HOW TO TELL IF YOUR BEES ARE AFRICANIZED

Posted April 26, 2016
by Hilary

HOW TO TELL IF YOUR BEES ARE AFRICANIZED
Whether you live in an Africanized honey bee zone or not, it is important to monitor your bees temperament. Find out what you should observe about your bees’ behavior, how to keep it under control and what to do when things get out of hand.

What’s the deal with “Africanized” bees?

Humans have been keeping honey bees for at least ten thousand years and our influences have selected for certain traits: honey production, gentleness, heartiness. There are many subspecies of honey bees which were separated by region, but because of importing it is difficult to find pure versions of these lineages. This is especially true in the Americas because we have no native honey bees; they were imported here from Europe in the 1600’s and are highly hybridized now. Each subspecies or more loosely referred to as as “race” has their own set of characteristics and behavioral traits. Africanized honey bees are the product of a breeding program in Brazil in the 1950’s. A biologist was breeding European honey bees with African ones for better honey production, but the resulting bees were also much more defensive. These “Africanized” colonies were accidentally allowed to swarm and since have spread all over South America and the southern United States.

Africanized honey bees do not look physically different from European ones and can only be identified in a laboratory. Since Africanized bees have been populating these areas for many years, most of the feral colonies have some percentage of Africanized genes and this results in colonies with varying degrees of defensiveness. Their temprement is a gray scale that ranges from docile to downright murderous. This hybridized race of bees continues to spread north, but is somewhat limited by climate. Africanized bees do not overwinter well because they tend to swarm more often and this depletes the honey store needed to survive in cold climates. Despite the unpleasant temperament, Africanized honey bees possess some positive traits. They tend to be better foragers and they are much more resistant to disease and parasites.

How “hot” are my bees?

Describing your bees as “Africanized” is a little bit of a trigger word, so around these parts, beekeepers will often say their bees are getting “hot” to describe an increase in defensiveness even though this change is probably due to their bees mating with Africanized drones. What most new beekeepers don’t realize is that their hive’s genetics is not static. It is constantly evolving. When you buy a starter colony with an Italian queen, at some point that queen will leave with a swarm or she may fall ill and be replaced by the bees. You may not always know when this happens. Your new queen will be the daughter of your old queen, but the eggs she lays will contain genetic material all the different males she mates with. So, when you live in an Africanized zone and this happens, your new queen is going to mate with whatever riffraff drones are in the area and its likely that some of them will be Africanized. In my experience, this is sometimes a good thing. Maybe your new queen will retain her docile genetics, but pick up some of the stronger qualities like greater mite resistance. Other times your new queen might begin to exhibit defensive behaviors that can be a cause for concern in urban settings.

HOW TO TELL OF MY BEES ARE AFRICANIZED

What to look for…

Each beekeeper has a unique tolerance level for defensiveness and different spacial limitations. Consider how comfortable you are working your bees and also how safe it is to have them in your particular setting. If you are a new beekeeper, you might not be up for working even a moderately hot colony. If you have a tight yard space or neighbors nearby you may also be limited in terms of safety. More experienced beekeepers may be happy to trade gentleness for mite resistance and if they have adequate space they needn’t worry about bystanders getting stung. Keep in mind that Africanized bees may exhibit defensive behavior at a distance of 50ft from the hive or greater!

The first measure of a colony’s disposition is how they react to you before you disturb them.

Walk up to your hive, do they send guard bees to investigate you? Unless you are standing in their flight path or less than 5ft from their entrance, most colonies will not perceive you as a threat. Colonies that chase or sting just because you are near them are usually on the high end of the scale in terms of how Africanized they are. This is where I draw the line. If my bees are attacking me unprovoked, I often make the decision to requeen them.

The second measure is how they react when you open the hive.    

