Just brought home a tree hive that had been pretty beat up..maybe 300 bees left comb was wasted by rain.
Decided to go and try to get 2 frames of brood to help them..It was very overcast and nearly dark...BIG SUPRISE...the bees got MEGA angry off..I mean the kind of angry off you would expect from AHB...this is a gentle hive.
Lesson for the day...unless you want nearly 30 bee stings don't do this...ever..and that was with gloves and complete suit.
I KNEW better...just plain stupid...
Funny, yesterday I installed a new package 50 degrees overcast, and windy. I thought I better put some syrup in the other hives so there was no robbing. I opened the all ready hott hott hive and you guessed it. As son as I cracked opened the inner cover they were flying out like F22 Raptors :evil:. They covered my veil and gloves instantly. No stings here but you are right.
Whatta ya mean....NEW BEEK??
I been at it for 30 plus years and won't go in them when there's a storm on the horizon. I have a little saying.....
Look at the sky. If you wouldn't let roofers remove the roof on your house that day, don't remove the roof from the bee's house. They won't like it any more than you would.
If you think it would be a good day to re-roof your house, then go into the bees all you want. They won't mind either.
Another thing not to do if you're a new beek (or an old one :-D)
Don't try to move a hive using only straps. Staple the supers together. My first year in beekeeping, a hive was given to me by a local organic nursery that I do business with. It was an abandoned hive left by the previous owners of the property 5 years prior, and had not been worked or treated in any way during that time.
Miss smarty pants here decided to be lazy and use straps instead of staples. When I started to lift the hive to my pickup truck bed, my hand slipped, and the bottom board slid catta-cornered under the bottom super, creating a big gap for thousands of angry bees to take out their rage. I got somewhere in the range of 50 stings, through the beesuit.
Wow I thought I had some bad bees in the past.