Mushy Bees
New Bee
- Joined
- Jun 15, 2010
- Messages
- 30
- Reaction score
- 0
- Location
- Hampshire
- Hive Type
- 14x12
- Number of Hives
- 4
Hello
I started beekeeping this year and have tried so hard not to kill a single bee when working on the hives. Every little clumsy "crunch" was taken to heart and I thought I was doing pretty okay. No smoke and few casualties either way. Yay the beeking God cometh!!
Oh how different it is now though at the end of the summer.
Here are the casualties...
1/ The THOUSANDS of dead worker bees after screwing up the uniting of two queenright nucs.
2/ The two beautiful young fertile (and now dead!) queens from the above. Both the one I murdered, and the one they promptly murdered shortly after.
3/ The people I bought the nucs from who take huge pride in what they do. How do I tell them what I've done?
I truly love my bees, and when I saw that pathetic little blanket of dead bees outside their hive I nearly wept. It was all my fault and that's what made it so miserably painful for me. It nearly put me off the whole thing.
My question is this:
How much does your sentimentality about bees change with time and experience?
As a noobie, I'd love to hear fellow new beeks and especially the more experienced beekeepers thoughts on this.
This isn't a post about uniting methods.
MB
I started beekeeping this year and have tried so hard not to kill a single bee when working on the hives. Every little clumsy "crunch" was taken to heart and I thought I was doing pretty okay. No smoke and few casualties either way. Yay the beeking God cometh!!
Oh how different it is now though at the end of the summer.
Here are the casualties...
1/ The THOUSANDS of dead worker bees after screwing up the uniting of two queenright nucs.
2/ The two beautiful young fertile (and now dead!) queens from the above. Both the one I murdered, and the one they promptly murdered shortly after.
3/ The people I bought the nucs from who take huge pride in what they do. How do I tell them what I've done?
I truly love my bees, and when I saw that pathetic little blanket of dead bees outside their hive I nearly wept. It was all my fault and that's what made it so miserably painful for me. It nearly put me off the whole thing.
My question is this:
How much does your sentimentality about bees change with time and experience?
As a noobie, I'd love to hear fellow new beeks and especially the more experienced beekeepers thoughts on this.
This isn't a post about uniting methods.
MB