Here is a little background on the situation. We are on about 10 acres of property. My husband has taken up beekeeping and we have 3 hives. The hives are about 100 feet from the chicken coop and 200+ feet from our house. up until recently the hives were very docile and we have never had an issue with them.
1 of the 3 hives has been having trouble with a little bit of aggression lately. The last time my husband checked the hives he said that the 1 was acting a little aggressive but nothing that was a red flag for trouble. we just assumed that maybe they were just having an off day (if something had bothered the hive before he went out there it could explain them being a little grumpy) Normally my husband checks the hives regularly, but due to unforeseen circumstances, he had not been able to check them for a few weeks. I thank the stars that he was wearing his full bee suit and not just a face cover when he checked them yesterday. He opened and checked the other 2 hives first and both of them were fine and calm as usual, but as soon as he removed the lid on the 3rd hive they went nuts. More than a thousand bees flew out and attacked almost anything that moved. My husband was stung over a dozen times through his bee suit while he was getting away from there. The original queen for that hive did not survive our record breaking hot summer this year. We bought a new queen for that hive about 2 months ago. We now believe that she was not mated when we got her (she is from a docile strain of bees and was supposed to be mated with a male of the same type) We are in southern AZ so are in Africanized bee territory. We think that she may have mated with a wild bee once we got her instead, so her offspring were aggressive.
We had to wait until after dark to go back outside because the bees were everywhere outside the house.
My husband called someone that he knows, who has more bee experience than he does, for help and the 2 of them put down the rogue hive last night. (they used non toxic methods for removing the aggressive bees so as not to hurt our other hives) If the bees weren’t so aggressive we would have gotten another new queen for that hive and in 2-3 months (as the new queens offspring replaced the current bees) they would have been calm again. but we couldn’t wait that long. It was too much of a safety hazard having that hive around our home for even 1 more day.
It was awful. All we could do was watch in horror through a window as the chickens were attacked. the bees have never bothered the chickens before. When the sun went down and I was finally able to go outside and assess the damage it was heartbreaking. 6 of them ran away when it happened (they were roosted for the night about 2 acres away from their coop when we found them after dark) and only sustained a couple stings and are ok. The others were not so lucky. 3 were already dead and 6 were in very critical shape. The chickens that were alive but critical look like they are having muscle tremors. They are unable to stand and they shake uncontrollably if they try. Their eyes are swollen shut and they look like they are on deaths door. There are hundreds of stingers on their faces. I could barely see their skin. I scraped some of the stingers away but I didn’t want to stress them too much with the condition that they are already in. I crushed up some Benadryl and mixed it with water and gave them all a couple drops using a syringe then I put them back in the coop for the night.
This morning I checked on them and 1 didn’t survive the night. Out of the 5 others that im worried about 1 of them is now able to walk and has 1 of her eyes part way open. She is also drinking on her own. 3 of them are now able to stand but cannot walk (they shake and fall over if they try). Their eyes are swollen shut and they will not drink even if I put a cup of water in front of them. The last chicken is my bantam Cochin rooster. He is the worst out of the ones that are still alive. He still cannot even stand. His eyes are swollen shut and he just looks awful.
I used a syringe and gave everyone that wouldn’t drink on their own some water this morning before I left for work (im typing this message on my lunch break right now). Im afraid of what I am going to find when I get home this afternoon. I am crossing my fingers that they will improve during the day but im not going to hold my breath for it.
When I get home I plan on trying to get more stingers off of them if I can (it has to feel horrible having so many in their skin on their faces). And I plan on syringe feeding them mostly water with a little bit of food blended in for strength. Time will tell if they can recover but Is there anything else I can do for them? and ideas of how else i can help them are greatly appreciated. I feel just horrible about the entire thing.
