How to destroy a hive

[Jim S]

I have a nuc hive I bought a few weeks ago and it is too agressive for me. What is the best way to destroy the hive. I do not want to requeen and wait a month for new gentler bees. Thanks in advance.

[indypartridge]

Have you contacted whomever you bought the nuc from? Most of the local suppliers I know would be glad to take it back and provide you a replacement. It's not good for their reputation if they're selling nucs with aggressive bees. If not, do you know any nearby beekeepers? Perhaps one could swap you some gentler bees, i.e., another beek could put it in an outyard and requeen.

[Hambone]

Give it to someone in your area that will requeen it.

[Michael Bush]

I've never destroyed a hot hive. I always requeen them. I never put up with them.

[Sundance]

Requeening can (and often does) change the behavior
almost immediately.

I agree with Indy....... contact the seller and they may
very well shoot you a new queen.

Or ship it to me for rehab......

[Cedar Hill]

Soapy water spray. I don't believe that it will contaminate the equipment. But you could make some beekeeper really happy by giving the frames to him for replacement frames. OMTCW

[alpha6]

Why do you have to wait a month if you re-queen? As others have said it should change the disposition of the hive right away...and if you get a laying queen you have lost no time.

[bnatural]

Why do you have to wait a month if you re-queen? As others have said it should change the disposition of the hive right away...and if you get a laying queen you have lost no time.

My guess is he is saying that the bees that are now in the hive have the aggressive disposition and so the hive will be aggressive until they die off. Just guessing.

Bill

[Michael Bush]

>Requeening can (and often does) change the behavior
almost immediately.


That has been my experience. It is, of course, inconsistent with the theory that it is all about genetics, but it is still what I see often.

[bnatural]

>Requeening can (and often does) change the behavior
almost immediately.


That has been my experience. It is, of course, inconsistent with the theory that it is all about genetics, but it is still what I see often.

Could it be that the 'smell' of the new queen, and maybe the new brood, has a calming influence? Sort of an 'all's right with the world' effect?

Bill

[Michael Bush]

>Could it be that the 'smell' of the new queen, and maybe the new brood, has a calming influence? Sort of an 'all's right with the world' effect?

That has always been my best guess.

[Jim S]

Thank you all for your responses. I did mean that the foragers would continue to be agressive through their short life. It seems odd to me that the bees would become gentler once they are requeened, but beekeeping isn't always logical according to my thinking. That's what makes beekeeping so great. I will try requeening. You may have saved me some money and bees. Thanks alot.

[Ross]

I had one really mean hive a couple of years ago. I finally found the queen and gave her the hive tool test. She failed. 5 minutes later they settled right down, without a new queen. Sometimes it may be the old queen's smell, not the new one.

[Michael Bush]

>Sometimes it may be the old queen's smell, not the new one.

Wow! I never thought of that. I figured it was the old queen's LACK of some pheromone.

[the kid]

if you requeen and they remain hot ,and or are still going to destory the hive let me know ....
If things are not going fast like they are now ,, I will come get them .. I don't like to see hives destroyed ... but hope requeening will smooth them out so you can work with them , so you can enjoy your coming bee addiction ..

[Ardilla]

...I finally found the queen and gave her the hive tool test. She failed...

So, what is "the hive tool test"? Just curious.

[charmd2]

Ardilla Quote:
Originally Posted by Ross
...I finally found the queen and gave her the hive tool test. She failed...

So, what is "the hive tool test"? Just curious.

I am assuming that it means I stabbed her with the hive tool and she died, therefore failing the test..

[Ross]

Yep, I've never had a queen actually pass the hive tool test

[DRUR]

On March 20 I purchased 2 colonies of bees. These were alleged to be Buckfast bees. One colony was gentle (unmarked queen, which I had previously examined), the other colony (which I had not examined), was extremely vicious. You could not stand 20 yards in front of these bees to observe them without getting stung or accosted by an ever increasing mob of bees. I went in to try to find the queen to kill, but was covered up by virtually the whole colony. I was stung probably over 100 times. I had hat, veil, long blue jeans, and long sleeve shirt. Some crawled up my pants legs, some stung thru my pants, and some even crawled under my veil and stung me.

I returned a couple of days later (with renewed determination) and just split the colony (two deeps), and moving the heaviest, deep to a new location. The whole time I was getting mauled. I provided each split with a marked MHQ in a cage with sugar candy plug. These queens were from a migratory beekeeper that was making nucs and preparing to go north. I bought three laying queens (breeders from the prior year that he was using for breeders). (I also split the gentle colony with the third queen).

In one colony the MHQ took (the one without the original queen). This colony continued being vicious, until just recently, which I assume was because most of the original bees have died.

The other colony (about 5 days later after the queen had been released) (now with reduced population because of the split), I smoked, sprayed with sugar syrup, and worked through for about 30 minutes till I found an unmarked queen. This colony had eggs and brood of every stage. When I found the queen, I killed her, and ordered a new queen. Early part of April when I got the new queen, I went back in when the new queen arrived and destroyed all the queen cells and again requeened.

You still get accosted by a few bees from this colony but I assume these are from the last surviving workers. Though the population is greatly reduced, they seem much gentler now. I don't have any doubt that the original queen was an AHB.

Neither the addition of new queens, nor the killing of the old queen seemed to make any difference in their viciousness. I attribute, the milder state only to the loss of vicious workers.

Danny

[Michael Bush]

>Neither the addition of new queens, nor the killing of the old queen seemed to make any difference in their viciousness. I attribute, the milder state only to the loss of vicious workers.

There are certainly hives like that as well. They don't surprise me as that was what I expected, the surprising ones are the ones that instantly calm down with a new queen.