> Usually all aggression disappears within a day of the death of the queen.
 
I'm uncomfortable about that statement Sid. Do you mean from
the death of the queen (which seems to make my bees *less*
friendly), or do you mean from introduction of the new queen?>>>
I was too brief.  I should have said "all aggression usually disappears
within a day or so of re-queening with a gentler strain of queen".
Over the years beekeepers have noticed how quickly aggression disappears
when a bad stock is re-queened.  If the fault was in the bees one would
expect the aggression to last many weeks, the summer life of the bees.  In
1962 a very respected English beekeeper and breeder carried out a series of
experiments which I will outline briefly.  Full details are in his book,
The Honeybees of the British Isles, By Beowulf Cooper.
Three queens from aggressive stocks were removed and replaced by three from
a docile strain.  Within twenty four hours all aggression had disappeared.
A queen was removed from an aggressive stock and a queen cell introduced.
The virgin hatched three days later and all aggression ceased.
Two  queens from docile stocks were removed and replaced with queens from
aggressive stocks.  Within two days these stocks changed from docile to
aggressive.
An aggressive stock was de-queened and united to a docile one.  Within two
days all the bees were docile.
A queen from an aggressive stock was caged and placed over a docile one.
The following day the stock became bad tempered and remained so until the
queen was removed.
All beekeepers of experience know that an aggressive stock can turn up from
time to time in a docile apiary for no apparent reason and the only
conclusion is that a cross-mating was responsible.
From the experiments above and others Cooper concluded that much aggression
was not genetic to the worker  and was due to the make-up of the queen and
therefore her pheromones.                  Sid P.
_________________________________________________________________
Sid Pullinger                    Email :  [log in to unmask]
36, Grange Rd                Compuserve:  [log in to unmask]
Alresford
Hants SO24 9HF
England