Keep her. For hot hives I place one or two small flags or spinning pin wheels next to the hive. The constant movement of the flag or pinwheel calms them down in about one week. CAUTION - I recently caught a gigantic swarm in my swarm trap. When I went to get them I was fortunate that for some reason I decided b to wear a full bee suit with gloves. They must have been Africanized bees because as soon as I touched the trap, they all attacked me. Tens of thousands of bees bouncing off my hood. Suddenly, there was a bee in my hood which quickly stung me right next to my right eye. Then, my ankles were on fire as well as my wrists. I took off running for my life. I ran over 100 yards and they were still after me. I was finally able to escape and found dozens if stings on my ankles and wrists. My gloves were covered in stingers. The lesson learned - take no chances. Wear your suit and hood. Make sure your bee suit has thumb loops and foot loops to keep attacking bees from getting inside your suit.
Hi from France. I vote for option C. Sometimes just moving a hive changes the behaviour of the colony, so they may become less agressive, who knows? At least I would give it a try, as they did not seem that bad on your video... I've had a colony that became aggressive as the queen got older (strong attacks, following me until home, waiting for several hours to still attack me...). Everyone advised me to kill the queen, but I liked her very much because she was my first one and she was also doing a great job in producing daughters. I just decided to leave her alone (minimum opening, no honey harvest, and when I opened, I always opened her last). This queen died during summer 2023 (i was sad to see that), but the workers raised a new queen and this new queen is very sweet.
Hot hive is a relative term. The hive you call hot looks perfectly tame to me. That said, live is too short to work with mean bees. If they are too hot for you; kill the queen, come back 3 days later and tear down any queen cells, install a frame of eggs from your best tame hive and let them make a queen from that genetic line.
Dave, I have the same issue with a hot hive (feral hive from last summer I kept and tried to work with them). They are great honey producers, large amounts of brood overwintered thanks to your Winter Bee Kind, etc. HOWEVER, they chase guests away and keep everyone on red alert, not fun. I could move them since I have ten acres but I just don't want to do it (have to set up with electric fence due to bears). So, as of today, I am requeening because I don't want to mess with them and have one bad apple spoiling the whole bunch. It's just my thinking. BUT I LOVE BEEKEEPING starting year 2. Thanks for the video!
Last year I had two colonies. They were both very gentle at first. Then one colony superseded their queen and raised a new one. After she started laying and her brood took over, they became very hot. Since it was only my second year of keeping bees, I became very apprehensive about working them. They got so bad that they started following me back to my house and for hours, every time I went out, they would immediately start buzzing around me. I was seriously considering culling the entire colony. Since it was pretty late in the summer by the time the new queen started laying, they didn’t have time to build up for winter and didn’t make it. Honestly, I was relieved they didn’t survive
In my opinion you shouldn’t tolerate the bad genetics of that aggressive colony full stop. If you tolerate it in one colony, be prepared to tolerate it in lots of hives in future when the genetics have spread around through mating. IMHO: Just cull her and replace her with a known-good stock.
Perhaps it may be best to relocate the hive. I had a hive that was super defensive but when the state inspector came he said it was a great hive and didn’t have any issues. In the meantime, I was standing a distance away and believe it or not 12 bees landed on my hand and they all stung me. That hive was the only hive that survived the winter.
We had one like that for years. We put up with them because they were great honey producers and didn't want to interrupt that but we always inspected them last that way these were not wind up by them. My opinion either re-queen or inspect last. Your hive is pretty gentle compared to ours. Ours were witches😂
OK. It depends. 🙂Typical beekeeper answer. If the hive and yard are used for honey production, I would move her to another location until after the nectar flow and then make a decision. If you are using that location for rearing bees that you may sell, I would replace her. My concern would be the drones she produces that could have an impact on new queens and colonies.
I choose C . These are calm compared with my bees in canada and even mine are ok as long as you smoke and remain calm. Maybe inspect them later in the day but before the gatherers return for the night. I had a new hive that was nasty for a few weeks and then they calmed down and are my strongest hive .
How old is she? if she's 2 years old you're prob gonna replace her anyway. Maybe see how the other 1/2 of that hive (the split) turns out and you may want to just use her offspring to replace her later this year.
