Aggressive hive

[chickenwing654]

I am having my first experience with a hot hive (aggressive).  They are in Maine and I am now back in MA.   I check on them every three weeks  when I go up there.  They just became aggressive on my second to last trip up there.

Queen is a egg laying machine, laying wall to wall brood.  Carnolian.  Bees have  always been all right in the past.  Three weeks ago, the weather was a nice sunny day, 70's and sunny.  I did my usual check on my two hives.  The first was no problem, healthy and lots of brood and  bees.

Then on to my second hive, larger colony.  I knew I was in trouble after opening it up.  I gave it my usual smoke in  the entrance, and under the cover.  I gave  it two minutes before lifting off the cover.  I had no protection on me other  than the smoker, that was a mistake!
I got one frame out after smoking the top of the frames before the attack began,.  Smoke did nothing at this point, and I had to quickly but hive back together after getting stung too many to count.

Hours later I was still getting stung in my front yard, no where near the hive.

Skip to this past weekend,  I tried again, only with a total body suit which I took out of the wrapper.  Same  thing happened but with less stings (I have to practice buttoning up my neck area better, and my sock area.  I took out a  couple of frames then backed off and put them together.  I was intimidated with the amount of bees attacking my suit looking for a way in, then when a couple of bees got into my helmet, I gave up inspecting the hive. BEES Two, Me 0.

Now for my questions...

I think I am supposed to requeen to get a better queen, but this is not the time of the year to replace.  Even If I could find her.
Should I just leave her in place since it is  late fall?  I am going back up in six weeks.

Thoughts on how I should proceed.

thanks
Tazz

[iddee]

Leave it until spring. It may die, or it may be docile in the spring. It may requeen it self in the spring. There's nothing you can do for it in Maine in late Nov. or Dec., so just leave it and things will be better in the spring.

[bwallace23350]

What makes a hive like this get more aggressive?

[BeeMaster2]

I agree with Iddee. Just leave it alone. It is a strong hive with a lot of assets (food and winter brood) to protect. It is going into winter and they are just trying to make sure they can make it. By spring it will be a lot smaller with a lot less food to protect. It does not sound like you need to do any more inspecting. It may take 3 weeks for the bees to calm down.
I have 2 hives here that are just fine until I try to work on them. After a few days after removing honey the last time they have calmed down a lot. They are strong enough that they also filled most the 2 supers back up with honey which means that in at the end of the month I will be back in the hives to remove and reallocate honey supplies in all of my hives.
Jim

[chickenwing654]

Hi,
Thanks for  the replies.  I will leave them until spring.

A couple of more questions.
If they are still aggressive in the spring, should I re queen then?
Any tricks to get the bees off your bee suit?   I tried smoke and it did nothing.  I moved away from the hive.  I stood still in a  bush, hoping they would loose interest with me, but they took a while to lose interest with me.

thanks
Tazz

[Acebird]

Tazz, is there any chance the hive is being pestered by another animal?  When you do go back to the hive look for evidence of claw scratching on the hive.  Wash your cloths/suit in unscented detergent.  Smoke yourself prior to approaching the hive.  Sting venom can leave a scent that you cannot detect but they can.  Good luck next time.  Hopefully the hive will not bother anyone while you are gone.

[Beeboy01]

Check for ants, they can really rile up a hive by attacking at night. Also if the hive isn't queen right it can have a sudden mood change for the worse.

[bwallace23350]

Thanks. This is just good info to have in general.

[BeeMaster2]

Tazz,
Try walking through the bushes, the thicker the better, they will get left on the entrance side.
Jim

[GSF]

Just repeating what's already been said;

Leave them be. It's probably late fall up in your neck of the woods. They have to be aggressive because they have no plan B if the food is took from them.

Once they sting, they mark, then they home in on you.

I have a 3 deep hive. It was mean as a snake last spring, then right before I could re queen they got docile. I put a quart jar on yesterday to beef up their reserves and they got me at least 3 times. Yep, once right inside the nose.

[NeilTheCop]

Had a similar incident.
I noticed that I had bees all over the two humming bird feeders on the side of my house, never occurred before and no, they don't leak. So I had a look at my top bar hive and the entrance was a mass of bees. As this was only a couple of weeks ago I thought it too late in the year for the hive to swarm. Suited up and gave it a smoking, waited about 5 minutes as usual then lifted the lid. All hell broke loose. Even with a full suit I picked up 10 stings along my arms and they started attacking my cats who were about 100 yards from the hive. These bees were crazy and instead of ignoring me after I had moved away from the hive, followed me for nearly an hour!
Today, the hive is nice and quiet, but I'm still a bit leery of opening it up again.

[bwallace23350]

I have yet to see anything aggressive out of my bees. What does it kind of resemble?

[bwallace23350]

Also what kind of suite are you wearing to take ten stings? I have yet to take one through my ultra breeze

[chickenwing654]

Hi,
wow, lots of replies.  As for the aggressive hive for me, they were attacking in large numbers (hundreds at a time).  Head butting and covering my suit.   

I was just doing a inspection making sure everything is still good with the hive and being queen right.  I never got to go thru the hive except for a couple of frames.  The top deep had plenty of capped honey,

As for my suit, I didn't have one the first time.  Got like 40 stings all over my body.
On the second inspection, it was operator error.  The first time I ever put on the suit, I zipped up and zipped on the veil.  I forgot to Velcro the zippers closed at my neckline.  Got a couple of bees flying around inside my veil , then closed it back up again. 

I do have a electric fence around the two hives so don't think its a animal bothering them.
thanks
Tazz

[NeilTheCop]

Also what kind of suite are you wearing to take ten stings? I have yet to take one through my ultra breeze

Mann Lake VS-310.
It was in the high 80's so I was sweating and the cotton has a habit of clinging to you especially around the arms.

[bwallace23350]

I am pretty happy with my ultra breeze. Yet to take a sting through it and it is pretty breezy and ot so hot

[MimbresBees]

Thing is most hobby bee havers don't have working experience to truly compare defensive bees, and any type of pelting makes them think the bees are aggressive when in fact it's normal bee behaviour.

[jalentour]

Chicken,
My hives are always more aggressive in the fall.  I would suggest to you that this is as Mim says, normal behavior, seasonally.
I agree with the others, don't do anything now and reassess in the spring.

[BeeMaster2]

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