Busy In Bee Town

So we're 12 weeks into this bee business and it continues to be an interesting experiment.  There are droves of bees now.

I couldn't believe how fast the top bar hive (Harmony) took off compared to the Langstroth hive (Mordor), especially considering they had to make their own comb and Mordor has wax frames.  When I went into the hives to put an empty bar and frame in the brood chambers three weeks ago, Harmony had thirteen drawn comb and Mordor only seven.  Following expert advice, I not only put a frame in the brood chamber in Mordor, but went ahead and put another super on top ( a box with frames).

I went to check last Sunday and was quite shocked to find all the frames drawn and capped. Whoa, they went at warp speed compared to how they started, I don't get that.  They are aggressive and I have a hard time managing without help, so the Handy Man got a sting proof bee jacket for Father's Day and I got one for myself.  Thankfully, I had prepared by bringing another super full of frames, so I was ready and got it on.

In the Harmony hive, the girls had done some work on one bar I put between combs,   but the last two showed no effort.  Mordor is now way ahead in the honey department. Very curious.

Anyway, I get Mordor put back together and Handy Man moves fifteen feet down the hill, unzips his hood and one of those mean bees nails him in the throat and I see more on their way and I'm yelling, "Back up, back up!"  Thankfully he only got hit once and more thankfully, he isn't allergic.  My first bee sting from that hive didn't result in more than a mosquito bite looking place, but the next one on my nose was very, very scary.  I would post a picture but you may never wander outside again. Trust me, it was awful. So, tomorrow I will call and get a prescription for an epi-pen.

Today, they were loving the sunshine and zooming in, out and around like crazy.

That last comb in Harmony still doesn't show much effort.

The bees were certainly dense on all the other frames.

A peek into Mordor showed bees covering every frame in the new super.  This will be honey we can have.  

I'm ordering a new queen, then begins the arduous task of trying to find the old one and introducing a new one.  I'd much prefer to move that hive into the woods and leave it to it's own devices, but I don't want anymore mean bees.

This really gives me a much greater respect, awe, whatever, for the folks who've gone into the wild after honey, with no bee jacket.  Ughh, not for me.