Very Angry Bees

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Joined
Jul 1, 2017
Messages
159
Reaction score
19
Location
suffolk
Hive Type
National
Number of Hives
12
Yep, the old question I'm sure. Angry bees.

2nd year for me, 2 hives through winter, 2 new queens / hives from one of last years queens, 2 new Buckfast hives and my last hive I purchased local.

All Calm until 4 weeks ago, the hive I purchased locally bees started running around frames, hitting bee suit etc. 7 days ago, very lively, closed up quick and left. thought bad day etc.
Today, 3 stings through leather gloves, 4 stings through bee suit, not funny anymore, time to lose queen and combine with one of my new hives ready for winter my thoughts.

I'm seriously not keen to enter the angry hive, find the queen, despatch and combine. could be painful.
The Hive I want to combine the bees are perfect, would they deal with these angry guys??

some advice please.

I did think of taking the hive to the a corner of the field, turning it out and just saving the frames and brood...Very Wrong??
 
Sounds like all was well until the flow came to a juddering end. It is quite possible this colony was/is being robbed.
Layer up under your suit will prevent the stings if you decide on a course of action. She won't be laying drones now so I'd be inclined to leave things until Spring and see what you start the year with. If they are still snotty, they will be smaller and easier to deal with and you've avoided any possible harm coming to another queen at the wrong time of year.
 
Yep, the old question I'm sure. Angry bees.

2nd year for me, 2 hives through winter, 2 new queens / hives from one of last years queens, 2 new Buckfast hives and my last hive I purchased local.

All Calm until 4 weeks ago, the hive I purchased locally bees started running around frames, hitting bee suit etc. 7 days ago, very lively, closed up quick and left. thought bad day etc.
Today, 3 stings through leather gloves, 4 stings through bee suit, not funny anymore, time to lose queen and combine with one of my new hives ready for winter my thoughts.

I'm seriously not keen to enter the angry hive, find the queen, despatch and combine. could be painful.
The Hive I want to combine the bees are perfect, would they deal with these angry guys??

some advice please.

I did think of taking the hive to the a corner of the field, turning it out and just saving the frames and brood...Very Wrong??
Yes very wrong... there could be many reasons why they have turned angry...lack of nectar/ honey flow/robbing from wasps or bees/ bad weather and most of all them rubbish leather gloves that want banning.. i have calm bees that are touchy at the moment and all of the above contributes to there behavior... however those rubbish leather gloves hold the sting pheromone and cause many issues during each inspection they are also too thick so you could be splatting bees with your fingers without even knowing it...that its self will bring out the defensive streak..
Give them a chance and they will most likely calm down... most of all bin them leather gloves and buy a box of nitrile gloves for £4.50 per 100 ..
 
Ok, thanks. Maybe I was a little harsh after the stings.

Will leave as suggested until spring, maybe few feeds to help through winter, I did see 2 empty frames in brood box before rush to close.

I use the nitrile gloves, after first stings few weeks ago with this hive I changed gloves just for this hive.

Thanks again.
 
All my colonies were very aggressive yesterday and I would have taken many many stings to my wrists and hands if not protected. Very little food in any hive so now on syrup feeding for winter. I left plenty of stores on some and they've eaten all of it.
 
Yesterday rearranged a hive and applied thymol. They hated me with a vengeance.Multiple stings. Today I inspected them - they were as good as gold..
 
Yep, the old question I'm sure. Angry bees.

2nd year for me, 2 hives through winter, 2 new queens / hives from one of last years queens, 2 new Buckfast hives and my last hive I purchased local.

All Calm until 4 weeks ago, the hive I purchased locally bees started running around frames, hitting bee suit etc. 7 days ago, very lively, closed up quick and left. thought bad day etc.
Today, 3 stings through leather gloves, 4 stings through bee suit, not funny anymore, time to lose queen and combine with one of my new hives ready for winter my thoughts.

I'm seriously not keen to enter the angry hive, find the queen, despatch and combine. could be painful.
The Hive I want to combine the bees are perfect, would they deal with these angry guys??

some advice please.

I did think of taking the hive to the a corner of the field, turning it out and just saving the frames and brood...Very Wrong??

You mentioned combine?
Are they queenless?
 
I think the OP suggests 'losing the queen' ie. culling and then combining. I'm thinking of doing the same with my only angry colony. Problem is, when i did this with a similar colony last year, the benign queen was killed too.
Question: what is the best way to combine an angry colony (queen culled) with a benign colony?
 