When you remove the cover, do your bees immediately fly up and begin to buzz you? Do they fly, but only to make lazy circles around you? Or do they pretty much stay put? Many new beekeepers interpret any increase in buzzing or flying to be an indication of aggression, but this is often incorrect. If you have difficulty reading your bees’ mood, pay attention to speed. Angry bees tend to zip quickly through the air, sometimes even bouncing off your veil. Extremely agitated bees will cluster around your head. They react to your carbon dioxide and tend to go towards your face. You may even see some cling to the mesh and press their abdomens into it in an attempt to sting. If you wave your hand across the top of your open hive and bees rush up to attack your hand, your bees are not happy to see you. Sometimes, when a guard bee is trying to make up their mind about you, they will lazily scan your body, tying in a zig zag pattern up and down. Sometimes they decide you are not a threat and leave, other times they increase their speed and concentrate their efforts close to your face.

The deeper you go into your hive and the longer you have it open often correlates with how agitated your bees will become. Often I can inspect even hot hives without incident if I am only checking the uppermost super, but if I wish to look deeper they will start to get grumpy. It’s important to observe your bees’ behavior and try to understand what it means. Each colony is different and will have different triggers, moods and reactions. If you are familiar with what these are you can often avoid incidents of aggression and/or correct them before they start.

The last measure is how the bees act after you disturb them.  

After you have completed your inspection and closed the hive back up, how far do the bees follow you? It is said that European honey bees will not follow more than 25ft, but Africanized bees have been known to chase a person as far as a mile. Personally, the docile European colonies I manage rarely follow me more than 10ft, if they follow me at all. Most of my wild colonies (Africanized hybrids) will not chase further than 25ft, but I have been chased as a far as 100ft by aggressive colonies on several occasions. These more aggressive colonies will remain agitated for days after an inspection, often patrolling the yard and terrorizing anyone who comes near them.

Making excuses for your bees…

There are some legitimate reasons for why your colony might react defensively that does not have anything to do with genetics. Learn what these factors are and consider whether any of them are at play when you have an incident with your bees.

Smoke-If your bees start buzzing and stinging you and you didn’t use your smoker… use your smoker!

Weather- Honey bees are prone to mood swings and many of them are related to weather conditions. You should avoid opening your hives on days that are cool, wet or windy. Bees are definitely fair-weather friend.

Nectar Dearths- Do you know someone who gets grumpy when they are hungry? Bees are no different. When flowers are hard to find and the nectar stops flowing, bees are more likely to become agitated. So, if you open your once sweet colony in the fall and find that they are in a rage… don’t worry, they are probably just hangry.

Queenlessness- One of the signs of a queenless colony is agitation. You should always double check that your queen is alive and well during an inspection by confirming the presence of eggs.

Overcrowded- Sometimes, if you let a colony becomes overcrowded they will also become easier to annoy. Make sure you give your bees the space they need in the spring and summer!

Rough Handling- Take care not to bang or knock your hive during inspections. I have seen some appallingly rough beekeepers work their hives without a care as to whether they are smashing bees or mashing combs. Move slowly and calmly while working your hives and do your best not to squish anyone and the bees will like you better!

Smells, colors and mouth breathers- I warn all my beekeeping students not to eat bananas before attending one of my hands-on classes. That’s because they smell very similar to the bees’ alarm pheromone. I have seen colonies send and keep guards on just one student while the rest of us remain bee free just because that person had a banana for breakfast. Ever wonder why bee suits are white? Well, bees evolved to perceive dark colored animals as a threat. Think bears. Beekeepers joke that they must take care not to have bad breath before inspecting their hives, but this likely comes from the bees’ tendency to react to the carbon dioxide we expel. The bees have learned that their mammalian predators are more vulnerable near the mouth/face and when they smell it on our breath they send bees in that direction!

*One trigger I did not mention, but that is specific to Africanized bees is motorized landscaping tools. Some Africanized bees will react very defensively to the vibrations made by lawn mowers, tractors etc. They also tend to attack if you weed by hand near their hive. I have had colonies that were tolerant of me during inspections, go into a rage over these activities. For me, I’d rather keep the bees and avoid the using these tools than requeen otherwise sweet bees. Worst case scenario, you end up mowing your yard in a bee suit.

