Sometimes it stings

Yes, as beekeepers we are learning all about stings…physical and emotional. Let’s start with the emotional. Sadly, this past month we lost the second of our two hives. Talk about heartbroken. We had gone out to place the candy board on for winter feeding and realized the hive was virtually empty. Dead bees everywhere and little to no honey. Talk about a sad day. After a successful honey harvest in August, we were now beeless. And I thought a beekeeper with no honey was bad…a beekeeper with no bees is even worse! There were so many dead bees I was able to scoop them into a jar. 

I can’t tell you why I decided to scoop them into a jar…maybe I thought I’d have an opportunity to use them for educational purposes at some point? Time will tell. Either way, you can see here from the picture how sad dead bees are. I also can’t tell you what happened to the hive. Maybe it was hive beetles? Maybe the hive was robbed out? I just don’t know…and not knowing what happened stings, too.

Now on the day of discovery it was a cool day. Bees weren’t really flying but the little beekeeper and I had suited up, we aren’t yet brave enough to really do much with or around hives without protective gear. There were a few bees still hanging out in the hive as we disassembled it for storage. After getting the hive stored away, we hung our bee suits back on the hooks in the laundry room. This leads in to our first physical sting. Later thay night the little beekeeper went in to take the clothes out of the dryer for me and really started hollering. I knew he was hurt but had no idea it was a bee sting! He had stepped on a bee in the laundry room. She must have hung on to one of our suits and made her way to the floor where he stepped on her with his bare foot. With all the screaming and yelling, I panicked and pulled the stinger straight out…which he later reminded me is the wrong way to remove a stinger! I think you are supposed to scrape it out to keep venom from going in. Whoops. Next time I’ll hopefully remember that. From there it was a lot of ouching and complaining but he was fine. Being on the bottom of the foot might have helped as that skin seems thick and tough but it was red and he did complain. No epi pen was needed and he did fine with it. Ice and numbing burn cream was the route that provided the most relief. By the next day he didn’t even mention it. 

Our first sting was in the books. We knew it would eventually happen but I thought it would be me, not him! Not looking forward to my first sting…hoping to put that off as long as possible! All in all, stings are tough. Both kinds. We are very sad to be beeless but are determined to pick it back up in the spring. We will have to come up with a plan to buy more bees and possibly expand. We had wanted to increase our number of hives but the thought of investing in more hives only to lose them is a stinger, too. We’ll talk it all over with our bee mentor after the holidays and hopefully come up with a plan that makes sense. Stay tuned – we’ll BEE sure to keep you posted! 

For now, the only hive we have is the decorative one on the porch. This hive is special to me as it belonged to our mentor. A ten-frame hive…equipment he used for his bees. I had fun making it festive for the holidays – in the future I have ideas of lots of hives full of bees each with their own wreath. Stong hives that will be toasty and warm and able to pull through winter to thrive in the spring…producing lots of honey for us. A girl can dream, right?

While we may not have bees, I am thankful for the honey we were able to harvest last fall. Sharing honey is still one of my favorite parts of beekeeping. This is the first Christmas we’ve been able to distribute as a small gift to friends and family. Is it weird that I even took honey to my endodontist? She seemed so interested in my bees, was kind, and didn’t hurt me when I needed a root canal – being able to take her honey made the visit a little better for me!

The only perk to not having bees right now is that I won’t worry all winter long about them. But honestly, I’d rather worry than not have any bees. The birds will have to keep me entertained through the winter months. I enjoy them almost as much as bees! 

We will be ready once spring arrives. Next year is a big year as our queen bee will turn sixteen and I have a lot of ideas on a “SWEET” sixteenth birthday that includes a lot of honey. Maybe I’ll even let her paint one of our potential new hive boxes pink? Maybe. 

But until then, we hope you’ll be cozy in your own hive for the holidays. Stir some honey into a hot tea and sip it from your favorite mug, fix some biscuits or cornbread and top with butter and honey, fix a peanut butter and honey sandwich, whip up some honey mustard for a ham sandwich…so many uses for honey this winter season. And don’t forget…if you get a cough, a teaspoon of honey can sometimes take the edge off. 

Merry Christmas from our hive to yours and Hap-BEE New Year, too!

-Worker Bee 2021