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Adventures in beekeeping
8 years ago
General
If you've been following my twitter a bit. I've started keeping bees, it's been interesting.
(warning: journal contains pics of bee stings and swelling around eye)
we were thinking about keeping bees this spring when a swarm showed up to the house. A swarm is when a new queen is born, usually when the space for the hive is getting a bit small, the new queen will fly to find a place for a new hive and a part of the old hive will follow her.
So a swarm just showed up in our tree and we decided that "well if the universe will put it on the front door" we went about collecting the bees, which was harder than it looked lemme tell you.
This was the swarm, http://imgur.com/qkvUPfI about 20 feet up, on a hill, so it was tough to get at. Bees are pretty docile in general and particularly when they're swarming as they have no honey or babies to protect. So the trick is you collect the queen and put her in the box so the rest follow (trick is finding the queen)
i'll skip a lot of the bother, we tried shaking them down, then we fashioned a long stick, then we borrowed a neighbors ladder (they were bemused to say the least) and cut down the branch. We managed to get a lot in the hive but most moved back to the branch at the point it had been cut, so we climbed the tree and cut off a chunk and carefully brushed the bees into the box.
http://imgur.com/mbUTahQ
And that was that. we left them alone for a week. There's still a garrison of about 100 bees in the tree but we have thousands in our box, they're active and bringing in pollen.
After all that we managed to get away with just one sting (me) and a minor burn from the smoker (not me)
well that is until yesterday.
like I said bees are really docile. you can actually sit by a hive and watch them, which I found to be fun during my lunch breaks. I'd watch the bees, see them take out any dead bees (bees don't live very long, only about 2 weeks and they'd been in the tree at least a week), set up guards, etc.
In watching I found bees are actually really goofy and uncoordinated. They burst out of the hive when they take off and tend to run into incoming bees a lot. its really funny to watch.
Well while I was sitting one bee flew out and ran into my head, unfortunately it got stuck just under the brim of my hat and panicked, stinging me. Lame.
http://imgur.com/VIS6wZ1 the sting (the white dot is the stinger)
Now you've probably heard not to pull out stingers but to scrape them with a card so you don't squeeze in more venom. That's not how bee stings work. It's more important to take them out quickly, very quickly. Just an 8 second delay will increase the swelling by 30%
I learned this after when I was looking into bee venom (it's interesting)
Also, bee stings tend to swell about 24-48 hours after the sting. So ten hours later my eye started to get puffy (warning the next two pics are of the swelling around my eye.)
http://imgur.com/lcWhRQK
And then when I woke up my eye was super swollen. http://imgur.com/CnV6kVM
I am alright really. It doesn't particularly hurt, just a bit tender (sort of like sunburned skin). bee stings on the face have a tendency to swell a lot, particularly swell around the eyes. this is an average sting and it'll probably go down in about 48 hours.
Personally I find the whole thing fascinating and funny (which is why i'm sharing)
(warning: journal contains pics of bee stings and swelling around eye)
we were thinking about keeping bees this spring when a swarm showed up to the house. A swarm is when a new queen is born, usually when the space for the hive is getting a bit small, the new queen will fly to find a place for a new hive and a part of the old hive will follow her.
So a swarm just showed up in our tree and we decided that "well if the universe will put it on the front door" we went about collecting the bees, which was harder than it looked lemme tell you.
This was the swarm, http://imgur.com/qkvUPfI about 20 feet up, on a hill, so it was tough to get at. Bees are pretty docile in general and particularly when they're swarming as they have no honey or babies to protect. So the trick is you collect the queen and put her in the box so the rest follow (trick is finding the queen)
i'll skip a lot of the bother, we tried shaking them down, then we fashioned a long stick, then we borrowed a neighbors ladder (they were bemused to say the least) and cut down the branch. We managed to get a lot in the hive but most moved back to the branch at the point it had been cut, so we climbed the tree and cut off a chunk and carefully brushed the bees into the box.
http://imgur.com/mbUTahQ
And that was that. we left them alone for a week. There's still a garrison of about 100 bees in the tree but we have thousands in our box, they're active and bringing in pollen.
After all that we managed to get away with just one sting (me) and a minor burn from the smoker (not me)
well that is until yesterday.
like I said bees are really docile. you can actually sit by a hive and watch them, which I found to be fun during my lunch breaks. I'd watch the bees, see them take out any dead bees (bees don't live very long, only about 2 weeks and they'd been in the tree at least a week), set up guards, etc.
In watching I found bees are actually really goofy and uncoordinated. They burst out of the hive when they take off and tend to run into incoming bees a lot. its really funny to watch.
Well while I was sitting one bee flew out and ran into my head, unfortunately it got stuck just under the brim of my hat and panicked, stinging me. Lame.
http://imgur.com/VIS6wZ1 the sting (the white dot is the stinger)
Now you've probably heard not to pull out stingers but to scrape them with a card so you don't squeeze in more venom. That's not how bee stings work. It's more important to take them out quickly, very quickly. Just an 8 second delay will increase the swelling by 30%
I learned this after when I was looking into bee venom (it's interesting)
Also, bee stings tend to swell about 24-48 hours after the sting. So ten hours later my eye started to get puffy (warning the next two pics are of the swelling around my eye.)
http://imgur.com/lcWhRQK
And then when I woke up my eye was super swollen. http://imgur.com/CnV6kVM
I am alright really. It doesn't particularly hurt, just a bit tender (sort of like sunburned skin). bee stings on the face have a tendency to swell a lot, particularly swell around the eyes. this is an average sting and it'll probably go down in about 48 hours.
Personally I find the whole thing fascinating and funny (which is why i'm sharing)
But yeah, you're definitely... a SWELL guy. Right? Riiiight? :D
With bees, I'm just all "nope," and when it comes to wasps, well... I wish for swift annihilation upon them all. :v
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/21192597/ (warning, mild curse word)
our neighbors are super cool. We're in a pretty rural area so we have a lot of space and there's some bee keepers on the road (we think we got some of their bees). The neighbors closest to us are the ones that let us borrow the ladder and they're super happy we're keeping the bees as it'll be really great for their gardens.
For anyone who wants to know, even if you're immune to the venom, it still hurts to get stung.
Also you can treat bee stings with mud or Plantain (not the banana shaped plant, the herb plantain plant) which considering where you live is probably around you in abundance. You just chew it up and slather it on.
Good to know on the plant. Apparently onion is super helpful, stinging nettle too, funnily enough (eating it not rubbing it in your face)
More recently, a swarm was encountered just outside Midland, MI. Drove right through them before realizing what they were. Fortunately, the windows were all up.