Hello,

I have not posted anything to this list before, but I thought my
recent experience
using a new method for destroying aggressive bees, while leaving the
hive, comb and honey intact, might be useful information for some members.

Background: When I was a freshman at UC Davis I used to visit and
help out in their apiary. This was back ~1973 and they were trying to
propagate honeybees with brick eye color and other genetic traits. It
was basic science; useful and very fun (especially for a freshman).

I remember sticking the head of the virgin queen in a length of tygon
tubing hooked up to a tank of CO2. We would dribble the gas to her
and this knocked her out, while we artificially inseminated her with
semen collected from drones with the desired eyecolor.

Well, I recently moved some hives onto new property and noticed that
one hive in particular was REALLY aggressive. These bees were all
over us and followed us for about a mile. The hive in question was
composed of a brood chamber and about 6 medium chambers with a queen
excluder about 3 chambers up. I had recently completed an
extraction, but still, I didn't want to try to find the queen among all
of the other very aggresive bees.

Also, as you know, even if you kill the queen and successfully
introduce a replacement (not always easy), you still have: 1)
aggressive workers around for a long time; 2) drones carrying the
wrong genetic material (these may mate with virgin queen from the
apiary to propagate your problem); and, 3) brood in development
carrying the aggressive traits.

I remembered the CO2 working to knock out the queen, so I brought
about 50 pds of dry ice in a cooler to the hive, took off the cover
and placed a queen excluder of the top of the hive. I then placed an
empty medium super on top of this excluder and filled it with the dry
ice. Placed the cover back on the hive and duct-taped the entrance.

The CO2 from the sublimation of the dry ice is heavier than the air
in the hive, and rapidly saturates the entire chamber.  Therefore, in
fifteen minutes I was able to take the top off and look in to find
all visible bees dead.

I took the hive apart, shook out the majority of the dead bees, and
placed it back together.

The next day a local swarm was brought to me attention; I introduced
the swarm to the hive, and within days the bees
had removed the remaining bees and they are well on their way to
establishing a robust, and friendly, hive.

Best wishes to all on an exciting and productive season.

Jeff Miller

Jeffrey E. Miller, Ph.D.
2915 Avenida Valera
Carlsbad, California 92009
(760) 431-6705 - office phone
(760) 431-6909 - Fax
(877) 431-6705 - Toll free
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http://www.invivoscribe.com

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  have been convinced that the fate of empires depends
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