Bees part two

I mentioned how there is a certain noise the bees make on a good or a bad day. As I had said, the beekeeper told us we'd know the sound for 'do not disturb' when we heard it.

Well this one particular day we sure heard it. We had come home one day to find a hive had swarmed. We didn't lose the swarm as my hubby had clipped the queen's wings. That meant she could still function but couldn't fly. So most of the bees had made the decision to leave and took off out the front of the hive. Except the queen just sort of tumbled out the front and eventually all the swarm gathered around her.

Great!!! So we got a box and scraped the bees, carefully, into it. Then we closed it up and got another set of supers ready to put the bees into, blocked the door and voila another hive of bees. A swarm is very docile, because as previously stated, they have no home to protect.

What they DIDN'T tell us was that the bees left behind are not a happy hive. They are in a bit of disarray as they have lost their queen and a new one hasn't hatched yet. (They have started to make a few queens in anticipation of the swarming. If one queen hatches first she will kill the other queens in their nests and go off to mate. If two hatch at the same time they will fight to the death.) Anyway, we wanted to check to make sure there were queen cells for the old hive. Otherwise we would have to buy a queen.

My hubby put the bee hat on but didn't feel he needed the rest of the suit as it was such a nice day and perfect to look in the hive. Right??!!
WRONG!!! He starts to remove the lid and this noise starts up. I FROZE! SCARED TO DEATH! DIDN'T MOVE.

Unfortunately my hubby was the one lifting the top and he was moving, only slightly, but moving none the less. One, brave little bee stung him in the thigh. He flinched and swung at the bee and that was all it took. Bees react to movement and the arm swinging told them where to go. They poured out the top and went after him. I was still frozen. He took off and the made for the house. He took two laps around it before he was able to get inside.

I was still standing there and totally afraid to move, but I knew I had to see if he was okay. I very S L O W L Y inched away from the hive and caught up to him in the bathroom where there were bees still flying around him. They were all without stingers by now so no threat to me. I managed to get the stingers out by SCRAPING. (DO NOT try to pick them with your fingers as you will squeeze more venom in. Scrape the stinger out.)

He was pretty sore for a while, but he did put his suit on and go right back out and make sure the hive was okay. They were, and they had a queen when we checked them a couple of weeks later. We got a lot of honey that year and next time I'll tell you about the honey gathering and extracting.

TidBit: Bees can only sting once. They DO NOT BITE. When they get you the stinger stays in you and pulls out of them along with the muscles that keep pumping venom into the victim. They will die, but not right away. Another part of their defence is that they remain alive long enough to continue buzzing around the thing that is annoying them and being attacked. The stinger also exudes a pheromone that lets the other bees know where and what to attack.

Not bad for something that you'll need 2,086 of to make a pound!!

Bees

When we lived in the country we had six hives on our property, one owned by my brother and the other five owned by us. It was an interesting hobby and one I dearly miss now. We read a lot about what to do and we bought all the materials to make the supers (the sections of the hives that contain the combs). We decided they didn't need to be white and boring so we painted them a very pale green and then painted vines and flowers on the side in such a way that no matter which super you used the vines would line up and look like they were climbing the hive. I also painted a bee somewhere on each super. The trick was to find it.

When we received our first order of bees they came in tubes of about 4,000 to 6,000 bees with a queen and a few workers in a cage. The object was that you place the queen cage in a new hive between some of the frames (what they build the combs on). You then poured the tube of bees out into the hive and placed the lid on top. This was done in the morning and a bowl of sugar water was placed in the hive. The hive door was sealed with a small bit of grass or paper. The object was that the bees will eat the little wax stopper out of the queen cage releasing her into the hive. Once her scent is through the hive and they have fed a little they start working on clearing the door. This takes a day or two and they have now taken over the hive as their new home.

All pretty amazing really. Also the bees are quite docile while being installed as they don't have a 'home' to protect. Once they are established its a bit of a different story. Although, as long as you move slowly and its a nice sunny day, when they are busy working and therefore happy, you can go into the hive and do the chores. During these times when you remove the lid to the hive, after smoking them of course, there is a nice sounding hum issuing forth. If its a cloudy or cold day though, the sound can take on a roar. We had an experienced bee keeper tell us that you'll recognize the sound the second you hear it. And there was a time when I heard that sound and absolutely froze. My hubby didn't.

but that's a story for another day. :-)

Wow, my scarves are getting around

One of my fancy scarves made it out on a date!!! I am hoping to start selling these. They are quite fancy and come in several colours and can be made to order (within reason). I'll have better pictures once Miss Emme Rogers sends some to me.

I am asking $75.00 to start and they are on average three to four feet long and quite fluffy and glamorous. Think feather boa. You pay shipping costs. If I have the colour in stock they leave here on Monday's, other wise there is a two week turnaround time. Fell free to write and ask me questions.

The picture at left shows some of them before they were all sold. Sorry the picture isn't more detailed. I didn't think to make a close up of each scarf, but I will when some more are done.

Maybe you can be the second person in VanCity to own one of these gorgeous scarves???!!!!

Writing Void

Its going to be difficult, I think, coming up with things to write about now that one of my stars has left. I may change the flow of this a little by maybe adding some more of my life outside the store. Haven't decided yet. Let me know what you think.

I love hearing from followers of the blog and wouldn't mind too much if you wanted to sign up as a follower. There is a spot to the right of the postings.


Couldn't bring myself to go into the store last week on my day off, as I'm there so much anyway. So I went to the 'enemy over the highway' and checked out cereal. Now, I don't like this store at he best of times because they are too friggin big and don't really have that great of a selection. Oh, it looks impressive and all, but for example you go in there looking for peanut butter and they have lots of their own and maybe two small sizes in a name brand. Well, I want the big size as its more reasonable. I have found this in the case of most of the items I have looked for when I go there.

And speaking of reasonable, their cereal was 50 cents more and the whipping cream 30 cents more. Now they are a bigger set of stores than we are, but their prices are higher. I bought the stuff, (Stupid) because, as I said, I just didn't feel like going to my store. I wish I had.

By the way, neither our cheaper store chain nor theirs, carried the cereal that I wanted. Aggravating, really.