Requeen. You don't want to have to kill the entire hive, I have seen that happen twice. Can you get rid of the drones along with the queen as well, so that is not spread to other hives?
David, I was surprised you didn't replace this queen when you made the split. If I remember, this hive isn't producing any better then the other hives. Why have a hot hive?
Hi Mr. Dave, can I make a split with a hive that I’m treating for mites or should I wait till the end of the treatment? Thank you for your great videos. They’re very helpful.
Sounds like my bees!!😂 They are very upset all the time. I walked out to feed them without my suit, and they got me twice. They are not nice girls! Lol! I still love them to death!!❤
Your online classes are amazing! My second year with bees and I just performed my first two splits. Both splits are raising a new queen. I am practicing mite control and loving all of these experiences. Your classes provided a wealth of knowledge. I highly recommend them to anyone who has not yet taken them.
Hello! I could use some help. I have a friend who bought a hive, he thought his queen died, so he went back and got another one. When he came home he saw that his original queen was alive, and he gave me the replacement queen. I split one of my hives, put lots of brood and put the queen in her cage in the hive for three days. When I came back, I put the sugar Cork in, and when I come back two days later, the queen was dead. They started raise their own queen from the brood, and now there are 2 capped queen cells. Should take one out and try and split another hive? What don you suggest I do. Any advice helps
I think if you didnt get stung by that hive while you were doing that insoection during the day (as opposed to moving them at night) you should keep them. Especially with so many desirable traits. Great video thank you!
David I would go With A there is no need for a hot hive now my question is how soon do you mark the queen on a new package? I would say with my experience the first hive check. What do you think Charlie PA?
Out of pure selfishness i am going to say replace the queen. I would love to see how that works because even though my bees are very productive, they are very aggressive. Last year's hive was so gentle and this one is constantly attacking. Would love to learn how to replace the queen.
I got a swarm from under a neighbors shed and they were amazingly gentle. Put them in my bee yard and after being in their boxes 2 days in a row to graft, they turned mean. The guard bees recognize my car it seems and “greet” me when I arrive. Breaks my heart because I wanted to breed her!
C & D rehive the colony. Maybe its the hive box. What do I know I don't wear protection. I would have the flairosol mister going with sugar water for sure. Wet sticky bees don't fly.
You made some interesting comments about wanting to use this queen as a breeder. So why would you pinch her? As others have said, it doesn't look that bad. So, based on your own comments, I think you need to "Cowboy Up". Besides, if you moved their hive to another apiary, you would have the same set of questions there. No use "kicking the can down the road". Either pinch her or cowboy up. I would cowboy up -- especially if you want her genetics for other queens. PS -- Hope my package of worksheets made it to you. All went through all seven courses. Still waiting for my two nucs to show up t;his spring.
Kill and replace the queen! That’s the only option as a beekeeper in my opinion. However for the fun of a video: cowboy up and deal with them. Stings are funny to watch.
A....requeen, requeen. A Commercial beekeeper may put up with that for the extra honey production. But as a backyard beekeeper it so much more enjoyable to work a calm hive than one with bees bouncing off your veil. Your supposed to enjoy the time spent in your bee yard. 😊
Having 1 agressive hive, can ruin your day working in all the other wonderfull hives. I know, I have that 1 hive that is so mean but was so productive 😡 All last season I kept her and always inspected last as I knew I would get stung 😡 Well I am not dealing with this anymore, changing the queen is my way to go ;) Even changing her of apiary won't solve anything, you are just mooving the problem ;)
I'd requeen - but that's my situation. My neighbors and friends might not appreciate the honey production over the stings as much as I would. I'd rather not have any complaints lodged. I had a hot hive and it really takes the fun out of beekeeping.
Keep the hive and work it with lots of smoke in a full suit and move slow. As a smaller beekeeper with 10 hives, having an aggressive queen is a good problem. That’s because it’s good the hive is growing during the flow. A bad problem is a queenless hive during the flow. Requeening the hive is expensive; either you pay $$$ for a mated queen or you let them raise their own. That takes 4 weeks and no eggs are being laid during that time. Hives are calm when young and get more aggressive with more adult bees and more honey resources to protect.
