Out of the Rain

Immediately after the harvest, we had a good week of 90 degree plus heat. I left the shims between the inner cover and the top bars of the top box, and was grateful for the screened bottom to let there be air flow.

They were pretty crowded, though, as you can see in this picture, and they were still doing orienting flights, which meant that even more bees were being born. Then, yesterday, it started just pouring, and with the way the weather looked, there was a monsoon pattern coming up from the Gulf. Last night, when I checked on the girls they had all bearded under the overhang of the lid! This was in rain and by morning it was in the high 50's and they were still outside.

This probably indicated that they were too crowded to find shelter from the rain in the ball of bees. So I decided to do what the field guys were doing, which was just have another super on top just to give them enough room to move around in. This morning, between rain storms, I attempted to open things up and get a super placed on top of the hive. Of course, all the bearded girls were not just in the way, but in every available crack, and getting my hands in places where they wouldn't sting the hell out of even my gloved hands proved to be really challenging. And I was stupid and didn't put on my thick wool socks, and one girl got inside my boot and went to town on my ankle.

I swore. A lot. It helped long enough for me to get to the side, and let John shoo the poor girl off and get the stinger, and most of her insides off my foot. I was also trying not to use smoke because they simply didn't have anywhere to go, and that may have been my mistake, so I was actually brushing bees off the lids instead of smoking them off, and I got another sting on my pinky, and she stuck her stinger right into the leather, so that it stabbed me a few times when I was trying to grip things. John got THAT one out, and I kept going, and got all the girls shaken into the super and got the lid back on without crushing any more.

My pay off came this afternoon when a huge downpour came down, and when I went out to check on the girls they were all INSIDE instead of hanging on outside. I'm much happier knowing they're in shelter with enough room for all their numbers. I also went to the allergy clinic this afternoon, and got everything checked out, and the ankle's much worse than the pinky. But the good news is that I don't really have systemic reactions to the stings, "just" local ones. *laughs* The interesting thing is that the pinky sting really hasn't reacted that much, and maybe it's 'cause she wasn't able to pump much into me, but the ankle one is a huge hole and puffy all around. Bah.

Next year, I'll remember to just keep a medium super on just until their numbers drop when it gets cold outside. Next time...