I finally got out to the Langstroth hives and am so amazed at the differences in the two hives. They say the gentleness of the hive is determined by the queen. I don't know but I have two identical hive in the same area, they came from the same supplier, both were nucs.
The hive on left I have named "Zen Bees". I took off the cover and popped the inner cover exposing the honey super. The bees said "hi" and went back to work. I took the top honey super off to see how they were doing on drawing comb out on the frames and they barely blinked.
The hive on the right from the beginning are "Bees with 'Tude" As I reached for the top cover, a guard bee came out to see what I thought I was doing. They are much further along than the Zen bees in getting ready to store honey for the winter. But they are much more insulted by my appearance, "what do you want" energy. Two decided to back me off by stinging my hand ( I had a really small reaction to them - Yippee- Apis homeopathy is working).
So it makes me lie in bed thinking of how I could force the Zen hive to make queen cells and put that queen into the 'Tude hive to see if it mellows them out. This is advanced bee care taking for me but I think I will start looking for classes on this.
I do know that next spring when hives are focused on swarming (the older bees and queen decide to leave the hive and find a new place to live, knowing that the young bees will make a new queen) which is bees' reproduction, I will force a swarm by splitting the Zen hive making a new hive and let the 'Tude hive swarm.
Other than adding new supers while they are busy creating honey to be stolen by me, there is not much to do with the Langstroth hives until July.
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