In this video, I will be showing you the process of removing frames of honey from an AFRICANIZED beehive, and how to extract and bottle your honey! I was stung numerous times during the making of this video. Enjoy!
Watching your video gives me chills. I have been living with Africanized bees for a few months now. The fire department removed a wall of my neighbors. It was the largest hive they've seen. Now they are migrating towards my home. My friend was swarmed and attacked with over 1200 stings that took her down. She almost died. It's crazy that you keep Africanized bees. I cannot get rid of them. They swarm all night until dawn. Never was afraid of bees until I met these. These stingers are not easy to remove.
True africanized killer bees need to be destroyed. My bees have africanized genetics, which is a little different. Sounds like you’ve got a really bad one. They need to not live. These bees I have are just ‘hot’ feral Texas bees, which have Africanization in their genetics.
Please let me know what works for you ending these bees. Myself and my friends have all been stung by an Africanized Hive under one of my sheds. This is so dangerous I need them gone ASAP!
@@brownsbeefarm I am a South African bee keeper with +- 400 hives, I fail to understand the panic mode you guys keep creating. Very seldom do I use a bee suit on casual visits to an Apiary site. Happy to send a video to any one interested.
I enjoyed this video. I've always wanted to beekeep and been thinking about it a lot more lately, so I've started watching and reading more about it again... Thanks for your video!
Man, I commend your efforts to work with Africanized bees. Here in Brazil it is mandatory to wear white rain boots. And it has to be white, because bees will always attack dark objects.
I actually managed to buy some killer bee honey in the UK. Company called Mama Buci - honey's brilliant but apparently they have a high staff turnover :- )
I’ve seen other videos where you let the bees clean everything INSIDE the hive then come back and collect frames for freezing. To avoid collateral damage.
I keep Americanized bees in Tobago. I put equipment out for the bees to clean up after extraction. However, I would sprinkle the honey with a little water to make it easier for the bees to pick up and to reduce bee deaths.
I'm all on board with naturally keeping feral bees - but seeing your bees I'm glad that I'm in Missouri, not Texas. I've heard that Africanized bees make good honey, but if I had to go through that whenever I opened a hive I don't think I'd stick with it. Thanks for the video - I really enjoyed it. Now I'm going to go thank my bees! 😁
Ha! They usually aren’t too bad. You probably have some africanized colonies here and there in Missouri, but hopefully you never come across them. This video was more of a joke, because my dumb self tucked my bee suit into my black socks. They REALLY went after my socks and were stinging me through them badly. Never again. I usually never get stung if I’m suited lol. Thanks for your support. More videos coming soon
Oh the africanized didn't make it to missouri? Wow okay but how could I say, I'm from germany and here we only got the nicer bees xD I got three hives for me and 7 others to take care of and most of them are very calm - only two are very stinky when I open up and they just got the highest population so far. Well I'm still fine with my torso-suit and they give good honey too - not as much as the africanized of course but enough for me xD
Place exterior etc upside down to prevent dead bees in the bottom. Control access to frames you want cleaned up with a box and small 3/4” tube leading to frames.
If you are wearing leather gloves, you still need to learn more about managing africanized colonies. They really didn't follow you that far, at best they are very lightly aftricanized (when you can't see because so many are on your front screen, that's africanized!). So look into PVC gloves and Shrimp boots (walmart has them right now for $20). I applaud your efforts, don't give up. Everyone struggles with the same issue of learning to manage mean bees the hard way. The methods are very different from conventional beekeeping.
Hey Tony! Thanks for your comment. I’ll admit, I watched some vids earlier of some REAL Africanized bees, and frankly mine really are not. I realize there is far worse. They definitely are slightly, as their mother hive was mine as well and they were 10x worse. 😄
Hey Tony, I'm searching for some info on keeping Africanized bees. I have about 7 hives living in the walls of my home in Belize, Central America & need them moved. Would be great if I can get them into some boxes for harvesting but they are extremely aggressive and the slightest vibration or noise sets them off. Any suggestions or direction you could point me in? Thanks so much!
@@tonyandric4380 I would find a seasoned bee keeper to hire. I'm currently in the US and not on my property there. I would just like to know if you can point me in any directions to get more info?
@@tonyandric4380 *side note I've lived with them settling in my walls for years so though I'm not a bee keeper, I've spent years learning their behaviors trying to avoid attacks. So I'm not all the way green. ☺️
This has got to be my favorite Bee related RU-vid video ever. I learned a lot and now have feelings of guilt over laughing at your pain. I've never seen the behavior of Africanized bees up close like this and it was fascinating. Also, I've just got into beekeeping and this is the first video I've watched that displayed the warning behavior the bees were showing on the top of the hive, which may save me some pain on down the line. I commend you for your efforts.
