Genetics play a big role in temperament but there are other factors such as the size of the colony.... small colonies just setting up home are usually quite placid but can change once they get up to full strength in their second year. Time of year and weather conditions also play a part. My bees are placid most of the year but approaching swarming season they get tetchy especially once the queen has stopped laying and there are juvenile bees with no nursemaid duties. It seems like they get promoted to guard duties too quickly and are overly enthusiastic about it! Imagine giving teenage boys a gun and telling them they can be police for the day
Also bees are sensitive to barometric pressure, so an approaching storm/unsettled weather can make them grumpy.
Also, I do think that if you live closely with your bees they get to know you. My hives are all within 15 feet of my back door. They see me come and go every day. I almost always have my stable work clothes/jodhpurs on which smell of horses which bees are not supposed to like, but they don't bother me. I can hunker down in front of the entrances in these clothes and the bees take off and land straight over my head without looking at me. If I get a visitor to my apiary and we stand at the back door discussing the hives for more than a few minutes, a bee will come and check out the strangers, hovering in front of their face, usually inquisitive but sometimes menacing, which is slightly embarrassing.
Having had bad reactions to multiple stings in the face from someone else's hives (face swelled up and both eyes closed for 2 days) I now wear a beeproof suit for inspections but prefer to work with bare hands whenever possible, although I always have my gloves near by. I don't mind the odd sting in the hands and actually believe it is beneficial, but sometimes one sting can trigger other bees to attack and multiple stings in my hands/arms might become debilitating, so best to be on the safe side at least until you get to know your bees learn to read their mood.
The place most people forget to protect is their ankles, especially if they have trousers on as their feet are often below the level of the hive. I have had some of my worst reactions to stings in that area and again multiple stings can be very debilitating. Be particularly careful to avoid dark woolly socks, in fact dark woolly clothing in general. Make sure to tuck trousers into boots not over the top. Bees land and crawl upwards generally, so if they land on your foot and your trousers are not tucked in, it can be quite a distraction in the middle of an inspection to suddenly feel a tickle half way up your leg and no safe way to remove the culprit before it gets nipped and stings.
I would be particularly wary of harvesting honey without my suit as bees can smell honey from long distances and some honey cells always get broken in removing honey comb from the hive which releases the smell and can rapidly lead to robbing, especially if there is more than one colony in the vicinity and/or wasps/yellow jackets. Not having protective gear on when there is the potential for robbing to be triggered is a little cavalier in my opinion.
Also, I do think that if you live closely with your bees they get to know you. My hives are all within 15 feet of my back door. They see me come and go every day. I almost always have my stable work clothes/jodhpurs on which smell of horses which bees are not supposed to like, but they don't bother me. I can hunker down in front of the entrances in these clothes and the bees take off and land straight over my head without looking at me. If I get a visitor to my apiary and we stand at the back door discussing the hives for more than a few minutes, a bee will come and check out the strangers, hovering in front of their face, usually inquisitive but sometimes menacing, which is slightly embarrassing.
Having had bad reactions to multiple stings in the face from someone else's hives (face swelled up and both eyes closed for 2 days) I now wear a beeproof suit for inspections but prefer to work with bare hands whenever possible, although I always have my gloves near by. I don't mind the odd sting in the hands and actually believe it is beneficial, but sometimes one sting can trigger other bees to attack and multiple stings in my hands/arms might become debilitating, so best to be on the safe side at least until you get to know your bees learn to read their mood.
The place most people forget to protect is their ankles, especially if they have trousers on as their feet are often below the level of the hive. I have had some of my worst reactions to stings in that area and again multiple stings can be very debilitating. Be particularly careful to avoid dark woolly socks, in fact dark woolly clothing in general. Make sure to tuck trousers into boots not over the top. Bees land and crawl upwards generally, so if they land on your foot and your trousers are not tucked in, it can be quite a distraction in the middle of an inspection to suddenly feel a tickle half way up your leg and no safe way to remove the culprit before it gets nipped and stings.
I would be particularly wary of harvesting honey without my suit as bees can smell honey from long distances and some honey cells always get broken in removing honey comb from the hive which releases the smell and can rapidly lead to robbing, especially if there is more than one colony in the vicinity and/or wasps/yellow jackets. Not having protective gear on when there is the potential for robbing to be triggered is a little cavalier in my opinion.
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