Top 7 Reasons For Cranky Bees

If all goes well this will be my first year, I can not thank you enough for the information I am picking up. God Bless

My experience is ‘queen less hive is very docile’

I have been reading all the different information you have on honeybees and it has been so helpful to me. I am fairly new at beekeeping and the more I ready about them, the better I get in taking care of them and making the right decisions concerning “robbing”, “swarming”, “weather”, “feeding” and so many other things a beekeeper needs to know, in order to have healthy and happy honeybees. I am one of the lucky ones……I have the “sweethearts” (Italian). They are so kind and loving to me, couldn’t ask for a better group of girls/boys!

I have learned so much from your Website on honeybees. I am fairly new at beekeeping and have found the more I read, the better off my bees are. You have taught me the proper ways to notice their behavior, how the weather does affect them tremendously. How to feed, nurture and handle them. I am one of the lucky ones, as I have the “sweetest” girls/boys. They never mind be being there with them and never have stung me. They are the Italian ones and a joy to work with.

[…] Top 7 Reasons for Cranky Bees […]

Thanks

Good info

Love these news letters. Been a keeper for 6 years, always learn something more here. Thanks

I enjoy you site and your Bees 101. I do bee schools for our county association and the Bees 101 is out of sight. Thank you for putting the tremendous efforts you have to forward beekeeping.

Sir, I hv newly start beekeeping with Serina indica. With 3 hive boxes.. At satara, mahatashtra India…colony is strong…with 6 -7 frame , out of one is start queen cell , & one frame rmany drone cell. Drone chamber… Pls …guide

[…] drawing comb, bring in nectar and pollen with productive queens. Their personalities are on the cranky side, though, causing me to need to put on gloves and light my smoker every time I check on them at […]

Help! We are new beekeepers. We had one hive, then got a swarm which was cranky. We requeened the new bees 8/8/18. How long does it take for the mean bees to die? Our queens have good DNA. I don’t mind being followed or herded. But my husband and I and our dog have been stung, usually the day of or a few days after opening the hive for inspection..

[…] than us, have a very similar response and don’t enjoy when their hives are being too manipulated. Manipulation of the hive may be what is causing your bees to become […]

Thank you so very much for sharing this valuable information. I have argued with beekeepers who want to kill the queen and introduce another. That is always last resort. No reason to put a new queen into a bad environment.

I don’t understand what happened. I live in Northern Arizona I have had my hive here for just under a year now. I have repeatedly opened it to check growth, inspect for parasites, and generally do the required maintenance needed. This morning, I opened the hive for the first time after winter freeze. My intention was to do the normal inspection, remove the simple syrup feeder and put in a new protien pack to help jump start the spring growth. As well, I wanted to add a super in anticipation of the spring flow that starts here in about 2 weeks. These bees attacked me. Enmass they swarmed up and began stinging everywhere. I counted more that 50 stingers on just one glove. Imagine not being able to see through my head protection because of all the bees thrusting and stinging the netting. As for the smoke, rather than calming them it irritated them even more. Many bees died trying to sting the smoker. It’s two hours later and these bees are still very angry. Any suggestions would be helpful. Thank you for your time. Matt.

Another way to rid your bees of mites= take an old flour sifter and put powdered sugar in it then open your hive and cover your bees with powdered sugar. the bees become so slippery that the mites fall off to the bottom and starve to death. without the host bee they die. My new copper fogger kills them bigtime also.

I had a simmilar problem to Matt. I did a thorough hive inspection with no problems, although the bees were a little more active than normal. Then when I left the hive I was followed by a few hundred bees that I just couldnt shake off and got a few stings taking my protective gear off.

Any ideas how to get them to back off and settle down?

Paul.

Hi! A friend just asked me if you can just leave your bees alone…not take their honey…let them live independently. He feels if he did this that the hives would grow, split, create other hives on their own. He wants to leave the honey for them to continue to populate and grow. I have no answer for him! What do you think?

Thank you! Sherrie O

I had 6 hives after extracting the honey, went to check all the nursery, Was very opset when I saw all the nurseries empty, completely clean with no honey, no bees, I had a queen divided, so no way the queen could leave, must of the other bees were in the suppers, but none in the nurseries, What could have happened and what do I do with the res t of the bees, afraid they’re going to die through out the winter