So i have a hive thats been super aggressive for about 3 weeks now and i havent been able to spot the queen or any signs of a queen for 2 of those weeks. Last week i gave them a frame of brood that had swarm cells on it and they just chewed the cells out and the week before i gave them eggs and young larva to see if they would make some queens with it and all they did was just cap the brood. How would i go about fixing this hive? I have mated queens on hand but im afraid that they will just kill her if i try to introduce one to them
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Place a queen in a cage on top the frames and close the hive. Wait 10 minutes and check around the cage for another queen. If found, pinch her. If not, repeat. If no queen then, shake all bees through an excluder into another box. You should find her then.
After that, leave new queen caged for 5 days or more, then release her.
Oh so much fun shaking hot bees.
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Orin, if possible, split the hot hive and walk away. Easier dealing with two hives of 10,000 than one hive of 20,000. Then give ID text some thought.
I had a hive that got hot from development demolition. Figured out later they were superseding their queen. Probably hard to feed larvae 1000 times a day during constant earthquakes.
Anyhow....Sweet as kittens now.
There are lots of tips here on working a hot hive:
https://beemaster.com/forum/index.php?topic=53626.msg484538#msg484538
Best tip is get up at dawn with a lot of coffee in ya.
Also - Based on a tip from this forum, preloading my blood with lots of vitamin C seems to minimize stings.