HOW TO TELL IF YOUR BEES ARE AFRICANIZED

How to Handle a Hot Hive 

First, you should heed all the triggers listed above because even if your colony is acting defensively without them, you can always make it worse. That said, if you start to inspect your hive and they begin to show signs of agitation that you are not comfortable with either because of your skill level or because of your proximity to neighbors, close up the hive. Just close them up and come back to inspect another day. Don’t panic and leave your hive open. This will just prolong the amount of time it takes them to calm down. If you find that you are getting stung, you can leave the hive ope temporarily so you can quickly fix the weakness in your suit, but then you should return to close them up. If after you close them up, your bees are patrolling the yard and following you a great distance, you should warn anyone who might be close enough to be in their range. I often give my bees a couple of chances before deciding that they need to be requeened. If you have single incident and then the following inspection goes well, it may have been a fluke. If, however, you have had multiple incidents or perhaps one major one, you should requeen your hive. Requeening a defensive colony is challenging and tips on how to do this successfully really merits it’s own post. You can review the basic concepts of requeening in my how to video.

50 Comments

  1. stevegster2016

    I have not watched your pay videos yet but plan to. Thanks for doing this. So much “noise” on beekeeping out there. I’m a noob and have read a bunch of books but the free vids are clear and helpful. I have my first couple of hives (just combined them actually as one was queenless and dying and its too late to get a queen) but I’ve had my share of challenges living in Florida for sure…

    Just a note to say, “thanks”… I’m sure you get your share of haters!

    Reply
    • Hilary

      Thanks, Steve. I have been lucky so far. I haven’t had many haters.

      Reply
  2. Alison

    Really glad I found your blog! We are less than a year into beekeeping and had 3 hives–one bought from a breeder a few hours away (who have now left us due to a drought here in GA), one wild caught (currently struggling due to their small size and now it’s winter), and another bought from a local beekeeper. The third hive is massive and very strong, but no matter the weather conditions or how much we smoke them or how gently we handle them they are unbelievably aggressive. It’s incredible the difference in the hives–I’ve been able to handle some of them with little to no protection, even in shorts and a t-shirt, but this one hive I am scared for my life even fully suited up. I’m now convinced these are an Africanized/European hybrid because I’ve been pursued by them while inspecting my fruit trees 20-30 yds away, and these gals won’t let us near them to inspect without jousting our veils and caps. We personally know our local ag department field agent who has 50+ years experience with bees so we’re going to talk to him about re-queening. I definitely would never have thought of that had I not read this!

    Reply
  3. Raw Wild Flower Honey Online

    Your blog is very amazing.This site information is good.So,Thanks for sharing information with us.

    Reply
    • Mike Riter

      When we got an aggressive colony, for the first time in my life, once in a while a foraging honey bee came off a flower and attacked me. That is it aggressively buzzed me. I ran and when I couldn’t outrun it, I killed it with my hat. Never did get stung, but certainly think I would have been.

      Reply
      • Mike Riter

        The above happened in upstate New York and once a bear destroyed this colony, it ceased happening.

        Reply
  4. Tanya Baker

    We are brand new to bee keeping. My parents had a hive for a couple years but due to a family tragedy last year they didn’t manage it and the bees were gone when they looked at it this past Fall. They gave the boxes/equip to us we live on a working cattle ranch and have lots of space. We had a hive on order but over the past week a native hive moved into the boxes so canceled the order. We are in Central AZ and I have been told the hive is probably Africanized, I have been standing within 5′ of the hive and have only had 1-2 guards check me out. 4 days ago I noticed them leaving at dusk and they didn’t seem to be returning so I popped the lid off (it was “glued” down) not expecting to see bees, the frame I could see had bees in all the visible cells (I didn’t check further because I wasn’t suited up). Even though the bees have only been there 1 week I saw fighting happening the next day so assumed another hive was trying to move in or rob, so I installed a reducer yesterday and noticed no fighting after that.

