If you are at a point where something needs to be done about a defensive colony, you can always capture and move just the offending field force.  I've done it on occasion when I wanted to give a colony a somewhat less lethal chance to calm down. It requires moving the colony from its stand to a location five or six feet away and allowing the field force, including the defensive bees, to return to a capture box placed at the original location.  I've used drawn comb in the capture box, and you can even add an unimportant frame of brood. Later that night, or whenever you have most of the field force locked in the capture box, you can move them to a distant apiary and shake them out - or do whatever you want with them.  This usually calms down the original colony almost instantly, and gives you a little breather to judge their temperament. It also ends honey production. 

             ***********************************************
The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software.  For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html