I understand when I am in the hive them defending the hive but I cannot go into my garden or backyard without 2-3 bees being in my face. It depends on many factors, including temperature, weather, presence of robbers and predators, etc. I put quite a few new plant pots with seedlings in them and just lately there are a lot of bees in the plant pots eating something. Maybe he should check the other one and see if it has a queen. They were landing on me and actively trying to sting. Because we opened up the hive (as well as the second swarm hive) for a thorough inspection, as we have not had a chance to do this since March and we were concerned. Is there a better time to take the honey? If it were me, I’d probably wait to see if they swarm and to see if the behavior subsides. I recognize the bee problem CCC with mites and chemicals and I like and need the pollinators. Answering questions about beesand sometimes waspsis pretty much what happens around here. I did see one bee from a different colony try to get in, but they fought him off easily. No, they are not swarming, there are no swarm cells and none of the top supers have been backfilled. I successfully captured the swarm but the bees from the original hive are very defensive. Thank you very much, Rusty. Thank you. Comments? AHB came to my mind as well when I read your description, especially when you add together their origin, the defensiveness, and the good honey production. Sure. You keep talking about honey production. A quick spray when I open the hive and everybody is busy licking each other off. To minimize the aggressiveness, I decided to do the following: (1)minimize invasion into beehive (less frequent and less invasive if possible); (2) minimize or eliminate at all the smoke (have smoker nearby just in case); (3) to see if I could create artificial barrier between beehive and backyard – I am thinking about sort of “curtains” made out of green plastic mesh/screen material – to imitate bushes… sort of; (4) bees on mission – eliminate at the backdoor (no damage to the body) in hope that my theory is correct and there are only few bees have been reprogrammed (this approach would not help if beehive sent new bees to patrol). Readers? I would use the newspaper method or some similar technique to protect your queens. So far 3 others that bought bees from this person are having the same issues. They don’t land, except sometimes on my cool deck or wall. A few made it up into my veil and stung me twice. I am happy to hear I am not the only one who is dealing with this unusual bee behavior, however, I don’t know what to do! Any advice would be helpful. I don’t think the lack of supers would cause that behavior. Now, sometimes, I have no blockade at all! I’ve seen the bees in the grass, on the fence posts, and my dog has been chasing them but they haven’t been chasing us. Just my experience. I found your awesome website because I am curious why one of my hives is completely docile and the other nothing short of vicious, chasing me for a distance if I work with it. As soon as the one got me there were several more around my head. What do you think about taping the seams up? Here’s what happened. That made the most sense to me but thought I’d ask the pro. The newspaper method works well, except I would recommend using a small slit (or no opening at all) rather than a hole because a hole may combine them too fast. So our bee expert started incorporating brood chamber and foundations. They are perfectly normal for Africanized bees. Sort of to help them become fat and happy? So, if the beekeeper’s goal is maximum honey production through hive manipulation, as is the intention of Langstroth hive design, it will be done at the expense of the honey bee. To keep bees away I would recommend the opposite approach: wear no scented products at all and use unscented shampoo, deodorant, soap, etc. Thank you very much! Bees like to swarm on nice days and people like to dig holes on nice days. Susan, in my little urban beekeeping story, I mentioned that one day the bees got caught in the hair of my next door neighbour. Part of the reason is anxiety because the farmer who owns the field in back of our house has decided to mow with the tractor today, and our only close neighbor is out mowing his lawn. Good morning, Cisco. City of Santa Monica (CA) recently established rules for beekeeping. Our hives are in a recovering forest fire zone and I have internal feeders in most of them. I probably should have smoked them or at least used a bee escape and taken the honey a day or two later. By now they have a nest and brood to defend, but to have them chase you is unsettling. I’m guessing here, but I think the smell of the manure warned them that danger was nearby. Here in Central Texas I’ve heard advice against feeding bees honey, except that which comes from your own hives. Some of her own may have then killed her because she was “defective” in that she couldn’t fly. Have you seen it? I’m guessing they will try again. But they are unmanageable in every other way. Our house is about 50 yards to one side of the bees and we were getting attacked and stung. All the things you noticed are characteristics of a queenless hive, including aggression, no brood, and (sometimes) low honey supplies. In fact, if they take it they will probably just store it in your honey supers. All colonies are queen right with eggs, open and capped brood. if they are getting angry, place a campfire beneath the nest/ hive. The clinging together (festooning) is normal behavior, especially during comb-building. He also has another hive about 12 miles away that is doing the same thing. Normally, I just stay clear of the hives until they calm down. The honey bee is an insect and is preeminently a bee; “honeybee” is equivalent to “Johnsmith.” So far