(and a postscript on Other Halves)On Sunday, another quick check on the 14x12 hive to see if the single remaining Queen Cell was progressing. Blow me down - the girls have built another two Queen Cells to replace the two I destroyed! And all three of them are capped, sealed over and growing.
Three Queens - in eight days' time.
I stood there for a moment to collect myself, a bit banjanxed by the bees' actions (as always, Dear Reader, as always). Then it occurred to me - two Queen Cells on one frame, a third on a separate frame. What I should really do now is take that frame out and make another colony. This would "hedge my bets" - in effect creating an alternative hive, if that QC hatches successfully.
So I turned and ran down the long, long length of the garden back to the Honey room and frantically began to assemble a second, smaller hive. Brood box, frames of drawn honeycomb, floor, roof, crownboard, feeder. Wheelbarrow! As I raced around, my hat and veil flopped and bounced around on my head; my ponytail fell apart and hair fell in my eyes, my reading glasses fell off my face down into my beesuit somewhere near my wellingtons, and I started perspiring. I was rather grateful there was no-one around to see me because I must've looked A Right Old Sight.
I loaded up the wheelbarrow and wobbled back down the path to the open bee hive. I set up the second hive and tenderly, gently, carefully transferred Frame 8 with the single sealed QC. I moved a couple of extra frames of bees across, then made sure both hives had frames, bees and feeders properly configured around the Queen Cells before closing everything up.
I took a step back to catch my breath, and to make sure I'd done everything right. Now the only things I had to worry about are:
- Will the small second hive survive? The entrance is in a new place; will the bees recognise and find it? There's so few of them, so little honey left; do they have enough to make it?
- And on the first hive - did I do the right thing to leave both QC? Should there only be one? Do they have enough bees, honey, frames and feed?
- Are they both warm enough; well-insulated, to survive with their numbers and resources spread so thinly?
- And above all else, will this generation of worker bees live long enough to see all the Queens mated and laying and a new generation of baby bees successfully nursed through to hatching?
It's a Race Against Time, I tell you, a Race Against Time! I'm going to have to fret all through the rest of April and halfway through May before I know whether we've succeeded or failed. Well, as my partner always says; "Margo, if you didn't have the bees to worry about, you'd find something ... you always do!"
* * *
And, having had a great get-together with the local beeks last night, that brings me to mention just a few words on the wonderful phenomenon of "Other Halves".
There's nowt so scary as a Beekeeper's Other Half. For male beekeepers, the partner is generally known as SWMBO.
She, Who Must Be Obeyed (Oh, I like it!)
For the gals among us - he is simply known as
OH. Other Half.
And there is no-one more long-suffering; more hard-done-by than this poor creature.
SWMBO and OH have to put up with room-loads of boxes, frames, tools, suits, smokers, jars, bottles, labels, extractors and other indescribably odd-looking equipment. They are continually being roped in to help lift, carry, move, hammer, shop or admire an endless variety of beekeeping events and things. They are always obliged to suffer the stings and arrows of misfortune, as innumerable suicidal bees enter the house looking for honey, home or revenge.
And finally, to add insult to injury, they live in houses that are permanently sticky. Honey on the floor, on door handles, in cupboards. Stickiness abides everywhere. Stickiness Rules.
Many's the tale of angry Other Halves; of grumbles, complaints, warnings, dire threats of divorce and disaster brought down upon the heads of unsuspecting, innocent beeks. At last night's meeting, all it took was a raised eyebrow or a small grimace, and we would instantly understand the problem, exchange knowing glances and smiles. We've all been there ...
Honestly, it's wild and woolly path we walk, taking care of those bees, it really is!
With love and thanks to Tigger
(my long-suffering, oft-stung OH)
xx
