[nhoyt]

Has anyone heard of gentle bees having a tendency of being robbed by less gentle bees?

 

[nhoyt]

Nothing.......

 

[Oldtimer]

Not sure totally, but normally very gentle italian hives can also be very aggressive robbers.

 

[squarepeg]

allowing or rejecting bees not belonging to the colony is a trait that is expressed more by some and less by certain strains of bees. i'm not sure if that is related to how gentle or not they are with respect to a beekeepers intrusions....

in the same vein some strains are demonstrably more prone to robbing than others. again i'm not aware that that trait has been correlated with gentleness.

my gut feeling only and not based on actual experience is that very gentle bees would not likely be as defensive against a robbing attack.

there's no working my bees without full protection. smoke is optional on nucs and smaller colonies, but not on the monster strong ones.

 

[Ravenseye]

To add...I think it's also a colony thing. As a whole, colonies will be more or less defensive than individual bees. Social, group reactions are variable.