killer bees

[ladycrow]

Has anyone heard of hens being killed by beestings? We have a hive that has turned very nasty and we were attacked by hundreds of stinging bees while attempting our inspection yesterday. Thank goodness for the beesuits!! Two of our hens were killed by stings and the other 16 hens and cockerel have their combs and wattles covered in stings and are all still looking very poorly 24 hours later. A friend who is an very experienced beekeeper says that he has never heard of this happening before.

[Neils]

Specifically? No.

What you're describing, I'd consider an absolute extreme. I've been attacked before, by a 5 frame nuc, swarm, to the point I had to chuck the roof on and literally run for tree cover; in similar weather to this weekend (stormy, thunder, lightning, not necessarily that obviously going to rain). But that was a colony that until then we knew nothing about and it was dispatched in short order after that when displaying similar behaviour the following week.

Anecdotes aside, I would consider what you describe to be totally abnormal behaviour on a colony that has otherwise been ok to deal with. From my point of view "ok" is 'would inspect without Gloves'.

I'd be interested in more information because it's always difficult saying much of value off the back of a three line description. The more information you can provide, the more detailed response the forum can reply with, but in general I think I'm safe in saying that this is a pretty extreme situation.

[Mellifera Crofter]

I read about a similar case on the beekeeping forum: http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=30938
Kitta

[Little_John]

An extreme event, sure, but then so was the weather approaching the Britsh Isles. I'd be interested to know the timing of this inspection viz-a-viz the approaching remnants of Hurricane Bertha.

I needed to check on some q/cells myself yesterday, but was sure to wait until after the storm front had passed over and the bees had started to emerge in large numbers. Only then did I deem it safe enough to open-up a hive or two.

If normally reasonable bees suddenly turn mega-nasty, there's undoubtedly some reason underlying their behaviour.

LJ

[prakel]

Has anyone heard of hens being killed by beestings?

An old friend of mine, who at the time of the incident had been keeping bees for 50+ years, lost a couple of hens to a particularly aggressive colony. An extra blow was the fact that he kept a collection of rare breed fowl so a decision had to be made. In the end he donated that colony to Hartpury College for advanced training. This was around-about the time that the bee facility moved to Blaisdon. So yes, it most certainly can happen.

edit: this wasn't a 'one off', those were career 'nasty bees'.

[The Drone Ranger]

Are other hives in same location ?
If so how's their temper ?

[Black Comb]

Shortage of food combined with approaching thunder might be a cause. I stress the might.

[busybeephilip]

I had a hive this year similar to what you describe. I was examining bees on the other stands with no problems when suddenly out of the blue a hive known to be techy which had not been disturbed 2 stands away from me went crazy, the bees were pouring out of the entrance like a swarm but attacking everything. I considered myself very lucky that I was protected and the visit was not a routine feeding trip without a veil.

Solution - requeen or destroy the bees, I requeened and trapped any the drones. To find the queen in a big very cross hive a beginner should deplete it first else it could be a bad experience

[Jon]

I remember Steve Rose posting that he had a cockerel killed by a Buckfast hybrid colony a few years ago.

[prakel]

a Buckfast hybrid colony

so they weren't pure race buckfasts?!

[busybeephilip]

One of the thing that you read in some bee books it that it is advantageous to keep hens along with bees, hens love drones at the years end and will scoff drone comb with pupae. I suspect that in these cases where hens have been killed is where the birds have been kept in a cage or a run and not allowed to roam free so unable to get away from attacking bees but simply flapping around in their runs making the situation much worse by annoying the bees further.

The same applies to other livestock which cant escape by running away

In the case of cross bees no matter what race or hybrid the bees are of, they should be requeened from a known reliable source

[HJBee]

How do you 'dispose' of a full angry colony?

[prakel]

I suspect that in these cases where hens have been killed is where the birds have been kept in a cage or a run and not allowed to roam free

Not in the instance which I referred to.

