How mean is too mean?

[jredburn]

I live in SW Florida and we have Africianized bees here in ever increasing numbers.  The local State inspector told me that his rule of thumb for replacing the queen is to smoke the top of the hive.  If the smoke drives the bees down into the hive, they are OK.  If they come boiling up out of the hive then they need to be requeened.

Another test is the amount of guard bees that come out of the hive when someone approaches.  More than a couple of dozen is grounds for another queen.

Regards
Joe

[JP]

Take that with a grain of salt Joe. Bare in mind what you are looking for is a hive that is consistently aggressive over the course of 2-3 inspections (my own personal criteria). Bees respond to atmospheric pressure changes, sometimes in a bad way. If they are requeeing the hive could be bitter during this period as well. I've seen them quite moody turn quite peaceful once the weather righted itself and I've seen aggressive hives become extremely gentle once THEY requeened themselves. And don't forget a hungry hive or swarm can be downright unruly until they get some supper in them.

My .02


...JP

[Beeboy01]

If the hive is too mean to the point where the bee keeper doesn't like it then the course of action is prety much a no brainer. You gotta do something, either requeen, split or combine the hot hive. I always rate my hives agression on a mental scale of 1-5 with 5 being the hottest. One of the worst hives I worked lost it's queen and gave me over a dozen stings during teardown. Got another half dozen putting the hive back together after running away for a few minutes. It is pretty funny now but not at the time.

[divemaster1963]

.
Calm bees are good in migrative beekeeping

That is my main job in beekeeping. I pick up best pastures and move hives even twice during 2 moth yield season.

It is very nice to take hive in the morning and move it out. When I take off tranport cover mesh, bees do not rush on me.  It takes 2 hours and they start to forage.

Once upon a time were cedaces when I had German Black Crossings. I call them "Black Devils". Englishmen call them "National Bee".  They have everything National with big letter.

It was in beekeeping book that after treatment hives are angry 3 days. When you compare to two hours, the dirrefence is big.

I remember back at my uncles the bees back then were more aggressive in defending their hives. I think that the breeding out of the aggression to the point that they are workable without gear. they become less capable of defending the hive from pests and may even weaken them to a point that they subcome to some new disease and pests.

my personal opinion

john

[Finski]

le without gear. they become less capable of defending the hive from pests and may even weaken them to a point that they subcome to some new disease and pests.

my personal opinion

john

opinion without facts.  i remember how sick bees were in old days. Brood area was full of holes because hole was sign of dead larva.

On another hand your clever idea means that beebreeders do not understand much about diseases.

Bee diseases have developed before a human walked on earth. Man has not made those 32 diseases and pest which are in beehives.

.

[rober]

to divemaster-
 you can use the right size tupperware, ziplock bags or even plastic grocery bags taped over smoke detecters to keep from setting off alarms. dust & paint fumes can set them off too. it always better to cover them before doing any work. also when the detecters are hard wire with direct lines to the fire dept. a call to the alarm co will get the detecters disabled while you work.