I would like some opinions on a hot hive. I decided to kill the queen two weeks ago and split the hive in two. One week ago I put a queen in each half with duct tape over the candy and yesterday I pulled the duct tape off. At this point today they are hotter than ever, a little while ago I went out to put an entrance reducer on them (I forgot to yesterday) and they came rolling out at me! My son and I have ten hives and at this time of year you can expect a little defensive behavior but not like this. At this point I'm almost ready to cut my losses and kill them off and use the resources (not the brood!) on some of the weaker colonies.
I don't know if it is a coincidence but as I've been sitting here thinking about it, almost all the problems that we have had this year has been three feet from this hive, mostly lost queens. Up until a month ago they were defensive but not like this. Indecently, I have a second queen less hive that is not at all difficult to work.
Like I said at the beginning, I'm just looking for some input. Thanks all in advance, Gary