Which hive is the pissy one?

[FloridaGardener]

I agree most smaller colonies are more docile.  The nucs hardly need smoke.  The 10-20 [medium] frame colonies are good girls.
And the 50-60 frame hives are slightly annoyed at best, and defensive at worst. 

Down side of big colonies: it's hard to pull a frame of brood from a big colony that won't miss it, because brood is under 3 heavy boxes full of honey / nectar / half-drawn frames.  And it takes more box-open time when inspecting. 

The up side of big colonies: they crank out the honey, for sure.  They use less equipment: fewer bottom boards, inner lids, and telescoping lids.  There are fewer pests threatening the hive.

But next year I'm aiming for a happy medium of 4 medium boxes.

[Oldbeavo]

In really pissy hives they tend to be hard to requeen, in my experience they tend to kill the new queen and draw their own.
If you split the hive and kill the bad queen, only give the splits capped brood then the bees will be queenlees and in a few days check that you have not missed an egg that is drawn into a QC, then add your new queen.
If you cannot find the queen or don't want to take a heap of stings doing so then split the hive into nucs and leave for a few days, Each nuc must have eggs in the brood.
After a few days all the nucs bar one will have cells, no cells has the queen, less bees to search through to find her.
You have the option to requeen the queen nuc or knock off the cells and requeen all of them.
We tend to use mated queens as being migratory BK's we don't know where we picked up the pissy genetics.

[Ben Framed]

Good information Oldbeavo. Have you and Karen tried push in cages when re-queening a hive such as this? 

[FloridaGardener]

If you cannot find the queen or don't want to take a heap of stings doing so then split the hive into nucs and leave for a few days, Each nuc must have eggs in the brood.
After a few days all the nucs bar one will have cells, no cells has the queen, less bees to search through to find her.

Smart smart smart.

[Oldbeavo]

Hi Ben
Being migratory BK"s, our bees can be 100 miles from home so going back in a few days to release a queen is not practical.
Our options for a pissy hives depends on how savage.
Really savage, kill queen, remove all open brood, add open brood from very quiet hive and let them rear a new queen.
Bit savage then add a caged queen with a candy plug but put her between the first and second frame out of the main traffic. Give the hive a good shake of icing sugar to get rid of old queen smell and create a distraction. Not always successful but is an option.

[2Sox]

Hi Ben
Being migratory BK"s, our bees can be 100 miles from home so going back in a few days to release a queen is not practical.
Our options for a pissy hives depends on how savage.
Really savage, kill queen, remove all open brood, add open brood from very quiet hive and let them rear a new queen.
Bit savage then add a caged queen with a candy plug but put her between the first and second frame out of the main traffic. Give the hive a good shake of icing sugar to get rid of old queen smell and create a distraction. Not always successful but is an option.

Regarding ?bit savage?: Do you kill the queen or just put in a candy plugged queen, after sugar powder, with the old queen still inside?

[Oldbeavo]

Hi 2SOX
in both cases we kill the queen.
Another hint for pissy hives is that after using the Sawdustmaker smoking technique, when removing the supers put the first one on a solid base, then second one if there is one on top and put the lid on it. This is so you have all the bees not in the brood box locked away so you don't have to deal with them getting agro and wanting to sting you.

[2Sox]

Hi 2SOX
in both cases we kill the queen.
Another hint for pissy hives is that after using the Sawdustmaker smoking technique, when removing the supers put the first one on a solid base, then second one if there is one on top and put the lid on it. This is so you have all the bees not in the brood box locked away so you don't have to deal with them getting agro and wanting to sting you.

Thanks. 

What is the Sawdustmaker smoking technique?

[BeeMaster2]

2Sox,
Here is a copy of the article I wrote about smoking a hive.

Calming down a hive.
I can make the calmest hive mean and I can make the meanest hive calm. It is all about you handle them and how you smoke them.
I teach the 10 minute and 30 second smoking procedure. Get your smoker puffing thick smoke. Puff 3-4 puffs into the bottom of the hive. Wait full 10 minutes, puff 3-4 puffs into the bottom of the hive and wait 30 seconds. While waiting, slowly slide your hive tool between boxes to break the propolis. Do not bang on the hive tool to do this.
One thing you do not want to do is bang anything against your hives.
Move slowly and gently slide frames in and out of the hive.

Jim Altmiller

[Michael Bush]

Run your hand over the top of the hive directly over the bees.  A hot hive will hit your hand.