Going from 0 to 12 hives in one week!

[10framer]

there was a guy near me in the early 80's that had about a dozen hives of them.  they were mean as all get out but they were pretty productive.  i'd see black bees working flowers near my parents old house up until the early 2000's then one year they were jus gone.  those hives had been gone for 20 years by then.

[Spear]

Yippy! Picked up the other 10 hives today.
Left home at 4am and arrived at the bee yard at 6am - My step-father driving. Was once again shown the hives and shown that they were 'sealed' ready for transport. So we strap a hive together & move it to the trailer. The guy - the old mans son - then takes off the strap and says that we just need to make sure that the hives are straped down in the trailer so there is preasure on the lids and all will be fine. So we pack the other 10 the same way. As we are packing about the 8th hive we discuver that it has a 'leak' - the bees have found a hole to get of. This quickly taped shut and the loading continues without farther problems. Then all the other equipment - empty hive boxes with drawen comb etc. - are loaded on the trailer and in the mini bus. So far no problem. Drive home No problem. Stop in the yard and a few bees fly out of the trailer. "Wow!"  :shock: I think, " You girls held on the outside all this time." But then more and more bees start flying out! Another leak  :shock: !! Now I'm all alone unpacking the trailer and it's starting to look like something out of Steven King movie - Bees everywhere! I suited up to be on the safe side. These free bees have have found the combs in the empty hive boxes and are really enjoying themselves so they don't even notice me, so much so that I must of stepped on thousands of them.
Anyway long story shorter, I managed to move all the hives to their stands with bees flying all over like crazy and only got stung once on the hand because I squashed her as I picked up a box.

Everything is in place and I start opening up the hives. The 3rd hive I open up, among the hundreds of bees 2 tumble out wrestling with a wasp! They fall of the landing board and take off carrying the wasp away over the hedge!  :shock:  All the sudden insect activity atracted a flock of little birds for a while hoping for an easy meal.
It still looked like a Steven King movie when I left to go home. I hope the 'strays' will find their home or join another hive...

I'll leave them alone for about 1 week before I do any inspections.
Will post picks tomorrow!

[MsCarol]

Spear,

The mind picture was perfect.......chaos!!!

Good luck and hope all the ladies settle in a day or two.

[Spear]

Oh I forgot to mention my Mothers 4 dogs that love to snap at bumble bees and the occational wild bee that wanders into the yard. I had to lock them up before they had a chance to learn the hard way that snapping at bees is not a good idea. When my Mother came home she had more control over the dogs and could tell them not to snap at the bees so she let them out. Even so 2 of them got stung and still tried to snap at the bees - stupid dogs! One of them seems to of perfected the art of catching bees without getting stung because I saw him eating at least 1 bee! The area where the hives are kept has been blocked off so the dogs can't get near them so there should be no problems there.

The hives thenselves are very old and mixed sizes. The old man adapted them so that he could put smaller boxes on top of bigger boxes so atleast 2 of the hives look like a stack of childrens wooden building blocks! Those are the 1st hives that I'm going to replace next spring!
Well if I had little free time before the bees came into my life I have even less now! LOL!

[RHBee]

Sounds like a day you will remember for the rest of your life. Good memories are really the only treasures that no one can take from us.
Well done and have fun.

[Spear]

The moment you all been waiting for! Pics of my 'new' hives!


And a short video clip of the chaos (The noise you hear is a train going past.) And please forgive my bad cameramanship.