I have just the one hive of bees, and up until about 2 weeks ago they have been so docile and amazing to work with, but now they are so incredibly aggressive. To the point where people have been stung in the garden for just being there. Not evem close to the hive (30-40ft away) they have been about 10 stings (atleast) that are totally put of the norm.
I opened them up today to try and find why theyre being rhis aggressive. And they swarmed me like mad. I managed to see brood in all stages. And the queen. They do have stores, not a load but definitely enough. They havent got any honey in the super yet. And i got recommended by a very experienced keeper to put another brood box on to give them more space, since the give is actually going through a conversion (langstroth to national) so i did that. I sat out in the garden (with my veil) and watch for a while and could seem to see any robber bees. And i am going to look into testing for varroa. Im not sure why this is happening but its becoming such a nuisance for my family and i feel extremely bad for them.
The queen has been marked and is the original.
This colony was captured from a swarm and the queen wasn’t ever replaced.
I live in Devon in the UK
Any advice or help at all would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
I always think of bees in the natural world. What makes bees aggressive? The main answer in my view is that bees are protecting the next generation. They recognize a predator by an increase in CO2 in the air, also dark colors & hair. They will also get defensive during & after a lot of bad weather, on account that other bees will try to steal their honey.
If bees get aggressive during an inspection, we can expect that aggression to linger for another 3 days or so.
When inspecting, use plenty of smoke, work at the rear of the hive, avoid any sudden jolts, & keep our movements slow & non aggressive.
I’m still not sure (@Dawn_SD might know) whether the sperm from drones mixes together, or each sperm sack is used separately. If each sperm sack is used separately, that would explain a colony becoming more aggressive, or in some cases, as I’ve found becoming less aggressive, which is why I’ve always wondered about that.
Hi Ollie, welcome to the Flow forum! My parents used to live in Devon - Bideford. Very pretty part of the world.
Unless she is an artificially inseminated queen, each cache of sperm is used separately by the queen, until it runs out. Most queens sold to retail beekeeper are not artificially inseminated, so this could be part of the problem.
Other possibilities that I can think of are:
Robbing, but you have looked for that
Nectar dearth, so they are protecting what they have aggressively
Supercedure of the queen, but you have excluded that, given that she is marked
Harassment from something else. Varroa doesn’t tend to make bees angry, but you should definitely do a sugar roll or alcohol wash once a month from March to October. Have there been any Asian hornet sightings in Devon? I have heard of them in Kent, but not in the south-west
I would perhaps take off the super, put on a second brood box and feed them with an internal hive feeder (rapid feeder or inverted mesh-lid bucket are my two favourites). If they don’t settle down in 2 weeks, I would look into getting a new queen, but it will take them at least 2 months to settle down after the queen is replaced, so that would not be a quick fix.
Thanks for clearing that up for me Dawn. That certainly explains why an aggressive colony becomes unaggressive. & vice versa. At least if that’s the case with Ollie’s bees, we know that the queen herself must be placid. It’s just a question of how long each sperm cache lasts.
I had one colony that was continually unworkable, which would suggest that the queen herself carried unworkable genes.
I have checked for robbers (i watched the entrance of the hive for any fights or aggression). I’m not sure if there is another way of doing it.
I have put a new brood box on but i will also take off the super and put a feeder on. 1:1 ratio?
And no Asian hornets from what i have seen and heard of.
The bees have really chosen the most awkward time though since i am out of the country for a couple weeks on tuesday. But i think if i come back and theyre still as aggressive as before i will look into a queen replacement.
I read that a new queens pheromones can instantly somewhat calm a hot hive. Not sure how true that is. Just wish i knew the problem since its a family garden and right now no one can use it without a great risk at being stung.
I would use 2:1 sugar to water, but if you have hard water, 5:3 dissolves faster
Sorry you have nasty bees. I know how that feels. I have been chased more than 200 feet from my apiary in Oxford, and they weren’t even africanized! Very unpleasant. In my case, it was caused by teenagers harrassing the hives on their way home, but the hives were also a caucasian mix, and were genetically defensive
Happened to one of my backyard hives last year. The neighbours could not go outside. The queen met a quick end, emergency cells were removed after four days and the hive was requeened a few days later.
Every time I read about queen mating, the number of successful drones seems to go up. Thirty years ago, it was about 10. Then it went up to 25. Now I think that many researchers are saying up to 50. Given that the average queen is productive for 3-5 years, I guess that the male genetics in her offspring will be around for about a month, sometimes more, depending on the time of year and the size of the sperm cache
I have had one hive so aggressive that I had to split it into four 5 frame nuclei to find and eliminate the queen. It was quite the process! David had over 50 stingers lodged in his socks. I wore Wellington boots (gum boots if you prefer), so my ankles were not stung, but they did get through my goat skin gloves. Very nasty. However, once they were down to 5 frames per hive, and 3 of the 4 nuclei were queenless, until I found the perpetrator, the neighbours and us had a better time.
Once re-queened and recombined, they were great, but it did take almost a couple of months. However, these were Africanized bees, and not what you would experience in Aussie or the UK
