# Bees are so agreesive and stinging through suit why?



## Beesure! (Apr 24, 2012)

Were trying to steal there gold? If you were should have had smoke available?


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## biggraham610 (Jun 26, 2013)

How was the weather? Something must have pissed em off. When was your last inspection? Are you in a dearth? Many things can play a part. Have they been docile, or protective before now? What time of day was it? G


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## JWChesnut (Jul 31, 2013)

~ Always have a smoker fired up and ready. ~ 
You got off easy, all things considered. Hope you take the lesson to heart.


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## AL from Georgia (Jul 14, 2014)

I don't work my bees without smoke. Did you notice any robbing activity going on prior to opening the hive? Many things could make the bees temporarily defensive, such as bad weather approaching, wind, robbing, etc. The smoke helps to mask the different pheromone scents the bees use to communicate, among other things. However, I have encountered defensive bees with bad weather approaching, despite the use of smoke. Check them in couple of days with smoke and see if they have calmed down a bit.


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## huntingken111 (Jun 8, 2013)

It was 11 am my bees are a little bit in woods but If I was sweating like crazy in my suit I would think It would be hot enough. I will definitely use smoke another layer of gloves and no more short sleeves or pants. They have never been this aggressive before and we have checked them two weeks ago and robbed a full honey super from them with no problems and then we stomped the super on the cover and put back together.


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## beeware10 (Jul 25, 2010)

sounds like you learned something about basic beekeeping. not sure why you opened them without a smoker to start with.


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## cryptobrian (Jan 22, 2012)

They'll also heat up in a dearth, defending their stores of honey I suppose. I hadn't fully appreciated that until moving this past year. The summer where I am dries out substantially, no nectar available, and a dearth far worse than I had experienced in Maryland. My bees that had been very gentle all spring suddenly became far less tolerant of my presence around their hives.


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## homesteader824 (Jun 9, 2012)

First off, be sure to wash your suit, including the veil and hat, before you go back out to the bee yard. The stingers leave a smell that label you as a threat. Also, bees can't get to you through loose fabric. I try to make my protective clothing over-sized. When I get stung through my suit, it's where the fabric is stretched tight. This can't always be avoided though. 

Unless I'm just adding a super or changing one of my mason jar feeders, I always smoke a hive. It disrupts their communication, and the guard bees aren't as able to tell the girls to attack. 

Weather can play a role in aggression. Overcast skies seem to put the bees in a bad mood. I don't think they like wind much either; also, the wind decreases the effectiveness of a smoker. Very hot days seem to make the bees more aggressive around here, but that may be because there is also usually a dearth in late July to mid-August.

Population is an obvious cause. I've often heard how gentle bees are after installing them from a package. Well, a couple of months later, there are a lot more bees and they have honey to protect. If there isn't a good nectar flow, they will be protecting stores that they don't "think" they can replace.

Lastly, genetics is certainly a factor. Some bees are just mean. They start bumping you in the veil when you're 10 feet from the hive. Those hives need requeened.


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## jrose1970 (Apr 1, 2014)

I only got stung twice today. I put my gloves on after 2 stings. It was the last hive.  LOL
One thing about it, they hurt worse this time of year too. Mine are gentle compared to what Huntingken111 described. 
That one definitely needs to be requeened. Daddy never would have a mean bull because he had children. The same goes with bees.


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## Moonflower (Feb 18, 2014)

Maybe they are starving..just came back from a bee meeting & we were advised to feed until mid-Oct to prepare them for the winter...and if all goes well, enough honey for the hives, winter feeding may not be necessary. I am going to treat with MAQs & fill the top hive feeders with a 2:1 syrup today.


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## Brad Bee (Apr 15, 2013)

cryptobrian said:


> They'll also heat up in a dearth


I suspect that's the culprit. You can work bees without smoke and without a suit when there's a flow on. Now they're out of a job, all laying around the house and ticked off.


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## Riverderwent (May 23, 2013)

"What is up with my bees?"

Homesteader summed it well. I would add to make sure the hive entrances are at least eleven or so inches off the ground so that predators do not rile up your bees. I sometimes think about posts like this when I read threads from people who don't yet wear wear gloves or veils or use smoke this time of year. (If you do many cutouts, you'll see a broad range of temperaments, in bees too.)


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## fruitveggirl (Mar 8, 2013)

I agree with others about dearth, weather, and lingering pheromones causing cranky bees. Also, last year, my normally placid bees got super cranky overnight. It took awhile, but I finally figured out that a bear had been nosing around at night. Are you sure you don't have any predators bothering them?


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## muskratcreekhoney (Mar 30, 2010)

Mine are acting the same way. I had them hitting my gloves so hard, I could feel the vibration on my hands. I probably had at least 75 stings to my gloves. The nastiest of the hives had a high mite load (8%).


