As a relatively new beek, I thought I had seen it all up until this year. I have had what I considered aggressive hives in the past couple of years but this one takes the cake...
I ordered some "Russian Hybrid" queens from a southern source last summer and used them as breeder stock. I made about four nucs from their offspring (I assume this would be third generation Russians which mated with my local drones). I noticed how defensive they were last fall as they built up when I would change the feeder jar, often chasing me 100 yards back to the house. They built up so well I hated to squash them but now question if I should have.
They are in double deeps with two or three mediums on them, they are packing in the nectar and pollen and full of brood. I decided to bust one of the big colonies up to make nucs from and I have never seen anything like them. As soon as I enter the bee yard I start getting hits on the veil and in my hair if no veil. I had to go to great extreme measures when getting into them. Smoke seems to irritate them, when I smoke them they form a black cloud and almost all leave the hive to attack. When I pull brood frames out most of the bees leave the brood to attack.
So far I have not found the queen, but see eggs, I've divided them into 6 nuc boxes as recommended on Mr. M. Bush's website and am going to introduce queen cells tonight.
I have seen a skunk in the yard from time to time. Is this typical behavior of an aggressive hive? Could I possibly have imported AHB genetics from the queen purchase last year? I have some hives of similiar size I can inspect with no gloves and only the veil on but this one requires rubber gloves and then the cotton on top, wrapping your head in a towel and then putting the veil on, tapeing all openings up etc. I hope the requeening works.
Any suggestions other than killing them?
Tim
I ordered some "Russian Hybrid" queens from a southern source last summer and used them as breeder stock. I made about four nucs from their offspring (I assume this would be third generation Russians which mated with my local drones). I noticed how defensive they were last fall as they built up when I would change the feeder jar, often chasing me 100 yards back to the house. They built up so well I hated to squash them but now question if I should have.
They are in double deeps with two or three mediums on them, they are packing in the nectar and pollen and full of brood. I decided to bust one of the big colonies up to make nucs from and I have never seen anything like them. As soon as I enter the bee yard I start getting hits on the veil and in my hair if no veil. I had to go to great extreme measures when getting into them. Smoke seems to irritate them, when I smoke them they form a black cloud and almost all leave the hive to attack. When I pull brood frames out most of the bees leave the brood to attack.
So far I have not found the queen, but see eggs, I've divided them into 6 nuc boxes as recommended on Mr. M. Bush's website and am going to introduce queen cells tonight.
I have seen a skunk in the yard from time to time. Is this typical behavior of an aggressive hive? Could I possibly have imported AHB genetics from the queen purchase last year? I have some hives of similiar size I can inspect with no gloves and only the veil on but this one requires rubber gloves and then the cotton on top, wrapping your head in a towel and then putting the veil on, tapeing all openings up etc. I hope the requeening works.
Any suggestions other than killing them?
Tim