Thecityman,
I’ve found a few things they don’t like especially so I try not to ever do them. 1.) I don’t pester them but rather check them once every couple of weeks. Only with a purpose and only if I have to. Like refilling the sugar water which I keep inside the hive 2.) No burning diesel fuel like engine smoke they really hate that. 3.) No off or other bug repellant 4.) Move slowly as that calms them down 5.) sweat seems to make them angry and they don’t care for the smell of it 6.) never eat honey prior to working them they hate thieves and nothing is worse than being caught red handed with it on your breath. 7.) don’t work them in the rain or during a heavy honey flow when they are all home 8.) look for signs outside the hive of skunks (bare torn up ground). The worse stinging I ever took was 30+ stings in the face a skunk deserved. He had been pestering them, eating them etc. so they were all waiting to pounce on the intruder and I showed up. I looked like the guy who fought rocky the next day. I had a hole in the back of my veil and they found it. Anyone who thinks bees randomly sting is mistaken they chose the tender spots and made them count. That was half a lifetime ago but I never forgot it! 8.) if you have to work them avoid popping the top or hive bodies lose loudly rather use a hand and do it gently and softly. If you hear them raise their voice let them settle down and work slower. If you make a loud popping sound when you pry the lid off with some of the bees I have they are on you that second. Gentle, slow, calm is what they like. Always have an escape vehicle or a plan in case your bees were replaced by a more aggressive swarm (it’s happened to me). A little smoke can calm them down so if they really go for you turn the smoker on yourself and smoke them off the veil so you can see.
THose sound like extremely great tips that come from hard-earned experience! I’ll let you do the learning the hard way and I glad to get your lessons without your pain.
One last good tip which is treat every empty hive like it’s full of bees they move in frequently with out me knowing about it. I stacked 10 or so supers one night after extracting the honey. A medium super is about 2 1/2 gallons of honey per super so I was exhausted and planned to put them back on the hives the next day to fill back up. I went there in the morning and touched the first box to load it and changed my mind and went and put on a suit. I’m not sure why I put on the suit but that was the smartest thing I ever did. A tree full of bees swarmed and all 10 boxes were full of the meanest bees I’ve ever encountered. By the end of the summer I could not get within 1/4 mile of those supers without being seriously attacked. I planned to split them and just could not do it]. The bees would cover the veil where I could not see before I was even within 50 feet. They stung my ankles, my face where the veil touched it, my hands through the gloves you name it.
Many years ago when I was first keeping bees, I got stung (not the first time) but had a reaction, my whole forearm swelled up. I spoke to an MD friend about this and he said it wasn’t clear from one reaction if I was becoming allergic/sensitive or this was just a one off situation based on what that bee had been eating. Later I checked with several beekeeping friends, and it seemed that most get stung all the time, and most had a story of that “one time” when they had a bad reaction.
I never did anything (MD friend said he would most likely treat with injections of bee venom, same as getting stung only in smaller amounts), and I was fine, no further cases of swelling from stings.
But there is some chance that any bigger than normal reaction is a first sign of a serious allergic reaction building up. For most it isn’t, but it is possible. Might want to be prudent, and keep some antihistamines handy when working in the bee yard, just in case…
Thanks, Steve. That really seems to fit my situation and was just the kind of experience I was hoping to hear. I guess the next time I get stung I’ll find out if this was just a freak event or if I’m heading toward some kind of problem with stings. You comment about keeping an antihistamine handy also got me thinking…I wonder if I’d taken a couple benedryl if it would have helped? I may try that next time- but they make me so darn sleepy!
A daughter working on our backyard hives.
In the background you can see a concrete bench for sitting and relaxing. If people sit facing one direction, they can lose themselves in time watching the hives. Facing the other way, and they are enclosed in a hidden flower garden area, backed by a blueberry hedge. Either way is relaxing.
You can also see an empty old bee package behind her. I should pick that up some year.
