and they take their "orders", if you will, from the queen.

A new non-africanized queen would go a long way to first calming down the hive via the release of her pheromones.

once accepted, usually in about 3 to 5 days, the queen then starts producing new offspring.

Any larva that is still in gestation will hatch but their aggressive-ness will be greatly stunted via the new Queens pheromones.

After about 3 weeks, the hive is pretty much completely normal and can be contained.

The very basic difference between Italian or American bee and Africanized bees is pretty simple.

When a ordinary hive is disturbed by an outside source, several guard bees come out to harass the intruder. They only sting as a last resort, because the bees actually know they will die if they do.

With an Africanized hive, instead of only a few bees to come out to harass the intruder, just about the whole hive warms and attacks. That's the difference.

Most bees even Africanized bees won't attack you unless you screw with the hive. They must perceive you as a threat. Just walking within 5 feet of a hive won't do a thing. If you kick the hive, poke the hive, shake the hive or do anything physical with the hive in a violent manner any bee will get pissed but Africanized bees get really pissed.

Regular bees are pretty docile. I can walk right up to my hive and observe them with out any problems. Bees will come out and check me out, but that's about it. I only suit up when I'm opening up the hive and use smoke when I have to inspect the frames. They take that as threat, rightly so.

I'm a bee geek. LOL