Moving the Bees

BEE TRIUMPH! It followed intense failure. Here is the story.

We discovered not long ago that we needed to move the bees. There's a lot of construction happening at the house where they were staying, and the bees were in the way. So we picked a space at our home here, put down a tarp, put down two pallets, leveled them with bricks, and then went over to the house where the bees were living to take them home.

I did some research to discover the best way of moving bees because, of course, I've never done it before. So I did some reading. Evidently it's a good idea to move your bees at dusk because then they're all home, tucked into their little bee beds, and not flying around. The more bees you actually manage to transport, (as opposed to daylight when the workers are still in the fields - then they come back to the hive location to find their hives gone!!!), the stronger a work force you'll have and the more honey they'll make.

So it makes sense to move them at night because you're less likely to lose a big portion of your work force. I was a little nervous about this, because I know bees become a little irritable at night. Think about the way you feel when a stranger comes to your house at noon and asks to borrow your phone. Not that big a deal. Now imagine the same scenario happening at 2 in the morning. Yeah, totally different feeling there. Same for bees. They really dislike being bugged at night. So the idea of me going and stopping up their entrance hole, and then picking their hive up, and sticking it onto a bumper trailer on Sandy's suburban at night was giving me the heeblie jeeblies. But that's what we were going to do. I just had to hope that my two queens, Nefertiti and Nefertari, would be cool with moving to the less fashionable side of the river...

We got our suits and put the trailer into the hitch, and went over there at 9:15 p.m. On the way Sandy and I attempted to build one another's confidence by repeating the words, "it'll be fine!" and "this will be great!" It wasn't working. This doesn't look like the expression of a confident man to me, anyway...

It'll be fine! We can DO this! Uhhh...I think?

And then god sent us a sign. In the form of Cyndi Lauper. Crap.

This canNOT be good. And it wasn't. When we got there, despite the fact that the sun was way down, the bees were all bearded out on the front of the hive. Girls do, indeed, just wanna have fun. How the heck could I move them when they weren't IN the hive???

Doom. We waited until 11 o'clock at night to see if the girls would go to bed, but no. They are party bees. They're like...Tara Reid bees. They're all up late, drinking and smoking and dancing and flirting with inappropriate men! We toyed with many different ideas of how to get the bees into the hive, bee brushes were waved around, sugar water was sprayed...but I was worried about ticking the bees off. We gave up, and went home to regroup.

The next day I called Bob. Bob was one of my teachers in the beginner bee-keeper's course and he is my personal bee guru. I left a message to the effect of, "Hi Bob, Nessa here - first time bee keeper. Uh...HELP!" He called back - I explained my problem and he congratulated me on having such a healthy colony of bees - evidently the more they beard the larger the colony is. I told him one of my colonies was booming then, but the other one was probably weaker since they don't so much beard as goatee. Alas, he did not laugh at this attempt at bee humor.

Beard in front - goateeing hive in the back

Anyway, Bob heard me out and then told me that if I were to smoke them, they would retreat into the hive. This seems counter-intuitive to me. When was the last time you heard someone yell, "FIRE!" and then everyone ran INTO a building? But he said that's what they do and I trust Bob. So that evening Sandy and I returned to the hives, armed with the smoker full of dead pine needles. We strapped the hives together - we hadn't inspected the hives in two weeks so the bees had more than likely really glued their supers together with propolis but we weren't taking any chances. And then, with the help of the smoker, weekly yoga, and the little baby Jesus, we got the bees into the hive, and onto the trailer.

Note that I duct-taped their entrance - really their entrance was shut with a wood block, but I duct taped over it since there were gaps. I felt comfortable doing this because their bottom board is an IPM screened board - plenty of ventilation for them - and we were only driving them 5 miles.

No transport is 100% perfect. We lost a number of bees from both hives - poor lonely girls left behind. I waited as long as I could before closing them up but some were just a little too late. Stakkars! I feel horrible about them.

And then we brought them to their new home. I gave Sandy explicit directions - "do NOT go above 20 mph! Put on your hazards! Do Not Bounce My Bees!"

I followed him in my car with my hazards on also. My little brother Cameron is visiting and he was riding with me, so he got to listen to me saying "Slow DOWN Sandy! Slow DOWN Sandy! SLOW THE F DOWN SANDY!!!" while I white-knuckled the steering wheel. Cameron said, "why are you yelling to yourself?" and I replied, "So I don't call him and starting yelling at HIM..." but we got home okay, and the bees had their revenge on Sandy for his rough driving later.

We managed to get them onto their pallets no problem. I was fully suited up and Sandy was wearing his suit and gloves but not his veil. We got both hives situated and then Sandy realized that there were guard bees buzzing him. Where were they coming from??? We hadn't released them yet! He suddenly pointed - "Oh my god, they're coming out from under the top!" and he took off running. That one guard bee really had it in for him, and chased him around the car TWICE. I was running after him yelling, "Hold still, I'll get her off you!" but he was in full flight mode. The bee finally returned to her sisters and he managed to get himself into his veil without getting stung. The scare served him right though for the bouncing he gave them.

The girls in their new home...

This morning I got to witness their first orientation flights - the bees come out of the hive and spiral gently up into the air above the hive, taking in all the new landmarks. It's beautiful.