so good. 4th day out: took my son on a hike. Remember that a queen may mate up to 15 times, so we see the colony change in temperament, colouration etc as the queen uses semen from different drones as time passes. It won’t attract bees, so get a positive i.d. Even if this behavior was out of the ordinary, if it had happened with more people around (e.g., even walking by the house) they’d be at risk. Maybe that is why the bees were aggressive, or maybe it has something to do with the crazy weather. Each of the three hives has a queen, ventilation, honey stores, cells full of pollen, space, etc. I have many flowers in my patio, and in Miami many bloom all year long. Like you say, in a few days check to be sure the queen is laying. Didn’t stop moving and it did not happen this trip out. They don’t get a drink and they don’t go to the few flowers I have. What if neighbor’s pet(? So it goes. In any case, do not destroy the hives. Susan. For the most part, a small entrance is defendable by a normal-size colony. A swarm normally won’t leave without their queen. I am worried about Kansas. Thanks for considering the bees in your decision. . . Thanks for the reply Rusty, I appreciate it! Queenlessness is frequently a cause of feisty bees. Our new hives came with queens from Florida. The distance from the hive and the way they chase, so far up to 150 feet from the hive has really got me worried. Bees don’t kill other insects. I used to be able to stand within a few feet of my hive and watch them with no issues. I am suddenly having the same problem. Honey bees are social insects (eusocial, technically), and the honey bee colony functions much like a living organism. Neither of us has a Snelgrove board, but he does have a shim with one hole. We had one rain – these crazy workaholics just flew into the rain, they did not stop… It seems to me they have plenty of honey and nectar/pollen supply, they are not searching for the food. Widespread issues with bees and CCD don’t surprise me at all, with bees being moved willy-nilly en-mass around the continent, by people who have one interest, money! I agree with Phillip that it is hard to have piece of mind if you are constantly worried about your bees intimidating the neighbors. This last week I can’t get near it without them trying to sting me. By this time I was panicking and trying to swat the bees so that I wouldn’t get stung any more. But that wasn’t the bees’ fault. So I guess my question is, with it being so late in the season, is it possible she will lay and they make it through the winter? It is a word people use to describe what they are seeing. Yesterday they came after me about 70 feet from the hive, one stung my face and another was in my hair. Re-queening means that I will lose this somehow unique stock… I am really reluctant to do so. The TBH design I used has a screened bottom with a removable bottom board so that ventilation can be increased, but it turns out that space between the screen and the removable bottom was the perfect place for moths to breed. I was thinking maybe these bees have become Africanized. Whether they are Africanized or not, they sound way too aggressive and I think you should consider destroying them. I have been stung 4 times this morning. Typically I am chased by bees. As I said in the post, honey bee aggression varies throughout the year and it varies from queen to queen. I went to install medium super to give them more room and noticed that they were covering the inner cover solidly and while walking away my clipped queen was on the ground dead surrounded by bees stinging her. Our honey bees are NOT being aggressive, except at their hives, of course. I’m interested to know if your bees calm down as the weather pattern returns to normal. 2 (Second number two). Last Friday I just saw exactly what you are describing with the robbing! I did put feeders on this morning. Bees hate lawn mowers. This doesn’t seem like normal behavior for honey bees. we have about an acre and a half) which we have never seen them do before. I just went to water the garden this afternoon (~20 yards from hive) and they were instantly buzzing around me. Swarms rarely do any stinging and behave just as you describe. Be sure to feed them, and make sure there are enough bees in there to keep the colony warm. In the midst of chainsaws roaring, branches being pushed and pulled, etc, I was able to walk right up to the exposed cross-section (going slowly and cautiously, mind you) and spend several minutes just watching them. Long story but the hive is queenless and my bees don’t want me in my own back lawn. As the smell of the manure abates, I’m sure their behavior will return to normal. So, the answer is to re-queen your pissy hives. Go through the hot hive and look for a queen or signs of a queen (eggs or young brood). Our boxes are close enough to the yard that I’m concerned that visitors might get stung. he said to separate the newly introduced supers from the other hive with a piece of newspaper with a hole in it to slow down the transfer of bees into the hive. I live in Central East Texas. Having an occasional bee come after me is worth having a healthy hive that is producing excellent alfalfa honey. Also, if there are a lot of insects eating from it, you can go through a gallon of syrup in an hour. Check the following link for a PDF version of Thür’s book. I like a tressel about 2.5M long 460mm wide (18 1/8″), 500mm high, with two or three hives per tressel, I like the centre free for working and “expansion”. I just opened the honey super, pulled out the frames and brushed the bees off. Seems to work. At times, it appears that it’s only one or two bees that seem insistent on going after me for at least that day and sometimes into the next day, or until they successfully sting me. Several individuals