They hate me. They truly hate me
I don’t have many pictures for this post. I got smart with my last inspection. I started with the Frigga hive. Those girls are so laid back and accommodating. I don’t know where they’ve been collecting their nectar from, but they’re nice and calm. Seriously, I could do a hive inspection with them without my bee suit and not worry they’ll sting me. I’ve been stung five times. All five of those stings came from bees from Galadriel. Nice, right?
The two queen cups I found the week before and opened to make sure there weren’t larva in there were back. I’m concerned they’re trying to swarm, but swarm cells are usually found on the bottom of the frame. These are at the top. I hope they aren’t trying to get rid of the queen. She’s laying very well, and this hive is doing great! I did put some sugar water out last night, June 20th. Frigga did not care one bit their hive got opened. Galadriel, ugh, Let me tell you about her.
When I named these hives, I opted to name them after mothers in my favorite fandoms. Galadriel is Arwen’s grandmother. I hoped she’d be the kind, benevolent Galadriel we see dress the Fellowship in their cloaks and hand out gifts to several members of the group. Instead, I have the scary Galadriel from when Frodo offered her the One Ring. So, I have no pictures of inside the hive. The girls have forced me to do inspections wearing gloves. Apparently my iPhone doesn’t register my goat skin gloves as being allowed to open anything on my phone. Awesome.
The inspection of Galadriel. Goodness gracious. They do truly hate me. I took a look at the frames in the new box. Like Frigga, the girls are drawing some comb out there. I checked for the queen before I set the box on the ground and that little bit was enough to make me public enemy #1 with the girls in the hive. I only got to look at three frames before I smelled bananas. That means I irritated them to the point they sent out a pheromone in warning that I was going to destroy the hive. I cut my losses, closed up the hive, gathered my stuff and got the hell away those girls dive bombing my head. One was so mad, It followed me well over twice the distance they normally follow me.
When I added sugar water to the feeder, I had a couple of girls dive bombing my head repeatedly. Next inspection, I’m going to wear the gloves we bought to protect our hands at the beginning of the plague time. Supposedly the bees don’t like the feel of standing on those gloves, so while they won’t protect me from getting stung, maybe they’ll keep the bees from landing on me. If they can’t land, they can’t sting. I know it’s a bit of a pipe dream, but I’m going to try it. It’s the final thing I’m willing to try without requeening the hive. I don’t want to do it. Russian bees are known for producing more honey, and she is a champion egg layer like Frigga. However, I can’t risk that hive hurting someone. It feels like a damned if you do, damned if you don’t situation.
So, that’s what’s going on with the bees in my world. This weekend the boy child and I are attending the field day being put on by the beekeepers’ club we belong to. I’m not worried about Varroa mites, but I do believe I probably should be scared of them. I’ll learn how to test for them and then treat them. After that, we get to practice marking queens. I hope I don’t need that for a while, but it’ll be nice to know how to do that as well.
Well, I took a video and tried to post it, but I’m too digitally illiterate to do it right now to figure out of to do it. Once I do, I have a lot of videos to share. I love watching them fly in and out of the hives. It relaxes me. As always, if anyone has any questions, feel free to ask! If I can’t answer, I know how to find someone who can!