Nasty Disposition

Frame with mostly uncapped honey.

Beekeepers have various common descriptions for hives. There are 'weak' hives (not many bees, or not enough bees to make surplus honey or to survive winter), 'average' hives (uh, average and unremarkable), and 'strong' hives (hives bubbling over with a very large bee population).

Then there are MEAN hives.

A MEAN hive is a hive of bees with an attitude problem. They simply want to sting the crap out of you. They protect their hives in situations that don't warrant protection...and in my opinion this sort of hive is intolerable.

What makes one hive mean, and one hive wonderful???

Sometimes a hive is mean because it is getting harassed by animals during the night. Skunks will often sit outside the hive and eat bees at the entrance. They will scratch at the opening of the hive and wait for the bees to come out and then eat them. I put my hives on a stand to help avoid this problem. In most other circumstances a hive is mean due to bad genes, and often enough, once the honey flow is in full effect (as it is now) hives will sometimes be a bit protective. Usually, if a person will just stay 15 or so feet from the hive, they will have NO problems. More often than not you can stand AT the entrance to the hive and be just fine. I have not yet been stung while standing at the entrance of a hive...even with NO protection at all.

This year I have compared the differences between my Russian and Italian hives. The Russians have built out comb faster, did not lose their queen, have not yet stung me, have been really docile, and have showed no signs of mite infestation. They have filled one honey super with honey and are part way through a couple of frames on another super. They have a beautiful black color and are a true pleasure to work with.

The Italians,on the other hand, have been hard work and little reward all year. They have built honey comb quite slowly, lost their queen early in the season, were very slow to build up their population, and since the honey flow started they have been seriously protective of their hive. In fact, the guard bees have chased me out of my own orchard, repeatedly, and while picking apples the other day, our 4 year old was stung on the arm over 50 feet from the hives. This is a remarkable distance for bees to fly in order to sting someone (when not provoked), and is FAR further than I would expect a SAFE distance to be.

The only problem is this: Since the honey flow started the Italians have gathered surplus honey FAR faster than the Russian bees. In fact, the amount of honey in the Italian hive, in such a short amount of time, is remarkable. Despite the wonderful speed at which they have gathered surplus honey, I just don't think that the NASTY disposition of these bees when the hive is full of honey is worth it. We have lost access to that part of the yard, and the added stress while working the hives is really annoying. Dealing with 50,000 bees is challenging enough for a guy like me who is keeping bees, partly, to overcome a serious fear of bees. Having really defensive bees while working a hive is just plain stressful.

Today while working both hives I had a guard bee attacking every part of my body trying to sting me (I was FULLY suited up today, except no gloves). I actually put my hands in my pockets to protect them from this nasty bee. It kept coming at my face and hands and was so angry, and so hell-bent on stinging me that I walked out of the orchard, while it harassed me over a distance of 100 feet. After a minute I walked back to the hives and began working again. The same thing happened again, and again, and again. After being driven from my own orchard 2 times I had had enough. I walked up to the apiary and stood there while this bee attacked me....each time it landed on my veil, and tried to shove its stinger through my face I swatted at it. After a couple of minutes I knocked him to the ground and killed him. Suddenly, peace and quiet. 100,000 other bees just working and cleaning and feeding and curing honey and living in harmony with nature. What a sigh of relief.

This picture shows capped honey, uncapped honey, and some brood. I do not use queen excluders to keep the queen from laying in the honey supers, so some of her eggs were laid with the honey. These frames will be carefully extracted to keep the honey from being mixed with the baby bees.

The purpose of today's foray into the hive was to see how much cured honey is in there and ready to extracted. The Italians have one honey super filled and almost fully capped with wax. The Russians have one honey super filled and mostly capped. All in all, it appears that I will be able to get between 40 and 55 lbs of honey this year from 1st-year hives. This is a good accomplishment and is due to a good year for honey combined with sound hive management.

To date I have been stung 5 times this year, including once today from my Italian hive today. I still have not started to wear gloves. I am getting used to the stings on the hands (3 on the hand...all on my right hand), but will never get used to the stings on the face (2 on the face so far). They hurt and when they swell there is more critical (internal) parts to be concerned about being affected by the swelling. Other than that, the stings have been a tolerable hazard of the trade.

The picture below is of today's bee sting (white raised area below my thumb), with a curious bee approaching between my thumb and forefinger. Its a neat picture.

If anyone had any questions shoot me an email: shawnbernard@gmail.com. If you have allergies, and need local honey, I will be selling a very small supply this year. It is all organic with no chemicals used whatsoever. These hives have never had any chemical treatments or medicines of any kind since they have been built.