[batman46]

if I get mean bees can I requeen with a milder queen and make them all mild?

 

[Andrew Dewey]

The quick answer is yes but remember that it will take six plus weeks for the off spring of the new queen to replace all the "hot" bees. If something besides genetics is responsible for your hive's bad temperament, requeening isn't going to do much for you.

 

[Beeslave]

I 2nd all of Andrews post.

 

[batman46]

so what you are saying is ,if they were Russians and I re queened with a italian
the hive would almost be replaced with itaians?

 

[sqkcrk]

I don't know you or how much experience you have w/ bees, but I wonder if it isn't the bees, but your experience? Perhaps you need more experience working bees or working around bees.

How are the bees expressing their aggressivness? How much experience do you have keeping bees? Do you have a smoker, veil, gloves, coveralls and hive tool? Do you know how to use them properly?

The reason I ask is that your question seems somewhat elementary(?). That of a newbee or novice. We all have to start some time.

 

[Andrew Dewey]

Yes - all offspring of the new queen would carry the genetics the queen was born with together with those from the drones she mated with. Given that bees this time of year have a limited life span, in six weeks or so the population would have changed over.

That said, what Mark asks about how you know they are "hot" is entirely valid. I have a yard of normally very peaceful carniolians who one day after I made a few mistakes (let my smoker go out, didn't realize that some frames had been attached to an inner cover before trying to remove it) treated me like a marauding bear and covered me with stings. 3 days later they were back to normal. It wasn't "hot bees" but beekeeper error that caused their behavior.

Requeening bees to convert to a different race is more complicated than say replacing an Italian with an Italian. It can be done but you'll want to study up on how to do it successfuly. {And note that some of today's Russians are said to be very gentle}

Best of luck!

>> so what you are saying is ,if they were Russians and I re queened with a italian
>> the hive would almost be replaced with itaians?

 

[batman46]

I haven't started yet ,just thinking.I have been out with a friend and he told me that if he said to back off to move back slowly and not to stop.his Russians were butting me in the face and in a sec were covering my chest.he was smoking and was not moving fast, just looking.His Italians were not brotherd by anything he did unlike the Russians.
I am starting to make a list of the things I may need and reading and talking
to all I know before I start.I do have 1 guy to help me start but he is only in his 3 year

 

[Andrew Dewey]

Keep on thinking, and watching, and learning. I learn something new about bees most every day. Yesterday I got to watch a newly hived swarm with 30 or so workers on the bottom board butt out fanning away. I hope they were telling their hive mates that they've got a great new home and if any of them have yet to check it out, they should! The bees were still in the hive this morning so I'm thinking I was probably correct. Follow Ms Frizzle's advice and get your hands messy. Start your own hives next spring and before you know it you'll be "the authority" answering questions for new beekeepers. I've been keeping bees for about eight years now. The cycle continues...

 

[sqkcrk]

One thing I learned at the American Beekeepers Federation mtng in Orlando, FL this last winter was that sperm from different drones is pretty much homoginized in the spermtheca. Low all these many years I thought that the semen came as a set from each drone as the eggs were fertilized. I thought that that accounted for the verying disposition of a colony of bees. My assumptions were wrong apparently.