[Wesbee]

There has been a lot of threads about aggressive bees, and the answer is always "requeen" so my question is, are they mean because of the Queens presents? if so I can see where she is gone and they change thier attitude.... But I would think that "mean" would come from the genes (the Queen or the Drone). so if this is true, it could take 2 months to get it out of the hive. say you kill the Queen today, she laid egg today ( using simple math) that egg emeges in 20 days and lives for 40 days thats 60 days before that trait is gone. so tell me where my thinking is wrong !

 

[Vance G]

You have the math about right give or take a day. The sooner you replace a queen who produces daughters with no sense of humor, the sooner you can enjoy going back in that colony. MY mean colony this spring got turned into nucs so I had several weaker ornery hives which don't seem to generate the same level of attackers as one populace and defensive colony.

 

[TWall]

Defensiveness is genetic and it will take a few weeks to replace the bees.

Another factor is colony size. DEfensiveness is much more noticable in a large colony than a small one.

You could split a colony in half, remove old queen, re-rqueen one half, remove any queen cells either split makes, combine splits once new queen is established.

If you are concerned about the new queen being accepted you could make a weak nuc to introduce her in. Once she is introduced add frames of brood to make nuc/single stronger, then combine with remaining colony.

Tom

 

[Michael Bush]

Defensiveness often goes away in a few days after introducing the new queen. This, of course, means it's not JUST genetic all the time, but requeening is still the solution.