I think the OP suggests 'losing the queen' ie. culling and then combining. I'm thinking of doing the same with my only angry colony. Problem is, when i did this with a similar colony last year, the benign queen was killed too.
Question: what is the best way to combine an angry colony (queen culled) with a benign colony?

Make sure one colony is queenless. Some colonies may have 2 queens (from supersedure).
 
They can be really defensive this time e of the year, there is a difference between defensive and aggressive but neither is a pleasure to deal with. Aggressive bees need sorting, defensive bees may change temperament. I have a defensive hive I will leave till spring.
If you need to find the queen in an aggressive hive there are ways. A simple way is to tape the entrance up at night. Move the bees several yards away. Put a new box on the old site. When you open the bees on the new site they will return to the old site. This gets rid of alot of the stroppy ones and reduces the number of bees in the old hive leaving you with more chance to find the queen. You can the. Deal with the two parts separately knowing the flying bees are queenless you can combine them with another good hive. And the old hive can be requeened if necessary or it too can be combined after a couple of days.
E
 
I think the OP suggests 'losing the queen' ie. culling and then combining. I'm thinking of doing the same with my only angry colony. Problem is, when i did this with a similar colony last year, the benign queen was killed too.
Question: what is the best way to combine an angry colony (queen culled) with a benign colony?

Plan the assault on the angry colony so that most of the flyers are out... ie a sunny day!

Prepare a brood box with combs and an empty super and a queen excluder.
Also a sprayer with very dilute sugar solution and a smoker.
Later you will need feeders a new floor and extra lid
Suitably attired quietly remove the hive lid and gently add a couple of puffs of smoke under the crownboad wait and then remove adding some more smoke.If you have a super or 2nd brood / brood&1/2 remove complete box to one side with crownboad in place. ( on another empty box or similar... not on the ground)
Smoke brood box and spray some sugar solution onto top of frames, then gently place to one side ( on another empty box or similar... not on the ground)

Place your new brood box prepared earlier on the hive floor... some of the flying bees will start to enter it.
Gently remove one frame from the set aside brood box and gently mist the bees attached with the sugar solution.. keeping them in the box with a puff or two of smoke as you do so.
Shake all the bees from the comb into the new brood box ( the super if placed on top helps as a funnel)
The bees will be busy cleaning the sugary spray so will not tend to fly up at you... continue one frame at a time until you have cleared all of the bees from all of the boxes... remember to also shake any remaining bees clinging to the sides of the box into the new box ( another empty brood / super etc may be useful to place the cleared frames temporarily)
Once you have all of the bees into the new box put the queen excluder on top of it and reassemble all of the original ( now cleared of bees) boxes on top, they will have eggs and brood from the grumpy queen that will need dealing with later* replace the crown board and roof and walk away.
The following day return to the hive and before proceeding puff some smoke into the entrance( This is one of the rare occasions in beekeeping you will need to do this!!) The smoke will drive bees upthrough the queen excluder and into the top boxes.
If you can get help it would be useful at this stage.
Slide two sheets of Correx sheet ( I use them as crownboards without feeder holes all year round) above the queen excluder, and lift the top boxes to one side ( take the roof off to lighten the load). Keeping one sheet of correx on top of the queen excluder, and the other beneath the top boxes.

Take the lower box with the floor and place well away from the main colony.
Place the set aside boxes with all the bees onto a new floor.. removing the Correx sheet!... flying bees will return to it.

The removed brood box on the old floor, with the queen excluder and the Correx sheet will contain the queen (s)... once again lift each frame using smoke and sugar misting to inspect.... a good proportion of the bees in that box will have returned to the old site.... find and dispatch queen.
Close up this box and put a lid on it... (possibly feed)

*Four days later... or up to ten... go back to the hive on the new floor and go through the brood boxes and check for any queen cells and break them down... check every nook and cranny... I have even gone back in for a second look a couple of days after.
Go back to the old box that has the new frames in it ( on the old floor) and double check for a queen... reunite any bees to original hive.( although I know of a beekeeper who would simply pour a cup of petrol into this colony to destroy the drones)

Now you should have a colony that is hopelessly queenless... and even grumpier than before!
However to accomplish a merger with another colony of better temper....
Later in day when bees have ceased flying....
Remove lid, smoke bees down place a sheet of newspaper to cover ( Financial Times used to be Grandads choice) on top and dampen with the sugar spray.
Bring new colony to combine and remove floor and lid and place on top of newspaper (Feed)
Put lid back on and strap together....

In a day or so the apiary will be full of bits of newspaper and you will have accomplished a combined colony, which should be a delight to handle.

Good Luck

Yeghes da
 

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