Need an opinion...

[spafmagic]

I take care of a hive in Stokesdale, NC for someone. At first he had two hives we started from 2 swarms both a week apart from each other, mid spring last year.

The first one grew really fast but lost their Queen, and had no eggs. After being re-queened, within a month it turned into a really pissy hive.

By the Fall the second hive had lost their queen, and with the cold weather fast approaching, I felt the best thing to do was combine the two hives to one... getting my ankles stung up in the process, lol.

The combined hive consisted of a deep brood box, a medium box, and another deep on top... the hive overwintered better than I expected.

2'ish weeks ago, I inspected them and saw eggs, larvae, and stores. A week later I decided I was going to split them because the hive was packed. The very day I went to do it the landowner said the bees had swarmed as I was on the way, when I got there the swarm was gone. Another beekeeper and I tried to inspect the hive and the bees just wouldn't have it at 5:30 in the afternoon. They were far too angry. Though still very packed despite the swarm that left.

So we closed them up and when the weather permitted I came back this past Wednesday. They had no eggs, but a bunch of capped brood, most of the frames of stores where uncapped,  and they had at least 8 queen cells.

Splitting them, I took a few frames of brood including a total of 3 Queen cells, 1 light, and 1 heavy deep frame of stores and put them into the new box set next to the other hive, shaking in at least four frames worth of extra bees... then I put a queen excluder on the new box and placed the medium box that they overwintered with atop of it. The medium had frames with brood on it along with other resources. And then I closed them up.

I hope the house bees will graduate into foragers quickly enough to gather resources...

Does anybody have any thoughts as to whether you would have done anything different?

[van from Arkansas]

The last defensive hive I dealt with was years ago, I split a defensive hive.  Dealing with 2 separate hives with 15,000 bees each is much easier than a single hive with 30,000.  The bigger the defensive hive, the more splits I would make. Today, I would place in nucs if the hive was mean enough.

Requeening a defensive hive is a bit difficult and requires different techniques than standard requeening.  Defensive hives are the worst about queen rejection.

[spafmagic]

I'm almost thinking that the queen I got for them might have had some African genes... the day I split them, they did not stop hounding me after I closed them up.

And yes I did smoked them. It didn't seem to have much effect. The bunch I still had buzzing around my head after I left the hives behind... I closed my eyes and surrounded my entire head with smoke from my smoker, and they were relentless.

[Bob Wilson]

Earlier this year, when my bees swarmed and one was queenless and the other was robbing, they were ugly. After a smoking and an inspection, some of them harrassed me all the way around my large yard to the other side of my house. Just mean. However, two days ago I worked them without a single sting without gloves and they were as sweet as could be, now that they are queen right and busy again.

[Ben Framed]

In my limited time and experience of beekeeping, I have found that bees tend to be more defensive just after winter and before the flow. I have concluded this is nature's way of survival, until or unless I learn differently.

Phillip

[sc-bee]

I'm almost thinking that the queen I got for them might have had some African genes...

Not likely.... bees are sometimes pissy and bee splits from pissy hives have a better chance of also being pissy. They may not show it as nucs or small colonies but later on.......

[guitarstitch]

I have found that a queenless hive is going to be more pissy than a queenright hive in most cases.  Granted, that's only three years of experience talking.

I have one in the process of making a queen now.  When the queen was first removed for a split, I couldn't get within 50' of the hive entrance without getting bumped rather excitedly.  They seem to have calmed down some, and I'm hoping to split them again since this hive is massive.

If you got your queen from a reputable breeder, it's highly unlikely that the queen is even remotely africanized.

[cao]

If you have a hive that has queen cells, I make splits.  Whether the hive is hot or not.  This is when having a couple nucs around comes in handy.  You said there was at least 8 queen cells.  I assume that they were on more than on frame.  I would take each frame that has a queen cell and put in a nuc with a couple frames with food and brood.
 

I have found that a queenless hive is going to be more pissy than a queenright hive in most cases. 

If they are hopelessly queenless then they can get a little pissy.  I have found some of the calmest hives are ones that I removed the queen a week before.  These hives don't have a queen but are not queenless because they have made multiple queen cells.  And each frame that has a queen cell on it has a frames worth of happy bees because they are close to their queen.

[spafmagic]

If you have a hive that has queen cells, I make splits.  Whether the hive is hot or not.  This is when having a couple nucs around comes in handy.

Yes, they were more than just one frame. I was unfortunately limited to another 10 frame deep. So I made sure there were some resources, brood, and at least three of the eight Queen cells in the new box. The landowner's not looking to have more than 3 hives.