Friday, May 11, 2012

Anticlimax

Back to the scene of the other day's little excitement.

Here's the drone comb I'd cut out the other day. it's sad for the drones-to-be, but good for the hive. Two frames' worth of space opens up, the bees will draw new comb which gives them something to do (besides harassing innocent beekeepers) and the Varroa mites which might be hatching in their cells are taken away. The other day the nurse bees were all over the comb, but they had gone home to the hive by today.


But still. . . were they going to be benign as I moved closer to the hives? This hive is behind a curtain of trees, and I peeked carefully. Notice my toes-to-head suiting? I even used different gloves because they smelled differently.

 

The box of honey I left waiting for me.


Any bees?


And then I remembered I left my smoker by the hive. Anything else?


Are there really no bees in the box?


Really?


Sarafina was still keeping her distance, because she didn't believe me that there weren't any bees. She had seen my face.


But there weren't any bees. The honey box got settled in the car, No bees were harmed or bothered, and today I got about two gallons of honey for my buddy. A good day all around.


The real test will be replacing the box onto the hive1

5 comments:

Curbstone Valley Farm said...

I'm sorry about the stings. Mr. CV has had more than his share this season too. Although, you do at least have a honey harvest to show for it. Two of our largest colonies swarmed this season, despite splitting them in late winter/early spring, and took most of the honey with them :( Sometimes beekeeping isn't as easy as it might look! Enjoy your honey though, I hope it tastes that much sweeter.

Stefaneener said...

CVS, that's no fun. I had been telling myself that splitting next spring would fix everything. I still have the swarm bunches, so I guess I could try to recombine. I wonder what the harvest if any will be like this year.

Erin said...

I love the bee posts! :)

Ribbit said...

I'm so sorry for the trouble, but I love the bee posts!

Stefaneener said...

Erin, they're for you! I keep trying to get better pictures. I need a head-mounted video camera.

Ribbit, there should be lots. Today I need to do more bee stuff.