# Advice on moving VERY hot colonies



## Erik (May 1, 2012)

Sounds like the bees where I live (near Abilene, TX). I usually do cutouts at night to minimize innocent victims of the angry bees. The bees will try to attack any white light. If I'm doing something with tools and such I set the flashlight down and the bee vac hose directly in front of it. Bees head for the white flashlight and get sucked into the bee vac. Works well enough over time to remove the vast majority of bees. Sometimes I've just smacked the wall and let the bees come out (with all lights off they just crawl around their entrance or whatever hole you've made) and vacuum them off the wall.

Given the temper of these hives I'd ask whether you need the additional bees. If not just kill them. Even vacuuming you'll get some drones and I'd not want to keep these genetics if you have mostly gentle bees on your island!

Erik (near Abilene, TX)


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## gone2seed (Sep 18, 2011)

Some tobacco in the smoker works wonders for hot colonies.Use only a little.I grow some in my garden for just this situation.One leaf is plenty.


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## sweetas (Apr 16, 2012)

If they are that aggressive, do you really want them. Might be time for the fogger. Sometimes it is he only cure.


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## roberto487 (Sep 22, 2012)

They are probably Africanized honey bees. They have arrived to the carribbean a couple of years ago.


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## ivan carter (Jun 24, 2010)

Well got two moved so far started at 5.30 am in the dark and by 8 am I had as many as I could- I cut the brood comb and put it in empty frames and at each site suspended one of these frames from where the original colony was - went back 2 pm and the frames were covered - bees were a LOT calmer I very very gently took each frame down and placed it in a sealed nuc then vacuumed what I could - will go back tomorrow early and scoop up the remaining ball and fog what I don't get the I will start on the next two - 

I will make sure no queens and then put some eggs from my calm hive in the hopes the new queen will calm them down !!

Hate to see them fogged that's what happens 90% of the time here 

Thanks for the tobacco advice I don't have access to any but sounds like a great plan 



I am originally from Africa where I also kept bees and I agree these girls have very similar characteristics behavior wise to over there

Will take some pics tomorrow and post !


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## gone2seed (Sep 18, 2011)

ivan carter said:


> Thanks for the tobacco advice I don't have access to any but sounds like a great plan
> !


The tobacco from an unfiltered cigarette or a small piece of a cigar works fine.Just don't overdo it
as the nicotine in too large a dose is a poison.


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## My-smokepole (Apr 14, 2008)

On the tobacco could I use a couple of Cigarettes
David


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## Spinner (Jun 2, 2013)

> On the tobacco could I use a couple of Cigarettes


Yes you can. Break off the filter, of course.


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## Jackson (Aug 5, 2013)

Hope everything went well for you Ivan, have you removed their queens yet?


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## ivan carter (Jun 24, 2010)

thanks for the advice people , so sorry didnt post pocs , didnt think about the difficulty of taking pics with an iphone and gloves on  

yes got all the bees , turned out tyo be seven colonies in all , the 4 biggest were very tough to deal with , and even now if they just see me coming towards their hive they start pouring out the entrance to do battle !!! their new genetics will calm them down in a couple of weeks , the three smaller ones were okay , normal i would say .

as far as the physical cut ouyt it was very very easy , just the temper and volume of bees made it difficult , 

luckily i have made a bee vac that sucks them into a hive body , i put hardware cloth top and bottom , then what i do is attach all the comb that has brood and eggs into some empty frames with elastic bands , 

then i place the box with all the bees on the bottom board , place the box with all the brood above it ,feeder on with syrup, put on the cover and then wiggle out the hardware cloth between the two boxes so that the bees can get to the brood ,but can't get out the hive, so i dont have to deal with them twice in one session - then i leave them like that for a day and then take the hardware cloth off the bottom- seems to work well and is a very easy way to transfer a hot swarm of bees into a hive !!!!! .

then two days later i go back in to see if the queens made it or not , if they did i try and locate them and out they go , if not then a frame of eggs from a calm hive and leave them alone for three weeks 

thanks again for the interest


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## ivan carter (Jun 24, 2010)

i just want to say to all who contribute here on beesource , i dont post much but have spent countless hours reading here , i dont have a mentor and even though i am a few years into it one can never stop learning - this is like having a whole team of mentors ! 
thank you !


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## johnbeejohn (Jun 30, 2013)

I just got home from doing a cut out of the same sort the second I put my bar in I started getting hammered any weak spot I had they found it and put a hurting on me they were stinging me thru my jeans so wore a double layer of jeans but my ankles are swollen but I got it done im deff hoping that the queen is not there did not see her but I sucked a lot of bees up in clumps so who knows I know here we r in a dearth and they are a little unhappy and remember wild hives don't keep on living just because there nice ONLY THE STRONG(or mean) SURVIVE


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## sweetas (Apr 16, 2012)

You've done well. 

Geoff


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## Jackson (Aug 5, 2013)

I have a newbie queston with regards to mean bees , is it applicable just to wild ones ? Does it happen to our italian bees to that they suddenly become so mean like the ones described above?


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## jimsteelejr (Sep 21, 2012)

basically all bees are wild We just manage their environment (their hive) to our advantage. There are a lot of things that determine a bees attitude. Genetics Italians have been selectively bred for temperament, time of day, nectar flow, the presence of predators all can make a difference. I generally don't bother the girls on cloudy or rainy days because they are testy. I also don't go near the hives for a while after I run the lawn mower or weed wacker. If you have a hive that seems to have gotten mean and you can't think of any reason consider that they may have requeened themselves and the queen mated with drones from a more aggressive stock. If your problem keeps up requeen. with a queen from a breeder who produces gentle bees.


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