How about those bees?
May. 25th, 2009 09:40 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beetigerA week ago today I got a call I had been waiting for, from a little place outside Albany. My bees were ready, and I had to come get them *right now*. I got ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
bard_bloom to come home from work, and got on the road for the three-hour drive up to where the bees were. They were packed on five frames in a nucleus hive, a polystyrene box with a screen duct taped across the top, there were around fifteen thousand of them, and we pushed the front passenger seat as far forward as it would go so they would be relatively secured in the back. They hummed every time I decelerated quickly. When I got home, I put them in the backyard, in the dark, next to the wooden hive that would be their home soon, and opened their door. I'd been told that as long as I placed the box within 17 inches of the permanent hive, any foragers that were out would find their way home.
The next afternoon, I put on long gloves, a thick white jacket with an attached hood and veil, and a heavy pair of jeans, fired up a smoker I didn't really know how to use, and opened up the box. Bees everywhere, everywhere. I suppose I was supposed to look at the frames and try to find the queen and be extra careful with her and all that. But it was really just Bees Everywhere, and I said a little prayer to the Mistress of Animals and hoped for the best and moved the frames as quickly as I could. My fingers squished some bees in the process, and I somehow got one sting in the crook of my arm, just like the experienced beekeepers told me I would. One sting, the first time. An initiation, and a confirmation that I don't seem to be allergic.
There were a lot of bees left in the box. I looked in and none of them looked like a queen to me, and I shook the box over the hive and not a lot of them came out, so I shook shook shook the box and tried to be gentle trying to scoop some of them out of the box. Then I put the feeder box on top of the hive, and I managed to squish some more bees that way. But bees who had been flying around proceeded to line up and squeeze their way into the little door of the hive over the course of the next hour, which I took as a good sign.
The spot I picked in the yard for the hive doesn't get as much morning sun as I thought it did, so I think my bees have been a little lazy as far as wakeup time goes. But usually by mid-morning there are a lot of bees flying around. I can stand at the side of the hive, watching bees with their legs full of yellow pollen, landing and walking in to the hive, and they don't seem to mind. They don't seem to have eaten the sugar syrup I gave them since the first day, so I guess they are finding enough to eat outside. They aren't drinking from the little birdbath I gave them, so I hope they are getting their water form some natural source around here and not congregating at my neighbor's pool. I can tell roughly what temperature it is outside by looking out the window, seeing how busy it is out there.
Tomorrow I'm going to open up the hive again, see if the bees have built up the new frames I gave them and whether they need the second box that goes on top of the first one. I'll see if I can find my queen this time, maybe, or at least look for any new queen cells that would prove they've lost their queen and are trying to make a new one. I'll take the feeder off and put the regular lid on. I'll try not to squish any more bees. I'll try to do a better job with the smoker.
There's a sunny little box in my backyard, and it's very, very alive. Watching them, I feel a little more alive as well. And that's a good thing.
bard_bloom to come home from work, and got on the road for the three-hour drive up to where the bees were. They were packed on five frames in a nucleus hive, a polystyrene box with a screen duct taped across the top, there were around fifteen thousand of them, and we pushed the front passenger seat as far forward as it would go so they would be relatively secured in the back. They hummed every time I decelerated quickly. When I got home, I put them in the backyard, in the dark, next to the wooden hive that would be their home soon, and opened their door. I'd been told that as long as I placed the box within 17 inches of the permanent hive, any foragers that were out would find their way home.The next afternoon, I put on long gloves, a thick white jacket with an attached hood and veil, and a heavy pair of jeans, fired up a smoker I didn't really know how to use, and opened up the box. Bees everywhere, everywhere. I suppose I was supposed to look at the frames and try to find the queen and be extra careful with her and all that. But it was really just Bees Everywhere, and I said a little prayer to the Mistress of Animals and hoped for the best and moved the frames as quickly as I could. My fingers squished some bees in the process, and I somehow got one sting in the crook of my arm, just like the experienced beekeepers told me I would. One sting, the first time. An initiation, and a confirmation that I don't seem to be allergic.
There were a lot of bees left in the box. I looked in and none of them looked like a queen to me, and I shook the box over the hive and not a lot of them came out, so I shook shook shook the box and tried to be gentle trying to scoop some of them out of the box. Then I put the feeder box on top of the hive, and I managed to squish some more bees that way. But bees who had been flying around proceeded to line up and squeeze their way into the little door of the hive over the course of the next hour, which I took as a good sign.
The spot I picked in the yard for the hive doesn't get as much morning sun as I thought it did, so I think my bees have been a little lazy as far as wakeup time goes. But usually by mid-morning there are a lot of bees flying around. I can stand at the side of the hive, watching bees with their legs full of yellow pollen, landing and walking in to the hive, and they don't seem to mind. They don't seem to have eaten the sugar syrup I gave them since the first day, so I guess they are finding enough to eat outside. They aren't drinking from the little birdbath I gave them, so I hope they are getting their water form some natural source around here and not congregating at my neighbor's pool. I can tell roughly what temperature it is outside by looking out the window, seeing how busy it is out there.
Tomorrow I'm going to open up the hive again, see if the bees have built up the new frames I gave them and whether they need the second box that goes on top of the first one. I'll see if I can find my queen this time, maybe, or at least look for any new queen cells that would prove they've lost their queen and are trying to make a new one. I'll take the feeder off and put the regular lid on. I'll try not to squish any more bees. I'll try to do a better job with the smoker.
There's a sunny little box in my backyard, and it's very, very alive. Watching them, I feel a little more alive as well. And that's a good thing.
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no subject
Date: 2009-05-25 02:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-25 02:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-25 02:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-25 02:33 pm (UTC)What exactly is the smoker? Does it just smoke the bees out of the box?
Obligatory Eddie Izzard quote: “I like my women like I like my coffee — covered in BEES!”
no subject
Date: 2009-05-25 02:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-25 03:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-25 03:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-25 03:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-25 04:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-25 06:53 pm (UTC)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xs-tl6GBOBo
no subject
Date: 2009-05-25 08:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-26 01:14 am (UTC)Yep, it's very daunting to do the first thing with the bees. I remember my nuc last year...
The place I do my reading is divided about the tales of how far you can move bees across the yard or the town. I don't know if anyone has actually studied it, or if it's all hearsay.
no subject
Date: 2009-05-26 01:36 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-26 10:12 am (UTC)Good luck!
no subject
Date: 2009-05-26 04:02 pm (UTC)Looking forward to hearing more about the new pets!
no subject
Date: 2009-05-26 04:19 pm (UTC)I visit the tigers at the Bronx Zoo. I don't have nearly a big enough yard at my house for their territory. :)
Did you move since I visited you and SO, lo those many years ago?
Date: 2009-05-27 05:38 pm (UTC)Though this IS very cool. Beemania, chapter one!
Re: Did you move since I visited you and SO, lo those many years ago?
Date: 2009-05-27 05:39 pm (UTC)