Another Buzzy Day
Inspecting bee hives is part of being a responsible beekeeper. Unfortunately the best time of day to accomplish this task is mid-day—a lot of the bees are out gathering nectar and therefore–not at home. I wear a full suit, leather shoes, gloves and come equipped with a lit smoker and a wagon full of boxes and empty frames.
I now have four active hives–the original from a friend who did a removal on an old lady’s house, a hive from my class–the mean girls–gosh they are mean–they follow me around and pop at my gloves and veil—then there are two new hives with Winnie queens–nice and easy going bees.
Hive Four was first–the single box was FULL of bees–so added a second story–easy peasy.
Hive Three must be lazy girls as there didn’t seem to be much more done than 10 days ago.
Hive One had a lot of bees on the outside–were they thinking of swarming? Not sure–but took two frames of capped brood to put in a nuc (baby Hive) to give that lovely lady queen more room.
The Nuc I had split from Hive 2 was a no-go–and I can’t say I was sorry–that queen and her bevy of girls are just plain mean. So I put the two frames of capped brood in, closed the door allowing ventilation and put it on the picnic table.
Then I gathered up my courage and ventured into Hive Two. It has two deep boxes which are supposed to be the brood chambers-where all the eggs and baby bees are—but those mean girls were storing honey in there–lots and lots of honey–but only one frame was capped. Took that frame out, replaced with an empty frame.
Those mean girls were not happy I stole their honey–I had to walk around the yard for about fifteen minutes in my beesuit with them popping me periodically–mostly on my gloves. I’m sure the passing cars and trucks wondered what was going on.
Then I came home, processed that cut-comb into boxes–it’s easier to do when everything is warm. Also managed to strain some honey into the honey bucket. There is wax to be processed using the cute little crockpot–and maybe some batiking to happen next weekend.
All of this sounds quite technical–and no doubt indicates some of my level of understanding of how hives work–and probably more than anyone really wants to know about bees.
However, I find them infinitely fascinating–to watch, to see the various personalities of each hive. And there’s just something wonderful about fresh bread topped with fresh cut-comb honey.
Sylvia Weir Art 