Andrea's Bees: Do not get cocky with the bees.

Oct 23, 2011

All I wanted was to change the size of the upper entrance for the bees!

I have been reading a book by a beekeeper who doesn't use any chemicals on his bees. His hives only have top entrances rather than bottom entrances and his theories made sense to me. He has read enough and seen enough to believe that there is less issue with mould and condensation with the ventilation through the top of the hive. So I wished to follow suit.

On Sunday, I decided that I would take the top off Hippolyta, replace it with a temporary top and cut the opening bigger, or rather, get Bill to cut the opening bigger. Before I go on, let me describe what I was wearing...remember I said that black and red are not good colours since bees see them as colours of their predators, especially if they are fuzzy? Need I say more? I was wearing black fleece pants and a black fleece jacket. I was not wearing any protective gear. I did not light the smoker. The only smart thing I did was in not asking Bill to take pictures. So there are no embarrassing photos of what happened next.

I blithely used my hive tool to pop open the top of Hippolyta. There were a lot of bees under the lid and some of them were looking at me. I ignored these warning signs and shook the many bees to the ground in front of the hive. I had barely placed the new top on the hive when I realized that the bees were entirely unhappy with me. I had bees in my hair and was being dive bombed. I ran. I ran towards Bill and the house. Olive ran with me, snapping at the bees. I was shaking my head and I hate to admit it, I was yelling like a baby. Of course the bees got scared too and by the time I was done, I was stung about 4 or 5 times on the top of my head. Ouch! Bill brought me a comb to comb them out and try to get the stingers out.

Of course when I went back with the newly cut top for Hippolyta, I was completely protected. When I went to Queen Elizabeth I she didn't have any bees under the lid and had no interest in me at all. Doesn't that just figure? I switched out the top and now both hives have longer top entrances. I put in a smaller reducer in the bottom of each. They can spend the next week getting used to the top opening before I close the bottom entrance entirely.

The moral of this story is "Do not underestimate the bees"! I had decided that my bees were gentle and calm but that was in the summer when they had lots of forage around, not in the fall when they are busy kicking out the males and readying for a long winter. Just like us, they are cranky as the sunny days leave us. Lesson learned.

It is fall, so I will leave you with some images of autumn in my garden.