I have done it. Only advice I would give work8ng with defensive bees. Take the whole honey Box away from the main hive to take the honey frames out. Bees will fly back to the hive.
I read an article about Africanized bees chilling out on their own accord and seen several videos about requeening and forcing the Africanized girls to chill out and it looks like that's is what happened with those cases (drones helping to chill the gals). Wow, pull the frames out of the nukes so they can clean them out for you without killing each other too much.
i feel your pain with those stings. i swapped from leather glove to these (Ansell Solvex 37-185 Green Chemical Resistant Nitrile Gauntlet Gloves) after getting stung lots through leather gloves . they really help as the bees just don't try to sting my hands, i also wear wellie boot. good luck all the best . oh and that dark honey looked amazing
If you think those are africanized you have a lot to learn. Wait tile you see a hive that will complete cover your veil chest and arms. Solid bees. You havent seen anything
"Africanized" is a genetic term not an observation of behavior. They're hybrids of African and European bees. You're thinking of increased defensiveness, not a hive that is "more africanized."
I've got a colony like that this year. As soon as honey season is done, I'm taking it all off and running gas through the hive. I can't be doing with aggressive bees anymore. By the way. That dark honey looked amazing
Here in Arizona we have hella AKB -Free Bees. Reed Booth is our local AKB hive removal. He has the KILLER BEE Mustard company in Bisbee. I know the Jamaicans store that AKB honey in DARK COLORED GLASS, as they would do blackstrap molasses. Im definitely gonna take all the preventative measures necessary that I DON'T GET STUNG, LOL. White T-Rex tape is way better than gorilla tape. I was inspired watching this vid.... I might have to invest in an electric hot knife to remove the beeswax from the frame.
Hay mud works great for stings. Make sure you pull the stigers out of the skin and then dab mud on the stinger parts this pulls the Poison out. This same treatment works great yellow jackets I've been doing this scenes I was a young kid.
Thank you so much for this video. I live in Africa and I keep bees. We don't have Africanized bees, we have the original 100% African bees 😀 This (and even much worse) is our normal work situation. We have a newbee beekeepers that watch beekeeping videos from the US or Europe and it al looks so simple. Our bees are really not docile and it can be really dangerous to handle hives without protective clothing. I think RU-vid should consider putting a standard warning message on these videos "Don't do this in Africa", because people start copying "western techniques" where they are not appropriate. What I liked about your video was that you left your mistakes in, as that is how you learn, as opposed to all these Mr and Mrs Perfect videos that make you feel clumsy. 😀 Keep posting mistakes, because from your mistakes, we can learn. What I would like to have seen is the complete cycle, how do you put back your frames and were. Thanks for posting.
I always prefer to use beescapes. It's an extra step but it's a passive way of collecting your honey. If in fact, you use a be escape and there's no brood up in the area where you're trying to collect the honey. From within twenty four to thirty hours it will be totally bee Free
Haha! I had some problematic neighbors once… they have since moved but back when we were having problems, I really wanted to move that hive over there by my property line. It would have ended all my issues. It might have started a few new ones too, but that’s a different story 😅
I live in Florida where the possibility of Africanization is always present. I've had a few feisty hives that led me to follow a few simple safety procedures. I keep my bees in full sun. I always wear a veil at least. I never work them until around noon and try not to when it's windy, rainy or cloudy. I smoke them initially about 30 minutes before starting inspections and again before popping a lid.
I found out that some bee colony become very defensive, or easily irritated because they were infested with Veroa mites. You can somewhat tame those bees by smoking them with stag horn sumac. Do it from the entrance and pump them with lots of stag horn sumac smoke. Repeat treatment few times. Hope you get a great honey crop.
Great video, made me laugh! Just thinking of starting beekeeping and watched a lot of videos, all say it is complex but easy at the same time. Your video shows it as it is, not one video shows the power of the bees as yours did, really good well done.
You are awesome and I appreciate your support. I allowed this video to be a little funny, I never take that many stings lol. I tucked my bee suit into my socks and that was a terrible idea. Normally I never get stung.
