Bee Rescue Part Two (the rather too exciting part)

Millions of bees

24 miles

5 beekeepers

1 sting

Not enough lifts (the external casings of the hive)

P is still away on cricket tour so dad came with me to help carry the G Bees into the car and from the car to our apiary.   All new beekeepers who get their bees from Douglas or his brother Robert believe that their bees are performing bees trained from an early age to behave immaculately in all situations.   Thus lulled into expecting to arrive at the farmyard, block the entrance to the hive, and then, with the help of Jonathan lift the hive into our car and drive home, we were a bit taken aback to find bees everywhere.   

One hive had already disappeared and we can only assume that many of the workers were out foraging when their hive was moved so when the workers returned to the apiary to find their home gone, they then tried to get into the other hives, resulting in bees clinging to every outer surface of the remaining hives and flying around in an agitated state.   Poor things.

It took 5 of us an hour of patience, misting with spray and a bit of smoking to get two of the hives packed into cars and one strapped ready to move tomorrow.   Unlike the pick up of our first colony, (see the first blog), dad and I were both wearing full beekeeping gear with the veils on for the full 24 mile journey home.   We knew there were a lot of hitch hikers clinging to the bottom of the floor of the hive.  They were quiet for the journey but we had the sun roof and back windows open and it was dark.

Arriving home, it was even darker.  I got stung lifting the hive onto a bogey for the trundle across the lawn to the apiary.   (But hey! The stinging sensation disappeared quite soon!)  It was so dark I couldn't see where the hitch hikers were and I must have crushed someone.  Sorry!

Now, pay attention, here's a technical bit!   Colony No. One, Queen B and the Beebettes have a deep 14 x 12 inch brood box.    Colony No. Two, Queen G and the G Bees have  a normal brood box plus a super, known as a brood and a half.   A brood and a half is taller than a deep brood box so, when we put the lifts (outer casings) on, we found that we needed an extra one, otherwise we couldn't fit the lid on the hive.   This meant unlocking the house to get the keys for the barn and opening the barn to get an extra lift.........  

No, we didn't choose brood and a half and next year we will have to convert to a deep brood box - that will  be several blogs in its own right.

We got the hive in to place and undid the straps holding everything tightly together (not needed for the Douglas pick up) but it was almost impossible to remove the foam blocking the entrance.  In the end I got a couple of the foam pieces out and dad and I ran for cover.  We left our bee suits in the barn along with some more hitch hikers but, for the record P,  we didn't put the bee suits on the TR6 in case they have any sticky propolis on them.   There are no pictures for this blog entry so far because it was dark.