    My question is how soon should I open up the box to see if there is a queen and discover how hot they may be? I know they are new to the box and I don’t want to mess with them too much because I don’t want them to leave.

    Thank you for all of your posts, somebody like me being new has to learn through others experience 🙂

    Reply
    • Hilary

      I thought this story was going to have a horrible outcome! You are very lucky they did not attack you when you popped that lid without a suit so close to dark.

      In my experience, AHB bees do not reveal their true nature until about their 3rd week. I recommend you inspect them 1 week after arrival to check for a queen.

      Always, always suit up.

      Reply
      • Tanya Baker

        Thank you for your response! I agree, I honestly didn’t expect any bees to be in there after watching so many leave and never seeing an actual swarm occur at the hive….I just finished watching your beginning bee class, which was very informative, and am ordering my suit and gloves today. I look forward to learning more about bee keeping, and hopefully not the hard way!

        Reply
  5. Serena Scott

    it’s really interesting that you mentioned bananas, I saw a partly beekeeping youtuber mention that alarm pheromone smelled like rotten bananas. upon google searching out of curiosity I found someone refer to the alarm pheromone as isopentyl acetate, AKA banana oil! it’s weird to me that humans are so good at picking out chemical similarities between things, but whaddya know, bananas and bee alarm pheromone are chemically similar, too

    Reply
  6. Tina

    Hi! Im in Des Moines Iowa. My hive swarmed on easter. 1 week later i had a laying queen. That hive is very aggressive. Hive is 2 deeps and 2 supers and over flowing with bees. Not aware of africanized bees this far north. They followed a friend 200 plus ft. Plus they bearded the front of the hive when we tried to inspect. Any thoughts? Thanks in advance

    Reply
    • Hilary

      They don’t have to be Africanized to be aggressive. This article applies to any bee aggression. It’s probably just their sheer size. I would try making a split. That might chill them out.

      Reply
      • Mike Riter

        A farmer I know of was attacked from 200 feet constantly (had to remove hives). Never had this happened before. I have been attacked 5 times from 65-90 feet and 3 of the times were where the bees couldn’t see me from the hives. So I know the guards had to be patroling the area.

        Reply
  7. John

    I live in San Diego.
    We have a hive that is super aggressive. They pretty much always chase us 80 ft every time we do an inspection.
    We have had that hive for approx. 1 year and they were manageable for the first few months and slowly got more aggressive as the hive grew to the point that for me, inspections are now a scary experience.
    I’m not sure we can try to re-queen as finding the existing queen in this hive will be a big challenge.
    What should we do?

    Reply
    • Hilary

      Do you have open space around you or are there neighbors close by?

      Reply
  8. kgrundlingh

    I have a hive that I believe is Africanized – there is just no other way to explain this extreme behaviour. I live on Vancouver Island on the West Coast of Canada.

    No matter what time of day, and no matter the weather, they ‘greet’ us aggressively at 50+ feet from the hive, and then with murderous force when we touch the hive box to open it. Almost every bee in the colony is out defending once we open it and we leave with hundreds of stingers embedded in our gloves, and suits. I’ve had an aggressive hive or two, and dealt with bees not happy to see me, but this is really something else.

    We are in the process of re-queening and papered over a new queen and colony last week.
    The colony is currently in the mountains foraging on fireweed, far away from human interaction thankfully – but unfortunately there is a full fire ban because it is so tinder dry, so we can’t even light up a smoker to work with them.

    Here is a link to my facebook page where you can see the two videos I have posted so far.

    https://www.facebook.com/rawhunni/

    The first video posted on August 13th is removal of honey and killing the queen, and the second posted on August 27th is knocking down queen cells and papering over a new colony. Time will tell if this works, but we may just need to leave them up in the mountains to die out naturally.

