The wrath of the bees (or how this beekeeper is so annoying to her bees)
or, How bees are NOT pets...
or, My bees don't love me...
It's not personal. It really isn't. Bees evolved to protect their hive and I'm inclined to think that anyone who says that their bees are so calm that they can be worked (during brood-building season) without protective clothing are liars. I believe that if they have something worth protecting, they will fight to protect it. So, a healthy hive would guard its brood with its life. At least that what I tell myself to make me feel better, because today I experienced that fight.
I had peeked through the observation window yesterday evening and saw this:
Those are combs #11 and #10, and you can see that they are not being built along the guide! (FYI, comb #11 is underneath the mass of bees in the center of the photo.)
Crap! There I was, thinking that my bees are so good because they have been building perfectly placed comb, and now this! I was stressed out because I needed to fix it but I didn't know how. My mind raced with questions:
HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?
All the other combs were built along the guide, so how did this happen? Well, I found out after opening the hive that comb #4 had a very very very slight offset to one side of the guide, comb #5 was offset just a smidgen more than #4, and so on, until the compounded effect of all the offsets resulted in what you see in the photo. This suggests that the bars are wider than the width of the comb. If the bees build combs of the same width with the same space between them, this difference between the width of the bar and the width of the comb would lead to this problem!
Michael Bush has said that the brood comb bars should be 1.375" whereas the honey comb bars should be 1.5". When I bought the wood for the bars, it had said that they were 1.375" but when I measured them (foolishly after I already finished making the bars), they turned out to be 1.5". I didn't think that would be a problem, but perhaps it is!
IS IT A PROBLEM?
That is the million-dollar question. From the perspective of the bees, there is no problem. Everything is great. They are building up fast, drawing comb, rearing brood, bringing in tons of pollen and nectar. They don't care if they're not building the comb right on the comb guide. It's their dumb beekeeper that didn't think to measure the bars before she cut them in the first place.
Even for me, the dumb beekeeper, it's not really a problem. I just won't be able to take out the combs that are attached to two bars instead of just one. But still, I stressed and groaned and wallowed in dread because the bees weren't doing what I wanted them to. It's not a problem, but I should fix it so that the offset does not propagate to future comb.
HOW DO I FIX IT?
My first thought was to insert bars #10 and #11 in between the combs that are fully drawn out and properly aligned. This, I think, is the best solution and I'll explain why later.
In my stressed out mood, I didn't listen to my instincts, but started to look online for how to fix wonky comb. I found one method that I really liked, which is basically to attach a hairclip to the bar and attach the comb to the hairclip. Once the bees build out the comb and attach it to the rest of the bar, then you can cut out the hairclip. Genius! However, I was not sure if my bees' comb is strong enough to be gripped by the hairclip.
So, I emailed Michael Bush, Alan Hawkins, and my beekeeper friends. They all replied me promptly with a lot of good advice and feedback. (By the way, I am glad to have such a supportive and responsive network of beekeepers that I can turn to in times like this!) Michael warned that new comb is really soft, which means the hairclip method will not work. He gave really good advice, which I only now realize how that ties in to my first thought, and also why what I ended up doing today was a mistake. He said that the most important thing was that the comb next to the one that the bees are starting to build has to be good comb (i.e. fully drawn and on the center of the guide). Good comb will lead to good comb.
He also suggested that if I wanted to cut out the comb and re-attach it to the bar, the best thing is to construct a frame, sort of like a device to sandwich the comb between two sets of wires (like a grilled-cheese-sandwich clamp). I decided that I would do that, but before I made the frame, I would check to see exactly how badly offset the combs were. I'm an engineer, and I can't devise a fix without knowing the details of the problem.
THE WRATH.....
