Who flipped the switch?

[Old Blue]

On May 7th and the 10th I was in my 5 colonies snooping around and looking for the queen in the largest one so I could make false swarm split since they were looking like they were ready to swarm.

These were the calmest inspections that I think I have ever done.  I had my smoker lit but decided to see how the welcome would be if I didn’t use it since every time I blow smoke at them they set off a hive wide buzz and look aggravated.  Both of these inspection days were great and a real low key enjoyable inspection of all 30 frames in my two bigger hives as well as the 3 single box colonies.  On the 10th I finally found the queen I was looking for and made a 5 frame nuc with her and all was well.

This last Friday (the 13th……hmmmm) I looked in on the nuc and it looked good.  But when I looked in on the other 3 colonies, as soon as I lifted the lid they came pouring out the tops of the frames looking for trouble and had a 180 degree different response from just days before.  I don’t know what set them off but wow what a difference!  I stopped by on my way home from work today and just watched suited up and had a larger number of guards harassing me than usual.  I don’t know what is setting them off, the mustard and buckwheat are in full bloom so I can’t imagine any serious dearth going on and there’s plenty of residences to forage around.  Oh well, I guess that’s bees.  And it’s also why I suit up even when I am just looking.

Old Blue

[Sean Kelly]

That's bees for ya.  Some days they're calm as ever, other days it's armageddon.
I like to do my inspections either in early morning when it's a little cooler, they seem less agressive.  Or mid-day when most of the workers are out of the hive.
If I open a hive and they seem upset, then its time to just close it right back up and try again tomorrow.  Just like people, they have their bad hair days and are grumpy.  Let them sleep on it and things will be better the next.

Sean Kelly

[Course Bee]

If you didn't put a queen in the main hive that you left behind. That would mean that they are queenless. Queenless bees can be very aggressive until they are queenrite again. If you gave them a queen then I'm not sure.

[AliciaH]

There also may have been a domino effect:  If the first hive you checked was the new queenless hive, and if they were testy about it, then you had all those nice, wonderful "hey-we're-queenless-and-testy-about it"-pheramones in the air.  The other hives would have reacted to that, too.

[Tommyt]

Could it be any animals(including Human :roll:) harassing them??
 Also when making the swarm splits,
Those queens could have mated with Gangsta drones
Maybe time to get new queens or eggs from a good hive and put the squeeze
on the mean hive q's

Tommyt