I would leave them a week or two. Maybe it was where they were. even kids playing near them may have triggered a response. If it was me. then if the hive is still hot I would replace queen. We sometimes don't know what could have triggered a hive going hot. maybe it's just temporary. Something happened to them. So I wouldn't be to rash on a decision.
I had a hot hive that was a great producer. I would work it last. Unfortunately it ended up being queen less for a long time so I chose to destroy it rather than risk them killing a queen if I combined them. That was sad.
Try A if that doesn’t work I personally I have no time to work hot hives especially with neighbors so I have to be responsible and get rid of those genetics
pinch the queen, replace. It's a liability having a hot hive around, sting random people. I had one very hot hive, could not even open the inner cover, they would chase me around the yard. It was a swarm I got. Very productive, but impossible to inspect
Ok, a bit late to this party, but normally I'd requeen and try to get your other good genetics into that colony. However...for you it might be worthwhile having a hot hive for video and teaching purposes in which case I'd at least move them away from the bulk of your other hives. The biggest question is whether virgin queens from calm hives will mate with drones from the hot hive and pass on this trait to their progeny.
I see nothing wrong with keeping that queen even though she has a spicier disposition towards you. In my experience, the hotter the hive the lower of the mite count. Of course there are exceptions to the rule. It might be more suitable. I would certainly take a mite count of that colony and then compare it with other colonies that have a softer temperament. She may very well be More inclined to encourage more vigorous grooming habits and thereby resulting in a lower mite population. If that’s some thing that you value a bit more then “spoiling” the rest of your colonies as you said… That’s great. But if it’s not as important to you then just re-queen. I’ve had hot hives right next to really placid ones and it didn’t influence the more gentle ones to become hotter. That’s my own experience. That colony might be a little bit more of the ankle biter sort.
David 2nd year keeper and now my hive has swarmed twice this in the last week! Now I’m not sure do I inspect and remove queen cells so this stops or am I now at the mercy of what they want to do. I was ok if they swarmed bc I didn’t want to expand and couldn’t do the demarey(spelled wrong) method due to lack of equipment. Now what?
So I thought if you were moving a hive you had to first move it like four miles away and leave it there for a few days and then bring it back? I need to move my apiary about 150 feet from where it is now. Trying to figure out how to do it. Leave the bees at my friend's house for a few days first? 🤔
it would be my guess based upon her size, that your queen has not yet mated. Many people don't realize but a queen can mate as soon as 5 days out and can wait 10 days or more. once mated, it can be anywhere from 5 to 21 days before she starts to lay.
Hey David, Thanks for sharing. That new queen looks like a drone based on her size. Will the bees tear down that empty queen cell since she has emerged? There were two queen cells in my hive that I split and the queen cells had been torn down based on my notes of where they were located. I did not see the queen. Based on this video I may have easily missed her. I am hoping she is in the process of being mated although the weather has been rainy the past few days here in SE PA.
Can you send me a link for your beginner's class I would like to be able to contact you to get more information on learning how to be keep I am in extreme beginner beekeeping love to be able to contact you to help me learn more about this I don't read very well and I don't have ways but getting places to do this I would love to have the chance to be able to learn more cuz my my fiance is into beekeeping but doesn't have the knowledge for it I need to get up-to-date as fast as I can
David, I say re-queen the hot hive. I had this issue last September and two weeks after introducing a mated queen, their behavior was much better. When this hive was hot, the bees tore up this feller that walked up behind me while doing an inspection.
Your splits are looking good David, Just checked 1 of mine today and they have a good laying mated queen which is nice, Just moved them to a 10 Frame box yesterday, Good stuff David, Looking forward to your live chat, Have a great Day David :)
" Sheri gonna find the hive tools when the lawn gets mowed " Lmao . Edit Sheri gonna buy you a metal detector , or a string to tie off the hive tool to your belt .
