Mission Not Quite Accomplished

August 24, 2013

 I set out to accomplish four tasks when I opened my bee hive today, the 24^th day of August.

I only accomplished two.

My tasks: one, collapse the height of the hive from four supers to three in preparation of the on-set of fall and winter; two, spot the queen, because I haven’t laid eyes on her the past two times I’ve opened the hive this summer; three, replace the Beetle Blaster beetle trap; and four, install a sheet of bee food.  (Not getting stung this time wasn’t a task, so much. It was a goal, even a down-right hope!)

And here’s how it went: Suited up. Rounded up my handy bee-keeping bucket that has all my supplies – hive tool, etc.;, grabbed the safflower oil from the kitchen cabinet; had the sheet of bee pollen substitute prepped and ready; lit the smoker.

So far, so good. Smoked the hive, and started to work.

I unstacked the supers with the intent of removing the bottom super for the winter so that when the bees cluster around the queen to keep her warm, they would have a tight, cozy spot to do it. When last I inspected the hive, there wasn’t any real activity in the bottom super, just a bunch of baby bees and empty foundation comb.  This time, as I inspected the frames, I was surprised to find the bees had built out comb on several of the center frames, and there was capped larvae. 

Hmm. What to do? I didn’t like the idea of killing any of the bees, so after checking the frames of one another super, I simply reassembled the supers, removing the old Beetle Blaster, filling the new one with safflower oil and re-installing it between frames in the super just below the queen excluder.  Task one, not accomplished. Task three, accomplished.

When I put the top super back on, I added a sheet of bee food – a sheet of brown gooey stuff that is supposed to help  nourish the bees when their natural supply of pollen and nectar is no longer abundant because of the changing season. So, task four, accomplished.

And then there’s task two - spot the queen.  Now for the third time, I have opened the hive and NOT laid eyes on her.  But again, I remain faithful that she is in there.  Plenty of baby bees and worker bees in and around the hive. Still brood in the capped cells.  I'm going on one part faith and one part evidence that she's still in there doing her thing. 

I made it through the entire process without a bee sting.  Well, almost. Thirty minutes after removing my suit and settling down to recap the details for this blog – well away from the hive, mind you – a random bees finds me and pops me on the back of the neck. 

What!

The good news, only one sting this time, compared to two last time!