Suspect african swarms have to be requeened quickly in order to prevent
a potential stinging issue. This is nothing new since experienced
beekeepers requeen swarms right away anyway because the queens are old.
Regarding the reason not to save hot hives: Established african hives
need to be split down into multiple nuc-sized hives in order to requeen
them. The queens run and hide so they are too hard to find and kill in
a full sized hive. Temperament of hot hives varies day-to-day, so
sometimes they get riled up during the splitting/requeening process.
Thus requeening african hives is not a problem in isolated rural areas,
but at least in CA, most places that have african bee problems are the
urban places. And the beekeepers who acquire hot swarms are back-yard
hobbiests (who don't have liability insurance). Hence the advice of
requeening swarms immediately or dry-icing hot hives.
I personally collect and use every swarm I can conveniently get. But I
am very careful.
--Jeremy Rose
San Luis Obispo, CA
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