It was Tuesday morning... a lovely day. I was out sitting with my hives in the middle of my 5 acre property as I do most mornings. The folks behind me (who are EXTREMELY LOUD) were working on something, hammering and yelling at one another as usual. Suddenly, I hear the woman scream "LOOK AT ALL THE BEES UNDER THERE!" then all sorts of hooting and hollering. What they are doing is out of my line of sight, since there are a lot of trees out this way, and they are on the other side of a 20 yard wide ravine between our properties. I sort of shake my head and laugh to myself, thinking that they probably actually got into a wasp nest since those are in no short supply out here. A few minutes later, I got up and went inside, then leaving the house for about 2 hours to do my daily routine.
When I return, I go back out to my hives to see how everyone is doing. At first I was confused at the number of bees in the air, then I saw that my biggest hive, a Lang of Russians 2 deeps and 1 shallow, has been knocked over. This was no light hive, it's weighing around a few hundred pounds at this point, had been sitting on level, and was the first hive one would encounter after coming through my back fence. It wasn't wind, it was a perfectly still day and this thing has sat out through mondo thunderstorms anyway. We don't have bears out here, and no other animals in reach of this hive anywhere near strong enough to have toppled it. Also, the line of hasty footprints through the muddy ravine between my fence and the folks behind us... well, that was a pretty big clue.
Regardless, I ran inside and got my suit and hurried back out, putting the hive back together, taking a LOT of stings through my bee suit (boy they were mad!), and spraining my right wrist in the process. From what I could tell, the frames all looked relatively intact, and once I got it back upright, the bees calmed down and went back inside.
Strangely enough, when I showed back up outside and my neighbors realized it, they got very quiet.
This hive is my pissiest hive... it's no wonder that there was only the one knocked over. Starting with the Russians, they wouldn't have had a shot to get to any of the other hives. I haven't gone over and asked the neighbors anything. If they DID come over and do this, blaming me for whatever they'd upset that morning... a) I think they probably got more than they bargained for when the bees attacked and b) if they were willing to do that, obviously these folks aren't on an even keel and I don't want to risk my further well being going over there.
Every morning since, I've awakened and gone right out to make sure my bees are all okay, and so far, so good. Maybe whoever did that learned a very unpleasant lesson. It might be mean of me, but by God I hope they got a face full of angry bees. I can't imagine how awful it must have been to run from an angry hive and having to stop to get through a barbed wire fence... My Russians have chased me all the way back to the house before for very minor infractions >:)
Anyway, my evil revenge filled heart aside, I am going to look inside this hive on Saturday to see what the real damage was. I figure I'll be able to use my right hand again by then and able to fix any collapsed combs if there are any. What else should I be on the lookout for other than I reckon checking for eggs to make sure my queen survived the incident? What would y'all do?
