In the time since I last wrote, I have split the hives again on the faint chance that a new Queen survived in Itchy Knee. Weeks later, I checked again on Monday and realised that all chance of a Queen was gone.
Not only that, in my eagerness to protect them after a recent very heavy display of varroa, brought about by the lack of Queen to encourage them to groom each other, I poisoned them with Apiguard medicine. I looked in on Monday and there were hundreds of dead and dying bees. I had placed the Apiguard in a too-small space and simply gassed them to death. Very terrible. I took a video of the action of a dying bee to post on a beekeeping forum in the hope that someone more experienced might recognise what was happening and confirm my suspicion about poisoning, and they did.
* * *
Today was a tough day for me. Work started at 4am; and it was the kind of work that bruises the soul - the hard part of my job. But it was a pleasure to be able to leave early and get home at lunch time. I got straight into a beesuit and headed down to the hives, intent on making right what I've been doing wrong all these last few weeks.
When I finally broke down Itchy Knee's configuration I saw that they had moved all the honey from the bottom super into the brood box, just as Ron had said they would. They moved it all so quickly! That said, I'll never do it again - putting a super at the bottom. I'm hoping that by moving to the bigger 14x12 brood box next year I will only ever need supers for the honey crop.
As I worked through the frames in the brood box, it was very clear there was still no Queen. And so - I just knew - this time it would be absolutely the right thing to do to unite the hives - Itchy Knee into San-Shi.
Itchy Knee is weak, but has a lot of honey stores. San-Shi is strong and Queen-right, but has no stores to survive the winter.
So I carefully opened up San-Shi, removed the feed arrangement at the top, and placed a sheet of newspaper down again on the brood box. I heaved Itchy Knee's brood box across (it weighs an absolute ton from all that honey) and placed it ever so carefully, ever so gently on top.
Then placed two packs of candy fondant in an eke/super on top and closed it all up.
It all felt good and right and proper this time, not frantic and fearful and confused like the last few times I've dropped in.
And all the time I worked with the bees today, they were incredibly pleasant and good-natured. Sure, they buzzed about and checked me out, and expressed their grouchiness at being moved about with a few loud buzzes, but in the main they were a joy to be around.
What saddens me is to witness the terrible ongoing War against the Wasps - carnivores, killers, raiders, pirates. I even managed to stomp on a few this time.
On a completely different note, I saw that the perspex crownboard had accumulated a corner of condensation inside it. I will watch that, and change it to a wooden crown board, I think.
That will be one of the last things I do as I bed them down for winter. Insulation is a subject of ongoing interest and research. Wonder what I'll find to use this year?
After my visit today, I sat for a long, long time and just watched the bees, surrounded myself with bees. I watched as gradually the few remaining foragers at the base of the old Itchy Knee site slowly moved across to San-Shi. I watched some wrestling matches between wasps and bees. And I gloried in the blue sky afternoon sun; so rare! I miss it so much. When did I ever think the South African big blue sky was too big and too blue, and the sun too hot? Was I mad!?
Chatting to my housemate tonight, I found myself caught up in a passionate, articulate explanation of how Queen bees are made and how bees are one of the few creatures in nature who - collectively - choose the sex of their children. I could see the wonder in my housemate, and it brought the magic all rushing back.
It has been such a hard year with the bees; it has felt like just another job, just another chore.
But not today.
That will be one of the last things I do as I bed them down for winter. Insulation is a subject of ongoing interest and research. Wonder what I'll find to use this year?
After my visit today, I sat for a long, long time and just watched the bees, surrounded myself with bees. I watched as gradually the few remaining foragers at the base of the old Itchy Knee site slowly moved across to San-Shi. I watched some wrestling matches between wasps and bees. And I gloried in the blue sky afternoon sun; so rare! I miss it so much. When did I ever think the South African big blue sky was too big and too blue, and the sun too hot? Was I mad!?
Chatting to my housemate tonight, I found myself caught up in a passionate, articulate explanation of how Queen bees are made and how bees are one of the few creatures in nature who - collectively - choose the sex of their children. I could see the wonder in my housemate, and it brought the magic all rushing back.
It has been such a hard year with the bees; it has felt like just another job, just another chore.
But not today.
