Post by Jeremy Kosciuch on May 16, 2010 14:18:56 GMT -5
"I may be fixin to run!"
The day that I came home from work with a box that had around 2000 honeybees in it is the day my journey started. I had been looking down this road rather scientifically since the year I saw no honeybees until mid- July. When they finally did show up it was maybe 8 or 10, most usually 5 or less at a time, instead of 50 or more on 1 angel trumpet. I figured something might be wrong with the picture, and I was right, turned out for years the bees had been in trouble, and in 2005 there were very few feral bees left around here. I knew of one hive a couple miles away that died out last spring before the flow.
My little swarm was slightly feisty and had nice looking italian bees, a little dark, but not black. The queen was iridescent purple and HUGE.
Well after they got real settled in their nice new home they got a little irritable. My wife wanted to watch me in the hive one day and I told her" Maybe you should sit a little farther away, these girls are a little testy." Not a problem, she decides to stand instead of sit, and parked about 70 feet away in the shade instead of her usual 30. A couple puffs later i lifted the covers off real gentle. Mind you, I was winging it, had no idea really what I was doing. Saw videos and read, and knew the basics, also had an old beekeeper by phone. Well out came the usual 20 or so bees, not liking me too much, and then another 20, and another hundred, and then a few hundred more, I don't think they ever stopped seriously. I got stung on the hand and calmly scraped the stinger and smoked the area. When I looked up I was really thankful for my suit, I knew I had some bees on me, but the sight of thousands flying around agitated and flying into me, trying to find ways in my suit, clumping on the veil was enough for me to take pause and wonder if this was such a great idea, beekeeping. I am standing there wondering what I am gonna do and my wife yells to me "Are you ok honey?"
My answer "I don't know, I may be fixin to run..."
The day that I came home from work with a box that had around 2000 honeybees in it is the day my journey started. I had been looking down this road rather scientifically since the year I saw no honeybees until mid- July. When they finally did show up it was maybe 8 or 10, most usually 5 or less at a time, instead of 50 or more on 1 angel trumpet. I figured something might be wrong with the picture, and I was right, turned out for years the bees had been in trouble, and in 2005 there were very few feral bees left around here. I knew of one hive a couple miles away that died out last spring before the flow.
My little swarm was slightly feisty and had nice looking italian bees, a little dark, but not black. The queen was iridescent purple and HUGE.
Well after they got real settled in their nice new home they got a little irritable. My wife wanted to watch me in the hive one day and I told her" Maybe you should sit a little farther away, these girls are a little testy." Not a problem, she decides to stand instead of sit, and parked about 70 feet away in the shade instead of her usual 30. A couple puffs later i lifted the covers off real gentle. Mind you, I was winging it, had no idea really what I was doing. Saw videos and read, and knew the basics, also had an old beekeeper by phone. Well out came the usual 20 or so bees, not liking me too much, and then another 20, and another hundred, and then a few hundred more, I don't think they ever stopped seriously. I got stung on the hand and calmly scraped the stinger and smoked the area. When I looked up I was really thankful for my suit, I knew I had some bees on me, but the sight of thousands flying around agitated and flying into me, trying to find ways in my suit, clumping on the veil was enough for me to take pause and wonder if this was such a great idea, beekeeping. I am standing there wondering what I am gonna do and my wife yells to me "Are you ok honey?"
My answer "I don't know, I may be fixin to run..."