Busy bees return to the hive loaded down with pollen. Photo Credit
Cranky Bees.They are one of the worst nightmares of a beekeeper. Cranky bees are not enjoyable to keep. They have aggressive tendencies and are overprotective of the hive. Often when you have cranky bees, you will be unable to get near the hive or you will get stung. Sometimes these bees chase you for just being within eyesight of the hive. In my case, I could not tend to my garden without honeybees hittingmy head and face. After investigating why this nice hive turned mean, it was clear that I needed to re-queen this hive. But where do you begin when this happens in your own backyard apiary? Here are some things to consider.
Bad Weather. One thing new beekeepers quickly learn is that honeybees prefer calm days with abundant sunshine. They do not care for cloudy, windy, or rainy weather. These types of conditions as well as other weather extremes greatly affect the bees’ temperament. Thus, it is never recommended to go into a hive on less than optimal days.
Smoking the bees can help to keep the bees calm as you work the hive. Photo Credit.
Hive Inspection/Manipulation. Any of us would be upset if someone came into our homes and began poking and prodding around. It is only natural that the bees become aware and protective of their home. Sometimes, bees can be cranky for a few days following a more thorough inspection or hive manipulation. So, when going into the hive consider the time of day. Optimal time to enter the hive is later morning until early afternoon during times of good weather. Using a smoker during the inspections can also cut down on hive crankiness afterwards.
Starvation. Hungry and thirsty bees are not happy nor should they be. Pay attention to the nectar and pollen availability in your area and remember to feed the bees during droughts and nectar dearths to prevent crankiness and other bee issues.
Predators. Bee predators that lurk around the hive can cause bees to increase defensiveness of the hive. Sometimes it takes a bit of detective work to see if this is a cause of bee irritability. Skunks for example love to bring their families to the hives at night during the summer when the bees cool their hives by bearding. Skunks are only sensitive to bee stings on their abdomens. Therefore they sit outside the hive and pick off bees one by one until they have had their fill. You can read about my past skunk issues here.
Can you spot the queen bee? If you view the photo as the face of a clock, she is sitting at about 9 o’clock. Photo Credit
Mean Queen. All the other bees in the hive emulate the personality and temperament of the queen. If the queen is nice, the hive should be gentle. If she is nasty the hive will turn nasty. In this situation, beekeepers are encouraged to re-queen the hive.
Queenless. If the queen goes missing through death or other mishap, the hive soon senses that she is gone. As they work to re-queen the hive, they can become more protective and defensive until the new queen emerges, mates, and sets the overall tone of the hive.
Aggressive Cross-breeding. East African lowland honey bees are pretty aggressive and sometimes known colloquially as “killer bees.” Cross-breeds between East African and European or North American bees is referred to as “africanization” of bees. Virgin queens will mate with available drones in the area. Even if you are in an area where Africanized bees do not reside, it is not entirely impossible that some Africanized traits/genes traveled in packaged bees to your area. These drones then mate with the local virgin queens and then incorporate their genetics into the local gene pool. If you suspect this has happened, the first step is to re-queen the hive with a mated queen and see if it makes a difference.
All photos used under Creative Commons Licensing Agreement.
Tags
- bee behavior
- cranky bees
- irritable bees
- troubleshooting
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19 Comments
Bill McCleave says:
May 24, 2015 at 11:12 pm
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
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jacob thomas says:
May 28, 2015 at 11:41 am
My experience is ‘queen less hive is very docile’
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Bonnie Gholston says:
August 10, 2015 at 7:52 pm
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!
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Bonnie Gholston says:
August 10, 2015 at 7:57 pm
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.
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August 3, 2016 at 6:55 pm
[…] Top 7 Reasons for Cranky Bees […]
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Gabrielle says:
November 13, 2016 at 8:20 am
Thanks
Reply
Cassandra Johnson says:
June 7, 2017 at 10:06 pm
Good info
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Carole says:
August 3, 2017 at 7:48 pm
Love these news letters. Been a keeper for 6 years, always learn something more here. Thanks
Reply
David J. Little says:
December 20, 2017 at 10:25 am
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.
Reply
Girish desai says:
March 11, 2018 at 8:25 am
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
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June 4, 2018 at 5:51 pm
[…] 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 […]
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Linda says:
September 16, 2018 at 3:03 pm
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..
Reply
March 5, 2019 at 1:21 am
[…] 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 […]
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David Little says:
March 28, 2019 at 12:22 pm
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.
Reply
Matt Stolmeier says:
February 17, 2020 at 6:42 pm
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.
Reply
Conrad Riffle says:
April 1, 2021 at 11:49 pm
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.
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Paul says:
April 19, 2021 at 3:14 am
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.
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SHERRIE says:
April 30, 2021 at 3:00 pm
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
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Myriam says:
October 14, 2021 at 9:41 pm
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
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