>Have to disagree, when you have a hive that meets you at the truck door, tell me how they work without smoke.
You re-queen them!
This area was notorious for bees like that. Then I started to eliminate bad temper by raising queens from the best stocks. One apiary at a time I killed all the queens heading bad tempered colonies (no matter how productive they were) and re-queened from the home-raised good stock. It took just one season take make a huge difference.
But it is not a one-shot operation. We still have idiots who buy in exotic queens which, when crossed with native stock, produce the bad temper. So it is an ongoing process - but it is now rare to see temper and many colonies could probably be worked without a veil.
Best wishes
Peter
52°14'44.44"N, 1°50'35"W
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