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Hoping this is the closest I’ll get to a bee sting again.

The new owners were finally able to take the bees away on Monday and I couldn’t help going to the allotment the next morning to have a nosy at how things had been left. All fine, just a handful of bees were hanging around. One flew into my hair and, when I flicked it out, got caught in the folds of my sleeve and stung, not reaching me thankfully but my heart was racing. Needless to say I didn’t hang around for long! I filmed the sting pumping venom into my sleeve and ‘steadied’ the camera against my chest but my heart was pounding so not very steady at all!

The bees are bearding less but still haven’t gone (I’ve lost count how many visits we’ve made to the allotment to try and shift them). Last night, everything seemed to be sealed up but they were still pouring out of somewhere so the new owners wondered whether there is a hole in the floor (I'm pretty sure there isn't, maybe there's a gap somewhere). Today I’ve lent the new owners my allotment key so they can go during the day (it’s not raining for a change) and without me having to hang around. Their plan is to deconstruct the hive while all the flying bees are out working and reconstruct it from the bottom up, with a good floor, transferring the bees and sealing it up as they go. Then they should be sure that there are no holes or gaps and can strap them up later once all the flying bees are back home. And TAKE THEM AWAY!!! Fingers crossed.

Worse today. Bearding: 'The conditions that lead to bearding are high temperatures, high humidity, over-crowding, lack of ventilation or some combination of those factors. The bees form beards in an effort to keep the brood nest from becoming overheated'.* We're going to try putting another super on for more space and hope that they feel lees crowded/overheated and go inside! * http://honeybeesuite.com/bearding-is-often-confused-with-swarming/

The girls were supposed to move off the allotment today to go and live with a lovely couple of beekeepers a few miles away. Of course, being the girls, they didn't want to go to bed and be closed up for the move so the new owners have to come back later in the evening tomorrow to try again. Mind you, this photo was at 9pm this evening so we might still have to persuade them. Perhaps the forecast rain will encourage them to stay indoors.

Giving up Beekeeping

So I’m not keeping bees any more after another bad bee sting reaction.

After my optimism following the first inspection I had another inspection which also went well and I prepared a hive ready to split my colony and introduce a new queen to the new colony. I ordered the queen (from here http://www.britishhoneyproducersltd.com/Queen_bees.html ) a while back and recently had a phone call confirming that she was ready and would arrive on 1 June. However, Peter and I went to do two things on Monday: 1, take 3 supers of honey off the hive and 2, perform the split ready to receive the queen. After prying the third super off, the bees were pretty angry and starting to sting so we went for a breather outside the apiary but it was too late because a clinging bee stung my forehead through my veil. With my new found beekeeping optimism I had complacently left my antihistamines at home so we dithered about what to do for a minute or so but I began to feel very unwell so we abandoned everything and drove home. I took two of the one a day tablets as advised by the doctor last time I had a bad reaction. Peter was really worried as I got worse and called an ambulance which came within a few minutes. The chap checked me over and monitored me for a while and was happy that my airways weren’t blocked. The antihistamines must have stopped me throwing up this time although I felt very nauseous. I started to feel better while the ambulance man was there though the itching kicked in and he gave me a shot of antihistamine which really helped reduce it along with the redness and hives. He advised getting a check up at the doctors the next day and discussing an epipen. Last time I went, the doctor didn’t seem that bothered and didn’t think an epipen was necessary so I didn’t go this time. But the doctor phoned today and after a discussion we agreed an epipen is not necessary but I should carry antihistamines, take a double dose if I’m stung and call an ambulance if worried. I’d have to have medical attention after administering an epipen anyway. I won’t post a photo of the swelling but suffice it to say that I looked a bit like the elephant man. It is improving now though. I’ll be selling the bees and all my bee equipment as soon as I’ve itemised what I’ve got.

First inspection 2016

I went to look at the bees for the first time on Sunday 8 May with Dad. Its been so cold I hadn’t wanted to open them up before but it was a lovely hot weekend.

I was apprehensively prepared to deal with the aggressive bees that I had left before the winter but to my surprise, relief and delight, they were absolutely fine. Dad and I were able to open everything up, take out the brace comb that they had built in the gap I had left for the Apiguard and go through the whole brood box. We didn’t really go in looking for anything other than queen cells, of which there were none, just a couple of cups. Other people at the CBKA talks, on the Facebook page and at the Wandlebury apiary sessions have talked about their bees swarming like mad but mine showed no real sign of it. I will feel much more willing to check them again soon to head off any swarming activity since their attitude change.

My theory on the attitude change: The queen mates with several drones on her mating flight, I think she used the semen from an aggressive drone to fertilise her eggs last year when I had so much trouble with them, ran out of it over the winter and started using semen from a nice drone to make the current nice bees this year. Just a theory.

Still alive

Everything I read about bees at the moment says heft your hives now and feed them if they feel light. The warm winter means they have been flying more than they should at this time of year and will have eaten more of their supplies so could be running out. So I finally had a look today to see if they were still alive, armed with some fondant in case they were. Surprisingly, they have survived my neglect and the winter so far. Still as grumpy as ever, they flew up when I started removing hive parts so I only had a quick look at the super of honey that I thought would keep them fed (still looked full from the top), and put the fondant in before closing up. The bees went to it straight away - curiosity or hunger?

To prevent bees and wasps invading the bee shed again I have tried to fill in the many gaps in it. It is now built mostly of expanding foam.

I had been looking for an alternative to porter bee escapes since I had had little luck getting them to work. I found these 8 way bee escapes http://www.dave-cushman.net/bee/8wayescapebd.html and asked on the CBKA facebook page whether people had had any experience with them. I had a positive response so ordered 2 from Amazon.