Keep her. For hot hives I place one or two small flags or spinning pin wheels next to the hive. The constant movement of the flag or pinwheel calms them down in about one week. CAUTION - I recently caught a gigantic swarm in my swarm trap. When I went to get them I was fortunate that for some reason I decided b to wear a full bee suit with gloves. They must have been Africanized bees because as soon as I touched the trap, they all attacked me. Tens of thousands of bees bouncing off my hood. Suddenly, there was a bee in my hood which quickly stung me right next to my right eye. Then, my ankles were on fire as well as my wrists. I took off running for my life. I ran over 100 yards and they were still after me. I was finally able to escape and found dozens if stings on my ankles and wrists. My gloves were covered in stingers. The lesson learned - take no chances. Wear your suit and hood. Make sure your bee suit has thumb loops and foot loops to keep attacking bees from getting inside your suit.
Option 3, give me that queen., I'll straighten her out😂😂😂
Hi from France. I vote for option C. Sometimes just moving a hive changes the behaviour of the colony, so they may become less agressive, who knows? At least I would give it a try, as they did not seem that bad on your video... I've had a colony that became aggressive as the queen got older (strong attacks, following me until home, waiting for several hours to still attack me...). Everyone advised me to kill the queen, but I liked her very much because she was my first one and she was also doing a great job in producing daughters. I just decided to leave her alone (minimum opening, no honey harvest, and when I opened, I always opened her last). This queen died during summer 2023 (i was sad to see that), but the workers raised a new queen and this new queen is very sweet.
I've had hot hives also. But I've always kept the queens/hives because the honey production was tremendous.
Hot hive is a relative term. The hive you call hot looks perfectly tame to me.
That said, live is too short to work with mean bees. If they are too hot for you; kill the queen, come back 3 days later and tear down any queen cells, install a frame of eggs from your best tame hive and let them make a queen from that genetic line.
Dave, I have the same issue with a hot hive (feral hive from last summer I kept and tried to work with them). They are great honey producers, large amounts of brood overwintered thanks to your Winter Bee Kind, etc. HOWEVER, they chase guests away and keep everyone on red alert, not fun. I could move them since I have ten acres but I just don't want to do it (have to set up with electric fence due to bears). So, as of today, I am requeening because I don't want to mess with them and have one bad apple spoiling the whole bunch. It's just my thinking. BUT I LOVE BEEKEEPING starting year 2. Thanks for the video!
Last year I had two colonies. They were both very gentle at first. Then one colony superseded their queen and raised a new one. After she started laying and her brood took over, they became very hot. Since it was only my second year of keeping bees, I became very apprehensive about working them. They got so bad that they started following me back to my house and for hours, every time I went out, they would immediately start buzzing around me. I was seriously considering culling the entire colony. Since it was pretty late in the summer by the time the new queen started laying, they didn’t have time to build up for winter and didn’t make it. Honestly, I was relieved they didn’t survive
Lol! I would be perfectly happy if mine swirmed!😂
In my opinion you shouldn’t tolerate the bad genetics of that aggressive colony full stop.
If you tolerate it in one colony, be prepared to tolerate it in lots of hives in future when the genetics have spread around through mating.
IMHO: Just cull her and replace her with a known-good stock.
Perhaps it may be best to relocate the hive. I had a hive that was super defensive but when the state inspector came he said it was a great hive and didn’t have any issues. In the meantime, I was standing a distance away and believe it or not 12 bees landed on my hand and they all stung me. That hive was the only hive that survived the winter.
We had one like that for years. We put up with them because they were great honey producers and didn't want to interrupt that but we always inspected them last that way these were not wind up by them. My opinion either re-queen or inspect last. Your hive is pretty gentle compared to ours. Ours were witches😂
OK. It depends. 🙂Typical beekeeper answer. If the hive and yard are used for honey production, I would move her to another location until after the nectar flow and then make a decision. If you are using that location for rearing bees that you may sell, I would replace her. My concern would be the drones she produces that could have an impact on new queens and colonies.
I choose C . These are calm compared with my bees in canada and even mine are ok as long as you smoke and remain calm. Maybe inspect them later in the day but before the gatherers return for the night. I had a new hive that was nasty for a few weeks and then they calmed down and are my strongest hive .
I would replace the queen with one who has a gentler family history.
