Every beekeeper longs for the romanticized version of beekeeping. We like to imagine we have an understanding with our bees. A magical connection that keeps us from getting stung. Unfortunately, this isn’t the reality. Bees have good days and bad, just like us and they aren’t always in the mood for visitors! So, what do you do when you are faced with a defensive hive?
Listen to your bees
If you crack open your hive and the bees come out stingers first, the best thing to do is take the hint and close them back up. Just come back another day and try again. Pushing through that kind of behavior and trying to perform an inspection anyway will likely be frustrating for all involved. Similarly, you are in the middle of doing an inspection and you notice your bees are getting worked up, it’s time to close the hive. Bees may lack vocal chords, but they can make their feelings known to those who will listen. Once the bees start zipping quickly around your head, bouncing off your veil or stinging your gloves it’s time to end the inspection.
Avoid the triggers
There are some conditions that will put your bees on edge and you can avoid agitating your bees in the first place if you avoid working your hives during these periods. I will list these potential scenarios below so you can avoid them.
Weather
Don’t open your hives when it is cool, windy or threatening rain.
Time of Year
Try not to inspect your bees during periods of dearth. Hungry bees are grumpy bees.
Time of Day
Don’t bother your bees too early in the morning or too late in the day. Remember, all your bees are home at this time and there will be no shortage of guards.
Try not to crush bees
They release an alarm pheromone that will put the other bees on the defensive. Check out my article How to Crush Fewer Bees for tips on how to avoid these unhappy accidents.
Stay calm
Working with angry bees is a very unpleasant experience. It can send some people into a panic, but as beekeepers we have to be prepared to deal with these situations. So, if your bees become unexpectedly defensive, you need to stay calm and correct the situation. Remember that you are in a bee suit. Live inside your suit and patiently ignore the angry bees outside of it as you work to close your colony up. Your bees will not calm down if you leave the hive open and exposed. If you are getting stung through your suit, step away and correct the issue, but make sure you come back and finish closing the hive.
Remember your neighbors
If the situation is really bad and your bees are roving the area ready to sting anyone in their path, you need to call your neighbors. Call them and warn them about the situation. Ask them to stay inside for an hour or two. You should also be conscious that angry bees will follow you. As you walk away from the hive take the path that avoids nearby neighbors.
Find out why
After having an defensive incident with your bees, it is important to figure out what caused it. Was it a fluke, something you did, or are they consistently moody? Can you do something to help them? Bees that are cranky because they are low on food stores might need to be fed, for example. Try to figure out what may be influencing your colony’s behavior. If the bees continue to act defensively, you may need to requeen the colony.
8 Comments
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Interesting and helpful article. Our bees were generally content bees this year. It was our first year for harvesting and I found the bees were very defensive on the days we had the hives open for harvesting. Bees with stingers at the ready. I figured they were in full defence mode as their honey was being stolen, but noticed this wasn’t mentioned. Perhaps it had more to do with it being fall and food sources were scarce? Is it normal for bees to be defensive when the honey harvest happens?
Thanks!
I have definitely had hives get defensive while taking honey, but it is not consistent. My guess is that the taking of the honey has little to do with it and it is more about other factors. Certainly they are more defensive when food is scarce. I have seen certain hives be calm while I took the honey, but then they get defensive for days afterwards. Chasing anyone who comes near them. In that case I am more likely to believe it was the taking of the honey that caused the defensiveness.
Queenlessness or a colony in process of re-queening or with a virgin will often be fussy, too
We notice our hives are much more defensive when the barometer drops – as in just before rain. Anytime that barometer is low, they are going to be more defensive. Also, the more bees there are, the more “hot” they seem to get. We noticed this because we have two deep brood boxes on the bottom of the supers. We used two deeps to give the queen plenty of room to lay and expand without swarming, and while that seems to be working, the colonies get more defensive when they’ve got more bees. Also, when we go into the brood boxes and are near the frame where they queen is, or is laying, they also get more defensive – which is another way to spot where the queen might be in the hive, by the way.
Walking away from the hive and walking through some bushes or other natural barrier, usually is enough to get rid of any bees that are still following us after we’ve closed up the hive. Smoking the hive often helps, but sometimes we have found a light spray of sugar water does more to calm them. During dearth, when we have to inspect, we use the sugar water.
My bees are spread out at several apiaries. When I am done and every hive is put back together, I just jump in my van and wait for the bees to fly to the windows and then I open the driver’s side and passenger side windows about an inch and let them all fly out. It is a behavior all flying insects do…in that in a darkened room, they fly to the windows like flies and seek to get out even though they were trying to rip your head off just a minute ago.
Mine will be arriving here April 12th. Getting two. My colonies died last year. Plenty honey so not sure why. Anxious to start over. I am down to my last two jars of honey