2nd Year Hive/ Swarming and agressiveness: Texas

[misterbliss]

This is my Hives second spring. They did really well last year. I worked with them fine throughout the summer. left them alone all winter.

Gave then Sugar Syrup 2 weeks ago Cause they were"collecting algae" - or so it seemed. figured they were hungry. Last week my wife called. Swarm was over house and left to woods.

I still have full hive of bees. Howver,  but 2 days ago Bees attacked my dog (chained up @150 Ft away.) She got @ 150+ stings. she is tremory, but seems to be improving. I sat 3 feet from the hive that evening and three cats actually stuck nose in hive entrance. No attack - no stings..

This AM - I just came in from opening the hive. Bees acted normal. Used some smoke. but The SECOND I scraped some propilis from the top edge. @100 bees agressively came out of the hive and one stung me on the hand. They did not chase me and I got the cover back on.

a few minutes later (with my hand covered/smoked to mask any residual alaram odor). I stood 5 feet and ten feet from hive and had a couple "buzzers" tried to warm me away, but no attack.

Guess it's time to re-queen. But how to accomplish if I need to kill old queen? Guess I could use full suit and gloves, but gloves make me clumsy. If I can't scrape - how am I going to remove combs for inspection.

Question for all the experienced Keepers out there. Is it normal for Italian Bees to be so agressive during swarming and so soon afterward. We are in East Texas Piney Woods. I know AHB are known to be in our county. Far as I can tell - no new behaviors have been going on around hive. same animals in yard (1.25 acres)

Any observations or personal experiences would be helpful. I am considering that I'll need to close off the entrances and destroy this hive. I'd hate to though...

By the way, sorry if there are any typos I missed. the sting on my right hand is affecting my typing, espcially  with jklop..  Thanks

Newbie with Concerns..

[kathyp]

i'm to new at this to give you answers...i just have a question?

are you sure the swarm and the dog stings came from your hive? 

[Understudy]

You may have lost your queen. Bees will be mean when they lose a queen.
When bees swarm you get a new queen or no queen. If the new queen is AHB DNA you may have an issue. If the queen didn't mate you have an issue. My recommendation would be to not let the dog play with the bees. And keep the seperated as much as possible. Also if you can keep him off the leash do so. If he gets attacked he will need to run.

Having a 100 bees come flying out is not unusual if the scraping distrubed the hive. You only received one sting. I would recommend wait a week. Go back in a do another deep inspection and see if they get really upset. If they do remove the queen and place her in alchool at least she can be used as swarm lure. Order a new queen that is mated. One sting is not a big deal 150 is. However the dog could have done something that set off the hive or been out there when something disturbed the hive. A hive disturbed like that takes about 48 hours to fully calm down from what I have had to deal with. It doesn't mean they are bad bees. It means something happened.

Sincerely,
Brendhan

[misterbliss]

Thanks Brendhan. Makes perfect sense.
The hive may be queenless - I'll try again next Sunday. I will order Queen anyway to assure good breeding though if I can't see my marked queen

Kathyp, No Guarantee that Attack on Dog was my Hive. But proximity is suspect. When dog goes back out. Move away another 50Ft. Other Dogs at 25ft and 75 ft further from attack site did not get attacked. Wife said bees were attacking Turkeys and a rooster that got too close to my hive during this event. Good point about the swarm though - my wife didn't see tham come out of hive, but they hung over general area of hive and then moved off into the woods.that swarm might not have even come from my hive, but there were quite a few drones dead outside of hive after the attack.


Thanks for your replies.

S

[misterbliss]

Additional point of information. The Bees did not attack my wife or son when they released the dogs (lots flying around but not attacking anyone else but 1 dog - the one marked as it were. My wife did freak a bit cause some got tangled up in her hair.).. thanks all

[Jerrymac]

I bet it wasn't your bees that attacked the animals initially. Could have been others and your bee could have gotten involved because of the attack pheromones. Then while scraping propilis, did you bang on the hive in any manner? Bees hate banging and knocking. You can cut open the hive with a skill saw and not get them as angry as tapping on the hive.