- Joined
- Oct 9, 2012
- Messages
- 183
- Reaction score
- 110
- Location
- Surrey
- Hive Type
- 14x12
- Number of Hives
- 5
The sunny weather yesterday was my trigger to go and inspect my small swarm from last year, especially as the forecast for the rest of the week indicated chillier temperatures. I knew they'd made it through the winter (pleased I'd re-homed them from a wooden hive to a poly nuc), and so took with me a complete hive, in hopeful anticipation that they might have expanded...on arrival, lots of activity with the feeding space crammed with bees. Great, I was really pleased.
It was time to set the hive up. Opened up the nuc... what a sight - rammed - and so began the process of transferring over 6 heaving frames. And then it all went downhill !
Midway through the transfer, it was apparent that a little friend was somehow inside my veil...how ?? I suddenly felt like a lamb to the slaughter...do I stop, or carry on,
I pondered....no choice carry on; then it gets worse, other little friends had also found the 'entrance' and had joined in the exploration.
Then the inevitable happened, BANG! on my cheek....self preservation kicked in, this triggered the inevitable release of more pheromones and of course more stings, and naturally the circling bees being transferred also got the message and joined in the attack! The priority was to get the job done, which I did and then withdraw rapidly...which I did with a trail of unhappy bees in hot pursuit
.
I reached the safety of the car, but as it was relatively warm I'd left the passenger window open so, more angry bees were waiting for me...this was now a full nightmare, bees were actually pinging the car!
Having cleared the car of a dozen or so bees, I sat there waiting for calm to descend before tidying up and heading home....but every time I got out of the car, platoons of bees (ok maybe 4 or 5) headed straight for me scoring direct hits.
Jumping back into the safety of the car, I watched as at least two bees actually flew at the drivers door handle, I'm convinced they'd have opened the door if they could have. Clearly I must have been seen (or rather smelt) as just one walking pheromone, so the only thing to do was to get home, get out of the bee suit and get it washed asap....turns out I had five stings to my face and neck, which prompted SWMBO to zoom off to the pharmacy (blue lights almost flashing) for antihistamines. 24 hrs later and the swelling is reducing.
But how did those bees get into my bee suit ? I'd done the usual checks...well, I can only surmise that they got in at the junction of the zips under the neck, maybe I hadn't pushed hard enough on the velcro flap that cover that junction, or maybe left one of the zips open by a few mm, just enough to provide an entrance. Either way, operator error on my part, and a salutary lesson on how easy it is to become complacent with things we do somewhat routinely. Another lesson learned the hard way.
It was time to set the hive up. Opened up the nuc... what a sight - rammed - and so began the process of transferring over 6 heaving frames. And then it all went downhill !
Midway through the transfer, it was apparent that a little friend was somehow inside my veil...how ?? I suddenly felt like a lamb to the slaughter...do I stop, or carry on,
I pondered....no choice carry on; then it gets worse, other little friends had also found the 'entrance' and had joined in the exploration. Then the inevitable happened, BANG! on my cheek....self preservation kicked in, this triggered the inevitable release of more pheromones and of course more stings, and naturally the circling bees being transferred also got the message and joined in the attack! The priority was to get the job done, which I did and then withdraw rapidly...which I did with a trail of unhappy bees in hot pursuit
.I reached the safety of the car, but as it was relatively warm I'd left the passenger window open
so, more angry bees were waiting for me...this was now a full nightmare, bees were actually pinging the car!Having cleared the car of a dozen or so bees, I sat there waiting for calm to descend before tidying up and heading home....but every time I got out of the car, platoons of bees (ok maybe 4 or 5) headed straight for me scoring direct hits.
Jumping back into the safety of the car, I watched as at least two bees actually flew at the drivers door handle, I'm convinced they'd have opened the door if they could have
. Clearly I must have been seen (or rather smelt) as just one walking pheromone, so the only thing to do was to get home, get out of the bee suit and get it washed asap....turns out I had five stings to my face and neck, which prompted SWMBO to zoom off to the pharmacy (blue lights almost flashing) for antihistamines. 24 hrs later and the swelling is reducing.But how did those bees get into my bee suit ? I'd done the usual checks...well, I can only surmise that they got in at the junction of the zips under the neck, maybe I hadn't pushed hard enough on the velcro flap that cover that junction, or maybe left one of the zips open by a few mm, just enough to provide an entrance. Either way, operator error on my part, and a salutary lesson on how easy it is to become complacent with things we do somewhat routinely. Another lesson learned the hard way.