On a brighter note, we have a rabbit and his hutch is only about 15-20 feet away from the bee hives (he is situated between the bee hives and the chicken coop). I was terrified of what I was going to find when I checked him last night but for whatever reason he was left completely untouched. Not one single sting anywhere on him. I was so happy when I saw that he was ok
1 of the 3 hives has been having trouble with a little bit of aggression lately. The last time my husband checked the hives he said that the 1 was acting a little aggressive but nothing that was a red flag for trouble. we just assumed that maybe they were just having an off day (if something had bothered the hive before he went out there it could explain them being a little grumpy) Normally my husband checks the hives regularly, but due to unforeseen circumstances, he had not been able to check them for a few weeks. I thank the stars that he was wearing his full bee suit and not just a face cover when he checked them yesterday. He opened and checked the other 2 hives first and both of them were fine and calm as usual, but as soon as he removed the lid on the 3rd hive they went nuts. More than a thousand bees flew out and attacked almost anything that moved. My husband was stung over a dozen times through his bee suit while he was getting away from there. The original queen for that hive did not survive our record breaking hot summer this year. We bought a new queen for that hive about 2 months ago. We now believe that she was not mated when we got her (she is from a docile strain of bees and was supposed to be mated with a male of the same type) We are in southern AZ so are in Africanized bee territory. We think that she may have mated with a wild bee once we got her instead, so her offspring were aggressive.
We had to wait until after dark to go back outside because the bees were everywhere outside the house.
My husband called someone that he knows, who has more bee experience than he does, for help and the 2 of them put down the rogue hive last night. (they used non toxic methods for removing the aggressive bees so as not to hurt our other hives) If the bees weren’t so aggressive we would have gotten another new queen for that hive and in 2-3 months (as the new queens offspring replaced the current bees) they would have been calm again. but we couldn’t wait that long. It was too much of a safety hazard having that hive around our home for even 1 more day.
It was awful. All we could do was watch in horror through a window as the chickens were attacked. the bees have never bothered the chickens before. When the sun went down and I was finally able to go outside and assess the damage it was heartbreaking. 6 of them ran away when it happened (they were roosted for the night about 2 acres away from their coop when we found them after dark) and only sustained a couple stings and are ok. The others were not so lucky. 3 were already dead and 6 were in very critical shape. The chickens that were alive but critical look like they are having muscle tremors. They are unable to stand and they shake uncontrollably if they try. Their eyes are swollen shut and they look like they are on deaths door. There are hundreds of stingers on their faces. I could barely see their skin. I scraped some of the stingers away but I didn’t want to stress them too much with the condition that they are already in. I crushed up some Benadryl and mixed it with water and gave them all a couple drops using a syringe then I put them back in the coop for the night.
This morning I checked on them and 1 didn’t survive the night. Out of the 5 others that im worried about 1 of them is now able to walk and has 1 of her eyes part way open. She is also drinking on her own. 3 of them are now able to stand but cannot walk (they shake and fall over if they try). Their eyes are swollen shut and they will not drink even if I put a cup of water in front of them. The last chicken is my bantam Cochin rooster. He is the worst out of the ones that are still alive. He still cannot even stand. His eyes are swollen shut and he just looks awful.
I used a syringe and gave everyone that wouldn’t drink on their own some water this morning before I left for work (im typing this message on my lunch break right now). Im afraid of what I am going to find when I get home this afternoon. I am crossing my fingers that they will improve during the day but im not going to hold my breath for it.
When I get home I plan on trying to get more stingers off of them if I can (it has to feel horrible having so many in their skin on their faces). And I plan on syringe feeding them mostly water with a little bit of food blended in for strength. Time will tell if they can recover but Is there anything else I can do for them? and ideas of how else i can help them are greatly appreciated. I feel just horrible about the entire thing.
On a brighter note, we have a rabbit and his hutch is only about 15-20 feet away from the bee hives (he is situated between the bee hives and the chicken coop). I was terrified of what I was going to find when I checked him last night but for whatever reason he was left completely untouched. Not one single sting anywhere on him. I was so happy when I saw that he was ok
