# aggressive hive split to requeen - what to do with agressive field bees now?



## RayMarler (Jun 18, 2008)

You have not stated whether or not you have killed the old queens yet. Once you get calm breeds of queens in all the splits they should calm down some right away, and more so as time goes on with new brood emerging. Get queens in there. Make sure to pinch off any queen cells made in your splits, because if they have resources to make queens of their own, they will most likely reject any introduced queens.


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## timsch (Apr 2, 2016)

RayMarler said:


> You have not stated whether or not you have killed the old queens yet. Once you get calm breeds of queens in all the splits they should calm down some right away, and more so as time goes on with new brood emerging. Get queens in there. Make sure to pinch off any queen cells made in your splits, because if they have resources to make queens of their own, they will most likely reject any introduced queens.


Both queens are doing the backstroke in alcohol as we speak. New queens will be picked up tomorrow, Tuesday at the latest.

So you wouldn't destroy the field bees? unfortunately they are 100' or so from my neighbors garden and she is really getting bothered. I want to keep her happy, even if it means sacrificing a few (hundred) bees.


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## mgstei1 (Jan 11, 2014)

Kill em out. Right now you have drones from this queen breeding that aggressive trait into more queens. 
Suit up and shake all the bees off 1 or several capped brood frames. Place an excluder on top of the shook bees. Wait an hour or so and then remove that brood frame and create a 1 or two frame nuc with the nurse bees remaining on the frame(s). Or in other words make as many splits as you want or can with the nurse bees. If you can take the nucs away or to some place with less folks around. Tonite, kill out the remaining colony which means all workers and drones. Dont feel bad about it as you are helping dilute the aggressive trait out of the area.
Introduce queens in all the nucs made up and be sure there is 4-5 days of candy in the cups so the queens smell will settle any rogue mean workers left long enough for the new bees to hatch out and the queen start laying the soft bees.
Since tallow flow is upon us the remaining workers will die off in 6-8 weeks working to death. By that time you should have a couple of generations of softer traited bees. 
Bearcreek in Manvel has a good strain of southern bees that are calm and have the desired VSH traits from Lambs mother bees in Jasper.
Either of the Weavers in Navasota may have a few extra also.
Good luck happy beekeeping. Its nicer to have calmer bees.


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## RayMarler (Jun 18, 2008)

Yeah, nothing wrong at all will killing off that box of field bees. They are the meanest ones in your yard I bet as they have no queen and no brood. Kill them off before they absorb back into the other splits you've made.


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## timsch (Apr 2, 2016)

mgstei1 said:


> Kill em out. Right now you have drones from this queen breeding that aggressive trait into more queens.
> Suit up and shake all the bees off 1 or several capped brood frames. Place an excluder on top of the shook bees. Wait an hour or so and then remove that brood frame and create a 1 or two frame nuc with the nurse bees remaining on the frame(s). Or in other words make as many splits as you want or can with the nurse bees. If you can take the nucs away or to some place with less folks around. Tonite, kill out the remaining colony which means all workers and drones. Dont feel bad about it as you are helping dilute the aggressive trait out of the area.
> Introduce queens in all the nucs made up and be sure there is 4-5 days of candy in the cups so the queens smell will settle any rogue mean workers left long enough for the new bees to hatch out and the queen start laying the soft bees.
> Since tallow flow is upon us the remaining workers will die off in 6-8 weeks working to death. By that time you should have a couple of generations of softer traited bees.
> ...


Thanks.

Bearcreek is who I have talked to about queens - super close to us which is nice. Nice to hear the recommendation.

If I understand correctly, the excluder is to keep out the drones, and all nurse bees will work their way through back to the brood frames, right?


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## timsch (Apr 2, 2016)

Alright, we've separated the frames with good looking worker brood into separate boxes after shaking off the bees into the original box, and putting those frames into another box which was placed above the original with the queen excluder between the two. 

Is the reason for only a one or two frame nuc so that there will not be an excessive number of newly hatched workers with aggressive traits? I have about 12-15 brood frames that I separated and shook. I won't be making half that many splits.


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## RayMarler (Jun 18, 2008)

timsch said:


> ...Is the reason for only a one or two frame nuc so that there will not be an excessive number of newly hatched workers with aggressive traits? ...


Yes, to give you smaller nucs with younger bees to introduce the new queens into, to help assure acceptance of the new queens. Mean hives are usually harder to re-queen, so this will help to have successful acceptance.


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