A Lovely Summer Morning and A Bee Hive

          The weather this morning has been gorgeous and the work has been exciting.  After the animals were tended, I gathered up the bee jacket, the smoker, the hive tool, and a box of matches, and I headed to the bee hive.  I expected the bees to be irritable because conditions are dry this time of year, and they were.  I planned to calm them with smoke, but a stiff breeze made it difficult to light the smoker and keep it going. I went through the topmost one-and-a-half boxes of the hive, frame by frame, before withdrawing to relight the smoker and snack on a piece of honeycomb that broke out.  The bees were hopping mad, but everything looked good so far in the hive.  Then I went through the remaining one-and-a-half boxes, surrounded by quite a cloud of bees and with very little help from the smoker because of the wind.  As I was putting a box back on the hive, I realized that I had a bee in the hood of the jacket.  (I think this is where the saying "a bee in your bonnet" comes from.)  I shoved the box into position and ran to a safe distance to unfasten the veil.  The bee attacked, but didn't make it past my hair before I caught him.  I zipped the veil back up and went back to the hive.  After a few minutes more work, I felt a bee crawling up my neck.  I ran off again, stripped off the whole jacket, and checked it over thoroughly before I put it back on.  Once jacket and dignity were restored, I went to get an empty box to add to the hive, not realizing that red wasps had built a nest in the stack of extra bee boxes. When I pulled the box off the stack, red wasps exploded out of it. I'm so glad I still had that bee suit on! I escaped the wasps unscathed, added the empty box to the bee hive without further incident, and returned to the house with a little honeycomb, no bee or wasp stings, and the knowledge that our bees seem to be doing well.

A frame from the bee hive

          My next task will be to mow the grass under the electric fences.  I hope that goes smoothly, but at this rate, I'll likely cut the top off a yellow jacket nest.  Maybe I should mow in my bee suit. 

      
Hannah