@@brownsbeefarm Your willingness to allow clips of, for example, your error w/ the socks, does keep it real for us, the viewers. I have seen other vids of the Africanized , but they are usually companies doing removals. How far are these hives from other homes? or from your house? Thank you for your time,
Dude, you're crazy to mess with those hostile Africanized girls! I'm in the middle of PA and I only trap feral colonies for my hives. I've now got 5 friends that decided to keep bees when they saw me do it and how easy it is here. In fact one friend still doesn't wear a suit. Just a hat, veil and gloves. Not me though. It's the coolest hobby turned biz I've ever done! BTW, I knock on wood before I say this.... I have yet to see hive beetles or mites. Other than in videos. There are a few fruit farms, mostly apples, 8-15 miles to my south and east and no serious farms til about the same distance away. P.S. I love that dark bee tar! hahaha
That’s awesome! I’m glad you’re doing what you’re doing. I hear PA is good for treatment free. You’re probably familiar with Bruce at Swarmstead Bees and Gardening. He’s around you, and does lots of swarm catching and treatment free stuff with great success. Glad there’s more and more treatment free support these days
Awesome video! Thank you so much! I’m new to bees loved your video. I was a little lost when you mentioned something about dead bees and robbers. What does that mean?
Hey there! Sometimes, when you leave excess honey out like that during the summer to be cleaned up, other bees from all hives come and clean it out. They can battle each other a bit, and you’ll have some that get so sticky they don’t make it. So the robber bees come to clean the mess, some die because of it but it’s all part of the fun really. 😀
I've always used passive methods to get the honey supers off the hive. You get the inner cover, you put a bee escape in it, Assuming there's no brood, it will be empty within 24 hours empty of bees. And then you just pick them up and take them off. Not to say the bees won't take exception to you being there. If you're too long or you're too rough.
I neglected to say that you put the inner cover between the rest of the hive and the super you wish us to remove. The intercovers have a deep side on a shallow side. You want the deep side down I have always been a believer in upper entrances. So I've always cut a slot in the deep side to give the bees upper entrance to go in and out of. So as I say, deep side down, put the soupers you want to remove on top of that, make sure you have a bee escape in the center hole of the inner cover.
On a micro level I can understand the curiosity of trying to keep an aggressive strain of bees. However, I wouldn't like the idea of a swarm developing from that strain and ending up on a nearby playground.
It happens. I’m pretty far from children, we do have neighbors but they’re not super close. Usually that situation just turns into a bee removal regardless. Most people are here in Texas are pretty aware of what a swarm looks like and 90%+ of people don’t wanna mess with them, so they just call a beekeeper instead. And remember - swarms are not typically too aggressive when they’re hanging. They have nothing to defend. However, you’ll discover their temperament real quick once they get established in a new spot! Regardless they typically just get removed by a beekeeper
If you are still keeping Africanised bees, have you thought of using a blower to remove the bees from your supers, to save taking all the frames out prior to moving away from the hive?
Have you considered using a Quebec bee escape (or the likes there of) on your hives before honey harvest? I think it could save you a lot of time and stings on harvest days.
@@brownsbeefarm I'm only a hobbyist bee keeper, but I personally love my Quebec style bee escape! I own 3 and just rotate them out according to which hives I'm going to harvest! They're relatively inexpensive and easy to make at home if you DYI your own equipment! I hope they work as well for you as they do for me! I also have one aggressive hive I've fondly named my murder hive after they hospitalized me last year! I couldn't imagine a harvest without the bee escape!
Thank you! I use to buy those little sample size paints at Home Depot or lowes for about $4 and just grab a random intense color for each of them. Now, I buy mis-tinted paint that they sell for cheap
are these actually Africanized. because a lot of Africanized hives that size would absolutely explode. looks relatively mild compared to what i normally see.
Hahaha! Dying..."get the hell outta here!" ... when you have the right clothing/gear/tools, it makes every job easier (boots/gloves); you want to be comfortable when working, not adding further stress/anxiety to the situ ...can relate.. I'm a beekeeper in the tropics..100% Africanized bees...you need thicker gloves, and some rubber boots man... more pre-emptive smoke, like when you crack the box above to take it off, before actually removing, give them two puffs...also, maybe get a bee escape board.... best of luck!
It's so often I see negative counterproductive comments from "beekeepers" when they ought to be supportive. This is exactly why I haven't sought out a bee club. It's no wonder they patronize strangers.... no one would ever want them as a mentor. I have feral bees and mine act like yours.... Like bees. I believe working feral hives and/or defensive bees forces one to walk the line and be more mindful of how the beekeeper does their inspecting. Adding higher consequences equals a higher respect for the bees. An important lesson for a newbee but impossible for Half these guys to teach while walking around acting like lion tamers when they got fragile domesticated kitties that last one year.... You know they would of rummaged around in your hive squishing bees with no regards cause their bees play with yarn instead of taxing that ass for killing their sisters , gotten stung well past their 6 sting limit. Commence to kill/replace the queen and douse everything inside them boxes with chemicals/poisons, come spring bought all new bees and called it "beekeeping". Iron sharpens iron you and you got to earn your stripes so keep at it.