On 16 August Dad and I went to put the new bee escape onto the hive, except that I forgot to take the device to the allotment with us so we ended up putting 2 porter bee escapes on anyway. I went back with Peter 24 hours later and surprise surprise, the porters hadn’t worked but, in anticipation, I had remembered the new bee escape this time so screwed it onto a crown board and put it under the supers. Reports have said that they can work in around 2 hours so we went back around 2 hours later but disappointingly there were still loads of bees in the supers. People had said not to leave it on too long otherwise the bees learn how to get back up the paths so we went back 24 hours later. Although there were still quite a lot of bees, it looked as though there were fewer than yesterday so, because we were fed up of coming and going we took the supers off anyway, took them out of the bee enclosure and shook the remaining bees off each frame in front of the hive individually. They were pretty good natured about being shaken off this time and soon we had 2 bee-less supers to take home. I put in a pack of Apiguard at the same time. There were about 10kilos of honey again. The jars are full of jam so the honey is sitting in the honey bucket.

I put the supers back on the hive the other day; this month’s issue of BBKA News says to put supers for cleaning above the crown board so I did. I should have realised that I needed 2 crown boards and that I needed to put one on the top of the stack as well because when I went to the allotment later there was a frenzy of activity all around the hive, presumably lots of robbing going on. So, I got the bee suit on again and put a second crown board on. The frenzy died down a bit during the evening but looking again today the ground at the hive entrance is covered in dead bees, and wasps. I need to put an entrance block in to narrow it and help them defend the opening to the hive.

Wasp Killer

I borrowed a suit from the CBKA and investigated the wasps with Dad on Saturday. There is indeed a small nest which we sprayed with wasp foam. I went back today, got my bee suit out and sprayed them again as well as breaking into the bin liner the nest was on in which I'd kept some grotty brood comb, I think to use as fire lighters. Not only was it crawling with wax moth grubs but the wasps had used some of the comb in their nest. It's allotment bonfire day so I broke it up a bit (still in the bee suit) and put it in the burner ready for a bonfire later. I also looked at Hive 2 which, as I suspected, is dead and empty. Hive 1 looks like it's full of honey. Even though the top super wasn't completely full it was too heavy to lift so will have to go back with Peter.

Wasps

A bunch of wasps has moved into the bee shed. Where I keep my bee suit. Time to borrow a suit again to investigate, sigh. 😣

Flipping pesky bees, I do not like them. I wasn't even beekeeping, just walking around the allotment on Saturday when it jumped on my ankle & got me. Sting out straight away and it's still blown up like a tree trunk. At least I can walk on it somewhat now.

Bee-ing Brave

I finally went and checked the dreaded bees on Wednesday, the hottest day this year. Long sleeves and long trousers to stop stings getting through the bee suit and Peter as moral support. My glasses fell off my nose into my veil towards the end from sweating so much! I refused to be distracted by the heavy supers full of honey in Hive 1 because I haven’t checked the brood since the split in May. I was pretty jittery, took it really gently, slowly and although they flew up if I leant over them too much and were very nosey, they didn’t sting. There were loads of bees, eggs, grubs and capped brood and it all looked healthy, no dodgy looking brood or deformed wings on the bees so I left them to it. Hive 2 is still a very small colony. I had left it with the three queen cells from the original colony in case I’d damaged any of them as I hadn’t been very careful with them. But, they had also made their own emergency queen cells which I think had been occupied and were now empty. There was absolutely no brood and they were filling the brood chamber with nectar. Will check them again soon to see whether there was a virgin queen in there who I couldn’t see. If there was, hopefully she will mate and start laying soon.

I put one super full of frames that I’d extracted honey from onto Hive 1 for them to clean out and fill with stores. There was another super with only a couple of frames that had been extracted that I topped up with frames of foundation and also put on Hive 1 so I think it’s now got 4 supers on it!

Honey

10KG of honey from one super. Still not worth it.

Borrowed Bob’s bee suit to check on the bees. Thankfully, they haven’t actually moved into the shed but were robbing what was left of some honey in the frames I am storing there. I had failed to take anything with me that I could block the holes the bees were getting in with so I just moved the super out hoping the bees would follow it.

Then I went to check on hive one which should have the original queen and hive two which should have the new queen. I got distracted in hive one by all the honey in the bottom super. I haven’t got a bee brush so shook the bees off which, I should have learned from last time, they DO. NOT. LIKE. They have some very bad habits that I think they have learned from the horrid bees, you know, stinging every part of the suit & gloves, flying up if you dare put a finger near the hive, following you up the allotment when you try to run away etc. I think they will need re-queening as well. Two stings got through the canvass part of the gloves so I took two antihistamine tablets got the rest of the honey, replacing the frames with drawn comb, put it all back together and ran away. Bob needed his suit back anyway so I had a good excuse to leave. I didn’t get to look in the brood box of either hive, thunder storms are due in next couple of days so don’t know when I’ll get to do it. I was ready to jack it all in there & then. I’m waiting to see what sort of reaction I have, if any, to these two stings before deciding anything. So far no redness, lumpiness, shakiness. Just a little nausea, so, we'll see.

On the plus side, here is some of the first honey of the year.

Interesting development with the bees this evening. I haven’t checked them yet after the swarm control procedure. When I went this evening, they seemed to have relocated themselves anyway. Into my bee shed. Where I keep my bee suit. I’ll have to borrow someone’s bee suit and see what I can do about it. 😣

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