Multiple Stings, Tut Tut

I think I have upward of 20 or so stings this past few days- nothing to be proud about, but sort of an indication of how feisty my hives are right now-and how I didn't quite protect myself like I should. On Tuesday a hive swarmed, a good size, maybe 5 or 6 pounds, and they landed at step ladder distance on a pear tree in my neighbor's yard. My friend B came to help, but when the bees were shaken off the limbs, the queen took off, and it took quite awhile to settle. Unfortunately, they weren't low, and they weren't so high that I'd let them go. In fact, they were up towards the top of a 20 foot unpruned holly tree, with wires going through it. But I was able to cut up through the middle, and found the tree pretty easy to climb, even for a 54 year old, and the swarm had settled not to far out on branch, and with only one sting to the neck, we were able to shake them into a bucket and get them into a hive, with queen, and there they are today.

Though it did involve a breaking branch and a second or two freefall like Winnie-the-Pooh, bumping down until I hit the ladder, and some cuts and bruises, and what later I thought was a broken rib (I have no idea what one is like- I think its just bruised) and a few days later I can't lift anything with my left arm...oops.
 
And so my troubles began (honeybee we saw on hive yesterday in even more trouble at left).

Next day, I decided to apply my very excellent anti-swarming plan to three hives that seemed to need it, being the three strongest I have. Its sort of a bastardazation of other people's plans, though I imagine I read about it somewhere (later reading this- yes, I did, Ralph Taylor's book).

I take off the telescoping lid, set it on the ground. Then i take an empty super, and set it on the lid, perpendicular. Then I take off the inner cover, loosen the frames a little, and take the first frame out. I inspect for queen cells, brood, etc. I cut out the queen cells, after seeing eggs or young brood, and shave off any bottom drones I find (to reduce mites). The I put the frame in the box, and continue, til the box is empty. Its important to be sure there is a queen first of course, which I have neglected to do sometimes, causing problems.

Then I can clean the box a little, scrape out the propolis, so I can move frames easier, and repeat. Being able to clean the box is a big plus- saves time even.

When I get to the brood chambers, then I start putting empty drawn (if I have it) comb into the center of the box. So each hive nof three brood boxes gets 6 new foundations, clean and ready to go, smack in the middle. I usually switch the bottom super and put it ip on top of the brood chamber. That's it. No queen cells (I hope), and lots of open space. As a human, psychologically, that seems like a good plan. If I were a bee, I have not idea if it would make a difference or not.

So I was doing this to three hives. The first two were fine, but it was starting to get dark, and suddenly hive three starting going nuts. I can't recall if I did anything unusual, it might just have been the half light, but they were pelting me, and stinging me through my gear. And then, even with my bee suit, they were in my veil. I have no idea how they got in there, but they were mad, and stung, and once that starts, its hard to stop. So maybe that was 10 or 20 stings, and they even stung me on the wound I'd received falling down the tree, which sure, hurt, but made me laugh too (quietly), for the irony of it.

No big deal. A reminder, as it almost always is, that bees are different creatures, and  unpredictable. And: Be prepared. I am constantly thinking "my" bees are so gentle, I don't need smoke or protection. But when I do, i really do, and had I had none then, it would be seriously a different story. So, policy one, with this many hives, I need to be fully geared up to work with them. I need to make that some sort of mantra.

Today I went up to the roof again to fix the hive Id left partly open at the base (it got shifted off), and they were madder then heck. I have never seen bees do this, they were spilling out on the landing board, agitated, in the air, attacking me, and circling, and running up and down the hive. And I don't think I was doing anything- I barely touched the hive (picture above a night, they are racing about, and its hours later).

So maybe this is a mean hive and needs requeening, or maybe I caught them at a bad time, or maybe I did something to make them act bad, or I smell wrong. I did move frames around a little, opened them up. But thats all, really. So my best guess is its the personality of this hive, and I need to requeen. I haven't seen ithis behavior before, following me around, trying to get into my suit, stinging my ankles where they could reach them. Its like African Bee behavior or someting.

An hour later, they were still acting crazy. I;ll check tomorrow. (update, I did check, and went through it all looking for the queen, or queens. And I found her up on top, like four supers up, amongst the honey. So I let her go, then found what I thought was another queen- and caged her-but I wasn't sure, and wish I had set the first one aside, as I now how to go back and see if I could find her again. But I couldn't.

But what I did find- was no brood. No eggs, no larvae, just some capped brood. I had missed this yesterday as I was getting pelted and it was getting dark, and I assumed that as it was a strong hive, it must be ok. Not. I think what I saw was a virgin queen, and possibly, this is the hive that swarmed. There were a few, not many, queen cells, though I don't think they looked hatched. Hmm. I don't really know. I put in a frame of uncapped brood from another hive and closed it up. I'll check for eggs next week).