Bee's attacked our chickens today with dozens of stings each. Help!

[WillieBoy]

Glad to hear your hens are hanging in there.Given the rather large dose of venom they suffered,it will take days for recovery.
Allot of things can set a hive of honeybees into agressive/defensive action. They don't like certain odors close to there hive, like perfume,deoderant, bad BO, etc... Loud noise, like getting to close with a lawn mower, rototiller can set them off.
They can be very defensive when they are no longer producing honey for the season, wanting to protect what they do have in the hive.They may or may not have been Africanized, either way a hive of honeybees can be Hot or denfensive..
Who knows what set off the attack on your hens..? I don't think many people relize that an unprovoked attack/defensive behavior can happen when you least expect it.Many beekeepers have gentle bees and tend to them with no protective gear at all.I use to do that, until i caught 15 stings one day from my "mellow" honeybees....now i wear my bee suit, just to be on the safe side..
Honeybees are great and fun, and needed. One just has to be aware of and respect them and their space.Hope your girls make a full recovery...

 

[sourland]

Glad that the hive has been removed. I'm not a betting man, but from your description of the attack I would be willing to bet that those were Africanized honeybees. As you already know, watch the hive site as another swarm may try to set up housekeeping. This could have been far worse. They have been known to kill!

 

[jomercer]

Quote:
Honeybees are not native to the Americas--settlers brought them here from the Old World.

 

[MysticScorpio82]

I am glad to hear that the chickens and turkey are beginning to improve and none were lost after that attack (minus the one that died during the attack) !

I am rooting for them to ALL recover fully!!

 

[ALLFloridaBeeRemoval]

Hope that things work out well for you.

As an entomologist and 'bee remover', it's always interesting to see what folks say about honey bees. There's been some good comments, and some that have missed the target, just a bit.

I'd like to offer a few things from my perspective as an insect scientist and beekeeper.

1. While most honey bees that are kept in beehives are relatively gentle, any bee colony can get defensive. Sometimes they have a 'bad day', maybe from a skunk that might have hassled them during the previous night. Or, the queen has died , (or been killed by her daughters, more likely), and the colony cannot raise another queen. The colony becomes quite distressed and can get as mean as any African Honey Bee, (AHB), colony I've seen. Or,the colony gets overtaken by an AHB queen and swarm.

In any case, it's important to monitor one's bees, if they are being managed in a hive box. Which leads me to:

2. Wild bee colonies should not be tolerated. Unless you are willing to accept a stinging incident. Probably the biggest contributor to sting incidents. Wild bees are unpredictable. Like someone else mentioned, bees can get ornery this time of years, as available flowers are diminishing in numbers. A bee colony that had been percieved as gentle, can turn mean as fire, from even a small provocation. There have been several horse deaths this year from bee attacks. In every case, bee colonies had been allowed to persist nearby. In one incident, multiple colonies even, because they were "gentle". Got children, elderly, handicapped folks or animals? and a wild bee colony? get it terminated or live removed pronto.

3. If you are living in Africanized territory, such as the OP, bee extra vigilant. African bees are a different race, and much more unpredictable. I'm in Florida, and am documenting the takeover of wild feral bees by AHB. The behaviours are quite different, and we run into some spectacular sting incidents. AHB have been in SoCal so long now, that the incidents rarely make the news. Don't be lulled by the lack of info, There are LOADS of AHB in SoCal, and they can bee, mean, mean mean.

4. Bees are doing OK. What???? yeah, we are having some issues with our managed bees, but I'm confident we'll straighten that out. Our managed honey bees are not the same AHB that is spreading through the south. Where we see AHB, we see LOTS of them.. They are a very robust race of honey bee, and the numbers skyrocket when they move in an area. Great for pollination, not so great for us and our animals. But, if one is prudent, the risk goes way down. Bee smart, and you'll be ok.

Here's a link to a blogpost I wrote about the horse fatalities. Hope the link comes through:
Killer Bees and Horses: Fatal consequences

hth,


Richard Martyniak

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Thanks for a very informative post!

 

[Rammy]

Quote:
Honeybees are not native to the Americas--settlers brought them here from the Old World.

I did not say honey bees were native to America. I was talking about the fact that two different species of bees are crossbreeding and becoming more aggressive. African bees were imported from Africa to Brazil in the early 70's, escaped, and have since then migrated further and further north. They are crossbreeding with the European species and making a species that is not known to be aggressive become aggressive. Unfortunately, due to people trying to play with things they should not, we are paying the price.

 

[Ibicella]

Thank you, Richard! That was an excellent and informative post.

I would like to add, the difference between a bee and a wasp/hornet is that bees sting once and the glands rip out of their bodies leaving the stingers behind (like what happened to the OP). A wasp-type reuses their stingers over and over.

 

[ultasol]

Quote:
This is not true. Perhaps in AZ it is true, but current information does not indicate that they have spread much beyond the southern areas. The biggest threat to american bees right now is not the africanized bees but colony collapse disorder.

 

[bel]

With your husbands reaction I would be worried he actually is allergic. I was stung 5 seperate times before my allergies to bees really showed up, maybe the first times had less venom but the last time its was bad swelling. He might want to talk to his doc about the possibility of allergies and maybe getting an epi pen in case of an allergic emergency.

I wish your husband and surviving birds a fast recovery.