Steve; One simple choice is to run the occupants of the hive through a queen excluder. It is very disruptive but effective. Set up a bottom board, and empty super (you can put a frame of brood in it), and excluder, and an empty super on top. Open the hive and shake the bees into the top box, applying steady smoke. If the bees are really agressive you can give them a dose of nitrous oxide (laughing gas) by placing a teaspoon of sodium nitrate fertilizer into a hot smoker and giving then give a few seconds of the resulting gray smoke into the entrance. They will just look at you when you open the hive then. Be careful with the fertilizer in the smoker as the smoke has other, less pleasant components, and neither you nor the bees need a big dose of it. Bill > >Hi everyone, > >I have a naturally aggressive hive, which someone has given me (lucky me). They seem >healthy etc, but even on good days, during a flow and will fly off the combs and >attack. It is virtually impossible to get through the brood box of these bees without a >lot of trouble. They are in sharp contrast to my other bees which are very easy to >handle. > >The books I have read say if a colony becomes aggressive for no obvious reason the then >requeen it. > >The problem is I find I can't find the queen during my hurried and distracted >inspections. > >Is there an easy way to get the old queen out, which doesn't involve a lot of >disruption. > >Steve >Scotland > > -- WILLIAM G LORD E-Mail : wglord@franklin Internet: [log in to unmask] Phone : 9194963344