Or, how I nearly peed my pants on a morning when we’re already running late.
If you’re a regular reader of this blog (and who wouldn’t be, there’s not a six month period that goes by in which we don’t post), you’ve probably noticed that we haven’t said much about the bees recently. There’s a good reason for this lapse, sometime late last summer, the colony went from this cool group of hive insects living in our backyard, to a terrifying rage machine, bent on destroying those who would disturb their work. Walking near the hive, you could hear their normal buzzing go from “we’re working productively” to “don’t even think about it.” Not a problem, we just let them hang over the winter, periodically fed them and went on with our lives.
Now spring is here and we felt something of a moral obligation to check on the colony and see if they need more space, bettle control, mite treatments, etc. Step one in this process, order the fully protective bee suits (I’ll post some pictures tonight). The bee suits arrived last Monday and we immediately set them aside because the week was a mess and we would prefer to deal with the hive when most of the colony is out foraging.
Fast forward to Saturday, we suited up, put on the glove, found the smoker, grabbed the hive tool and boldly went forth to check the state of the colony. We lit the smoker, gave them a few puffs and then opened the top to expose the feeder. All of the sugar water is gone, but there aren’t any hive beetles. So far, so good. Using our hive tool, we pried the feeder off of the 3rd box (the medium sized, honey collecting, “super”) and there were bees all over the place. The 3rd box was about 80-90% full [most (all?) of that seemed to be honey storage which suggests that we have as much as 25-30# of honey and that’s before the main nectar flow in the area]. It was too late to go to the bee store (yes, there is such a thing) and the store is closed on Sunday. A quick trip out during lunch on Monday and I’ve got two new boxes worth of frames.
Monday night, we were tied up, so last night, we did an emergency assembly/painting of the two boxes and ten frames. This morning, the paint had dried and I thought that I would take a quick trip out and remove the feeder, replacing it with the new box and a new inner hive cover. My first thought was, no suit – I don’t need a suit to make a simple switch like that, we’ve been in and out of the hive (outer cover!) for months without suits. Jill suggested a suit. Fine – suit.
But we were in a hurry, so I didn’t bring the hive tool, I didn’t put on gloves and I didn’t use the smoker.
For the record, the bees were very unhappy with me. Twice, they darted from the hive, right at my face. After the first of these dive bombing runs, I went back over near the house where Jill strongly suggested gloves. Okay, gloves would be good.
Went back, was dive bombed again. Finished up putting the new medium super on the hive, closed up shop and went back in.
So, this brings me to my new rules for interacting with the hive:
- Thou shalt always wear thine bee suit when working with the hive.
- Thou shalt put on the full bee suit, including the gloves.
- Thine smoker is given to thee as a blessing from heaven, use it. Always.
- Thou shalt not leave thine hive tool in the house.
- The middle of the day is a holy work time for bees, always visit the hive when they hast left.
By keeping these commandments, I hope not to have to rush to the hospital with a few hundred bee stings.