At 11:38 PM 4/30/97 EDT, you wrote:
>Howdy All!
>
>I have 4 hives, and have been trying to work them recently without the
>aid of a smoker.  I usually do this only on sunny days, in mid afternoon
>(1-3 PM).  Three of the hives usually do well with this method.  If I
>work slowly, only the occasional bee will rush to my glove and check me
>out and rarely will I get stung.  ONE hive, however, when opened,
>IMMEDIATELY reacts by sending 20-30 bees out and stinging like crazy!
>When my hand *slowly* approaches the top of the box to lift out a  frame,
>the bees just jump up to my hand and immediately begin stinging and
>quickly move to my chest and arms where I am stung through my coveralls.
>Is this behavior to be blamed on the queen?  She is a new queen, placed
>in that hive last fall.  They overwintered well, and are raising lots of
>new brood.  Will requeening this fall solve the problem?
>
>Curiously,
>
>Steve Creasy-                           (\
>Maryville, Tennessee USA   {|||8-
>Proverbs 24:13, 25:16            (/
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>
>Steve,
   The three most uesful bee equipment are the smoker, the vail, and the
hive tool. The gloves are just a security blanket and contain the odors of
past stings. If any piece of equipment is not used it should be the gloves.
You always should have the smoker going, if you don't want to use it its up
to you, however if needed you have it available. Give a few puffs at the
entrance and a few under the top cover and wait a few moments. Then you can
inspect for what you want.
Remember every time you go into the bees it takes them 48 hours to get back
to the harmony of the before you inspected.
                    Gus Skamarycz