Andrew's Bee Blog

Spring Maintenance & Sting #2

Andrew — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 00:33:21 +0000

We went out this afternoon and did some maintenance on the hive. The lower super was splitting apart so we decided to replace it. While we were doing that Dad and I reversed the top and lower supers. During the winter, the bees move up into the upper super near the honey. But in the spring you want them to be in the bottom supper to move upward. The girls were not happy with me swapping out the supers and were very aggressive. We only have the lightweight veils and those pesky bees found a way inside. I got stung right below my left eye. we were still in the middle of working on the hive and had to finish before I could address the sting. However it didnt’ prevent me from running away from the hive screaming like a girl (it was a little embarrassing). Anyway, we got the hive finished and went inside. Dad pulled the stinger out and I took some Benadryl and also put some Benadryl ointment below my eye on the sting. A little ice and I feel alright. The girls should be settled now, but I think I am going to buy a real bee suit with a zip on veil that they can’t sneak under.

Stung!

Andrew — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 23:48:17 +0000

Dad got out today to have a look at the swarm hive. It was a beautiful day outside, at least 60 degrees. He was wearing the gloves and veil/hat, but when he opened the hive, the bees were a bit aggresive and one them stung him through his shirt. He put on a jacket.

We are going to start feeding the hive with sugar syrup. This will give them a little boost until spring arrives and the nectur flow is on. We are glad to see the hive is doing well and lasted over winter.

Absconded

Emmy — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 19:17:57 +0000

ABSCONDED!!!

The Package Hive got up and left. Can you believe it, it was late September and they got up and left. Emmy called me and said that there were quite a few wasps flying into the hive. I thought this weird, but considered them just looking for food. Dad went down to check it out, as I was at work, and what do you know, they left. Not sure why, the hive looked very healthy.

Emmy and Will want to get on the swarm list at Jones Bees. The Swarm Hive has done very well, and was easy to capture. Maybe they can do the same.

From Emmy-

I was devistated when the bees left. I was mowing the lawn during the last week in September. I always like to check out the bees when I mow past the hive. I knew something was wrong when I kept seeing wasps fly into the hive and there weren’t any bees to stop them. I stopped mowing and watched for about five minutes. I saw a few bees drinking water nearby, but they never went into the hive. I saw wasp after wasp fly into the box. I wanted to look into the hive to see what was going on, but I didn’t have the equipment to look. Everything was up at my dad’s. Andrew couldn’t make it because of work, so my dad came down. Sure enough the bees were gone and so was their honey. We were so sad. They were doing so well. We were really looking forward to having a strong group of bees for the next year. Now we have to start back from square one.

I just called Jones Bee Company and am getting some more Italian Honey Bees this April. They will be here on the 18th. We are really excited to have them again. Our yard last year was amazing. We had more flowers, fruit, and vegetables. I neighbors loved them too.