How in the world do I keep myself from squishing bees between frames, when moving them around, putting supers on, and when putting the inner cover back on? I swear I've probably murdered hundereds in these last couple months.
Oh yeah, and I got my first ACTUAL sting yesterday! I thought I got stung when I first installed my package back in April, but that must have just been a mosquito bite cause yesterday's sting was INTENSE! Right on the gut! It's what I get for not suiting up. lol But of course it happened right after crushing like 10 bees. I'm sure I angry them off bad. :-\
Sean Kelly
Sean, try and wiggle the frames a little as you put them back or before putting the frames in place watch carefully, as you place the frame and see if there are any bees between the edge of the frame and your hive box. If there are give them a second before you lower the frame completely. Now if you are pushing frames together, you need to do it gently. Give the bees a little time to move out of your way as you are moving the frames back in place. You will get better at it with time. Same thing with the top cover, slightly wiggle, slightly lower at the same time, give them a second to get outta the way. It will also help when putting on the cover to smoke them a little as well, if they are piled on top, this will cause them to move down and out of the way. Good luck, hope this helps.
when i replace the inner cover i slide it on from the front toward the back using the top of the hive body like a scraper...gently and slowly of course.
Move slow. Most will get out of the way. You will squish some no matter what. Set boxes down catty corner and slowly move into square.
Quote from: randydrivesabus on June 12, 2007, 07:35:30 AM
when i replace the inner cover i slide it on from the front toward the back using the top of the hive body like a scraper...gently and slowly of course.
Good thinkin! I'll try that inner cover trick next time. Very cool. Thanks everyone!!!
Sean Kelly
Sometimes, in a busy colony I use manipulation cloths and only keep the space open which I have the frame out of, then when I'm done I whip off the cloths, smoke them and put the super on before they have a chance to spill out.
But when putting frames in, just be gentle and make sure you don't bang about to much, aswell as put it in dead straight.
When inspecting the hive, start from the bottom up. In other words, take your upper supers and place on ground. Inspect bottom deep. Place second deep on top and inspect. Move up. This upsets the bees less and you get fewer boil overs so less crushing. Also, hit'em w/ smoke or sugar water w/ HBH just before putting supers back on is another way t0 get'em to move down and away..
Having watched a few other bee keepers at work i'd suggest either smoking around the edges of the boxes to encourage the bees to go onto the foundation and thus out of the way.
Or when placing a super on top of a brood box for instance get a small wedge of wood and put between the two. Then when you slowly pull the wedge out the bees realise the gap is getting smaller and move out of the way.
Rob. P.S. I don't advise squashing the queen :)
This advice has been helpful for me also, as I end up killing lots of bees also and always feel sad about it. Getting that first frame out has been so hard for me.
I will take some of the advice I have read here.
Annette
I've found it near impossible to go without killing at least a few bees, but with lots of smoketo move the bees along, a slow pace while taking things apart and a slow pace and some wiggling while things put back together I've found I kill much fewer bees.