gentle bees

[Laurence Hope]

Well, finally I have seen some gentle - I mean gentle - bees. A friend had been given a hive and he asked for help with it, to assess it etc. We really found a mess when we opened the hive. Besides the woodenware falling apart, the bottom box had 5 frames instead of ten and combs built helter skelter. The top box had a separation down the middle and partially filled with half frames. The rest was also helter skelter combs. We determined to remove the top box, cutting out any brood, condense it to the bottom box and add a new super to the top and see if we could start the bees on the building upward,.

When we were cutting the brood combs out and some times in half and moving them to the bottom, straightening out what we could, the bees barely flew any more than they had been. Absolutely not one bit of agression from any bee the whole time we were in the hive removing comb and moving around brood. I have never seen any such calmness in any of my hives even when removing one or two frames. I have heard of gentle bees, but never dreamed any could be soooo gentle.

What are the chances of this trait being passed on to a queen made from this queens eggs
and open mated? I sure would like to get some of those genes.

Do any of you have such gentle hives?

[tecumseh]

'if' it is a hive that has survive years of varroa exposure plus it it still easy to work I would most definitely consider trying to rear a few queens from that jewel. breeding bees to be workable (gentle) was the first thing that modern day bee breeding incorporated into their breeding programs.

[BigDaddyDS]

Gentleness is definitely a trait that can be bred!

And, no. I don't have a hive as gentle as the one you experienced, although I wish I did!

Breed that survivor queen!

DS

[Laurence Hope]

Thanks, I think I will try to get queens from it. I have not yet ascertained a varroa count for him. We did medicate it with Mite Away II since he had seen a lot of deformed wings. I can tell, though, this hive hasn't been into for a few years, anyway.
Any other thoughts?

[Walt McBride]

Laurance a fellow was directed to me Dec. '06 who had attempted to get some honey from a hive that his reasently deceased brother had kept on this mans property. It consisted of 3 deeps and a deep box on top without frames with comb. In taking top box off combs fell on the ground, then I entered into the picture. I tied the combs into frames, found the queen on one on the droped combs and started to weed out the very bad combs in the remaining 3 deeps. Some of the combs had aluminun base foundation circa 1950.
These bees were the gentlest bees I had seen in a long time. No stinging.
I had him feed back all the broken honey comb to help draw out new foundation that I was providing. This went on for two months. Still no stinging or defensive behavior.
In March I provided a drawn medium above a queen excluder and it was filled in about 4 weeks.
About the first of April I returned to under super with drawn comb, and with an excape board under the full top super.
A this point all H**L broke loose and I was stung. The neighbor was stung. The neighbor"s pool man was stung and chased out to his truck. Even the neighbors dog was stung.
I was not aware of the next door action untill I arived home several hours later by calls from the hive owner that he was experiencing WW3 out side his house when he arived home.
I pulled this hive out that night, all 5 boxes intact to one of my yards. To be re queened.
More than likely what had hapened that this hive had throwned a swarm late Feb. and the new queen had mated with AHB drones. I wish I could have kept that gentle and very productived hive going.
Walt.

[Joseph Clemens]

When I first began buying Cordovan Italian queens from Koehnen, I was so impressed with their gentle and productive nature, I would carry an entire frame, queen, bees, brood, etc. about 500 feet to the house, into the living room, where I would show them to my wife, as she sat in her recliner. Not a single bee would even leave the comb. The queen would even continue to lay -- my wife got to see all this for her first time. Reminded me of my first hive, when I was 10 y.o., those were called Starline Hybrids.

BTW, my wife is a paraplegic, so I'm sure I must have given her quite a surprise. After all it wasn't as if she could get away from the bees.

[Laurence Hope]

Walt, thanks for sharing your experience. I hope to get some queens prior to that happening to this hive. But then again, we don't have much AHB up this far.

Joseph, I have bought queens from Koehnens that some were gentle and some others not so gentle, but none anything like this hive.

Thank you both.

[Angi_H]

Laurence where abouts are you? Are you in Kings county? You dont happen to own the pet stop down town do you? I live just out side of town in Hanford and I just started with my bees this year. I have been wanting to go and speak with you about beekeeping. I did a cut out on a hive this year that is very gental and I have been going to start a nuc out of these to start more queens on. My kids can go out there with nothing while I am working with them and not get stung. If you are in my area can you please pm me or email me angiharrover@gmail.com and I would like to meet with you and mess with bees with you some day. I have been trying to get others that have bees locally to no luck they all say they are to busy to help or dont return my calls. Your nae sounds real familure to me. Please get back to me I would love someone local to talk bees with and to toss questions back and forth with.

Angi

[Laurence Hope]

Angi, I PM'ed you.

[ooptec]

Hey,

I have Carniolan bees and they are that calm and gentle. I never use smoke or a suit and was stung maybe 5 times all last season and most were from crushing one under fingers.

They also drop their numbers radically over winter so need less stores and 'explosively' build up in spring.

cheers

peter

[hummingberd]

I had extremely gentle bees, but they were not productive. Have you taken their other traits into account? Just wondering, since they are new to you, if you have been able to observe their other behaviors. They may be prone to some undesirable "stuff." :)

[Angi_H]

Tha clam hive I have that was from a cutout is still very calm even 4 weeks later. They are even building very very fast and will soon have to put supers on as they are just about filled up now. I have moved boxes around and frames around and they have tons of brood and stores now. I am hoping to graft from this queen and get more queens from this hive.

Angi

[Laurence Hope]

opptec, it sounds like carnis are doing well for you. I may try some down here.
hummingberd, I have not yet been able to notice anything else about these bees,
we are trying to get them up in a super above the "mess" of a bottom.