<<  I think the point I was trying to make regarding angry hives,
it cannot just be down to genetics, when replacing the queen almost instantly
they quiet down.>> Dave E.

Beowulf Cooper, founder of B.I.B.B.A. and author of the book The Honeybees of
the British Isles,  carried out a series of experiments to find the cause of
aggression. Put briefly he took three queens from aggressive stocks and
replaced them with queens from docile stocks. Within twenty four hours all
the bees were docile. He then put  queens from angry stocks into docile ones.
Immediately  the stocks become aggressive.  In  another experiment he removed
the queen from an angry stock and replaced  her with a queen cell from a
docile one. As soon as the virgin emerged the stock became docile.  He also
dequeened an angry stock and united it  to a docile one. Within a day the
bees were docile. He caged a queen from an aggressive stock and placed it in
a queenright docile stock. The stock immediately became aggressive and
continued so until the cage was removed.

Some time ago there was a thread on how to kill an aggressive  stock. It may
not always be the fault of the queen but the experiments above are fairly
conclusive.
Clearly the queens were at fault and it would be  wrong to detroy a colony
for the sake of one bee. I have never found much difficulty in finding the
queen in an aggressive colony.    Sid P.