Subject: Re: Very agressive hive

From: [email-masked] (Janet A. Katz)
Date: Wed, 21 Aug 1996 04:11:32 GMT

"Pastor David Rees" <[email-masked]> wrote:

>I have a very agressive hive and last time I checked it I was stung many
>times and passed out from 50+ stings.  I have to re queen in October and am
>not looking forward to opening the hive.. of course i will put heavier
>clothes on this time but if anyone has any ideas .. pls.

This may seem very obvious, but I thought I'd post it anyway. Make
sure it's a sunny, warm day; and not too early or late so that the
majority of the field bees are out and about doing their thing.

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From: Graham & Annie Law <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 23 Aug 1996 16:28:48 +0100

In article <01bb8b66$ab6a0e00$6f3c10cb@drobb>, Pastor David Rees
<[email-masked]> writes
>clothes on this time but if anyone has any ideas .. pls.

You've had some good advice given already, however I have tried some of
the methods mentioned and not had success.  

This year one hive became very nasty after the OSR had gone over,  most
hives get tetchy then but this one never recovered.

I tried moving the hive 15feet to bleed the older bees into a docile
coloney.  This resulted in the good coloney becoming queenless and also
nasty :-( 

These bees were bad news and I ended up killing one coloney even after
re-queening.  Hobby beekeeping should be no.1 enjoyable and not a
wrestling match.  

The frustrating thing is the original nasty coloney worked harder than
any other in the apairy... much mutterings in the local bee club about
F1 hibrids, but I don't think these bees followed motoracing? :-}

Bye Graham

Graham Law
[email-masked]
Leicestershire
(about 100miles north of London)
UK

"I see no future in the cathode ray tube"
                John Logie Baird
                1929

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From: Richard Yates <[email-masked]>
Date: 30 Aug 1996 12:08:53 GMT

Someone writes:
>times [...]

1) Odd circumstance, or general with this stock?
2) Dress up well & look carefully at colony and hive for clues. If they
   can't get you, you'll feel lots safer and your technique may improve
   (very sorry if I'm stating the obvious).
3) Robbing?
4) No point in smoking a starving colony.
5) No point in smoking a colony which has no access to unsealed honey
   (i.e. all capped).

Richard.
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