So, I suited up to open the hive at around 9:30am, much earlier than the past few times I opened the hive. I even wore gloves because handling the lid bare-skinned always gave me splinters. Boy was I glad I had my gloves on! The bees were testy. I took out bar #11 and saw that it was attached only to one side of the guide. The same was true for bar #10. Bar #9 also was quite badly offset. There were eggs in #10 and capped brood in #9, so I couldn't just cut the comb off and dispose of them. I wanted to see how far back the problem started, so I looked at #8 and #7.
By that time, the bees were pissed. Every time the shadow of my hands crossed the bars as I went to pick up another bar, guard bees flew at me, buzzing into my gloves, smacking into my veil, and generally throwing themselves at me (not in a good way though). I heard a continuous droning sound coming from the hive that I hadn't heard before, like an small airplane off in the distance. It was an intruder alarm! Or maybe a call to arms. Either way, I could tell that things were going to get ugly. Sure enough, the next move I made, bees came at me in droves.
I quickly moved a few feet away from the hive. I wasn't stung, but it was not for the lack of the bees trying. I was upset that they would do that to me, their loving beekeeper who spent countless hours making their hive, thinking about them, worrying about them, and even waking up in the middle of the night to put down the lid so they don't get too cold. I learned an important lesson today: BEES ARE NOT PETS. They don't form emotional attachments to their keepers. One day they let you handle their combs without gloves or veil and the next day they try to kill you. It's also very likely that these are newborn bees (it's been more than 20 days since I saw eggs in the hive) and they are probably thinking, "Who the f*** are you?" All the surprised looks I got when I told my friends I wanted to start beekeeping were for situations like this. Beekeeping is not a hobby for the timid.
I went back and tried to close up the hive but again the bees flew at me. The droning sound was gone, but they were still vigilant. I learned a second lesson which was: Make sure there is only ONE gap open. I had 4 or 5 gaps between the bars open, which made it easier for more of them to attack me. There was no way I could close the hive without making them madder. So, I enlisted the help of the smoker.
I hadn't used the smoker for the hive inspections ever since I couldn't light it up properly. Luckily I had since then watched a youtube video on how to light a smoker and I was able to quickly light it. Even with the smoker, the bees flew at me. There were less of them, so the smoker helped. I was able to close the hive and place the lid back on.
By then I was really upset and terrified. Just before I finally closed the hive, a bee flew at me, landed on my glove, stung the glove, and killed herself when she flew off and ripped her abdomen. The tiny muscle attached to the stinger (which was attached to my glove) continued to pulse even 5 minutes after it was detached from the bee.
I fretted about what to do and why the bees are so mean to me for a good few hours after that while I ran some errands. I called my beekeeper friend and we discussed the options. He hasn't had any luck detaching and re-attaching comb because its just too soft to handle. After talking for a while, I decided that I would try to encourage the bees to build the comb properly by flipping #10 and #8 around so that the bulging sides faced the adjacent bars. At around 3pm, I started up the smoker, suited up, and proceeded to flip the bars. (I forgot to mention that during the first hive opening, I placed #12 in between #4 and #5, with hopes that they will build a good comb on it using #4 and #5 as a guide.)
Even during the peak of the day, the bees were still very defensive. This time, I made sure to leave only one gap open at any time. I made flipped the two bars 180 degrees, closed the hive, and sighed with relief. No more angry bees for me today.
Now, though, I think I made a mistake. There's now no room whatsoever between #11 and #10, too much room between #10 and #9, and also no room between #9 and #8. The problem is that the bees looked like they were going to start some new comb in the ample room between #10 and #9. I think the better fix (without cutting off the comb) is this:
1) Put #11 in between #8 and #7.
2) Put #10 in between #7 and #6.
3) Put #9 in between #6 and #5.
4) Flip #8 around so that the slight offset is in the opposite direction.
I think this is a better fix because there won't be too much room between the bars to encourage the bees to build new comb there. Tomorrow, I need to fix my fix before the bees draw new comb between #10 and #9. I should stop being an annoying beekeeper and then maybe the bees will stop stinging me......