Definitely A, we don't want any drones with aggressive genes spoiling local colonies 😉
How old is she? if she's 2 years old you're prob gonna replace her anyway. Maybe see how the other 1/2 of that hive (the split) turns out and you may want to just use her offspring to replace her later this year.
Hi Dave, whats your trick for keeping the feeding holes open on the jar lids?
Great vids, regards
Requeen. You don't want to have to kill the entire hive, I have seen that happen twice. Can you get rid of the drones along with the queen as well, so that is not spread to other hives?
David, I was surprised you didn't replace this queen when you made the split. If I remember, this hive isn't producing any better then the other hives. Why have a hot hive?
Actually this is a great hive. Lots of honey and great brood pattern. Swarmed early last spring. Mites next to zero
Hi Mr. Dave, can I make a split with a hive that I’m treating for mites or should I wait till the end of the treatment? Thank you for your great videos. They’re very helpful.
Sounds like my bees!!😂 They are very upset all the time. I walked out to feed them without my suit, and they got me twice. They are not nice girls! Lol! I still love them to death!!❤
Experiment constantly and keep in mind, hot bees may be a means to treat less for veroa
I love watching the bees change the frames as the seasons go by and their work ethic.
Your online classes are amazing! My second year with bees and I just performed my first two splits. Both splits are raising a new queen. I am practicing mite control and loving all of these experiences. Your classes provided a wealth of knowledge. I highly recommend them to anyone who has not yet taken them.
Hello! I could use some help. I have a friend who bought a hive, he thought his queen died, so he went back and got another one. When he came home he saw that his original queen was alive, and he gave me the replacement queen. I split one of my hives, put lots of brood and put the queen in her cage in the hive for three days. When I came back, I put the sugar Cork in, and when I come back two days later, the queen was dead. They started raise their own queen from the brood, and now there are 2 capped queen cells. Should take one out and try and split another hive? What don you suggest I do. Any advice helps
Great question for my livestream tonight at 7pm central time. Here's the link: th-cam.com/users/liveDOmbY5uwA1M
My two cents says to leave both. Insurance that one survives. A hatching queen will kill those that have not hatched as shown in David's video.
I think if you didnt get stung by that hive while you were doing that insoection during the day (as opposed to moving them at night) you should keep them. Especially with so many desirable traits. Great video thank you!
Voting for C, cowboyup
OH WOW! I'm interested to know what you do?! I'm super new to this, but my bees have been super sweet! I hope they dont turn!
David I would go With A there is no need for a hot hive now my question is how soon do you mark the queen on a new package? I would say with my experience the first hive check. What do you think Charlie PA?
Maybe wait a month? (Warmer weather, more bees out of the hive foraging and you'll be certain the hive is happy wherever they are.)
Cowboy up David! If she's a good Queen you'll be sorry you killed her. Take a sting it'll be good for you.
wow you already have leaves on the trees in Illinois? not in MInneapolis! boo hoo! Another great vid THANKS!
Out of pure selfishness i am going to say replace the queen. I would love to see how that works because even though my bees are very productive, they are very aggressive. Last year's hive was so gentle and this one is constantly attacking. Would love to learn how to replace the queen.
Watching with a sore, stung nose....LOL I'd requeen 🤣😂
I got a swarm from under a neighbors shed and they were amazingly gentle. Put them in my bee yard and after being in their boxes 2 days in a row to graft, they turned mean. The guard bees recognize my car it seems and “greet” me when I arrive. Breaks my heart because I wanted to breed her!
Reading the comments it seems mean = thriving! Nice doesn’t get you much. 😢
C & D rehive the colony. Maybe its the hive box. What do I know I don't wear protection. I would have the flairosol mister going with sugar water for sure. Wet sticky bees don't fly.
I would keep the queen and the location and give it a few weeks and see if it calms down. 🤷🏻♀️
I would kill the queen if you have a back up, but if you don’t have a back up.I would just keep her and just move the hive somewhere else
You made some interesting comments about wanting to use this queen as a breeder. So why would you pinch her? As others have said, it doesn't look that bad. So, based on your own comments, I think you need to "Cowboy Up".
Besides, if you moved their hive to another apiary, you would have the same set of questions there. No use "kicking the can down the road". Either pinch her or cowboy up. I would cowboy up -- especially if you want her genetics for other queens.
