Does the inbreeding of bees make them hyper defensive?

[CWBees]

About 25 years ago when I was a kid I started with a hive of Italian bees with my Father. We eventually ended up with several hives after numerous swarms. Then the hives started to become real defensive. I went out to requeen one hive which I had never done. I had on boots, gaiters, gloves, hat. I thought I was invincable until a bee found a break in the gater defense and called several of her sisters in to sting my calf numerous times which ended my attempt to find the queen. These were big mature hives so lots of frames to look through to find a queen.

Does the continual imbreeding of the bees which occured in our apiary make them more feral and defensive?

[Aspera]

No, just poor trait selection. You should consciously select for gentleness if you desire this trait. Lack of defensiveness does not aid wild bees, and this trait is rarely found in unkept populations.

[naturebee]

--No, just poor trait selection. You should consciously select for gentleness if you desire this trait. Lack of defensiveness does not aid wild bees, and this trait is rarely found in unkept populations.


Could be poor selcetion, but I’ve been collecting ferals since the early 90’s and I have noticed that feral bees are surprisingly gentile and not any more aggressive than bees kept domestically in spite of not being selected for gentleness.

Killing the old queen and letting the colony rear a new queen usually solves the problem.

When I think of the ferals that exist side by side with humans, living in houses and back yard trees and other voids. One might assume that there would be some selection towards gentile ferals. Aggressive ferals would tend to be discovered quickly by the homeowners or passersby’s and destroyed, whereas gentile ferals would go on living in that "old tree out back that Grandpa planted" for many years without being discovered or causing reason to be eliminated.