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Author Topic: freaking HOT hive....@#%$  (Read 11260 times)

Offline gailmo

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freaking HOT hive....@#%$
« on: April 27, 2012, 03:16:51 pm »
I have a hive that is WAY beyond hot.  The girls come roaring out when I open the hive and my neighbors are beginning to make noises about my bees.  I have been struggling with the hive all spring and yesterday made the decision to requeen.

So I purchased a new queen and last night opened the hive to see if I could find the wicked queen and pinch and smear her nasty body over a frame.  Well, today I have about 20 stings on my face, neck and upper body.  I discovered too late that I had a tiny hole in my veil..... and below is a photo of my gloves. And of course it was totally impossible to find the queen with thousands of bees dinging you.  My husband was inside the house and said the bees hitting the windows sounded like it was hailing outside.  The hive is on our back deck....

What I did for a temporary fix:
1.  I took a small medium 5 frame nuc and pulled a frame of honey and two frames of brood and some worker bees and dumped them there.  I put on the lid and blocked the entrance so the bees couldn't escape.
2.  My plan is to put the new and hopefully calmer queen in this nuc later in the afternoon.  The nuc is still plugged shut because I want to keep the bees in the nuc so they won't return to the main hive.  It is cool today and I think they should be fine locked inside. 
3.  The queen is in a cage and I am thinking that I should just keep her locked in it for a day or so inside the nuc---I am afraid the bees will kill her if they can open up the candy entrance and get to her. 
4.  Once she is established and producing eggs, I will either try to move her to the nasty hive...or just pull bees from it to re-establish a new hive.  This step depends upon whether I can find and kill the old queen.

Does this sound like a good plan?  I am open to almost any suggestions --except for going inside the hive again!  My body needs to heal!  PS  I ordered an new bee suit today!!!



Offline Kathyp

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Re: freaking HOT hive....@#%$
« Reply #1 on: April 27, 2012, 04:10:35 pm »
is this a big hive? if it's more than one box, i'd break it up as a temporary fix until you can requeen.  suit up, smoke the daylights out of them, lay out some bottom boards, and put each box on a new board.  you'll have drift back to where ever the queen is, but at in a few days at least one of your boxes should be more manageable. 

you kind of did that with the nuc, but it might not have been enough.  splitting them up into much smaller groups will hopefully be the answer.  even into more nucs.

then find the queen. redistribute your frames and either requeen all or recombine after they settle down and you have requeend one or two. if you don't like the genetics, you might not want to let them raise their own in this case.

that's the best i can think of.......
Someone really ought to tell them that the world of Ayn Rand?s novel was not meant to be aspirational.

Offline sterling

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Re: freaking HOT hive....@#%$
« Reply #2 on: April 27, 2012, 04:20:42 pm »
What Kathy said, and I might add don't block the entrance to the nuc let the old bees drift back leaving the young bees in the nuc. Then you can put the queen in the nuc, they will accept the queen before the more muture bees will.

Offline RandyMM

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Re: freaking HOT hive....@#%$
« Reply #3 on: April 27, 2012, 04:36:28 pm »
I would read what Michael Bush says about splitting a hot hive (and of course, requeening them). He even mentions how to handle it if they're too hot to find the queen, from what you described, I think he wrote that just for you. -Randy

Offline yockey5

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Re: freaking HOT hive....@#%$
« Reply #4 on: April 27, 2012, 04:39:45 pm »
No photo.

I would move hot hive a few yards away. Put an empty with foundation and stores where it once was. On top of the empty put a super with open entrance with newspaper under it, install a caged queen and some brood.

Go into old hive after 2 days, kill old queen and wait 24 hours and install a caged queen for it. Works well as the population is greatly diminished in the old hive and more manageable.

Offline gailmo

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Re: freaking HOT hive....@#%$
« Reply #5 on: April 27, 2012, 05:02:34 pm »
  I tried to put an image in the first post, but I must be doing something wrong!  


Uploaded with ImageShack.us

I will try to do what you all have suggested.  Right now, I need to get the queen I purchased into the small nuc.  I cannot and do not want to get back into my big ...and only...hive.  Right now it is five mediums.  Three mediums of brood and two of honey.  

I also did read what Michael Bush wrote.  I am going to heed his advice, but I need to wait until I have a new bee suit.  I don't want to get nailed like I did yesterday!  I need major protection.

I will head out and open up the small nuc so they can get out.  

Edited image code:Buzzbee
« Last Edit: April 27, 2012, 05:55:37 pm by buzzbee »

Offline Kathyp

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Re: freaking HOT hive....@#%$
« Reply #6 on: April 27, 2012, 05:11:40 pm »
you didn't say anything about using smoke?  this is a hive that needs it for sure.
Someone really ought to tell them that the world of Ayn Rand?s novel was not meant to be aspirational.