I had bees like that also, the queens came from Texas, the monastery bees, They were 1/2 African, much more prone to swarming and due to honeybee genetics, the drones carried 3/4 African genes. So if a queen was superseded, and the Africanized queens hatch 2 days earlier than European queens and you mate with a 3/4 drone, you have an African colony in place in 6 weeks. What you describe is very unsettling, no amount of smoke really calms them, and they can kill the unsuspecting passerby. Because of the location of my beeyard, I ended up destroying 8 colonies that changed from very quiet, passive bees to the nightmare you described in 6 wks.[quote=“clarkinks, post:199, topic:4536”]
You smell that banana like smell
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That is most definitely the alarm pheromone.[quote=“clarkinks, post:201, topic:4536”]
they chose the tender spots
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Yup, tips of the ears, eyebrows, nose septum(that is the worst!). The old guy who taught me to keep bees said the nose is even worse than the private parts, keep your pants up keeping bees.
[quote=“MuddyMess_8a, post:198, topic:4536”]
you’d find yourself preferring to get stung than to wear all that gear
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Totally agree. City, when your bee handling experience gets better, you can even wear shorts unless you have Clark"s bees.
Clark, If your bees are as hot as your saying, that sounds Africanized. My Carnies don’t even hardly get off the frames even when the top pops in the rain. Get yourself some Carniolians from Koehnen in California. So very pleasant to work with gentle bees. There is no reason to get stung repeatedly unless its for arthritis or MS.
You’re up late, I just got done working, what’s your excuse.
I’m up early i guess.
Ok, lol.
When I called the state about the swarm I caught that time they said they were not Africans. I kicked the stack of supers over when it was cold that winter. Those bees were dangerous. I don’t mind some dangerous bees but a large colony like that is something different and it sounds like you have experienced it. The bad part is these swarms I’m catching are hit and miss with some gentle and some mean. There are pros and cons to catching swarms but I do it.
I’ve heard it only take 5% of the bees in a colony to have a hot colony. Bees that hot would of had me reaching for the cyan-o-gas. That went off the market 20 yrs. ago but would make good sense to have on African bees. Sprinkle a little on the inner and replace the telescope and the colony was dead in 30 secs. Cyanide gas. Let the boxes set for ten minutes and they were ready for new bees, just had to clean off the bottom.
Good night, it was a long drive.
Muddy why are the hives painted pink and powder blue?
. . . and canary yellow, and lime green. 
Partly because the very first hives were for that daughter. It’s what she wanted for her 16th b’day. She’s 22 now. That’s where the pink came from. Partly because we like happy colors, and partly because having each hive, especially the entrance, different designs, helps the bees hone in on the right home. Hives don’t need to be white. We avoid dark colors because the bees have to work hard enough to keep the interior temps down in the summer. No need to help the wood absorb more heat.
Thanks!
Muddy,
Lol i misunderstood when i saw the picture. I sometimes get other colors of paint. I go to the paint store and say I need a light colored mis-mixed paint. He says how much do you need? I say as much as you have. He says that will be $3 for 2 gallons is pea green ok?
Was always nice to go to some of the hardware stores that had paint that wasn’t mixed correctly or mix matched… I could get a gallon light colored paint for less than half of original price. Bees didn’t care what color or price…
Bees are like humans… they don’t like hot days and nectar dearth. Probably too early yet for a dearth however, it is getting hot and humid. A good puff of smoke and a good suit is always nice to have.
I normally wear a jacket and hood… not the full suit as it does get hot especially when working many hives. Pulling honey can make for a long hot day… think how the bees feel when you’re robbing them 
We are getting a good honey flow here, an oldtimer told me the way he knew were from the lightning bugs. Lots of lightning bugs, lots of honey. I thought he was insane but its true. Lots of lightning bugs tonite, honey supers tomorrow.
I wish his saying were true everywhere. My fingers would be dripping with honey this year.