Back when it was still chilly and there was not much in flower, circa March 28, I began a post about getting honeybees. It read like this:
"It's not by accident that approximately 12,000 Italian honeybees landed at UF 2200 today. Thanks to my friend Justin Waller, who months ago organized our day trip to pick-up two hives of honeybees from Brushy Mountain Bee Farm, my attempt to become a beekeeper is for the forseeable future a reality. I tried to prepare better for the start of my life as a beekeeper by reading "A Year in the Bee Yard: An Expert's Month-by-Month Instructions for Successful Beekeeping", but nothing suffices - in my book - for hands-on learning. We got to the farm at around 9:30, (after a quick journey into North Wilksboro, where we found a fancifully lit cafe that serves none other than Counter Culture coffee). When we arrived, the farm was blanketed in a heavy, wet mist which soon turned to a rhythmic and consistent rain—perfect conditions, we soon found out, for moving honeybees.
I was amazed by the farm: two huge warehouses, one loaded with stacks of 1.5 or 3 lb boxes of honeybees and individually packaged queen bees; the other loaded with every inconceivable amount of beekeeping paraphernalia. We were among hundreds who had traveled many miles to pick up honeybees (There are only three days during the year to pick-up bees). I was so curious about my fellow beekeepers: folks of all ages and shapes, novices and experts, neo-homesteaders and "New Deal" survivors all swarming as one. Building #2 contained the live bees, which was our first stop. We gave the folks sitting behind a desk our names and they pointed us towards a stack of small boxes, approximately 6"x6"x9" made of thin ply on four sides, the other two sides covered in mesh wire screening, and weighing 3lbs. They told us our 3lb boxes contained some 12,000 bees but on inspection, it appeared to contain one mass of gelatinous, jiggling, black goo dangling from the top side of the box."
What I did not finish saying: we got lots and lots of bees in two small boxes. We learned how to put them in a hive. We put them in the trunk of the car for the three hour journey back to White Cross and Durham. We unloaded the bees using the process we learned at the farm: spray the entire hive down with sugar water so bees are distracted, stuck together and kept busy eating and cleaning sugar water off each other while you dump them in their new home; secure the queen bee (who is enclosed in small box and sealed with sugar cube) onto one of the slats; name her Elena after medieval Portuguese queen Elena; dump rest of bees into hive; insert all slats; insert feeder box and fill with tons of sugar water so bees don't starve before flowers bloom. Justin did this at his house. I did this at UF2200. Justin was stung. I was not.
Fast forward a couple of weeks: bees seem to be doing fine. The sugar water in the feeder was replenished. Bees seem happy.
Fast forward a month: lots of flowers and lawn covered in clover. Bees seem OK.
Fast forward another week or something: I site a huge mass of bees outside of hive. They appear to be moving, but a strange mass. I leave it "bee" (sorry I had to).
Two days later: Adam asks Katherine if I've seen the mass of dead bees outside the hive. I go investigate. Lots of alive bees are moving around lots of dead bees. Lots of dead bees, in a mass not unlike the mass I saw on the hive two days before are now in a mass on the ground. Flies and sad, puffy, unformed bees lay in mass. Oh sadness. Waterlogged? What happened?
Katherine consults Justin. Justin consults Dave Fruchtenicht (he sells at the Durham Farmer's Market! Don't miss his honey or his beeswax stuff!), the local bee guru. Dave comes TODAY MAY 14, 2009, to UF2200 and diagnoses the hive: As Justin suspected, the bees starved to death. However, Dave explained that they did not starve due to lack of food (have you seen my clover yard???? geez, I'm surprised I haven't gotten a letter from the neighborhood association!) but said the QUEEN, QUEEN ELENA, was not producing as many worker bees as she was drones! The hive was filled with drones and few workers! This is a problem! The hive is OUT OF BALANCE! The queen is off her rocker! There's not enough workers to feed the hive! What to do?? I'm not sure. Dave may have a new hive with a new queen, but I have failed...I will check the hive tomorrow and bless the queen, perhaps she will come to her senses. It all is still such a mystery to me.
My many thanks to the real beekeepers, Justin and Dave, for tending the the troubled hive and diagnosing the problem and keeping up with their hives and providing delicious honey for us.
What an interesting, but slightly sad, story. Thanks for sharing, and keep up updated on Elena's madness.
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