This is so spot on! Thank you for your understanding and support. I agree with all of this. If you’re interesting in hearing my explanation of why I do what I do, the following video (46 mins long) explains exactly why I do this and why it works so well for me. Thanks again for watching.
@@noahriding5780 proof in the pudding for me from what I see is propolis and winter survivability, and how they correlate. you take a feral hive and propolis is abundant. Then gander at a commercially provided stock queens hive for the most part devoid of it. The trait was considered a sticky messy nuisance so it made cents to breed it out. Low and behold it has quite a bit to do with the hives health and survival. What do we trade when breeding for a gentler Majestic Beast?
@@boonesbees5485 Wow. Interesting. That explains why people are suddenly becoming interested in Caucausian bees. I'd heard of people wanting them for propolis, etc. I'd been wondering what their interest was, and why ; your comments line up the explanation perfectly. I also like your honesty.
this video is pure entertainment. while I feel for you, there were quite a few things that aggravated me and obviously the bees (africanized or not). at one point, I wondered if some of the things you did were intentionally done to present a more terrifying picture and experience of "africanized" bees. I have a few hives of my own and while they're aggressive, I recognize they have reasons to be(e). if I had come across this beekeeping video (some years ago) concerning africanized bees before venturing into beekeeping I would have opted for the more docile breeds. the notion of contending with that every inspection and extraction would have terrified me. but this video showed me there were so many fixable factors that were overlooked. however, I've noted from the comments you've remedied a few. lastly, I love that bees defend what's theirs. it's a beautiful act of nature.
Yes, some of my actions can be a bit aggressive but I’ve learned with those bees that all hell breaks loose regardless, so usually me being faster and rougher just allows me to get out of there quicker. And I FOR SURE screwed up by putting my socks over my bee suit pant legs haha. I thought it would keep them out of my suit but instead they just stung through the socks in massive numbers. I couldn’t walk for about 12 hours after this video. My ankles were done. I’ve learned a lot since this video. I actually have a meaner hive than this right now, and will likely be posting videos of it this year to show how truly aggressive they are.
@@brownsbeefarm I hear you. sometimes I do not suit up at all especially if I intend to observe hive entrance activity. one instance last year I was stung on the eyelid. the following morning, my eye was swollen shut. my family got quite the chuckle at my expense. the "girls" also attempted to sting my son while he was practicing his golf swing. all I heard was, "they got me!" but "she" didn't. she was stuck in his beard. twas funny. that said, I love them and all they do for our gardens. can't wait to see more videos.
@@ItsSimpleMR that happened to me as well with the eye lid! It was the worse burning ever, followed by a day of being one eyed. It’s in one of these videos of mine, I think it’s in the queen grafting video. I look like a cyclops :)
I have some bees that are nasty as well! Although they seem to be good survivors. Honey comb cells are on a slight upward angle. You might want to face your frames in the opposite direction from the way that they were placed in your extractor. The honey will fly out of the comb faster.
Any idea what plant the nectar is from which produces the dark honey? I don't mind darker honey or the blends with it. Even though honey you get from keepers isn't filtered, it is often tastier and stays good for a longer period of time. Little chunks don't bother me. Gravity takes care of this issue. After a few days, any crap is at the bottom of the jar. If there is any.
I’m surprised to see he got stung so much. How do they get through that protective bee suit, socks etc to sting his ankles? Those Africanized bees are no joke!
I made the dumb decision of pulling my long black socks up around my bee suit, thinking it would be a good way to prevent them from entering my suit. That was a bad idea, as they just landed right on my socks and attacked them since they were black, and were able to sting right through them with zero issue. I couldn’t fix the issue until I was far away so I had to just deal with it. That was my old suit too, and it was junk. This wouldn’t happen with my new suit 😊🐝
pretty sure it is. I have never seen honey in the store act like that. I think its just the water he used to clean his extractor hell its even in the same jars he uses to collect his own honey.