attacked and ran me off. I figured the bees might be a little mean for awhile because of the move. So the two hives you refer to as “swarm hives” are the original hives–not hives that swarmed from the original hives. Coincidence. For the rest of the day and all of today, those bees have been out to get me. I just started beekeeping in May with 2 hives. Then, when he put them together, they fought. But the past 3 days he has not been allowed in the garden because I have honey bees that seem to be guarding my back door. I do have a somewhat aggressive hive, however, have never witnessed the bees give the dog grief nor heard the dog yips, wince, or complain about the bees, in fact, the dog didn’t really go near the hives, minded her own business and gave them their space. Is that right? Aggressive honey bees can often be caused by the crossing of the dark honey bee, Apis mellifera, and the lighter honey bee, Apis lingusta. Long story short, what he did was overly ambitious, it took too long and he royally pissed off the bees. I first thought they were swarming, but since they are a very weak colony and have already swarmed only a few months ago, I knew they weren’t. Our new neighbors are also beekeepers and are the ones who got the previous owners of our home into beekeeping. The bees have been on alert for the past three-four days. The shape of the nest would be a good clue to their identity. Good luck. Laguna. Rusty’s idea about unusual warm weather did not explain my problems because we, actually, have relatively (for So Cal) cold spring. http://www.qcode.us/codes/santamonica/index.php?topic=4-4_04-4_04_130&frames=on, http://www.users.callnetuk.com/~heaf/thur.pdf, Escape boards: separating bees from honey, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmmtjFgdqz8. We live in Garnet Valley, Pa near Chadds Ford. I have been keeping bees for a year now and have never heard of this phenomenon. I am a newbie and my hive has always been very calm and gentle. I have queens but they are not laying. It’s so extreme that I almost feel like getting rid of the one hive. They were so incensed that my brother in law was stung once as he got out of his car in my driveway (about 60 feet away and over an 8 foot fence) as well as the neighbor’s dog (about 10 feet away and over the 8 foot fence) and harassed the neighbor (thankfully he was able to get away with no stings). Sometimes you find a bee with mean disposition. Are you sure your visitors are bees? The brood pattern was not spectacular – a couple combs had a decent pattern around the middle but none toward the edges, and the other combs had a spotty pattern. Please forgive me if this is the wrong place to ask questions. My hive was also extremely aggressive/defensive yesterday to the point where I felt I had no choice but to destroy the colony. Rusty, just a quick update. That colony became very aggressive so that they were hard to work with but were a stronger colony, with more brood and more stored honey. See this post for an explanation. Yes, heat will do that, and especially high humidity. © 2009-2020. In other words, use some kind of internal feeder where other bees cannot get to it. Not sure if I swatted him or what, but I got a sting there and one on the face. 03 june 2016. We think it would be ok as long as my son stays away from where the bees are being kept but I am not sure and would love some advice. They laid up a storm earlier in the year, but now have severely cut down. Catching early light is better than late (point east), mid-day shading by trees is okay, but it rains for longer and is damper under trees. The nectar-producing plants probably didn’t have enough water to supply a good crop of nectar. Since they are all of one species, there is really nothing we can do to stop the spread. Well, something isn’t right. About two weeks ago, four swarms showed up – one did not settle and flew away, one I gave away, and two I kept. I inspected the hive as usual and now they are aggressive. Over the past two weeks every time I go on a hike or climbing outdoors, if I stop moving a single bee will come buzzing around my head circling me until I leave. But then Irma came through and a huge section of that tree came down, ripping the power line out of his house and crushing a sizable section of the fence. Even in mid summer when I took some honey out they were like this. 2nd day: after a few days I went back to the same area and had it happen again. It is designed to be informative and fun, but also to remind readers that pollinators throughout the world are endangered. I live in Arizona and moved into a new house that backs up to the mountain 8 years ago. But this behavior is usually temporary caused by some condition like the loss of a queen, predators (wasps and such) bothering the hives, unusual weather, loud noises, lack of good forage, or perhaps air pressure. They seem to just hover and attack any insect or fly that comes near the garden. You seem to have good knowledge on aggressive/defensive bees. Honey bees generally do not sting unless they believe their home is threatened. If you live in an area with Africanized bees, you can send them in to a state agency and have them checked. As a replacement they use sugar syrup (sugar and water mixed together) to feed the bees over winter. Do you have any idea why the bees keep buzzing us? Nevertheless, aggressiveness is the one thing that worries me about suburban beekeepingyou never know what will set them off and who will be around when it happens. They better give me some off their gold stuff! Bumble bees (Genus Bombus) make a small amount of a honey substance and store it in “honey pots” inside their … I understand your weather; I lived in El Cajon for several years. You can guess what this has meant for the bees with respect to