second harvest

this is some crazy comb that they built in a spot that i didn't put the screens back in the hive. it was sort of just floating.

The second honey harvest was not as pleasant as the first. If I were to make a video of this one, I wouldn't put light hearted folky music in the background like I did last time, it would probably be something more like Carmina Burana or the climax of In the Hall of the Mountain King.

We harvested a week or two later than we should have, so the weather was less than ideal. My smoker wouldn't keep smoking, so the bees were not subdued. About halfway through retrieving the screens of honey I felt a tickle on my neck. Bee in my suit...a little bit my worst nightmare. I'm not afraid to get stung, but a bee in my suit is really unnerving. I kept working until said bee went down my shirt and was buzzing in my armpit. At this point I started losing my cool and got stung. Then bees on my back starting releasing their fury. Bees were locked in my suit with me and I wanted out, and the downward spiral started. I start running around trying to rip off my suit, knowing that this is a very bad idea. There was of course a swarm of bees all around me that were just waiting for me to be out of my suit so they could have an unobstructed access to my flesh. I ran around the yard with my suit stuck to my ankles, running, screaming, tripping, and getting stung. It was rather comical and dramatic. David later said I was like peter pan, the suit was my shadow attached to my feet and I couldn't get it off. Oh, and it started POURING rain in the middle of this.

I made it inside to rip off my clothes and have dead bees fall out. Then I collected myself, went outside to get back in my soaked suit, clean the bees out of it, and get back to work. Later we had to hose off the graveyard of dead bees that were on our back step. I think they were following me when I ran inside, and the rain got the best of them. I feel terrible, like an inhumane bee keeper. There were some bees stuck in the honey on the screens that we brought inside to spin. For a few days we would come into our kitchen to bee zombies that had emerged from the screens of honey. They would be limping around all covered in honey and dragging dust bunnies from my kitchen floor around. We got really good at the catch and release with a cup and paper.

Having bees is still as fun, easy, and rewarding as I said before. we got sixty pounds this year. But-next year I will not harvest late, and I will duct tape the little spots in my suit that the bees can get into. During the summer when I am just checking on the bees I don't even have to wear my suit. And the first time I harvested they were still fairly friendly, but now they know what is going on....

While you are reading this you should be really thankful that you are reading this online, and not having me tell you in person, because then you might have to see the sting in my arm pit, it is still swollen.