Yesterday's observations while inspecting my three hives:
 
I recently united two splits, via the newspaper method.  One split was
queenless, the other had a good producing queen.  The queenless
split had some emergency queen cells, which I cut prior to putting
the screen board between the two splits.  Prior to the newspaper, I left
the double screen board between them for about 3 to 4 days.  So, there
was definitely enough time for them to get used to each others' scent.
 
While inspecting this hive yesterday, I noticed what I think are a number
of emergency queen cells in the middle of some of the frames.  These
cells were of rather "flimsy" construction, as compared to other queen
cells I have seen.  (They were capped.)  They were almost paper-like in
construction, not very rigid.
 
At the same time, there is brood in various stages - uncapped, capped,
emerging.  However, the laying rate of the queen has decreased quite a
bit.  I did not physically see the queen (she is not marked).  How can I
tell if the queen was not accepted by the bees in the queenless split?
Is it possible that this happened?
 
This hive was very calm, much calmer than I have seen all season.
 
My second hive was very calm as well.  They have a good producing queen.
No problems there.
 
My third hive, however, is another story.  I have never had such an
aggressive colony.  Any chance they could get, they were coming at me.  I
did get stung twice, which is no more or less than usual when working my
hives.  However, these bees would not let up.  When smoke didn't seem to
deter them enough, I would walk away slowly to give them a "break".
 
I removed the super from this hive, placed it on the ground while
inspecting the hive.  When I went to pick the super up, the bees were all
over the handholds, making it difficult to pick it up.  I used smoke and
a brush to get them out of the way of my hands.  This took quite some
time as they were rather persistent in keeping me away.
 
This hive also indicated that the queen's laying rate had decreased.  No
emergency cells at this time.  I did see brood of various stages,
uncapped to emerging.  They do have a lot of honey stored in the upper
brood chamber, much more than the other two hives.
 
What could be causing their aggressiveness?  Could there be robbing going
on?  How can I tell other bees robbing from my own bees entering and
exiting the hive?  Do I need to watch for aggressive guards attacking
"foreign" bees?
 
As for the two hives with "apparent" queen problems, I plan on requeening
them.  I seem to have had more than my share of queen problems this year,
and can think of no other solution.  I don't plan on requeening the hive
that has a good queen, at least not this year.  I don't want to replace
her if she is young (this year's) and doing well.
 
Any and all suggestions, comments, etc. will be greatly appreciated.
Thank you.
 
 
Laura Downey
Anne Arundel County, Maryland
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