nasty bees

[sarafina]

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:

My....what a melodramatic answer to a simple question  ROFL

stonecroppefarm - you were fortunate with your other bees.  I always use smoke or have it handy and lit and sometimes barely use it - it depends on the weather, season, etc. 

As for being Africanized - yes it is a possibility because of where the bees came from.  I had to deal with it myself and the solution is to re-queen.  Takes about 4 weeks to get back to a gentle hive.  The only way you can know for sure is to send them off for testing, but you don't have to do that unless you just want to know.  What will happen is as the numbers build up the aggressive behavior will get worse and smoking them will not calm them down and it will get to the point where they are almost impossible to inspect.  Plus they will follow you up to great distances and not give up - unlike a normal hive where once you walk away they usually give up except for a pissy girl or two.

And it may not be African genes - just a hot hive - and the solution is the same - re-queen if you can't work them.

[Finski]

.
I just killed my best queen. Willow started just bloom here and the hive has 2 boxes bees and 7 full frames of brood. But it is still stingy hive. Its last bees will live to the end of June.

I thpught what to do:

a)  Devide the colony and brood frmaes  to aid weak colonies
b) take a new queen from a small colony.
c) make boath = that I did.

When I have 20 frames bees and 7 frames brood, I may aid 5 small other hives to get a quicker build up.
But I noticed that the angry colony is not good to accept a new queen and deviding may cause other queens' deaths. It was some kind of struggle to get 2 queens in.

[jaseemtp]

I always bring a lit smoker with me, give the bees a little time to see if the calm down.  Like others have suggested, make sure they are not being robbed out or bothered by something else.  If they are still testy then look at getting new queens.  You could either contact the supplier of your bees or look in getting queens from somewhere else.  being mean does not always equal africanized bees. Just 2 cents from a rookie beek

[T Beek]

 X:X Right On Sista :)

thomas