Some hives just have nasty tempers. When I was working the main bee yard at Cal Poly, back in the mid '70's, we always joked about "Damn, no foulbrood in the #4 hive this time, either." That was because there was a noticable difference in hive #4 from all the rest of the hives in the bee yard. These gals were nasty customers, and we really would have relished a chance to just get rid of them, altogether. (It was eventually requeened, but this was unusual as Poly wasn't doing regular requeening in this era, but rather managing supercedure cells. Folks just got fed up with dealing with this hive and ordered a commercial queen.) All you had to do was take off the top cover and you could *hear* the difference---a slight amplification and an ascending note of buzzing. I never was stung while working any of the other hives. Good old #4 always managed to get me or make a good try for it. I think it's genetics. Jane B.