[Lew Best]

I must requeen my mean feral hive. They're only mean when I open the hive but day before yesterday they started chasing my girlfriend & her grandson who were watching me check them from about 50 feet away! Stung her 4 year old grandson twice.

I have 2 possibilities. One of the local bee club members has a frame with a queen cell (due to hatch in about 5-6 days) I can get. Other is to order a queen from California or Hawaii.

I don't know which would be best. The local queen cell can be inserted sooner (have to order the other) but will need to be bred & start laying. Is she likely to be a problem as she'll probably breed with drones from my mean hive? Also I know there will be a delay before she starts laying but also a delay in the bought one while waiting for her to arrive but will not have the genetics from being bred to my drones.

Advice appreciated!

Lew in Waco, TX

 

[Michael Bush]

From my experience the daughter queen, even if it's from the mean hive, is usually much calmer. It's your choice. Another way to calm down a hive is split it AND requeen it. The results are a bit more immediate that way. A weaker hive tends to be more docile to start with (the split) and once they have a new queen they seem to quiet a lot even though the genetics of the bees haven't had time to change.

I'm guessing that a mean hive is some combination of things and not JUST genetics.