My super gentle girls

[Draginol]

Disclaimer: I am fully aware of how stupid I am.

I have generally  not been using smoke or any protective clothing on the hive.  My son and I don't react to bee stings (my son doesn't even react to the venom to the point where he doesn't feel pain other than the physical pressure of the stinger in his skin). 

So this past weekend we had our 3 hives. One is doing great. Another looks to have gotten some exposure to pesticide as there is a  pile of dead bees in front of the hive and until the recent rains a lot of them were looking a bit dizzy. And the last hive is doing terrible having built virtually no comb all summer.

I've been feeding the third hive but this weekend took a frame of honey from one hive and gave it to the hive doing poorly. I may end up turnign the third hive into a nuc for the winter if it doesn't improve as I am not sure they're going to survie the winter on their own (I'm looking to take care of bees, the honey is a minor consideration).

Anway, we have been doing this without smoking and without protective clothing (shorts, t-shirt) and we have yet to get stung.  When we took out the frame of honey, I brushed them off and many of them ended up on the ground.  So my son and I literlaly picked thm up one by one by hand and put them back into the hive (each of us probably had 2 dozen walking on our hands). No stings.

Mind you, we've both been stung before plenty of times (myself hundreds of times over the years) but never once by any of our bees. Always feral bees and wasps and what not.

I'm just amazed at how gentle our bees have been with us.

My younger son got stung this summer picking up a feral bee though he didn't react to it other than feeling pain (I pulled the stinger out pretty quickly).  But with our bees, he actually had put one on his ear (which I told him not to do again).

It's amazing how gentle bees can be.  I don't think they really know us as much as they just sense the calmness when we're working with them. We take our time and try to be extra careful not hurting anyway.

Now if I could only help the third hive recover and the second hive get over its problem with insecticide or whatever has caused the pile of dead bees.

I realize most people are into the honey part.  I actually don't like honey very much. I just like the bees.

[Understudy]

I am like you in that I like the bees. I am not a huge honey person.

As far as gentle bees goes, it is all fun and games until somebody gets hurt. If something happens and your bees for whatever reason end up having a mood swing because they decided not to take their lithium anymore. You will end up with a bunch a swollen appendages. I had a barometric drop happen and the bees went nuts. I would encourage at least having the veil on and the smoker close by.

Sincerely,
Brendhan

[Michael Bush]

Personally, I would recommend a minimum of a veil all the time. In the blink of an eye a gentle hive can mobilize when you drop a frame of bees or drop a box or they just get in a bad mood one day.

[Scadsobees]

Also, the smaller the hive, generally the more gentle they will be.

As far as your ailing hives....do you know the mite load?  Any bees with crinkled wings?  Sounds like you have crawlers and this can be caused by Varroa or tracheal mites.  Might want to consider some remedy, and also feed the smaller hives if they aren't drawing like they should.

Yeah, dropping a frame or a box can be a real experience.  Mine have been tame in comparison to some of the bone-head moves described on the forum, but it still gives you an adreneline rush when the box slips....

Rick

[bberry]

I didn't wear gloves and have been guilty of going into the hives wearing flip flops and short sleeves but i have recently changed my lax attire after a rather nasty sting. My hives are usually very docile and rarely sting and i am not allergic so i haven't worried much about stings but on this occasion the girls were very irritated and i had to close them up in a hurry as they were zinging the veil and all that.
Well, i got stung and though i can maintain my calm it was forced and they knew it-that sting hurt worse than any i have ever had! The bees were upset, i was upset, the whole shebang was a blow and it all could have gone so much better if i was in full gear. Also, i have known two beeks now who have become allergic all of the sudden after many years of caring for bees and now have to inspect hives with their epipen at all times.
I too have always been amazed at the calm of the honey bees and i think that if you are confident and comfortable than interactions with the bees is usually good-full ragailia or bikini. But I think there is something to be said of creating the most concientiously beautiful experience every time you open those hives-for yourself, for the bees, for the larger act you are contributing to-and as beeks it is our job to prepare ourselves for the worst case so that we can handle it in the most graceful way we can and not cause further disruption (cuz no matter how full of love and good intentions we are when we open the hives- it is disruptive). The sting i got the other week made me feel like maybe i wasn't taking the full responsibility that i should have been and so i went out and bought my first pair of gloves :roll:

[JP]

I will be the first one to admit that beekeeping can be a spiritual thing, for us, but the bees probably don't agree with our thinking, even though we want them to. Who knows why they decide to sting on that perfect day, when we wanted to play with them and be amazed by all their splendor. When I was a kid I was amazed at the beauty of an asssassin bug on a cooking pear tree. With all of the right intentions, karma, and love, I may have extended towards that little bright colored bug, that little sucker had other ideas, and promptly stung my finger. I don't mess with them to this day. Not trying to be cynical, just trying to point out that bees and other insects, don't share our perspective, even though we may want them to. My vote, wear a veil, as a minimum, when handling bees, even the nice ones.

[rdy-b]

 8-)  http://forum.beemaster.com/index.php?topic=10866.0

[Draginol]

Yea, any time I do any real serious work I put on the veil and smoker.

Right now, the hives are relatively small.  What's ironic is that this summer is probably the first time I haven't been stung by bees, wasps, hornets, etc. in as far back as I can remember. The fun of growing up playing in swamps I suppose.

Regarding the one hive, they may indeed have a mite problem.  The other two hives don't have any incidence of the bee pile up.  I have medication on order from BetterBee (which i've been waiting to get for weeks, but that's another story).

The small hive I have several jars inside full of sugar water.  Even in the bigger one that may have the mite/pesticide problem I have about 4 jars of sugar water to see if they'll take it.

I am not confident that the little hive is going to make it, I may end up taking my loss in the Fall and merging them if they don't progress soon. I don't think they have taken over even one additional frame since I've gotten them.  I've found the queen on inspection and watched her walk around laying eggs.  So she's there doing her thing.  The bees just aren't drawing.

The third hive I rarely touch as they're doing great.  I wouldn't consider doing anythign with that hive without full cover/smoker.

I should also mention that my sons and I only deal with the hive in ideal conditions (afternoon, sunny, gentle breeze).  The bees are located at my office so I have the luxury of checking them out whenever conditions are right.

[Draginol]

Of course, today I got stung by them.

I had it coming. Was checking on the amount of food left and when I had closed the lid I accidentally killed a couple (I set it down very gently but could feel the resistance) so I stopped as soon as I felt the resistance and saw one dead one with a cuople others next to it.

Now, I know about the squashed bee having released its alarm pheramone but complacency is a dangerous thing. So I started nudging the bees with my thumb out of the way to close the lid and one of them stung me right in the thumb nuckle. Ouch!