----------------------------

These possibly rare examples should of course be a never forgotten caution -for various reasons bees can get out of hand; just imagine if a colony like that stung a passing driver in the face. We could be looking at multiple fatalities....

[busybeephilip]

How do you 'dispose' of a full angry colony?

Its not nice having to kill bees

A chap I know simply turned a hose on them.
Petrol fumes kill bees but leaves a bit of a mess
Sulphur fumes

Easier to move them away somewhere safe and requeen

[busybeephilip]

Not in the instance which I referred to.

----------------------------

These possibly rare examples should of course be a never forgotten caution -for various reasons bees can get out of hand; just imagine if a colony like that stung a passing driver in the face. We could be looking at multiple fatalities....

So the lesson is NEVER go near bees without wearing a veil


On your example of a passing driver - what happens in the case of a swarm of bees being driven through and the driver being stung. Legally swarming bees are not yours once they leave the hive, but if you are following them does this make you liable and will your insurance cover you ?

[Little_John]

Shortage of food combined with approaching thunder might be a cause. I stress the might.

My thinking exactly - wish I'd added that to my earlier post ... Two unusual events - coincidence - who knows ? But - if they're capable of that kind of behaviour - better to re-queen anyway from more friendly stock.

Talking of 'friendly' - I've got one hive of Heinz bees which are unbelievable - I'd do an inspection at any time with those, even in the nude (sorry - not a pleasant image if you're having lunch). About a week ago I was doing an inspection on their hive (which was on a two-hive stand) and I'd propped-up one frame on the stand, between the two boxes. A sudden very strong gust of wind came out of nowhere, and lifted the frame up and threw it about six feet away. "Lummy, I'm for it now", thinks I, but there was no reaction at all from the cloud of bees which were now milling around in the air. It's almost as if human beings are 'invisible' to these girls. Curious - and very handy. :)
LJ

[prakel]

what happens in the case of a swarm of bees being driven through and the driver being stung. Legally swarming bees are not yours once they leave the hive, but if you are following them does this make you liable and will your insurance cover you ?

I was just making a general point that it is easy to sometimes forget that we're dealing with livestock that may not always behave how we would like it to. On the insurance issue, who knows? I've always wondered how amenable they'd actually be to paying up; would they be looking for loopholes caused by beekeeper negligence -colony should have been re-queened sooner etc?

[The Drone Ranger]

One difficulty when you only have a couple of hives in a garden is you need to be able to buy a good queen it doesn't matter which type because if the local drones are a bad bunch you are at their mercy
Nice though to see some AMM on sale now

[Black Comb]

Re. Killing. I had a colony with a bad dose of nosema this spring and by coincidence the bee inspector came to visit. They were not taking any thymol syrup down and his advise was to kill the colony, which I took.
Modern petrol does not seem to be as good as the old stuff for this job so I reverted to advice on the "other" forum, I.e. Spray with water including a good dose of washing up liquid. This quickly finished them off.
Not nice but I can afford to lose the odd colony, not so easy for someone with (say) only 2.

[Jon]

so they weren't pure race buckfasts?!

Someone moved buckfast colonies near to Steve and he ended up with black queens which had mated with yellow drones and the result was a vicious colony. He will probably be along in a minute. It was years ago he posted about it.

[prakel]

Someone moved buckfast colonies near to Steve and he ended up with black queens which had mated with yellow drones and the result was a vicious colony. He will probably be along in a minute. It was years ago he posted about it.

I should have used a smiley face!
so they weren't pure race buckfasts?!...

[Bridget]

Yes - one of our association members had all her ducklings killed by angry bees last year - it was quite early in the season. They never behaved like that again as far as I know

[Jon]

I should have used a smiley face! ...

Don't worry, I got the joke, just clarifying!!

[Maybee]

How do you 'dispose' of a full angry colony?

? Thinking of any colony in particular? :confused:

[HJBee]

Maybee!