Minnesota Hygienics vicious?

[rmdial]

I have a new hive of MN Hyg purchased as a package this spring. It is a little slow in getting ready for winter and I have been feeding it and giving it special care like extracted honey supers, fructose/sucrose syrup, and drivert sugar mixed with honey. However, these bees are the most vicious out of seven hives I have. They will come at me more aggressively than the others and will follow me down the road like an Africanized killer. All my other hives have their bad days and will get testy some times. But this one is so over the top I am not sure if I would be sad if it did not make it thru the winter. Not true. I will give them to a buddy that has them also. He says his are a little testy but not like mine. Funny, because the queen is from his stock.

So, I am asking if anyone else has this experience.

Thanks for all the great feedback.

Soapy

[Brent Bean]

Last spring I bought six packages of MH, I also found them to be more aggressive than advertised. But manageable, they all produced surplus honey and in fall had light mite loads. However none of them made it threw the winter. All had adequate honey stores none showed signs of Nosema but in early March there was a big pile of dead bees on the bottom boards. All still had honey left in there hives.
I have had much better results with the mutt hives which currently make up the 30 hives I now have.

[BEES4U]

Funny, because the queen is from his stock.

The hive that you are refering to may be diluted M. H. stock.
A true M. H. would have been grafted directly off an I.I. breeder queen.
you may also have a skunk problem that has made the hives on the hot side.
Regards,
Ernie

[Mike Gillmore]

I noticed the same thing with Minn Hyg I've had in the past. They seem to be a bit more defensive at certain times of the year than others, usually when they are light on stores. They are excellent honey producers though, and you may find that during a heavy nectar flow you could kick the hive around and they won't even notice you. Just don't try that in the fall. ;)

If you see they are still acting aggressively in the spring it would be time to pinch the queen and let them raise a new one, or buy a replacement from a breeder. Dealing with a testy colony year round takes some of the fun out of it and you don't need to put up with it.

[devdog108]

Mine have an attitude once in a while, but the other week they lambasted me. After that and feeding them a bit, they were as calm as ever.

[loggermike]

I raised several hundred daughter queens from 3 MH AI breeder queens this year for my own use.The breeder hives were here by my house till recently. Grandkids played by them,I walked by them every day. No one was stung or even bumped. None of the daughter hives in outyards show any abnormal temper problems either. If I work through a yard of around 60 hives ,I will probably get stung several times. Not a problem.
Of course, bad crosses do happen.

[11x]

the ONLY time my mh have been naughty is when i tried ti use a front hive feeder.(robbing). this was my first year with bees. i have 2 hives of mh and all year i have only got 3 stings. i dont wear gloves either. i can go into them ona a real nasty cloudy windy day and those girls are still decent to me. i am in them at least once a week. i did notise thay are alot nicer if i am just looking long enough to find eggs versus trying to find the queen

[HealingBees]

I have the MNHs and I was told by another beekeeper that he'd never seen such mellow bees. A friend who has Carniolan bees said she's switching to MNHs after she worked with my hives. They don't even fly off the frame when I'm "digging-in" and very very little propolizing.

My feeding is pretty different though. R. Steiner suggested a bee tea of chamomile tea concentrate with thyme and organic salt. I mix this with chombucha tea. All of this adds up to a mellowing drink that is probiotic. It is also organic preventive care.

I don't smoke the girls either. I use the above tea to spray them and I do it early on frame by frame to keep them healthy. After July I don't go into the brood box.

I bought my chamomile tea (all flower heads) in bulk in Mexico.

Good luck,
Valerie♠

[RayMarler]

If you are in a fall dearth and there is no light weight open nectar around the brood and the brood is getting dry then they will be testy and they will be more running around on the combs when you inspect them. Feeding them a little sugar water and some pollen too will calm them right down by the next day, if there is no robbing going on.

[DRUR]

I noticed the same thing with Minn Hyg I've had in the past. They seem to be a bit more defensive at certain times of the year than others, usually when they are light on stores. They are excellent honey producers though, and you may find that during a heavy nectar flow you could kick the hive around and they won't even notice you. Just don't try that in the fall. ;)

It is my understanding that MH's are primarily from Italian stock. During the 80's I had Midnites (hybrid Causcasian stock) and a good friend of mine ran the Starlines (hybrid Italian stock). Midnites were known for their gentleness and the Starlines (as Mike states) were gentle during the honeyflow, but during a dearth, were very aggressive. I am not sure this is a bad thing, as during a dearth period the robbing begins, and it just seems to me that the colony has to be more aggressive to preserve its stores.