Why do honey bees start stinging all the sudden?

Question

Does anyone know why a hive of honey bees suddenly turn mean and sting everyone?

Answer 1

They sting when they feel threatened. It is the hives method of defending itself from predators. Lots of animals like honey besides humans, so it is necessary to be able to drive them away or the hive would be ripped into and the hive would not survive.

Now if you are talking about a hive of bees that has been in one spot for awhile and never been bad about stinging, and it suddenly gets to be one that gets all riled up and stings for what you think is very little reason, then it may mean that there is a new queen in the hive. She is the mother of the bees and for many years beekeepers have been selecting bees that are gentle (don't sting much) for breeding. When an old queen is replaced by a new virgin queen (offspring of the old queen) the virgin queen goes out of the hive and mates with maybe a male bee ( a drone) from other hives. The eggs that she then lay are offspring of her and him. If he carries genes that make his offspring more easily riled up, then within a month or so of the new queen beginning to lay, the hive will change from one that is usually calm and easy to be around to one that can be a terror.

Answer 2

Only to protect themselves...

Answer 3

to protect their hive and their larvae that are going to be a bee but if you were a bee and you sting someone thats a last resort and will die or will be closer to dting after the bee stings you

Answer 4

The African Bee(killer bees) are taking over.

They're much more agressive than other species, so are starting to thrive big time here in North America. The northern part of America, like canada are experiencing Warmer Summers, so it won't be long until they're here too.

...perhaps it's because of the lack of food. They're desperate. They might feel a need to be competitive and gaurd what is theirs at all costs.

Cellphones are known to disturb them. Also Tractors, cars and motorised vehicles. They don't like the vibrations that they send through the air. It disturbs them.

Once you kill one,...they'll all come after you. A dead one leaves a sent that warns all the others.

Answer 5

As Cowboy stated it is a lot to do with pheromones when they are disturbed or damaged. Those chemical signals are what cause hive reactions, good, bad, directions, defense, everything. With the defense pheromone though, it is further triggered to stinging by the presence of CO2, the breath of an enemy! Especially animals. The breath if close, or if increased threw fear it is sensed and you get the snot stung out of you when their added "attack" signal is picked up by the angry hoards. They are reasonable inactive at night and I think that is part of the "smoking" process to calm them while the bee keeper works the hive. The smoke may mimic diminished light, but a real bee keeper knows about smoking the hive and not getting them stinging, even though you are in their home.

Answer 6

Bees sting to protect their hive. Something threatened them and made them feel like the hive was under attack. Someone could have accidentally mashed a bee, maybe not ever knowing it stepped on one. They give off a pheromone that lets the other bees know they are threatened, so they sting whatever is near. Some bees are just naturally more aggressive, while others are not so fast to sting.