers over two weeks and now the OSR has gone off we are able to enjoy the garden again without getting chased and stung! I have read many reports and info regarding their mood once OSR drops off. I don't recall it happening last year and this queen is one that was reared after they swarmed last June. hopefully all back to calmer bees now!

 

[Beagle23]

I have no OSR near me and my girls seem to be up and down all the time. I posted in another thread about how I spent a pleasant afternoon yesterday sitting by the hive. Today I went to put a new crown board on and they went apeshit, stinging me through leather gloves, with half a dozen trying desperately to sting through my flimsy face netting. Alarming

 

[yeogi75]

My bees in the garden became very aggressive, so I have moved them to my out apery, now a week on still getting half a dozen bees a day arriving and attacking at the first sign of movement in the garden, attacking my face every time, could they be bees that was robbing my hive there was no fighting and no dead bees on the floor

 

[rugbee]

How many hives
And were they all aggressive
Do you count them when they return or leave
Bees only defend their nests
Can't quite understand why they would return even if you had not moved them far enough they would not be interested in you they just fly around and die

 

[yeogi75]

one hive, it became aggressive and removed it over three miles away.no hives in my garden now but still getting aggressive bees

 

[viridens]

Unless you are prepared to always wear full protection near hives, I believe Some stings should be considered par for the course, and not a cue for requeening. I expect hives to be more aggressive after inspection. Obviously, bees sting to defend their colony, and this behaviour can be triggered in many ways. I find it hard to permanently label colonies as docile or grumpy. There are just too many variables including what is going on within the hive at a particular moment, availability of forage, the weather, time of day, your own pheromones and choice of soap, detergent etc., and that's all before they respond to your manipulation skills.

Some may have, or believe they have the bees from hell. I have not. Maybe I have been lucky. The majority of my experience through the years has been with swarm 'mongrels' and their descendants, and mainly with hives within 20 yards of my back door. Yhere have been times I have been peppered with stroppy bees and forced to abandon operations one day and chased back to the house, and almost ignored the next when continuing work in the same hive, and vice versa. There have been occasions when I have I have almost literally had my nose in a hive entrance while clearing debris etc, but meanwhile visitors standing well back behind me have been exoceted and stung.

I have recently spoken to new keepers who because they have received a couple of stings when inspecting brood are convinced that they need to squish and replace their 'grumpy' queen. The assumption in this forum seems to be that 'gentleness' is due to a dominant gene which is proportionally diluted by each subsequent generation. Is there any proper evidence for this? However, I do believe that stroppyness following colony manipulation is diluted proportionally over time.

 

[melias]

Definitely a link between colony size an aggression. The question is does size cause aggression or visa versa. The conventional wisdom is that aggressive bees are no more productive than gentle bees, but I'm not convinced. I've seen my gentle bees get decimated by wasps, for example. Doesn't happen with my more aggressive colonies.

 

[JohnyP]

Surely you have heard about washing your kit in Washing soda? This was stressed as very important at our local association.
I can smell washing powders and fabric conditioners a mile off so what it must be doing to the bees is obvious. You walk into some folks houses and it is all you can smell. It can't be good for us either.

 

[yeogi75]

1, aggressive bees in garden been there for seven years.
2, moved tree miles away because of children next door did not want to get stung, there
friend is a beekeeper so they are used to bees but don't want to take the risk and no hives in
garden now.
3, bees now still turning up after a week trapped any strangers and taken away but still
a week on still bees coming and very angry any in your face trying to sting.
4, are they someone else's bees surely not my bees been away all week I don't think they
are mine.

 

[mjt68]

1, aggressive bees in garden been there for seven years.
2, moved tree miles away because of children next door did not want to get stung, there
friend is a beekeeper so they are used to bees but don't want to take the risk and no hives in
garden now.
3, bees now still turning up after a week trapped any strangers and taken away but still
a week on still bees coming and very angry any in your face trying to sting.
4, are they someone else's bees surely not my bees been away all week I don't think they
are mine.

How far away are the hives now? Barely 3 miles or much more?

 

[yeogi75]

much more, also jarring up honey today and about thirty bees around honey shed which are also chasing me

 

[drex]

Over 3 miles then they are not your bees. In this weather messing about with honey will attract them like mad. This afternoon was cutting old comb out of frames to put in solar wax melter and was surrounded with bees.

 

[user 6228]

Kagugo virus? early abuse?

Fujiyuki, T., Takeuchi, H., Ono, M., Ohka, S., Sasaki, T., Nomoto, A., & Kubo, T. (2004). Novel Insect Picorna-Like Virus Identified in the Brains of Aggressive Worker Honeybees. Journal of Virology, 78(3), 1093–1100. http://doi.org/10.1128/JVI.78.3.1093-1100.2004

Rittschof, C. C., Coombs, C. B., Frazier, M., Grozinger, C. M., & Robinson, G. E. (2015). Early-life experience affects honey bee aggression and resilience to immune challenge. Scientific Reports, 5, 15572. http://doi.org/10.1038/srep15572

 

[Fatbee]

I'm getting very fed up with my local drone population. Last year placid colony, supersedure happened late summer (marked queen gone replaced at first inspection). Now monsters. Not changed anything from my approach last year just people tolerating aggressive bees. Even had one beek in the locality joke to me he hoped I'm not planning on doing queen rearing because his are a bit feisty.
I've come to the conclusion I'm just going to have to buy in from my local rearer who's bees are great proven by 1st generation queen from him last year.

 

[JohnRoss]

Any chance these bees have been foraging on Oil Seed Rape John? I have one stock that went cranky last year as the OSR was going out of bloom and on cue, they did the same this year - same Queen (2015). Moved them away from the OSR to allow maintenance work on an adjacent building and they are back to being calm and steady. Neighbouring colonies illustrated no change in temperament.

I don't think so, My bees are in Rostrevor and I haven't seen any at all nearby, what is coming into the hives doesn't seem to be osr either.

 

[Teemore]

Keep an eye to see if there are any major nectar flows going over. Was chatting to a few beekeepers on Saturday morning and a couple commented on colonies becoming cranky as strong nectar flows went over. Their suggestion was that the bees knew their "income" was going to drop off (June gap) and they were protecting their stores.