I just got done with my hive inspection for the day, and it pretty much turned into a disaster at the end.
After lifting the roof off of the hive, I spotted 4 SHB scurrying around and killed them before they could escape (but this was not the bad part). I started lifting bars up on the far right end to see how much progress they had made and if I needed to expand the hive out. All of the bars were full of comb, so I took out the follower board on the right and added 3 more bars. Then I had to shift all of the comb to the left and move a couple of the empty bars from that side over to the right. I found a good sized clump of drone cells on the far left of the hive and no queen cells... very glad to not have queen cells. I saw the queen a couple of times as I pulled the bars out since she was moving around among them. The disaster happened when I got to the last 2 or 3 bars that they had built comb on. They had comb built slanted across the joint of 2 bars, and when I pulled the first one out, the comb that was partially attached slowly detached and folded over into the bottom of the hive. Not only were there casualties from bees getting crushed, but the entire comb was filled with capped brood. It was extremely upsetting for me and the bees. I then had to reach my (thankfully gloved) hand down into the hive and retrieve it with no choice but to destroy the comb. Had it been honey, I could have just harvested it and not felt so horrible about it. I then put the comb into a bowl and had to cut it out in small chunks and walk away with it because every time I tried to brush them off, they landed right back on it again. After I finally finished all of that up and replacing the empty bars and putting the cloth back on top, I was getting ready to walk away and one of the workers crawled up my pant leg and stung me on my ankle.
They now have access to a 3rd entrance hole to the hive, and about 6 more bars to build comb on before I have to think about possibly splitting the hive. I sure wish this inspection had gone better! *sigh* Rough day in the bee yard today ='(
So sorry to hear you had such a bad day with your hive and hope the sting won't make it hard for your coming trip. I couldn't even imagine doing what you are doing but I sure could imagine eating the profits and I am sure it would do wonders for my allergies if they were my bees. Lets hope that tomorrow will be a better day for you and your bees.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Kristan. As a new beekeeper, I know that I will have bad days and things will sometimes go very wrong. I'm learning things from them all of the time, and I have seen a phenomenal difference in my garden pollination since I got them.
ReplyDeleteThey were extra-defensive today, not that I can say I blame them. I had to go put the roof back on the hive since I didn't yesterday because the bees were just covering it and already agitated. I have heard that local honey is good for allergies also but haven't really been allergic to anything to be able to tell. I did my hive inspection last weekend as opposed to later in the week so that the stings wouldn't affect my vacation. Everything is usually back to normal in about 4 days, so I should be fine =)