Live and Learn...

Everyone makes mistakes. Unfortunately what I thought was a good idea turned out to be quite the opposite. When I was cleaning out the hives last night, I poured some extra syrup and scrapped out the dried sugar into a watering bottom.

I figured it would give them all a chance to clean up the waste. I should have put sticks and some leaves or something that would float and avoid mass drownings. Unfortunately I did not.

It looks like lots of activity at the hives!

In reality there were a lot of dead bees who drowned...

I estimate that there are several hundred dead bees in there. It is obviously pretty upsetting; it is just another lesson in beekeeping. Bees apparently drown very easily. This will not have an effect on the overall numbers of bees in my hive; since there are likely 30 000+ in both of my larger hives and 15 000 in my newer hive.

Not a Beekeeper until you...

get stung 35+ times in a matter of minutes.

I now understand why my fellow beekeepers have $200 bee suits. I also realize that when you think you may be doing something wrong; that it probably is wrong.

In an attempt to reduce the population of my monster hive, I tried to take some frames of brood to give to my nuc box (which I in turn was going to put into a regular sized hive box). I got to the bottom box of my biggest hive and the bees were a bit agitated but nothing major. The problem was that the bees were boiling out of all of the boxes and it was a hot day(+35C). My smoker was ready and working and I had my spare frames ready to be swapped out. I pulled out a middle frame and saw that it was all capped brood. Perfect. So I searched the frame from side to side and had not seen the queen. This should be easy I thought. I smoked the hive again and then I took out my bee brush and swept the frame on the one side. Bad idea. The bees were mad. In a matter of seconds I had bees bouncing off my mask and bees stinging me through my two shirts. I had to put the hive back together and get the heck out of there. In a minute I was throwing the boxes back on top of one another like they weighed nothing. There was a massive amount of adrenaline running through my body. I could feel the stings but they just felt like little pokes now. I got the last box on top, put on the lid and then ran away. I left my equipment all strewn on the ground. I first ran through some corn to try to lose the bees. That did not particularly work. I then ran up to our barn and closed a door quickly behind me. I was swatting the last 10 or so bees that were trying to sting me and then I went back outside. I decided to go into the house and see if I had any stingers left in me and to try to get some sort of a count. The stingers did not stick to my flesh and were probably stuck in my shirts. My wife counted at least 35 stings and I decided to take some diphenhydramine hydrochloride to reduce the swelling. The swelling actually was not too bad. A few hours later, at nightfall, I snuck up to the hive and gathered up my frames and equipment. I did not stir any bees; and was quite greatful for that.


Trust your instincts and get a better bee suit!