    Have a look – I’d love your feedback 🙂

    Reply
    • Hilary

      Hi,

      It is totally possible to have bees behave this way who are not africanized. So, they probably are not Africanized, but that doesn’t mean they are not awful to deal with. All my advice is in this article. Did you have a specific question?

      Reply
    • Zogisle

      Once African bees invade your European/American hive it has been observed … First, bees are much more aggressive from further distance to the hive as well as touch the hive you will find more stinger embedded in gloves etc… 2. The African bees seem to be more interested in building the hive then the production of honey will drop. Kinda like increase the hive to build a bigger army then collect pollen… Have any of you all observed this as well…

      Reply
  9. Richard

    Q? I live in a rural area on the central coast of CA. I’ve notice in the last year very strange bee behavior. When ever any one goes out outside a lone bee will come out of nowhere and buzz us incessively. Eventually it will fly off only to be replaced by another about every 15 minutes. There is no hive that I can see anywhere with in 100 yards. There is a green belt about 150 yards away. Bee keeping is pretty popular around here. I assume there is a hot hive somewhere around here?

    Reply
    • Hilary

      That would be my guess.

      Reply
  10. Denise

    Hi Hilary, I love your information on this website. We have a hive that has set up house under a con-ex box (Shipping container) and they are aggressive to the max. I can walk out the door and these guys are bouncing off my head. I do not think that we can relocate, takes a crane or forklift to move the box. We have checked into having the hive removed alive and every company that has come out said no way, these bees are way to aggressive, you need to destroy the hive. So, as much as we hate the idea, do you have any advise how to deal with this situation? We will not be able to remove the comb or anything really, we just don’t want anyone hurt again. They attacked my husband and a worker yesterday for just going in and out of a door to many times, I guess. Hive is about 30 feet from door. Dog and others have been attacked over the last month. Thank you for any advise you can offer. I am an organic gardener and the thought of killing one pollinator gets me, let alone a whole hive.

    Reply
    • Hilary

      Hi Denise, this sounds like a good case for extermination. It is a shame, but I think it is the right thing to do. When hyper defensive bees like this are allowed to swarm and spread their genes, it leads to even more incidents like you have described, where humans are attacked. This is ultimately not good for “bee PR”. So, I would argue you are doing bee-kind a favor by eliminating these bees.

      Reply
      • Denise

        Thanks Hilary, keep up the good work!

        Reply
      • Alan Crandall

        Hillary, you really need to destroy the whole hive if africanized not just the queen. Her drones will spread her genes to other queens in the area. If she swarms, her queen cell daughters have her genes as well. Kill the whole hive is not popular but not doing so keeps spreading African bee genes. If you know you have a hot hive and people, pets or livestock are killed or injured, you could face legal liability.

        Reply
        • Hilary

          If you are in an area where your bees can become Africanized then there are bees with this gene everywhere in the environment already. We aren’t going to eradicate them by destroying every colony. In my experience, hot colonies calm down pretty quickly after being requeened.

          Reply
  11. Don S.

    Hilary,
    My situation sounds similar to Denise’s post above. I live in Carlsbad. Under a shed in my backyard, a colony built a hive about 6 years ago. I told my family they could stay as long as they were not aggressive. These had to be European bees. For 5 years, not a single problem. I could mow, dig, plant, etc. within a few feet of the hive without them becoming agitated at all.
    Then last summer they obviously became africanized. I was stung 5 times in the next 12 months (usually on my face). They become aggressive when you walk anywhere near that part of my yard. Forget about trying to do something like mowing the lawn near the hive- that is a sure way to get stung.
    I do not want to kill the hive. Like Denise, the idea of killing one bee upsets me. But I am not a beekeeper. I was trying to do the right thing, and now it has become a problem. Any ideas on how to deal with this outside of extermination? If one afternoon, I dumped sand over the opening to the hive, would the bees move on (I think that this would kill those bees and queen inside the hive unfortunately)?

