So yesterday I thought I'd just take a quick peek and see if Alpha Hive had finished filling their super with honey. The answer was "yes, and there are about 20,000 of them directly beneath the inner hive cover executing a celebratory dance." Bees came boiling up out of that sucker like WHOA, and I was not wearing my protective gear. I duly remained calm and began backing slowly away from the hive. Unfortunately, a bee fell down into one of my clogs; I felt the wings against my skin and jerked my foot out of the shoe, not wanting to crush her. In the process I kicked two of her sisters-in-arms, and both of them stung me, one on the instep and one BETWEEN MY MOTHERFUCKING TOES.
That is my new LEAST-favorite place to be stung.
So I went inside and hit the Benadryl, then suited up to go back out and check on both hives while I was already stung and full of antihistamines.
Bravo Hive looks to be doing well, but I did not see evidence of any larva or new capped brood so I am concerned that they may be queenless. I took a frame of brood from Alpha Hive and gave it to them in hopes of resolving that, and if they still don't have a queen when I check them next I think I'm going to need to buy one (yes, you can mail-order queen bees). I'm of two minds about that, because on one hand I want my bees to have local genes, which is why I bought a NUC from a local beekeeper last year. If Bravo Hive raises their own queen she would have Alpha Hive's genes and mate with a local-to-me drone, which would be the most natural way to ensure I have bees that are adapted to my exact climate. If I order a queen, I could specify what traits I wanted but it would mean bringing in genes from elsewhere.
Alpha Hive...oh, Alpha Hive. They are doing GREAT! Tons of bees, lots of honey and brood, and they filled the first super already. I didn't see the queen, but I wouldn't really expect to see her this time of year when there are so many bees in the hive--they kind of swarm around her and conceal her. I put an empty super on them with the full one on top, and separated them with a Bee Escape in hopes of being able to remove the full super without bringing a bunch of bees with it. I'm kind of writing this post as a form of procrastination, actually, because I'm not looking forward to removing the super...it's really heavy and, of course, likely to be covered in angry bees. FUNTIMES!
All in all, I only got stung five times yesterday (ONLY GOT STUNG FIVE TIMES...lordy how did THAT become good news?!?), with two of the five stings being on my right foot.
What the HELL, bees? Why have half of the stings I've gotten from you this year been on my right foot? My right foot is starting to take this personally.
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Okay, I went ahead and took the super off. The Bee Escape proved worthless, so I won't bother with that next time. The good news is, it only cost me two bucks. If I'd paid any more than that I'd be really pissed! Only three of the frames from the super I pulled were completely filled with capped honey (capped honey is sterile and actually a mild antibacterial, but the uncapped stuff can carry all sorts of germs so if it's not capped it's not a good idea to eat it), so I replaced those with empty frames and stuck the original super back on Alpha for the bees to finish filling and sealing. Here are the three full frames waiting to be processed:
Figure One: Three full frames of gorgeous capped honey! In my experience this will translate to about ten eight-oz jars of the stuff after I scrape and strain it.
Meanwhile, Hotter got stung for the first time during yesterday's hive incursions, and to my amusement was all "WOE AND ALAS, I THINK THIS HURTS WAY MORE THAN IT SHOULD, MAYBE I AM ALLERGIC, WHAT SHOULD WE DOOOOO I THINK THOSE BEES ARE AFRICANIZED!" I looked at his sting and it was much less swollen than any of mine so I told him I thought he was okay. He was skeptical, but has yet to keel over dead, so I think I'm right. He still insists that something is wrong and bee stings are WAY more painful for him than the average person. Personally I think they're just really painful, period. Here is how they progress when I get one:
Figure One: This was taken within five minutes of the sting. The swollen spot is about the size of a dime, and you can see which direction I scraped the stinger out in by the little trail of swelling.
Figure Two: This is about an hour after the first photo.
Figure Three: This is about two hours after that. As you can see it's starting to swell at this point, and this is where it starts to really itch, too.
Figure Four: This was taken about four hours after the last photo. The itching woke me up so I took a picture and some more Benadryl.
Figure Five: This is after about twenty-four hours, when the swelling tends to reach its peak. It'll stay like this for another day or so then start gradually going back down. The pain will be gone after about three days, but the itching will be with me for at least a week.
So yeah, bees are kind of a mixed bag. Pollination and honey? GOOD. Stings? BAD.
I spared you the photos of my right foot, because I have my father's feet. What that means is that a) they are slightly deformed and b) I have the feet of an eighty-nine-year-old Jewish man. You're welcome ;)




