We had severe thunderstorms here in central Virginia yesterday. Today is bright and sunny so around 9:30 am I attempted to work my bees. Hive #1 was very agitated and even though I was quite gentle and used lots of smoke, they tried (and succeeded a couple of times) to sting through my suit. Also, much to my dismay, they were very crowded and I found 3 swarm cells. I tried looking for the queen, but they were just too nasty, so I ended up closing it up without doing anything to deal with the swarm cells (I didn't want to cut them out unless I could find the queen).

I went on to hive number 2...didn't get very far into my inspection when this hive began behaving just like the first: bombarding me!

So, I've given up for today. Just wondering if you think yesterday's storms could have had an effect on their behavior today.