The bees keep teaching me lessons. Today's was
"Take Your Damn Time, Boy!"
You'll recall I placed a couple of formic acid pads in the hive about a week ago. The pads are supposed to be left in for about a week, and with loads of thunderstorms forecast for the next few days, Grace and I decided we'd remove the pads this morning before we went to work.
This should have been a quick in and out:
> Smoke the hive
> Remove the cover and top board
> Remove the top deep box
> Grab the formic pads
> Reassemble the hive
All was going well until I went to remove the top deep box. Instead of checking to make sure the bees hadn't attached comb between the boxes, I just lifted straight up. I ended up pulling a frame from the bottom box out due to some comb the bees had built between the boxes. The frame fell on to it's side (though fortunately still in the hive), and when it did a veritable cloud of bees exploded from the hive.
I still had the top box in my hands when they started stinging me ... nothing to do but take it while I gently set the box down and slowly back away from the ruckus I had stirred up.
This pic was taken about ten minutes afterwards. I wanted to give the bees some time to settle down before trying to reassemble the hive. The stuff that looks like mud pouring over the top and from beneath the hive box are actually masses of bees. When the situation first happened, you could barely see the front of the hive because of all the bees on it.
Not all that clear, but this is a closer view of the bee mass ...
So here's what two in the gut, three in the arm and one in the hand taught me: SLOW DOWN. TAKE YOUR TIME. CHECK & DOUBLE CHECK.
Life lesson courtesy of the bees.