PS -- Hope my package of worksheets made it to you. All went through all seven courses. Still waiting for my two nucs to show up t;his spring.
Kill and replace the queen! That’s the only option as a beekeeper in my opinion. However for the fun of a video: cowboy up and deal with them. Stings are funny to watch.
A....requeen, requeen. A Commercial beekeeper may put up with that for the extra honey production. But as a backyard beekeeper it so much more enjoyable to work a calm hive than one with bees bouncing off your veil. Your supposed to enjoy the time spent in your bee yard. 😊
Replace the queen. Any other option continues the issue. I would be concerned for friends and neighbors with a hot hive.
Requeen so the drones don’t change the temperament in your other hives with future queens
Having 1 agressive hive, can ruin your day working in all the other wonderfull hives. I know, I have that 1 hive that is so mean but was so productive 😡 All last season I kept her and always inspected last as I knew I would get stung 😡 Well I am not dealing with this anymore, changing the queen is my way to go ;) Even changing her of apiary won't solve anything, you are just mooving the problem ;)
A, replace her genetics since you have so many queen options. If it was your only colony, I'd say cowboy up.
I would requeen if really bad.
So I caught my first swarm of the season today and saw 2 virgin queens. How many virgins can be in a swarm??
I'd requeen - but that's my situation. My neighbors and friends might not appreciate the honey production over the stings as much as I would. I'd rather not have any complaints lodged. I had a hot hive and it really takes the fun out of beekeeping.
Keep the hive and work it with lots of smoke in a full suit and move slow.
As a smaller beekeeper with 10 hives, having an aggressive queen is a good problem. That’s because it’s good the hive is growing during the flow. A bad problem is a queenless hive during the flow. Requeening the hive is expensive; either you pay $$$ for a mated queen or you let them raise their own. That takes 4 weeks and no eggs are being laid during that time. Hives are calm when young and get more aggressive with more adult bees and more honey resources to protect.
I would leave them a week or two. Maybe it was where they were. even kids playing near them may have triggered a response. If it was me. then if the hive is still hot I would replace queen.
We sometimes don't know what could have triggered a hive going hot. maybe it's just temporary. Something happened to them. So I wouldn't be to rash on a decision.
I say C, deal with them a little longer! Maybe they produce for ya, then maybe revisit the decision come june
I had a hot hive that was a great producer. I would work it last. Unfortunately it ended up being queen less for a long time so I chose to destroy it rather than risk them killing a queen if I combined them. That was sad.
Try A if that doesn’t work I personally I have no time to work hot hives especially with neighbors so I have to be responsible and get rid of those genetics
pinch the queen, replace. It's a liability having a hot hive around, sting random people. I had one very hot hive, could not even open the inner cover, they would chase me around the yard. It was a swarm I got. Very productive, but impossible to inspect
Cowboy up ,move her far in apairy.if she lays well keep her till death do her part.
I vote to keep the Queen, diversity in regards to temperament can be a good way to ensure success when Mother Nature throws us beekeepers curveballs!
I would requeen. I've have a lot of success requeening aggressive hives.
Ok, a bit late to this party, but normally I'd requeen and try to get your other good genetics into that colony. However...for you it might be worthwhile having a hot hive for video and teaching purposes in which case I'd at least move them away from the bulk of your other hives. The biggest question is whether virgin queens from calm hives will mate with drones from the hot hive and pass on this trait to their progeny.
I have had some hot hives and I have just lived with them. As long as they are far enough away from people, just cowboy up😅
I see nothing wrong with keeping that queen even though she has a spicier disposition towards you. In my experience, the hotter the hive the lower of the mite count. Of course there are exceptions to the rule.
It might be more suitable. I would certainly take a mite count of that colony and then compare it with other colonies that have a softer temperament. She may very well be More inclined to encourage more vigorous grooming habits and thereby resulting in a lower mite population.
If that’s some thing that you value a bit more then “spoiling” the rest of your colonies as you said… That’s great. But if it’s not as important to you then just re-queen.
I’ve had hot hives right next to really placid ones and it didn’t influence the more gentle ones to become hotter. That’s my own experience.
