Hot Hives

[GSF]

Jim, you're right. A friend of mine who bought package bees a year ago had the same problem. They were stinging him in the yard. Now his bees are not interested in people anymore.

[Captain776]

I am new and just have the one hive I set up from an 8 frame NUC April 7.
Never wore a full suit, just long sleeve shirt, veil, gloves but no bees ever came near me when doing an inspection or putting sugar inside the first week until they got oriented.
A few days ago, I did a full inspection, added one more frame with starter strip and a top feeder and didn't use any protection, just a little smoke before taking off the cover, then no more smoke, none of them were the least bit interested in me.

I like it~!!

Bruce

[Acebird]

none of them were the least bit interested in me.

I like it~!!

Bruce

When there is other hives next to them they will be more protective.

[minz]

My neighbor was thinning trees across the street from my hives (60-90 feet away)and said he had several bees start head butting him. He walked away from the hives and when he got on his lawnmower he got stung. 
I keep saying that I am going to remove that queen but she is laying 3 solid frames per week. I used the hive as a cell builder, gave 3 frames of open to another hive, took 3 more frames for a queen castle and this week it is still the strongest hive I own.
It has been such a wet, cold winter/spring that throwing away resources is difficult. I am feeding instead of extracting.

[Acebird]

I keep saying that I am going to remove that queen but she is laying 3 solid frames per week.

I can picture the neighbor dousing all your hives with poison.  Just saying.

[Captain776]

Splitting is a method of swarm control and varroa suppression.  If your hive swarms or it crashes because of varroa you get no honey.  It is my experience that splitting in the spring does not kill your honey production.  It saves it.

It is pretty much spring and summer all year here, even when we get to our cool months, it does not go below 60 and something us always in bloom

[minz]

I can picture the neighbor dousing all your hives with poison.  Just saying.
[/quote]
I have come close to putting it in a black plastic garbage bag a couple of times!
This next batch of cells every queen castle is getting one frame of that hive and it is done! So she has 8 days left (unless I change my mind and put her in a nuc).

[Captain776]

none of them were the least bit interested in me.

I like it~!!

Bruce

When there is other hives next to them they will be more protective.

We are fixing to find out, I am picking up 2 NUC's tomorrow

Stay Tuned

Bruce

[minz]

They survived-unbelievable! Got a call from the yard I dumped the mean hive (broken into 7 small pieces, killed the queen and gave queen cells) she said it was swarming.  I found the queen cup encased in wax, 6 rouge queen cells, two open, one  torn down the side, bees all over the outside of the hive.  I swept all the bees from the outside of the hive to a spare deep with 3 frames from the original hive. I slid the original hive over 2?, I cut out queen cells in sets of pairs and put one in the original hive, one in the center. During inspection I found a queen with her head in a cell, still small but a queen. I dumped her into the far hive.
Son got a bee up his pants leg (got in his tall boot, under the pants, up the leg) nailed him in the calf. After a couple of minutes had to send him back to the truck, the front of his jeans looked like a pin cushion. We do not put that much smoke to a ham and it was not stopping it.  We parked 50 yards away and he took the bees along.

[BeeMaster2]

Minz,
The next time you work this hive, try smoking it with a few puffs in the bottom, then wait a full 10 minutes, then smoke it again and wait 30 seconds.
I have done this with my most aggressive hive and they stay very calm. It puts them in swarm mode.
Jim

[minz]

I will hit them with smoke first and go work the other hives. Can I just give them a short blast as I move from hive to hive for a more prolonged approach or after about 6 times will it just have the opposite affect?
If somebody knows mean bees it is FL or TX with the Africans.

[BeeMaster2]

Minz,
You want to give them enough smoke to go and fill up with honey. If your other bees are pretty calm, I would smoke this hive, set a timer and then work another calm hive. The wait will bee worth your time.
Jim

[minz]

Thanks I had a set of hives that one of the two started to get a bit hot. This weekend I used this trick and hit them all before starting (not a full 10 on the first). I didn?t think anything of it until I went to write the notes on the box and it said ?getting hot? on the box.  Nice take away, now we will see if it works on the monster.

[BeeMaster2]

Glad it helped. Let me know how it works on the monster.
The 10 minutes puts them in swarm mode. The 30 seconds takes away their communications.
Jim