Queen City
I spent the weekend immersed in trying to catch up with all the things I said I was going to do with my hives- and barely made a dent. I did get up early on Saturday and drove up with my new aluminum ramp and new blue dolly which I had bolted a steel plate to (which my friend Monroe, god bless him, left on my back porch and was exactly the right size- though covered in City of Bellevue electronics of some sort, which I took off)... and loaded the single hive I had in the woods by my mother's house, and brought it back down the valley to Cherry Valley Farms, the new organic dairy in town that's winning cheese awards. And I have the hives back behind the yearling shed, where Anne B, let me put them. And they face out to Rasmussen Creek, which comes from Rasmussen Lake, which is right above my house. There are salmon signs up all over- so I think Kurt Beadslee and crew have been there, making salmon habitat.
All an aside- to the key story- which is after a long day of going through hives and trying to open them up in the middle by sticking in two empty drawn frames- and putting the two side frames up to the top- I found myself super tired- and with 4 more hives to go.
The thing is, 8 hives are on the roof, and that takes time. And the way I am doing my first thorough exam, is to pull out an empty super, with drawn frames, dump the frames, and disassemble the hives to its base. Then I place the empty super on the base, and take the second super up, and start pulling out frames one by one, and inserting them- but first- I stick two nice looking drawn empty frames in the middle. Then I go to super two, then super one (I call these supers- as I use 3 Western supers for my brood boxes). So I get to look for eggs, and queen cells, and brood.
Which is still an aside- as the story is - I finally get to the craziest hives- in my neighbor's yard- two under a pear tree. And- well, as expected, the have queen cells all over. The first is a black hive- Carniolans I guess- and not only are there queen cells, but lots. And some open ones- a loose queen- but odd- they look like supercedure cells. I put it back together with an intact queen cell. That might be an error.
But hive two- which is actually #12- has more. I'd say- a guess now- about 20. Maybe 30. Everywhere. All capped, all ready to go. And a powerful mean hive. And though I smoke them- and move slow- they start hammering. And I see them bouncing against my smoker even. In a bee suit- I notice a lot less then when I wore short sleeves. And I sort of start losing my cool- I know this queen needs replacing- but I am really tired, and need to get through the hive.
And then, on this quiet Sunday morning, I hear yelling. Not painful yelling- which would totally freak me out- but general happy kid yelling. And I put down the frame I am looking at and look at the neighbor's yard, 50 feet away, and its full of kids, and grandparents, and parents- bouncing around the rhododendrons looking for Easter eggs. I break into a semi-sweat- just sort of mad at this happening now- mad that I can't make this hive shut up- and worried that some kids going to get a mad bee. Seems very likely. And when I look up next, there are three dads at the fence watching me.
Bees are punching me- and I say- "this hive is really crazy- maybe this isn' t a good time to talk?"
And my neighbor says- looking to his left- it look like you have a swarm here. And sure enough- its the Carniolans- a big swarm- tangled up in a chain link fence and Ivy. It takes two hours to get them down into a box and hive them. I can't seem to shake them off the fence with the queen. So I look for the queen on the surface of the swarm- and after a long wait- I think I see her- but she is really small- but I grab her by her wings, run to the other side of the fence- and put her in the hive. I sort of doubt this was the queen. But I notice that bees start moving there- after awhile. And next morning- they are all happily hived.
Seems like way too much work sometimes. And 5 hives are pending.
All an aside- to the key story- which is after a long day of going through hives and trying to open them up in the middle by sticking in two empty drawn frames- and putting the two side frames up to the top- I found myself super tired- and with 4 more hives to go.
Which is still an aside- as the story is - I finally get to the craziest hives- in my neighbor's yard- two under a pear tree. And- well, as expected, the have queen cells all over. The first is a black hive- Carniolans I guess- and not only are there queen cells, but lots. And some open ones- a loose queen- but odd- they look like supercedure cells. I put it back together with an intact queen cell. That might be an error.
But hive two- which is actually #12- has more. I'd say- a guess now- about 20. Maybe 30. Everywhere. All capped, all ready to go. And a powerful mean hive. And though I smoke them- and move slow- they start hammering. And I see them bouncing against my smoker even. In a bee suit- I notice a lot less then when I wore short sleeves. And I sort of start losing my cool- I know this queen needs replacing- but I am really tired, and need to get through the hive.
And then, on this quiet Sunday morning, I hear yelling. Not painful yelling- which would totally freak me out- but general happy kid yelling. And I put down the frame I am looking at and look at the neighbor's yard, 50 feet away, and its full of kids, and grandparents, and parents- bouncing around the rhododendrons looking for Easter eggs. I break into a semi-sweat- just sort of mad at this happening now- mad that I can't make this hive shut up- and worried that some kids going to get a mad bee. Seems very likely. And when I look up next, there are three dads at the fence watching me.
Bees are punching me- and I say- "this hive is really crazy- maybe this isn' t a good time to talk?"
Seems like way too much work sometimes. And 5 hives are pending.
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