Irritable colony

[red rambler]

I have one colony that just will not tolerate inspections. Compared to the others, this one is the most defensive. Guess that means the best thing to do would be to re-queen?

[Jacobs]

I am willing to put up with a degree of hotness, and if too bad, I will exile them to the country. Re-queening often results in gentler bees. The issue for this time of year is the decision about trying to let the hive make a queen or purchasing one. There are fewer drones than there were a month ago and getting queens well mated is a bit more of a gamble now. Also, you need to consider if the hive is strong enough to take the brood reduction/interruption if you are going to attempt to allow the bees to make their own queen.