Bees be angry

[kalium]

Hi all,

My stronger hive has all of a sudden gotten quite a bit more angry than usual. I was a good three meters from the hive the other day and was set upon by a single bee. Later in the day I walked past and was set upon by about three of them. This is highly unusual behaviour from them up.

I've also noticed that they are increasingly bearding at night (maybe a couple of fists worth, it's only 22c at night), and today they are bearding again.

Are they just hot and uncomfortable? They are two deeps and an ideal, I will add another ideal later today.

[kalium]

I ended up splitting the hive. Still not sure what was going on. There were a lot of bees in there, and now there are less.
Here's hoping they calm down.

[rawfind]

Now that youve split them you might want to consider re-queening them with some nice gentle bees, its a lot easier doing this
while the hive is smaller, you have a lot less angry bees trying to get a peice of you while find and kill the queen.

[Rmcpb]

If they stay angry and you decide to requeen take your box a few metres away and put an empty one in its place for the field bees to return to. Now you have fewer bees to trawl through looking for the queen and its the field bees that are most likely to sting and you are not near them. When you have finished take away the empty and put your hive back in its original position. If you have a BIG hive you can do this by just putting the boxes apart so you are only handling one box at a time but put them on some scrap ply for a base so you don't lose bees or your queen in the grass.

Cheers
Rob.

[amun-ra]

bees in general seem to be cranky in Townsville at the moment as well must bee the weather

[Jimbo]

Kalium,
I also am in seq and have the exact same prob. In the last mth or so my bees have nastied up.
the prob hive is the same as yours 1 brood 1 super 1ideal super on your top. After I disturd the hive it takes them several days to calm down, during that time single bees will buzz me and family up to 20m away.
when you split your hive did you requeen or let them make their own queen.
Does anyone have personal experience with requeening with so called quieter strains of bees, was it effective.
cheers all

[Rmcpb]

We have requeen some of our nasty bush hives with quiet queens and it worked. However, they will requeen themselves and breed with local drones so its a take what you get lucky dip then. Adding a quiet queen to you mix every now and then is a good idea in general. Still lets the local adaption happen but adds some productivity and quietness.

[kalium]

Kalium,
I also am in seq and have the exact same prob. In the last mth or so my bees have nastied up.
the prob hive is the same as yours 1 brood 1 super 1ideal super on your top. After I disturd the hive it takes them several days to calm down, during that time single bees will buzz me and family up to 20m away.
when you split your hive did you requeen or let them make their own queen.
Does anyone have personal experience with requeening with so called quieter strains of bees, was it effective.
cheers all

I re-queened them myself with a queen from a local'ish queen supplier. I am very very keen to try some of John Covey's caucasians (the grey ones, right?), as I've heard that the race can be very quiet (unfortunately there were none available when I needed one).

[jayj200]

bees in general seem to be cranky in Townsville at the moment as well must bee the weather

is there a flow on? as the girls get cranky here when there is no food

[ShaneJ]

Also make sure to keep your hives in full sun. In my experience I have found that hives in the shade will be a little on the angry side.