Wait after bad weather?

[keeperofthebees]

Hi! I'm new to the forum and new to beekeeping in general.

I have a question. When there has been a week or so of overcast/rainy weather, should you wait a couple of sunny days to open up the hive? I have a hive that was given to me by a friend but it hadn't been touched in over a year. The first thing I did was order a new queen. While I was waiting for the queen I opened up the hive a few times to see what it was like in there. They were perfectly nice bees (as far as I could tell) and were not at all aggressive.

When the queen arrived I placed her in and waited 2 weeks to open it back up again. The reason I had waited that long is because the weather has been very bad here. I opened it up yesterday at about 10:00am, which was the first day in a week that the sun was out, and they were very (again, as far as I can tell) aggressive. What could be the problem here? The first 4 times or so that I opened it up before the new queen they were nice, and this last time there weren't.

They were going so crazy once I started messing with the frames that I just shut it up as fast as I could and didn't get to make sure that the new queen was there or not. Do you need to wait till there are a couple of sunny days in a row to open it back up? Or, could they have possibly not accepted the queen and that made them aggressive? I don't know.

I guess I should tell you that I didn't find the old queen when I put the new queen in there. I opened the hive twice to look for here and looked over EVERYTHING 3 or 4 times but nothing. There were no eggs or larvae either, only capped brood. So, I just stuck the new queen in and am hoping for the best (somebody tell me if this wasn't a good idea so I know for next time  :) )

I can't think of any other reasons that they would be aggressive now and not earlier. PLEASE let me know if you more experienced beekeepers have any thoughts as to what it might be!

keeperofthebees
P.S. Sorry for the long post...

[doak]

There has to be some determation as to whether there  is a queen in the hive or not. Not seeing eggs or young larve doesn't mean theres no queen.
Where the bees agressive or just excited acting, did they make any effort to sting? some time a queenless colony will act roudy but not acressive.
If they had superceded the old queen and had a queen cell when you put the new queen in, they killed it.
Keep checking it every 7 to 10 days.
If you don't find a queen, eggs or larve by the time all the seald brood hatches then I'd put in a new queen.
Do not release her, take the cork from the candy end of the queen cage, punch a small hole in the candy and let the bees release her. Wait 5 to 7 days then check to see if she has been released.
If you get a caged queen that has attendent bees make sure you put the cage in so in the event any of the bees did they will not block  the hole.
Hope this helps.
doak

[Shizzell]

Welcome to beekeeping.

I have a few explanations on your findings. Beginners seem to find that bees flying around them seem to be agressive. That is false. Having 20 or 30 bees trying to sting you at once, is aggressive. Also, the hive that you have may have still had almost all of its population inside due to the recent rain. That is usually never good. I always inspect the hive when its between 12 in the afternoon till about 6 in the evening. Nobody likes being cooped inside your house for a week, especially if you know if you go outside you'll die. Anyways, did you use smoke? Did you have your veil on? If you have you veil on, don't go running and rushing through things. Take your time, and if you get stung a couple of times, simply close it up nice and smooth. One of my cousins wasn't wearing a veil and we went into the brood chamber. He got stung on the eyelid, and through the frame about 20 feet away from him. That WASN'T good. Anyways, if you have a new hive, I always give the hive extra time to work itself out into a routine of laying eggs and such.

Hope I gave you some good advice...

Jake

[keeperofthebees]

I did have my veil and gloves on. I got about 5 stings through my shirt and it there were always tons of bees "hitting" me on the veil and shirt. An observer got stung about 20 feet away from the hive. It seemed like whenever I so much as touched a frame 5 - 10 bees instantly jumped on my gloves. I couldn't tell if they were trying to sting or not.

A friend of mine who used to do beekeeping a year or two ago came and helped me look for the queen before I put her in. She was surprised at how calm the bees were then. The only other times I have been stung are when a bee got through my jeans or caught it my shirt. Never have they "attacked" me. It is most likely that I'm just a beginner that thinks that lots of bees flying around me seem to be aggressive.

I guess the way I explained closing up the hive did sound like I did it rushed. I did try to be very careful and slow about it. I'm sure in the excitement I did do it faster/rougher than I thought.  :)

Can I go in today and try again? Or is it too soon after opening it up? I have heard that you don't want to open it more than once every 1-2 weeks but I thought that was just because it slows down the production of the hive. Is that correct?

keeperofthebees
P.S. Sorry for all the questions. If I am asking to many just tell me to be quiet!  :)

[Kathyp]

smoke it up.  if they were stinging you, you were not wrong to think they were aggressive.  it could have been the weather, robbing, or a bad hair day.

are you feeding them?  do they have enough room to expand?  do you have a camera so that we can see what you are looking at?

if you do not have a smoker, you can use a spray bottle with some sugar water in it.  that gets them thinking about eating instead of stinging.  it will not work well if you have a robbing thing going on.  if that is the problem, sugar water will encourage the robbers and stir up your bees.  at this time of the year, i'd only use it if you have no smoker.

[keeperofthebees]

I am using a smoker.

I am not feeding them either. I didn't think I would have to since there is a decent population. They should have plenty of room. There are two  brood chambers and 3 honey supers on the hive right now.

I will try to get some pictures that I could put up here. I don't have any at the moment that I can think of.

I just remembered this... For the first week after I put the new queen inside, a bunch of them seemed to gather on the front of the hive into mini "swarms". Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures and they aren't doing it anymore. Does that mean anything?

Thanks for all the help guys! I REALLY appreciate it!
keeperofthebees

[doak]

When you see a small ball on the landing all piled up. Take a small twig and "GENTLY" apread them and see whats going on. That is what they do when they "ball" the queen. They are "killing "her.
doak

[Shizzell]

If they aren't in a ball, that means they are warm and it is called "bearding". Overwhelming heat can also increase their excitability. Especially if you break some of their capped honey stores. Also, if they have a large amount of honey (which it sounds like they do, if they have 3 supers) Take some of that away from them. Bees tend to get more aggressive when they have honey stores.

Depending on what strand, and the state of which the bees are at (if they get angry easily, etc) you can usually open up the hive up once a week without them getting more aggressive. If it is an emergency, you can open them up every couple of days, but be aware that they tend to get more aggressive over time. I wouldn't like people breaking into my house every couple of days.

Ask your friend what kind of strand these bees are as well.

Jake

[thegolfpsycho]

I have a little bit different theory on the defensive behaviour.  My own experience is that when they are making honey, they are usually pretty calm.  I find the larger colonys much more defensive, regardless of the amount of honey they have stored.  In addition, larger colonys have many more foragers, creating a much older and more defensive population.  I also believe the queen pheremons have a lesser calming effect on larger populations.  With 5 deeps, the bees can be a long ways away from the queens calming influence.  And finally, rain washes away nectar.  South winds dry up nectar flows.  What does this create?  More cranky bees.

[Jerrymac]

You are in African honey bee territory. I have to wonder about the history of the hive and the queen. There could be some AHB in there some where.

[keeperofthebees]

Thanks for all the help! I really appreciate it.

I do not believe they are "Africanized". They friends I got them from have had an AHB hive and they were MUCH worse than these were. They could barely go fifteen feet from the hive without getting attacked. Although, they could be heading that way...

I'm not positive what strand of bees they are. I'll have to ask the people I got them from.

I also don't think they were balling the queen. They were more spread out. I am pretty sure that they were "bearding".

I have to say that there definitely too much to learn about beekeeping to learn in a lifetime. And I can see that even now! That is one thing I think I will enjoy once I start really getting into it. Never stop learning...

keeperofthebees