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## Mr.Beeman (May 19, 2012)

Yesterday was NOT a good day to be messing with bees. Hot...humid....between nectar flows...possible dearth in the area. Bad combination.


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## dweber85rc (Nov 25, 2013)

I experienced the same thing one of my hives yesterday. I knew it wasn't a good day to go in but I hadn't been in there for nearly 2 weeks and see how things were going as my largest hive was boiling over with bees. Saw a couple of queen cells in the top box and that was as far as I could get . Got stung and they were pissed. Hope those were suoercedure cells and not swarm. Couldn't get deep enough in to check. My other 2 hives were OK to work.m


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## David LaFerney (Jan 14, 2009)

It happens. Two weeks ago 3 of my very, strong populous hives were very aggressive - 20 or so stings through my jeans. A couple of days ago I went in with a plan to break them down and eliminate the queens, but they were back on good behavior. I have some theories, but I really don't know what was going on. The moral is to be prepared and don't jump to conclusions.


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## psfred (Jul 16, 2011)

Bees tend to be very cranky this time of year around here, we usually have a dearth and I get significant robbing of weak hives.

Went over to my next door neighbor's (quarter mile away) and a group of us checked her bees. She inherited three hives when her pastor moved, and one of them was stinging her so much she couldn't inspect them. Very obnoxious.

All the hives were in good shape, even the one that swarmed a few weeks ago (new milk brood, that was fun for everyone to see), and indeed her cranking hive was much fussier than mine usually are. 

Several issues with the hive -- some robbing pressure, I'm sure since they are loaded with honey, it's hotter than blazes at the moment (95F and high humidity) so she's getting quite a bit of bearding even with the sticky boards completely out, and all her hives from the pastor had the brood frames spaced out. 

Bees were initially pretty calm, but noticeably crankier the longer we were in the hives. She and her friend had not been smoking them, using sugar water spray instead, but I fired up the smoker and dosed them up, bottom and top, and smoked them away from the top when they got too far over the edge. queeright, but a bit defensive. Worst part was getting those very fat frames out, at lest the first one. Rolled thousands of bees, both sides, sure to rile them up. Not so bad after getting the first frame out, but next spring we will be doing some trimming, I think, and getting those frames installed properly. She doesn't want any more hives, so I'll probably do some splits for me and the rest of the crew and put fresh foundation in and get the frames shoved together.

All in all only three or four stings, although I had bees all over me (no suit, just gloves and a veil and long pants). Got stung when I squeezed one, like usual. Pays to be skinny as a beek, for sure! Fat belly and bees and boxes, always ends up with a stinger in my gut somewhere. Anyway, not really aggressive, at least until putting the 100 lb deep back on!

Will also be cutting the 10 frame boxes down for her, she can't manage those deeps by herself and that takes much of the fun out.

My advice: ALWAYS USE SMOKE. It's cheap, it's easy, and it keeps the bees from going crazy and you from getting stung all over. Don't need much, just a long slow puff into the entrance and a puff under the inner cover and let it circulate for a minute or so, and they will be reasonable most of the time. And some days it's just better to put the lid back down if they boil out from under. Always another day to poke around in there.

Peter


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## huntingken111 (Jun 8, 2013)

Ok only second year but was in this hive two weeks ago and they were gentle. Hive stands are 12 inches off ground because of some research on here and we have a lot of skunks and **** in the river bottoms. Got lazy not lighting up smoker but I must say last year bees sometimes got aggressive but they never followed me that far and kept after me, sometimes they would leave and then come back. A lot of people are saying requeen, bis too late in year to requeen and if not where do I find a northern queen this time of year. Thanks for all the help stories and suggestions it is nice to be able to go on a site and such quick help.


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## JWChesnut (Jul 31, 2013)

Research on behavioral caste recruitment in honeybees shows that guard bee recruitment is ad hoc, but irreversible. A hive will "assign" the guard bee task only to the extent necessary, but once recruited the bees persist in their defensive behavior until they age out into the forager class.

Practically, what this means, USE SMOKE, avoid prepping the hive to become more and more defensive. It is the single most important thing you can do to prevent runaway defensiveness. You can't prevent the skunks from nosing around, but the bees adaptive reaction to smelly 2-legged skunk-like humanoids can be mitigated by using the tools we have (smoke) intelligently.


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## David LaFerney (Jan 14, 2009)

Interesting - so when a hive is harassed by robbers, skunks, or ham fisted beeks guard bees are recruited and then keep that job until they become foragers. And so we continue to pay for our past mistakes.


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## biggraham610 (Jun 26, 2013)

I found that interesting as well David. G
It makes sense though. I had a hive that was getting robbed when I intervened. Those bees were almost unworkable for 2-3 weeks, now, they are back to the same old girls. They were vicious for a minute.....:lpf:


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## dsegrest (May 15, 2014)

I tried sugar water spray about 3 times. Won't do that again.


