nasty bees

[stonecroppefarm]

I received two nucs from Florida, Saturday April 23, transferred them to deep hive body Sunday. Today is Wednesday and these bees are still nasty. I am a new beek and have one hive from last year and they are doing great and are very gentle. I have never used smoke, generally feed and inspect with no equipment. These new bees, I remove the covers and withing a few seconds they are all over me, put my hand near the entrance and out they come, and they will chase after you when you withdraw. I wear my hooded jacket and gloves to top feed them. my minor concern, given they came from Florida is africanization, Is this possible?

[Finski]

.
Bees protect their home.
It is your job to protect yourself.

[yantabulla]

Smoke!

[T Beek]

I think I'd try a different queen.

thomas

[Michael Bush]

Bees who sting you when you are not wearing any equipment and you didn't smoke them, are just normal bees.  One puff of smoke goes a long ways.  A veil goes a long ways...

[Kathyp]

i think you got lucky with the first hive and now you have normal behavior   :-D  there's a reason beekeepers have been smoking bees since the beginning of time.

[iddee]

Sorry, but when you have no smoke, I have no pity.  :evil: They're bees. 5 thousand years of proven research and experience should not be ignored.

[BjornBee]

I don't blame stonecroppefarm.

20 years ago, before forums such as this, all books advised smoking.

Fast forward to today....and we have blogs, websites, and even associations, that go as far as the promotion of NOT smoking bees. You hear "It's Cruel!" or "Look at the harmful pollutants your putting in the hives". Then you have some folks who allbut give bees human like qualities, and border on suggesting bees have souls.....far beyond the realistic understanding that they are insects and react to environmental triggers such as smoke out of instinct.

Today, you can have discussion of healthier hives by locating energy lines in your yard, discuss why pegging your frames is better than using metal nails, to discussions of talking to your bees and even letting them know of a beekeepers death.

Just be glad stonecroppefarm was smart enough to ask some beekeeper with commonsense for advice. This idea of not smoking didn't just foster itself. Just as the other ideas did not. Way too many bleeding heart types out there with the power of becoming an expert overnight with a blog and website with a years worth of experience.

Reality always makes it's way back to the forefront.  :roll:

[Kathyp]

even letting them know of a beekeepers death.

thought this went back some?  old beekeeper thing?

[Davepeg]

It's good to know Bjorn knows everything and that there is nothing new to learn about beekeeping practices.  :)

[Course Bee]

I don't believe Bjorn was saying he knows everything, but that common sense usually prevails eventually.

[AliciaH]

Stonecroppefarm:  Nucs can be so very territorial, they are probably still settling in.  Give them a couple of weeks with as little interference as possible and decide then if they are truly nasty.  I would wear protection (veil, gloves), though.  And I would use smoke, at least for now.  It will give them a distraction and help you out.

Also, hives can be nasty if they are being constantly picked on.  Just brainstorming here, but if you haven't been bugging them, have you ruled out that they may be trying to rob each other?  If you only had the one hive last year, it may not hav come up for you before.  You said you were using top feeders, but it doesn't mean they won't try it.  If your weather is cool enough, downsize the entrances a bit, it may help. 

Sounds like your first hive from last year has an awesome disposition!  If you do decide to requeen, I'd use swarm cells out of that hive!

[Scadsobees]

Smoke!  It is natural, it won't hurt them.  In fact a bit of smoke will calm them so your attentions on them will be less intrusive and hurt them less, just like a shot of painkiller before stitching a wound.

And weather - you are a bit more mild weathered than me, but don't do anything with them if you can help it if it is rainy, dreary, cloudy, cool, etc etc.  They'll be more defensive then.

Hives can all have different personalities, just like people you see here on the forums.  One hive might not need smoke, but the one next to it will.  A hive that doesn't need a bit of smoke is far more an anomaly than one that does.  I don't use much in the way of protective equipment, but I will rarely do much with the bees without smoking them first.

[FRAMEshift]

even letting them know of a beekeepers death.

thought this went back some?  old beekeeper thing?

        TELLING THE BEES

        by: John Greenleaf Whittier (1807-1892)

            ERE is the place; right over the hill
            Runs the path I took;
            You can see the gap in the old wall still,
            And the stepping-stones in the shallow brook.
             
            There is the house, with the gate red-barred,
            And the poplars tall;
            And the barn's brown length, and the cattle-yard,
            And the white horns tossing above the wall.
             
            There are the beehives ranged in the sun;
            And down by the brink
            Of the brook are her poor flowers, weed-o'errun,
            Pansy and daffodil, rose and pink.
             
            A year has gone, as the tortoise goes,
            Heavy and slow;
            And the same rose blows, and the same sun glows,
            And the same brook sings of a year ago.
             
            There 's the same sweet clover-smell in the breeze;
            And the June sun warm
            Tangles his wings of fire in the trees,
            Setting, as then, over Fernside farm.
             
            I mind me how with a lover's care
            From my Sunday coat
            I brushed off the burrs, and smoothed my hair,
            And cooled at the brookside my brow and throat.
             
            Since we parted, a month had passed,--
            To love, a year;
            Down through the beeches I looked at last
            On the little red gate and the well-sweep near.
             
            I can see it all now,--the slantwise rain
            Of light through the leaves,
            The sundown's blaze on her window-pane,
            The bloom of her roses under the eaves.
             
            Just the same as a month before,--
            The house and the trees,
            The barn's brown gable, the vine by the door,--
            Nothing changed but the hives of bees.
             
            Before them, under the garden wall,
            Forward and back,
            Went drearily singing the chore-girl small,
            Draping each hive with a shred of black.
             
            Trembling, I listened: the summer sun
            Had the chill of snow;
            For I knew she was telling the bees of one
            Gone on the journey we all must go!
             
            Then I said to myself, "My Mary weeps
            For the dead to-day:
            Haply her blind old grandsire sleeps
            The fret and the pain of his age away."
             
            But her dog whined low; on the doorway sill,
            With his cane to his chin,
            The old man sat; and the chore-girl still
            Sung to the bees stealing out and in.
             
            And the song she was singing ever since
            In my ear sounds on:--
            "Stay at home, pretty bees, fly not hence!
            Mistress Mary is dead and gone!"

"Telling the Bees" is reprinted from The Complete Poetical Works of John Greenleaf Whittier. Ed. H.E.S. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1894.

[Tommyt]

Tear in my

signed

Just weepin




Nice post

[Finski]

.
Before you go to bee yard use this

Esky Honey bee cool (rc electric helicopter) smoke generator

[Kathyp]

thanks FRAME.  i knew there was something about that that was not "modern".  older than i, at least  :evil:

[FRAMEshift]

thanks FRAME.  i knew there was something about that that was not "modern".  older than i, at least  :evil:

There was also a custom dating from the late 1700s that when a deceased beekeeper was taken from the house for burial, all the hives should be rotated to face away as he was brought by.    Yes, they are insects, but we all know that there is an intelligence to the hive that is beyond any individual bee.  There is a hive mind and all beekeepers want to be in touch with that.  It's more than just a superstition.  There is art and poetry in bees.

[iddee]

There is also the custom of placing the beek's boots on a hive to tell them he is gone.

[AllenF]

My wife just said that she was going to sell the bees and let the new owner tell them.