This winter, so far, has been quite mild. We had a brief cold snap, even some snow, a few weeks ago and the mornings are sometimes frosty but the temperatures during the day have been comfortable.
Our beehives were starting to look a bit worn and weather beaten.
We decided, when we created the bee yard, to order the "English Garden" style - peaked, copper roofs rather than flat, metal ones. (We've since wondered if we made the right decision. The fancy hives look nice but an extra work surface sure would come in handy when working the bees!) And we decided, rather than painting the beehives white, that we would instead stain them. We found an all natural oil that had a good reputation for holding up in the weather.
Our first two hives were stained before the packages of bees arrived. We were all ready to install them in their new homes as soon as we got them.
We did not plan on the third bee colony. We bought the hive earlier this spring on sort of a whim mostly because: it was inexpensive, it was for sale nearby, it matched our other hives and it was brand new (dangerous diseases can be spread by buying old bee equipment). I didn't bother to stain the boxes but put it in the barn and mostly forgot about it.
Until DS came running into the house yelling that something was wrong with the bees. Sure enough, they had swarmed.
When the hive gets too crowded, the queen takes a number of workers and flies off to find a new home. The bees left behind raise another queen and, in this way, the hive reproduces. While scout bees are searching for a suitable place to live, the worker bees crowd around the queen. This creates a noisy ball of bees that will only hang around for a short while. If the swarm is accessible, and if you move quickly, they can be captured and installed in a new hive.
DH and I raced to set up the extra hive and then ran for our veils and gloves. Our idea was to shake them into a five gallon bucket then quickly close them in with a mesh, metal oven rack that we had laying around. I volunteered to stand under the swarm with the five gallon bucket. DH suggested he climb the tree with large clippers and cut the branch the swarm was on. I thought that would startle them into flying off. I told him just to climb the tree and give the branch a good, sharp whack and the ball would fall off the branch into the bucket.
Unfortunately, he took my advice and whacked the branch. Most of the bees fell into the bucket. Many of them showered down over my head and arms and landed on my boots and clothing. When bees fall to the ground they do not necessarily fly off. Usually they begin to climb (this is why we always tuck our pant legs into our boots!) and will crawl as high as they can. Those bees began marching up my shirt, and since my arms were raised, began coming inside my veil, up my neck and into my armpits (I hadn't put on a long-sleeve shirt).
It's a little worrisome having bees crawling into some fairly sensitive places but I knew I could not freak out. Carefully I set the bucket on the ground and began flicking bees off my clothing and arms. DD came over to help brush bees off of me.
As I backed away from the bee yard I yanked off my veil and then my shirt (thankfully I was wearing a tank top underneath - ha!) and shook them out. Once I was bee-free, I dressed and went back to the tree where a good number of bees still clung to the branch.
DH climbed the tree, clipped the branch and shook the remaining bees into the bucket with no further drama. To his credit, he didn't give me too hard a time about my poor idea - much. Thankfully, too, swarming bees are not very aggressive. I was stung only one time.
This summer all the hives started to look a little weather worn and I knew, in any case, I needed to stain the little hive. It's easy to see the difference between the stained and unstained boxes in this photo.
The trick was to find a day that was just perfect. I wanted the temperature to be warm enough that my stain wouldn't freeze but cold enough that the bees wouldn't be too active plus I had to find the time. My chance came one day last week.
I set to work, wearing a veil and gloves just to be safe, slapping stain onto all three hives. I finished the backs and sides before gingerly working on the front of the box. There were some bees coming and going but they didn't seem too upset by my presence.
If this coat of stain does not hold up better than the last, we're going to have to switch out supers (boxes) one by one and paint them sometime next spring or summer. They are typically painted white so the hives don't get too hot inside so we'll probably just go with that. But that will be a job for another day. I was just thankful everything came together to get this small job done before the worst of winter sets in.
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