>> The "kick test" ?
>
> Doesn't sound very scientific. Surely not from the front of the hive?

I spent a good amount of time (7 weeks) this winter in St. Croix,
where the bees are Africanized,  I found the kick test to be a good
measure of the hive.  If you kick the hive and are able to stay in the
yard, you work the hive.  If you kick the hive and the bees strongly
suggest you go away, well, you go away.  It only takes one test to
teach the beekeeper which hives are workable and which hives you don't
want to kick again.

Aaron Morris - thinking don't kick THAT hive!

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