    Reply
  12. JoAnn Martin

    I have bees inside my trailer walls that I’m pretty sure are Africanized.. The back yard is their territory and mowing is at your own risk..Have sealed up their main entrance to the hive, but they only found a new one..Tried having someone come to remove them, that did not work..Am I left to only kill them?? The will sting you in numbers if you go within 25 feet of their “home”.. Which is MY home..

    Reply
    • Hilary

      When the bees are that ill tempered it probably is best to have them exterminated. As much as I hate to say it. You may be able to hire a professional live bee removal person to remove them though. Not sure who you had out before that it didn’t work. A lot of hobbyists try to do removals like this one and fail because they are in over their heads.

      Reply
  13. Fred

    Hi I recently found a Natural cluster of bees under my eaves on my backyard shed. About 1000 of them its a cluster of bees about 8 around and 10 inches tall I walked up to them and bent down under them but they dont do anything. Should i worry of have them removed?

    Reply
    • Hilary

      New bee colonies are often docile. They may become defensive over time, but it is hard to say. Many people coexist with wild hives in their yard and never have an issue, but there is no guarantee.

      Reply
  14. Tahlita

    It is interesting to me that these hybridized bees are referred to as “Africanized” even though they where bred in Brazil. Is there any specific reason for this name?

    I am from South Africa and generally our bees are docile.

    Reply
    • Hilary

      They were bred in brazil, but brought from Africa.

      Reply
  15. Kat

    I am in central Texas. My hives have been super hot this very early spring. Been feeding to get weight up especially as brood production is heavy.

    My question is would it be prudent to wait until nectar flow is on before deciding to take any action? I guess I mean, could the fact it is warm, but no food out cause then to be REALLY defensive. Last spring/summer they were fine. I keep a close eye on them, so would be very surprised if they superceesured withiutbme knowing.

    Finally, I am 7 months pregnant. Could they sense that and go after me more? Outlandish question, I know.

    Reply
    • Hilary

      Hi Kat, not having a good nectar flow can definitely result in hot bees. I think it’s worth it to wait and see, especially if all of them have change dither behavior, it makes sense that it could be something environmental. Also, when requesting, the acceptance rate is better during a nectar flow or so they say. I doubt it’s to do with your pregnancy unless you are breathing out more CO2 or they are reacting to some change in your scent.

      Reply
  16. Megan Miles

    I recently got a new package and they seem territorial on day 1! On day 2, we were about 100 feet away and they kept coming up and zig zagging around our face, following if we tried to slowly move away. Do I need to requeen or just let the new queen take a crack at replacing these girls?? I’m concerned about my neighbors getting upset because this is unique from other packages I’ve gotten…

    Reply
    • Megan Miles

      To elaborate on day one, they were audibly in a tizzy as soon as we dumped them in, covering the top of our veils and banging into the mesh. It was even hard to close them up. The second package we installed was quick and docile so the difference was obvious…. Unfortunately my neighbor took notice and wasn’t pleased… Doesn’t help when they actively persued us in the days following!

      Reply
    • Hilary

      Call the person who you bought them from and see what they say. Sounds abnormal for a package. Maybe something happened to the queen.

      Reply
  17. foralllove

    One thing I’ve noticed, both in my hives and on videos, is the pitch (sound frequency) of their buzzy. A higher pitch seems to correlate with more agitation (regardless of genetics).

    Reply
  18. Joyce Vallato

    My beautiful little yorkie-mix was found dead within just a foot of the hummingbird feeder. i couldn’t imagine what had killed him, though I suspected it was on of the angry black bees. i took my little Harley to . the vet. he did a necropsy on my dog. he said immediately as he opened his stomach up, he felt the heat come from Harley’s stomach. He said my little dog’s body was 110 degrees or more. the vet said it seemed my little dog died from anaphylactic shock probably from a bee sting. tThese bees are large and black, with white spots on its head and backend. I have never seen this type of bee in my life(I am 80 yrs old) I am extremely allergic to bee stings myself. Guess my sweet little Harley was too! He was only out of my site about 30 minutes..

