Gee's Bees, LLC

B got stung today. It was a beautiful day and the bees were busy, as busy as a well... Bee. She was outback checking their comings and goings when one flew into her hair. Once entangled in that mop the sting was inevitable. It was on top of her head, but the swelling moved down her face, so by the evening she looked like she had gone a couple of rounds with Mike Tyson. We were able to get the rest of the honey bottled up. The last bucket that we are going to sell at least. We still have a bucket of later Summer honey that we are going to keep for recipes and mead making. This is darker, heavier honey with a bit of an aftertaste, so we decided not to sell it. The girls also got another round of 1:1 syrup. No spirulina this time. They should be bringing in plenty of pollen from the blooming Maples. https://photos.app.goo.gl/tbdyDgVHL2sVXhw8A

We got a pretty warm and sunny afternoon and decided we could poke our heads in Hives 21, 22a, & 22b the ones that received the brunt of the tree falling on them a few days ago,  🐝 Storm Damage (geesbeesnc.com) . They actually looked pretty good, their numbers were higher than what we thought they would be and boy were they angry. The Sting 'O Meter goes to 5 which is no way to start off a New Year. We got the end of the stand propped up on cinder blocks, and all of the hives moved back into position. Hive 21 feels pretty light, so we will get some sugar cakes back on their heads. The weather should be on the warmer side, so we may offer some 2:1 syrup shortly. 

There has been a flurry of posts lately, I guess you can equate that to a flurry of activities. Unfortunately, this one wasn't planned and isn't good. Not a good start to 2022 seems like this is a theme for the last couple of New Year’s. We’ve had a couple of days of crazy weather over the weekend it was 75° with a cold front moving in overnight we had some gusty winds that snapped the top of a tree off, taking out 3 hives. We headed out this morning to get them upright, but the damage may have been already done. The girls still kicking were not happy to see us, and we both were lit up a bit, but we can let that slide… They had a rough night. We’ll have to see if any of them make it. It looks like they've been laying in the rain for a while, so our hopes are not too high. We did beat the snow, a few inches of the stuff, just to add insult to injury. Lesson learned we will be strapping down the hives from now on. Then at least the boxes will stay together if something catast...

Have you ever been handed a frame of bees to hold while your spouse tries to catch a new queen for marking on it? Me neither at least until today. Being a model of coordination & steadiness I grabbed a hold of the side rails and most bees made way, one did not. Typical fury of a scorned woman, that one bee gave up her life to show me her displeasure in being manhandled. Atypical of me I had to take this assault on my left pointer finger in a stoic fashion so as not to be the target of the wraith of the real woman of the apiary, diligently trying to put a white dot on the thorax of a 2021 matriarch.  Being a beekeeper the number one question you get asked always involves stings. How many? How often? Where? and my personal favorite "Have you ever?". Non-beekeepers really don't appreciate the true amount of stings we get. I will say the more experience you gain the sting count does go down, but it's still a fairly regular occurrence. On a beautiful sunny afternoon on...