Offline Kathyp

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Re: freaking HOT hive....@#%$
« Reply #7 on: April 27, 2012, 05:12:46 pm »
cool picture  :-D  had one like that from a swarm in a thunder storm  :-D  had a good jacket though.....
Someone really ought to tell them that the world of Ayn Rand?s novel was not meant to be aspirational.

Offline yockey5

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Re: freaking HOT hive....@#%$
« Reply #8 on: April 27, 2012, 05:33:23 pm »
I had one like this once. I did as I posted above. Just my way of dealing with them.

Offline buzzbee

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Re: freaking HOT hive....@#%$
« Reply #9 on: April 27, 2012, 05:55:08 pm »
See this thread,hopefully this does not apply to you:
http://forum.beemaster.com/index.php/topic,36937.msg310084.html#msg310084

Offline D Coates

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Re: freaking HOT hive....@#%$
« Reply #10 on: April 27, 2012, 06:24:09 pm »
Woah, that photo is downright attention getting.  I've seen photos of stung gloves that looked like that in AHB experiments.  I haven't used gloves for a few years and I've gotten hit hard a few times from ill tempered hives but never in any quantities that looked anything like that.  When you get 3 to 4 quick hits it causes you to reconsider what your doing and how your doing it.  I'd employ Yockey5's strategy.  By moving the hive all of the older field bees and guard bees will be at the original location.  You be dealing with mostly nurse bee that should have a completely different attitude.  Good luck!
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Offline gailmo

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Re: freaking HOT hive....@#%$
« Reply #11 on: April 27, 2012, 06:31:11 pm »
This hive was sweet and wonderful several years ago.  Last year I did a split and moved the "sweet tempered queen" to the new split and requeened this hive.  I did this in late May and by August they were really, really pissy.  I posted about their temper last summer, but I took their behavior to be nasty because of the time of year.  HINDSIGHT:  Nasty queen!

So....I will try to get it requeened at some point.  But, if I cannot do this, then I will be tempted to just pull ALL the honey in late fall and let 'em go.   I know that is not a kind thing to do, but these girls make beekeeping a chore and not the joy I have experienced.  Then next spring--install a new package.

Offline buzzbee

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Re: freaking HOT hive....@#%$
« Reply #12 on: April 27, 2012, 08:55:41 pm »
Glad to hear it's not a new package anyway. Stories like that could frighten people. I think divide and conquer too. You are being responsible trying to rid yourself of nasty bees.

Offline RZRBCK BEE

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Re: freaking HOT hive....@#%$
« Reply #13 on: April 27, 2012, 09:41:23 pm »
Just curious. Where did you get the nasty queen and what kind is it?

Offline Shanevrr

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Re: freaking HOT hive....@#%$
« Reply #14 on: April 27, 2012, 09:57:17 pm »
AHB?  maybe you should call your inspector.  you never know.  they have found a couple cases in VA last couple years.  Who would of thought
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Offline AllenF

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Re: freaking HOT hive....@#%$
« Reply #15 on: April 27, 2012, 11:31:35 pm »
I had one hot hive that would pop you on the other side of the house from the hives.  Took the blow torch to them.   Knocked down their numbers a bot and smoked that queen.   They requeened themselves and that daughter was as sweet as could be.   Before they turned hot, I had them for over a year so the hot queen was a daughter of a bought queen from Texas the year before.

Offline Lone

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Re: freaking HOT hive....@#%$
« Reply #16 on: April 27, 2012, 11:53:31 pm »
I love that picture!

Lone

Offline gailmo

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Re: freaking HOT hive....@#%$
« Reply #17 on: April 28, 2012, 09:41:07 pm »
I ordered a Golden Bee Suit today.......  this will be the true test to see if it keeps these bees away from my body!  It is going to take a couple of weeks for the suit to be made to my size, but hoping the wait and the price will be worth it!

I will report back on how this struggle ends.....will I win or will the bees get the best of me?  STAY TUNED.....

Offline Sparky

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Re: freaking HOT hive....@#%$
« Reply #18 on: April 28, 2012, 09:57:31 pm »
I think if they tried to sting me that many times I would have shaken every bee out on the ground about ten feet in front of the hive and put a board from the ground to the entrance with a queen excluder over the bottom board and reassemble the hive to look for her the next day under the excluder.

Offline gailmo

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Re: freaking HOT hive....@#%$
« Reply #19 on: April 28, 2012, 11:19:50 pm »
It was suggested by a beek that I pull the honey supers and then put an excluder between the first brood box and the second box.  Then use a fume board to drive the bees down and out of the box.  Look for a queen on the excluder...if not there, then move the excluder down to the next box and stick on the fume board again.  This seems like a good method.....but I am going to wait until I have the proper suit to protect me from these screaming devils.

.....of course, I am happy to have anyone stop by and see if they can find her for me!  A round of martinis to the successful beek!