How exciting to finally collect my very own bees. Jim and I bought two buzzing boxes of bees (nuclei) back to the house on a very hot April morning. We sited the two hives, unscrewed the tops of the nuclei and pulled out the sponge bungs to release the bees. Now is the time I should be featuring my very first “vlog” but unfortunately my video recorder guest, one Timothy from Sydney, didn’t last long enough to get a close up of the dispersing bees – I could upload a voice saying, “Oh I think I am too near, F*** that” and then sounds of scampering through long grass fading out.
I can tell you though that the bees settled in very well and within an hour we had moved the frames from the nuclei boxes into the hives. I wrote a blog last year entitled “Hive Rules” and I have followed some of my own instructions, but not all. The queen bee in my duck egg blue hive is called “Princess Fiona” (aka Shrek and also in recognition of thanks to neighbour Fiona who supplied her kitchen duck egg blue paint). The queen bee in my cedar hive is called “Princess Kate” as she seems to be the most popular royal for 2011.
It’s at this stage I feel I should try and remember when and where I got the first of my stings. My bees have not been the most pleasant and at times Jim and I have wondered whether it is all worth it – well the honey should be good… we thought. So, the first sting for 2011 was when I got chased down the garden with a very angry bee in tow. She got into my hair and was furiously buzzing – and I tried to flick her out with my hand and ouch, there was the sting on my finger – swelling up to a giant award winning Cumberland sausage of giant proportions.
The second one provided far more entertaining but also taught me one very important lesson. We have a very nice friend who is a dentist – I appreciate that this is a bit of an oxymoron but he is a lovely person and one of the more grown up of our friends. He arrived for lunch one Sunday afternoon, diluted by three or four of our more silly friends and so, when he asked if he could visit my bees, I was delighted to accompany him. Things happened very suddenly and the combination of a hidden rabbit hole and a large glass of Pinot Noir, cause lovely dentist friend to topple on top of the bee hive whilst slamming his fist on the roof to stop his fall. I did tell him to get away in anticipation of a bee attack – the roar of bees coming out of the front of the hive was most spectacular and the stinging of the dentist was unrelentless – he ran down my garden path with me following him swatting him where I could. I can still hear the hoots of laughter from the silly friends even now. Poor dentist friend was stung about 20 times and I, about once.
It’s an interesting predicament when an alpha male gets stung (and Jim has admitted this to me to) – they just have to shrug off the pain and say it is nothing – but I know differently. The moral of the story? No matter how grown up you think your friends are, do not take them on a hive visit after a glass at lunchtime. I felt very silly and a bit embarrassed.
Pop by and visit my blog at www.waxsbees.com
I can tell you though that the bees settled in very well and within an hour we had moved the frames from the nuclei boxes into the hives. I wrote a blog last year entitled “Hive Rules” and I have followed some of my own instructions, but not all. The queen bee in my duck egg blue hive is called “Princess Fiona” (aka Shrek and also in recognition of thanks to neighbour Fiona who supplied her kitchen duck egg blue paint). The queen bee in my cedar hive is called “Princess Kate” as she seems to be the most popular royal for 2011.
It’s at this stage I feel I should try and remember when and where I got the first of my stings. My bees have not been the most pleasant and at times Jim and I have wondered whether it is all worth it – well the honey should be good… we thought. So, the first sting for 2011 was when I got chased down the garden with a very angry bee in tow. She got into my hair and was furiously buzzing – and I tried to flick her out with my hand and ouch, there was the sting on my finger – swelling up to a giant award winning Cumberland sausage of giant proportions.
The second one provided far more entertaining but also taught me one very important lesson. We have a very nice friend who is a dentist – I appreciate that this is a bit of an oxymoron but he is a lovely person and one of the more grown up of our friends. He arrived for lunch one Sunday afternoon, diluted by three or four of our more silly friends and so, when he asked if he could visit my bees, I was delighted to accompany him. Things happened very suddenly and the combination of a hidden rabbit hole and a large glass of Pinot Noir, cause lovely dentist friend to topple on top of the bee hive whilst slamming his fist on the roof to stop his fall. I did tell him to get away in anticipation of a bee attack – the roar of bees coming out of the front of the hive was most spectacular and the stinging of the dentist was unrelentless – he ran down my garden path with me following him swatting him where I could. I can still hear the hoots of laughter from the silly friends even now. Poor dentist friend was stung about 20 times and I, about once.
It’s an interesting predicament when an alpha male gets stung (and Jim has admitted this to me to) – they just have to shrug off the pain and say it is nothing – but I know differently. The moral of the story? No matter how grown up you think your friends are, do not take them on a hive visit after a glass at lunchtime. I felt very silly and a bit embarrassed.
Pop by and visit my blog at www.waxsbees.com
