I continue to go where no Bekkering has been before. Perhaps not quite so boldly as when I first started, but our journey continues, and it continues to present me with mystifying and wondrous sights.
To summarise today's expedition:
Objective: to ensure the Queen continues to have enough room to keep laying.
Hidden Agenda: I wonder if the ladies have started drawing foundation and storing any honey in the super!?
Having wrestled with That Blasted Smoker again, and pitched 3,000 matches all over the garden for good measure, I bravely ventured down to the bottom of the garden in my bee suit once more. I find myself filled with a mixture of emotions this time, and strangely a reluctance to keep disturbing my little friends in their home. I am also, I ruefully admit to myself, a little scared. I hate myself for my fear, and use this anger to steam up That Blasted Smoker and make sure the hive is smoked thoroughly.
I pop off the roof, crownboard and super. It's empty - my heart drops a bit. I find about a hundred bees sat firmly on the Queen Excluder. They do not take well to me brushing them off as I remove the Excluder. I hear the ominous rising hum with a bit of an inward quiver. Coward, I think to myself, get on with it, you twerp!
I'll describe what I see in the brood box, frame by frame. I call the frame closest to the Entrance - Frame 1, sides A and B.
Frame 1, sides A and B: completely empty. One or two bees, no foundation, no action whatsoever.
Frames 2 - 9, sides A and B: humming and chock-solid with bees. Classic pattern of honey round the top third, capped brood all over the rest of the frame - full to the brimming. Some fat white larvae to be seen, some rice-grain eggs but not as many as I expected. But lots and lots and lots of capped brood. Some of the cells that appear to have rice-grains in them are black, which seems strange to me. Also in one of them, I think I see two rice grains. Sign of a missing Queen; worker bees attempting to lay? But I am loathe to assume the worst this time - I'm aware of the mystery of all the things I am seeing.
I see no sign of the Queen at all, but I do see two or three Queen cells being constructed - am I imagining it or are the ladies crawling all over these in layers thick enough to appear to be hiding these from me!?
Frame 10, Side A: all honey. No brood, nothing but honey from top to bottom, side to side.
Frame 10, Side B: foundation being pulled in the centre, with some honey. No brood yet.
Frame 11, Side A: ditto
Frame 11, Side B: a couple of bees appear to be starting to pull a little foundation.
No honey on the Super frames. I read somewhere that the bees sometimes need a little incentive to start working in the Super; like a smear of honey on one of the frames. I'm aware I haven't been focusing a lot on learning, reading, researching my bee venture, so inwardly I make a commitment to read up on this.
Halfway through my Inspection, That Blasted Smoker dies on me. So too does my phone camera (my other camera is in for repairs; don't tell Guy but I ended up stepping on it by mistake during my last Bee Inspection. Oops! However, he is so lovely, he arranged to send it off for repairs as it's still under warranty - what a honey xx). So I have to stump off down the garden to the Halfway Station and re-light That Blasted Smoker, which proceeds to smoke up the hive, the garden and the laundry for at least the next hour. Foul thing!
During my Inspection, I felt distinct pangs of fear and nerves going through the frames. Those stings have been a bit of a hard lesson, what what. I have been wearing much tougher gloves, but every now and then I felt my face brush the front of my veil and felt completely exposed and scared about being stung. I hate my own fear! The ladies definitely stung my gloves this time; I could feel my little finger feeling warm but not sore, and it was intriguing to go and sit down at the Halfway Station across the garden and look at my gloves, pulling out the stings that had been left in them and inspecting the venom pumping system on the sting up close.
I was relieved to close up the hive; I placed the Queen Excluder on upside-down to how it had previously been placed and could feel where the propolis left on it bumped along, misaligned. I should have flipped it over, but wanted to close up quickly so left it as it was. Super back on, and crownboard and roof back on too. This time I made sure to gently bump any bees off, to try and avoid crushing them.
This time the bees were also not as charming and accommodating as they were in the early days; I just feel so klutzy and interfering; I feel tempted to allow them to manage more by themselves. As bees have done, after all, successfully for thousands of years without some kak-handed StarTrekkie like myself ...
Captain's Log - Out.
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