    Reply
    • Hilary

      Hi Joyce, I’m so sorry for your loss. Just like us, our dogs can be allergic to bee stings. 🙁

      Reply
    • Jenny

      The description sounds more
      Like a white faced hornet than a bee (White on the face and rear eg https://www.insect.com/pests/bald-faced-hornet).

      They are a wasp and build paper nests. In my experience they aren’t aggressive unless provoked, but I don’t take chances, they are big and intimidating… but they are not bees

      Sorry For your sad loss

      Reply
  19. Terry Risher

    I have a very hot hive in my back yard. It’s natural. We have been stung many times mowing near it. Today an ameturer beekeeper was stung about 100 times when his suit tore. They also stung him through the suit. They followed him 500 feet and started attacking everyone in my front yard. They were still attacking us 500 feet away 5 hours after he disturbed the hive. I’m pretty sure this hive is Africanized. Any thoughts?

    Reply
    • Hilary

      They sound pretty defensive and if you are in an Africanized zone, it is very likely that they are.

      Reply
  20. Mike Riter

    After a few minutes of being a few feet from foraging honey bees I was filming, now and then one would stop working the flowers and begin buzzing me aggressively. I got out of there without getting stung, but evrry time I felt I would’ve been stung had I hung around. What was this about?

    Reply
    • Hilary

      Were you wearing a strong scent?

      Reply
  21. Jennifer

    Hello Hilary, I just found your blog. LOVE IT! I’m a beekeeping girl as well, and we’re a year into beekeeping. I have a specific question. We live in Medellin, Colombia, in South America, and all of the bees there are Africanized. I’m having trouble finding local beekeepers who can help us out. My question is this:

    We went into the hives yesterday (each one had one brood box and a honey super on top, no queen excluder). The honey super was SOOOOO full of honey that the the honey and brood fell right off the frame and onto the ground. We made quite a mess and there was honey everywhere. With 3 smokers lit, the bees were still extremely aggresive (they chased us for an hour and stung the neighbors and their dogs).

    Since the weather here is basically perfect year-round (65-85 degrees) and it’s been super sunny for the past month, the hives are really strong. My question is this: Should I leave the hives at 1 brood box/1 honey super/queen excluder/another honey super for us, versus adding another brood box? The reason is that I can’t imagine trying to examine a second brood box if the honey super (which is half the height of our brood boxes) was too full to examine.

    Note: our boxes are all filled with actual beeswax pressed onto thin wires. I did order some new honey supers, and they come with plastic frames, which I’m hoping will be stronger and support the weight of all that honey.

    Thank you so much in advance for your help. I think we have a “good problem” but I’m suffering thinking of the mess we caused yesterday in the hives.

    Reply
    • Hilary

      Hi, I think you may greatly benefit from my online Hive Inspection class. You can stream it on demand https://girlnextdoorhoney.com/online-classes/

      Did you determine why the comb fell out? Was it the way you helped the frame? You need to hold them straight up and down so the pressure of gravity does not cause it to break. Or was it that it was built crooked in the frame?

      I like to add boxes as they fill the ones they have. It can be intimidating to work a large colony, but with practice and guidance you can do it! My class will help. There’s a lot to say on the subject.

      Reply
  22. David

    Where is the Africanized zone??
    I have some hives in Lassen County CA.
    Thanks

    Reply
    • Hilary

      The lower half of the state is ABH, but the line has been drifting north.

      Reply

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My name is Hilary Kearney. I’m the author of the book, “Queenspotting” and founder of the urban beekeeping business Girl Next Door Honey in San Diego, California. I’m an artist turned beekeeper on a mission to help new beekeepers succeed and educate the public about the magic of bees!

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Shop: Educational Game for kids!

Shop: Educational Game for kids!

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