I received this by private email and offer it here with my own
suggestions and we are soliciting other suggestions and comments.

The writer does not wish to be identified, but is located in the
northeast US.

I post it here because we may get insights, and also to alert others
that this is likely to become an increasing problem throughout the US.

(It turned out that this hive is is just in a single box).

--- begin quote ---

"Plus, AHB colonies may be reasonably gentle during the first year or
two,  but suddenly become much more aggressive as the colony becomes
well established."

I have an unbelievably aggressive colony. They are all over me, need
to wear a bee suit, I can hardly see through the veil so many bees get
on it, and they follow for a long time. They explode out of the hive
at the slightest thing. It was a swarm from another yard of mine. I
had an aggressive hive in that yard, then a couple of swarms in that
yard which I caught and moved. After swarming the aggressive hive
calmed down. But one of the boxes that is a swarm from that yard is
really ugly so I assume the queen and foragers are from that  first
hive I had problems with.

They were a package from (the southeast) last spring and I have no
outstanding remarks about them from last season. Yesterday we
suited up and found the queen and took great pleasure in dropping
her in a jar of rubbing alcohol. Tonight they are closed up in the bed
of my truck ready to go to an out yard where there is not chance of
terrorizing a neighborhood. I am deciding whether to bring a bucket of
soapy water and do away with them or a new queen and let them work
through to new bees.

I have (seen a beekeeper's bees) in FL  in the winters and his AHB's seem
gentle compared to this hive. I was reading back through May when
there was a lot of talk on aggressive bees and read the statement
above. It sure fits this hive. I was wondering if the soapy water will
hurt the comb, I am very short on drawn comb right now and need all I
have.

--- end quote ---

--- begin my reply ---

 > It does not take much soap in the water to kill bees.  The combs 
should be
 > fine.
 >
 > You can also suffocate a hive with a plastic bag.  Lots of beginners
 > suffocate bees by mistake by having tight equipment and closing 
entrances to
 > move the hives.
 >
 > You could also just nuc the colony out into small nucs -- just be 
sure the
 > queens are from a good source and are accepted.  Start by breaking the
 > colony into separate boxes during a flow and moving them back in the 
yard so
 > the old bees fly to other hives.  The older bees  should not be too big a
 > problem in the other hives.
 >
 > The brood chambers  should settle down once they have lost bees and 
you can
 > divide them up and requeen them or use the brood elsewhere, 
judiciously, I
 > should think.

 > I would worry about the drones.  They fly everywhere and are
 > known for preempting the EHB drones in mating flights.  They have 
probably
 > drifted throughout the neighbourhood, so you'll have to be alert in 
future.
 >
 > That is my opinion, but I would be happy to post this to BEE-L where your
 > name and location would be left out.  We might get some better ideas 
-- or
 > caveats.

--- end reply ---

--- begin next message ---

I actually couldn't even tell you if the queen is the one from the package,
could have been a supersedure right after installation as most packages
do. I inspect but not through the whole hive if I see healthy brood on the
first frame pulled I stop there, if I see problems I keep going this 
hive must
of been fine building up last year because no comments on the inspections,
tend to only write down the problems. With the mild winter we had they
came through the winter strong. I had been thinking of splitting the brood
up between a few hives and killing the live bees.

It is only a 10 frame deep box because when I notice how ill behaved they
were I took brood and put it in other hives so they would not build up. I
will scrape any drone cells I see in a day or so.

By the time you post it on Bee-L I will have soaped the the ones in the net
but do post it because the answers will give me ideas if this ever happens
again. I will not move any brood around until I see if there's any 
comments,
I am not concerned about losing the brood for lack of bees to keep it warm
after I soap the ones that come out this morning

--- end ---

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