why is my bees hot?

[ScituateMA]

I bought two packages of bees in May 2013 from Rossman apiaries. they were very gentle when i got them. one of the queen quality was poor and i raised my own queens and split and made 5 hives out of them in July.
bees from new queens in last summer was not that hot but not as gentle as their mothers
this spring some are hotter. i have to use smoker and veil but last year i did not use smoker. queens are the same queens and  they have been hot since the spring came. It is not like they are hot for a short time.

[Kathyp]

older hives can get hotter.  more bees, more to protect...

also be sure that nothing is bothering them.  sometimes a skunk, yellowjackets, or some other kind of critter can cause them to be more defensive.

use smoke. it's always a good idea anyway.  the fewer bees that get mad and sting you, the fewer you kill :-D

[RHBee]

Amen on the smoke. Some say they don't use any but I don't see how.

[Spear]

Was in my hives today and some I couldn't work without smoke and others I didn't even puff any smoke in the hive - My smoker kept going out - and had no problems with them. I was stung 4 times only because I didn't look where I put my fat fingers and kept squashing bees... :(

[BeeMaster2]

Are you using gloves?
I suspect not but gloves will carry the pheromones from all of the bees that stung them.
Besides what was mentioned above, how often are you going into your hives? If too often, this may be upsetting them.
Remember, when you take a hive completely apart, it can take 3 days for them to get back to normal. That is 3 days that the SHB own the hive and not as much food is coming in.
Jim

[ScituateMA]

We sure have skunks around but I have never seen skunk in front of beehives. My bees are located in my back yard by window. I often check around at night.
Even if I have five bee hives now because of location, I used to have 35 for over 10 years and I never use gloves.
yes I would say I check them often but not going through all frames and boxes or lets say not more often now than I used to check them.
I change queens every year and I raise my own queens. If I raise queens from my strongest hive which has 2.5 boxes of full bees in Massachusetts,  how high is the chance that daughters can be as angry as their mothers?
I was told that average lost in MA this winter is % 40 and I lost none. My queens proved themselves and I would prefer their genes but I dont likethey are hotter. They are not crazy but I do not want a neighbor get stung

[BeeMaster2]

We sure have skunks around but I have never seen skunk in front of beehives. My bees are located in my back yard by window. I often check around at night.
Even if I have five bee hives now because of location, I used to have 35 for over 10 years and I never use gloves.
yes I would say I check them often but not going through all frames and boxes or lets say not more often now than I used to check them.
I change queens every year and I raise my own queens. If I raise queens from my strongest hive which has 2.5 boxes of full bees in Massachusetts,  how high is the chance that daughters can be as angry as their mothers?
I was told that average lost in MA this winter is % 40 and I lost none. My queens proved themselves and I would prefer their genes but I dont likethey are hotter. They are not crazy but I do not want a neighbor get stung

My father in law started with a hive from a swarm that my father hosed down to get rid of it real quick. It swarmed at the beginning of a large family party for my daughter. My dad told him it would be a hot hive and it was always hot and always the best producer for about 20 years.
I had a hive last year that was hot but after they swarmed, the parent hive calmed right down. The swarm was so hot that I took a dozen stings to my head when I popped the branch to get them out of the tree. I was being stung like crazy while I was dumping the bees out of the bucket into the nuc.. They were so bad that I left the box on the ground with the top off and they left on their own.
Jim

[jayj200]

one more thing no one has mentioned.

My hives were gentle at first, to the more I went in the worse (hotter they became) I started calling them mean bees.
the deeper I went the more smoke was needed, the meaner they got more smoke, more stings.
our president came by when i wasn't there my wife was. I had told him to wear a suit cause my last visit netted me over 50 stings to the legs.
well he used no suit and little smoke from his smoker not a sting. he asked what we used for smoke? just wood chips she said some one had told us to use them.
seams the chips are treated with some chemical. the bees do not like.
the next week I used pine needles very calm bees. go figure.
jay

[sc-bee]

As Kathy stated they had no home to protect when in package state. Now they have a home to protect when you ear in it. Also bees on feed or a flow will be calmer. Bees in a dearth more pissy. Sometimes after taking honey real pissy :-D

[brooklynbees]

Jayj200 - where did you get the chips from? I've used compressed cotton fiber pellets for two years;it works ok if you break it up before you put it in the smoker and start it with some newspaper in the bottom. You may want to try that.

[jayj200]

using pine needles now they don't react so harshly
thanks
jay