foraging. Have two more arriving this week. You mention a little ball of bees, but I doubt the queen was there. I had a couple of Carniolan colonies from nucs that turned really hot a few years ago. If there is one thing that honey bees are possessive about, it’s their home. When a new queen is mated and starts laying, things will calm down again. Even our legal system has a problem separating defensiveness from aggression. They used to be gentle – I had my morning tea in the garden just 10 feet away from the back of the beehive. It’s a normal part of beekeeping. I was going to requeen the evil hive but she is a wiggly, sneaky girl and I can’t find her. I feel, with all these bee problems in US, I want to keep these survivors to keep healthy and strong bees in the area. I have never experienced that before. Punish them harshly or destroy them totally and replace them. We’ve had a weird summer with everything growing and blooming about two months later than usual, and I don’t see much robbing going on. But, they were agitated as I even got close to the hive, and I was barely able to get the cover back over the top before they became too aggressive and were still able to find their way under my veil and were stinging me through my shirt and jeans. I have two new hives which I have been feeding, salting, and putting water out for. Or, if they show signs of accepting her such as trying to feed her through the cage can he just install her without looking through the whole hive? I had guests arriving from out of town in a couple hours and knew there was no way the bees would be calm before then. They are impossible to enjoy and who wants property owners stung etc…. think they have been Africanized …. We are feeding. This is my 1st year beekeeping and it upsets me to think I could lose the hives. . Few local beekeepers to help or advise, plus right now we are all quarantined with the coronavirus thing. I would assume things will die down once the bees left behind die off. Also close any other entrances if you have any. Any input would be helpful. And how many is a lot? If you can get close enough too them without endangering yourself, spraying them with soapy water will kill them. I like sites not clearly visible from the road, so I would probably go for the woods . He checked one hive and said there was still a lot of honey in it and a lot of brood. There’s more to it than that, but I think it can be done. The bees still followed me and are flying around the smoker which I left outside the back door on a table. The entire yard was a mess, littered with branches, and with all the other chaos, we didn’t give much thought to the bees beyond assuming their hive would have been destroyed. or something along that line. To prevent that, I would feed inside the hive. Colonies have moods just as people do and an upset colony doesn’t necessarily stay that way. Kaylea I thought about putting it inside the hive, but I don’t know how to do that with the other bees there. Follow Up: I went through the entire hive frame by frame and examined each comb in detail. Just don’t tolerate them at all. My hive used to not care at all if I mowed. Varroa count is 20/day. He did make the opening to the hive larger, the bees were hanging outside trying to cool off. Maybe sometimes it’s you having an off day and the bees reacting. Shortly after she left, honey bees were harassing me as I went between the house and shop (about 150 feet). Not sure what to do but re-queening seems like my next step to try before warmer weather and the kids are all outside playing. Idk what to do. Any insight would be sincerely appreciated! They are all around back door were our dogs came arunning in after being stung many times, one we had to take to vet. I have not extracted yet but plan to soon. If your colony just swarmed it is most likely queenless, at least for the moment. After day 1, I thought it was my climbing shoe deodorant which has lemongrass oil and other essential oils in it. Your support matters. Obviously, it has more than survived. Everything you say here makes sense. It would be normal for bees to be calm during installation since they have no brood or stores to defend, and then to be more aggressive as brood was being raised. We introduced the bees to their new hive without ever having to use smoke or any protective gear. If it had swarmed, you would still have roughly half the colony remaining. So, I figured it was due to the weather. You should immediately reduce the entrances to one bee length. Thanks so much for your speedy reply. I’m not going near them for the rest of the week. Fluctuations in temperament is something you get used to. But yes, I meant seal off. I have been reading all the posts and don’t understand the problem. . It has a long driveway lined on one side with old olive trees. Then fill a quart jar (Mason or Ball jar) with water and use a thin piece of plastic or similar material to cover the opening. “It was your bees!” When I got into beekeeping, the first advice I was given was to always have two hives. I was 50 yards from the hive when stung. In fact, make sure she is there. Swarming is colony-wide reproduction. The bees came after me and my dogs, stinging us until we could get inside. I’ll call our local beekeeping group, The Valley Hive and see what they think. Any ideas? I am optimistic that they will calm down and be less aggressive as fall settles in and cooler weather starts. They rented the house and left the beehives behind. Of course we had to remove it (we placed it in a nuc with some foundation as there looked to be the beginnings of queen cells to see what might happen). I was going to suggest that perhaps they are queenless, but if your son sees lots of brood, that’s probably not it either.
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