That colony might be a little bit more of the ankle biter sort.
David 2nd year keeper and now my hive has swarmed twice this in the last week! Now I’m not sure do I inspect and remove queen cells so this stops or am I now at the mercy of what they want to do. I was ok if they swarmed bc I didn’t want to expand and couldn’t do the demarey(spelled wrong) method due to lack of equipment. Now what?
Do the queens always go around with their wings folded, like the 2 you showed?
My answer is to move this family to a different location. It’s always better for the bees there own queen
I’d wait and see if their disposition remains reasonable. If they get real hot again, I would ditch her.
I'd pinch her and add a new queen. I really don't like working bees that get pissy easy.
So I thought if you were moving a hive you had to first move it like four miles away and leave it there for a few days and then bring it back? I need to move my apiary about 150 feet from where it is now. Trying to figure out how to do it. Leave the bees at my friend's house for a few days first? 🤔
it would be my guess based upon her size, that your queen has not yet mated. Many people don't realize but a queen can mate as soon as 5 days out and can wait 10 days or more. once mated, it can be anywhere from 5 to 21 days before she starts to lay.
Hey David, Thanks for sharing. That new queen looks like a drone based on her size. Will the bees tear down that empty queen cell since she has emerged? There were two queen cells in my hive that I split and the queen cells had been torn down based on my notes of where they were located. I did not see the queen. Based on this video I may have easily missed her. I am hoping she is in the process of being mated although the weather has been rainy the past few days here in SE PA.
No question at all, replace the queen to remove her genes from the new apiary. There is no pleasure to be had in working a 'hot' hive.
Can you send me a link for your beginner's class I would like to be able to contact you to get more information on learning how to be keep I am in extreme beginner beekeeping love to be able to contact you to help me learn more about this I don't read very well and I don't have ways but getting places to do this I would love to have the chance to be able to learn more cuz my my fiance is into beekeeping but doesn't have the knowledge for it I need to get up-to-date as fast as I can
Will a new queen go on a mating flight prior to assuring all the other queen cells and queens are destroyed?
I have always heard killing or smashing bees is a great way to make a hot hive. I love swarm season. It's how I get bees.
I would re-queen however from what you said maybe just be slow with em with all the good traits they have
Move it somewhere else, they're probably just have a bad day😅😊
David, I say re-queen the hot hive. I had this issue last September and two weeks after introducing a mated queen, their behavior was much better. When this hive was hot, the bees tore up this feller that walked up behind me while doing an inspection.
Let the queen live for another season and see if will be any behavioral improvement.
I guess just move them at first, if they get really really hostile, then replace the queen
C, give them a chance this spring, they may have a better attitude. If they are not bad leave her alonre
Requeen. No point in having to fight with a hot hive when you have the resources to replace her.
I had a very hot hive and i requeen the hive and it change it around nice and fast ,Requeen the hive David
Option b keep the hive and move it since it produces real well
Your splits are looking good David, Just checked 1 of mine today and they have a good laying mated queen which is nice, Just moved them to a 10 Frame box yesterday, Good stuff David, Looking forward to your live chat, Have a great Day David :)
Replacing her would be my vote.
If you have a better location move they look not bad. If not kill
I don't know how to tell the difference. I would just move it if so.
Leave it there in that yard. Work that colony last in the yard
She has a lot of brood there. Would all her babies be hot so you’d have to go through a whole cycle?
" Sheri gonna find the hive tools when the lawn gets mowed "
Lmao .
Edit
Sheri gonna buy you a metal detector , or a string to tie off the hive tool to your belt .
So showing my ignorance, what do you mean by a hot hive?
Move and see if they calm down. If not requeen
cowboy up. that hive is gentle😂
I would Replace the queen or you will keep a hot hive
They don't look that bad. Leave tkem there.
Explain a Hot Hive? Thank you.
Move the hive one its own. Spicy bees they look good
Why don’t you save them for last to work
LOVE LOVE LOVE the new apiary!!!!
C-leave them and cowboy up
I’d say B as it doesn’t look too aggressive
B and compare the honey flow to a calm hive.
I would do B. Then you can always do A.
Could you inspect the hot hive last?