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## Andrew Dewey (Aug 23, 2005)

JWChesnut said:


> You can't prevent the skunks from nosing around


But you can. Electric netting. I am primarily surrounding yards to deal with black bear but it also keeps skunks at bay. Keeping Moose out - not so good - but at least they are not seeking out the bee hives.


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## huntingken111 (Jun 8, 2013)

Okay went to my mean hive to check for scratches on front and saw nothing. The one thing I did notice is bees flying in and out and a lot of bees sitting on the landing to the point you could not see the wood on the landing is this normal to have that many bees on a 3 inch landing? When we did open the hive on Saturday we notice the 3 honey supers were completely covered with bees (every frame) and the top deep was completely covered with bees. If was not so late in season I probably could easily get a couple of splits out of it with that many bees. My question being when I take the honeys off this labor day weekend should I add a 3rd deep to it to give them room? By the way thanks for all the help. Also on a good note went to go retrieve one of my swarm traps this morning at my mother in laws (who told me she checked the trap all the time) and I saw bees flying in with pollen. I myself have not checked this trap in over month will be back towards dark thirty tonight to close up and bring them home. First swarm in my 12 traps ever.


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## Santa Caras (Aug 14, 2013)

Read an intresting book on beekeeping (it was set up by the season spring summer fall winter) this weekend and one of the suggestions for bees that are not used to having humans around all the time and becoming aggresive when inspected. (apiary miles away, only visited every two-three weeks or so) 
Anyway...the suggestion was to set up a scarecrow a few feet from the hives with movable clothing (scarves, shirts, pants blowing in the wind) and this would help the bees become used to movement in the yard with no danger to the hive. After awhile they become used to it and do not light up when the hives are opened up. Just thought it was intresting and one of those "AHHH HAAAA" moments.


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

Smoke makes all the difference in the world...


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## JWChesnut (Jul 31, 2013)

Santa Caras said:


> Anyway...the suggestion was to set up a scarecrow a few feet from the hives with movable clothing (scarves, shirts, pants blowing in the wind) and this would help the bees become used to movement in the yard with no danger to the hive.


Ormond Aebi in "The Art and Adventure of Beekeeping (1975) tells a very similar story where he solved an urban bee conflict by hanging out laundry on the clothesline. I first read Aebi's book, newly published and a present from my professor, as an impressionable college student with just two years of keeping experience. It resonated then, and still is a treasurehouse for a reverent attitude to the insects we care for. I believe its out of print, but worth buying used.
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2243052.Art_Adventure_of_Beekeeping


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## Dave Warren (May 14, 2012)

Smoke, and DEET, works for me


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## marshmasterpat (Jun 26, 2013)

I have a hive at a friend's house. He has gotten popped while mowing grass several times and popped while weed eating. I went over with my weed eater to keep it trimmed up around the hive and only he was home. So didn't smoke it, fired the weeder up and bees didn't bother me.

Moral of story - I tell him bees can detect unsavory characters:lookout:, now he says he may want the bees gone. :scratch: LOL But he bought a bug jacket he now wears when mowing that part of the yard. 

Smoke always.


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## Walt McBride (Apr 4, 2004)

To huntingken111;

When you remove your honey supers on heavily populated hive, provide dry super combs if you have them for the large population to cluster on. They may be removed in later weeks when colony count decreases.

Walt


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## McBee7 (Dec 25, 2013)

First off--Yes i know "use smoke" my smoker went out after
I puffed the front door, then when I opened the top there
were bees on me befor I knew it & took lots of stings as I not
iced the boxs were totally full...added a super,,and got tthe
heck out of there...
second box--No smoke,,,took the top cover off and the 
bees came shooting out of the inner-cover hole like a roman
candle....Boxs also full, added super...
We are in a large flow right now with red clover golden rod
and tons of flowers everywhere...although day and nite time
temps are telling the bees that winter is coming ,,
40 deg F this morning..
Got stung probably 40 times and came back at dusk and did
an OA treatment to 8 hives and the bees were docile.....
What a crazy day/year.....
They are also making comb and honey like gangbusters???go figure

==McBee7==


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## Jeffzhear (Dec 2, 2006)

I suppose there are those who can work with the full size hives with no smoke. As for me, I would never consider working them without smoke. With the heat and humidity levels here this time of year...


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## jrose1970 (Apr 1, 2014)

Hello,
Mine were a little more aggressive the other day. I had to wear gloves. I can tell now by the way that they sit on the top bar whether or not they are going to sting me. I work in Sparta!


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

>Yes i know "use smoke" my smoker went out after
I puffed the front door

The first step is to learn HOW TO smoke and the first step of that is to learn how to get it lit and keep it lit. It takes practice. An insert helps...

http://www.bushfarms.com/beesmisc.htm#smokerinsert


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## McBee7 (Dec 25, 2013)

Thanks MB  I'll try and make the insert

= = McBee7==


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