Question: Since keeping ANY relation to an Africanized bee/hive only serves to carry those extremely aggressive genetics forward, I don’t understand why you would take a hive that you say was even hotter than this one & carry the genetics forward? Honestly, i think any bees that are hot like this should be completely exterminated because no matter if you keep the Queen only, the hive, or her brood, the hot genetics are in every bee in that hive & will carry forth not only to all her offspring, but they’ll go on to infect other bees, brining hot genetics to them & eventually, our beautiful, calm, peaceful honey bee will be a thing of the past. A memory. When you see guards THAT defensive to where they respond just being near the hive & they continue to pursue you, they’re hot & need to go, in my personal opinion. They’re not only a danger to other bees, but they can (and are) a danger to anyone who happens to walk by, or someone mowing their lawn, or animals who happen by because they’ll see a threat where there is none, swarm, throw out those threat pheromones & then you have a swarm stinging something or someone into the hospital or death. It’s not only a danger to keep them, it’s a liability; especially since you know they’re hot. As a Horticulturist, I just have serious issues with Africanized bees, having seen & studied the damage they do to all life. I don’t think there’s a hive worth saving when they’re this hot. If it were me, I’d wait until nighttime when foragers have returned, go out with large black yard bags & some serious duct tape, wrapping the entire hive & sealing it tight. It won’t take long for them to suffocate & frankly, it’s one of the safer & more humane ways to kill a hive. That, and you can still utilize the resources of the hive (honey & stacks) and they won’t be destroyed by poisons that some use. Wrapping them in black plastic bags & sealing with tape, the heat will build quickly, robbing oxygen & they will die without the pain of poisons. The fact that you had to drive away shows just how hot that hive is & what a danger it’s become. I hope all bee keepers take this serious & eliminate hot hives if they happen to ever have one, which is rare, but becoming more & more common, why? Because bee keepers like you keep hot hives. With all respect. I love bees. Trust me. ❤
Thanks for your time and effort. I enjoy watching your hobby. Instead oF using smoke,have you considered spraying sugar water on the bees, it will make them fly less when the sugar water hit there wings. Plus the honey wont taste smoke. Spray the entrance and then spray every time you open any cover and lightly all over the bees. Keep the good work.
Respect! I have a hive of africanized x native bees under a shead that sitting on the ground. They have chased me and stung me several times and just this last weekend to stung my back when I was about 20 feet away from the shed, I started running and had to run all the way up to the house. Their stings feel totally different then a regular bee sting, it feels like hot lava on your back for three days. Then I had raised rashes on my legs and arms that blistered and popped and now my legs are polka dotted with red spots. I'm so beyond done with these bees they stung my friend's throat, they've gotten wrapped in my hair and another friends hair and ended up stinging him on his head. I tried the soapy water to no avail I've had a friend with a pest control company come over twice and blow a powder substance under the shed that only slowed them down for about a week and then they were backup and numbers. I'm afraid somebody's going to go jogging past and gets warmed! Before someone jumps all over me for killing bees, I'm an organic gardener and love having bees around my garden, the shed that I can't even go in anymore cuz they're under it how's my beehive and all the equipment in it. I'm not a wimp but I just can't handle this threat anymore. Anybody have a tried and proven method of getting rid of them please let me know. Thank you in advance!
here in kenya I got stung in the ankle during brood inspection, my fault was wearing low top shoes, care free with space for a bee to penetrate to the socks and deliver its stinger, since then been taking measures to avoid getting stung by proofing my footwear setup and double gloves just for good measure coz these african bees are bent on murder suicide
Mistake at 12:55. Go back to your vehicle, turn air on high, drive bees out of vehicle. Then tape up ankles. When you exposed your leg, they looked at it as a fried drumstick! Make sure you're covered up as best as possible BEFORE getting out there. I know from experience. Bees here in Texas are normally like what you have, so been there done that. Entertaining though I have to say. Cheers.
😅 absolutely agreed! Lol. I have since gotten a proper UltraBreeze suit. It is sooo nice. I realized that having my socks over my suit was a terrible idea. Thinking I was protected, they actually were able to sting me right through my socks. And of course they went for the socks because they were black haha. I get better each and every year. Thanks for your support 🤙🏻♥️
No, I prefer to not cover my body with chemicals and the bees also would not be phased by it I wouldn’t think. If anything the smell might even set them off worse for all I know! Lol. But really, don’t do that.
I’ve got 5 hives and noticed smoke works well with 4 but original oldest hive not. They calm and let me do all work with no fuss but if i smoke them they go ballistic??? I dont understand why Simple these hate smoke
Purbread African bees aren’t too bad. The F1 hybrids African/European, Russian are the worst IMO. I am 30 miles N of Houston. When I have a hive as hot as that one I usually make a Teranov split, the hive requeens, and the new hive does well then if I no longer need to expand my apiary I pop the queen’s head and let them requeen. I believe the African influence has a lot of benefits we just need to delete the hot hives.
