A cold can of beer

Take one can Milwalkees Best out of fridge.

Open can.

Sit down and put your feet up.

Drink.

Repeat until unable to get to the fridge.

It has been a very long three days. Monday Uncle Bill and his friend Art came over to get the bees out of the wall. For those who don't know, we had an active hive living in the wall of our house. We chose to let them winter over, and get them out in the spring. So anyways. Uncle Bill and Art get the frames ready, set up the scaffolding over the staircase where they are, we suit up, and start taking down wall.

It is smoky, due to smoking the bees to keep them calm. They take out about a three foot long and one stud width wide section of wall, and find bees and comb. So we take out all the comb, set it into frames, and place the frames in the hive body. There was tons of honey, no brood at all (babies), which meant no queen. So we take the hive body outside, place a queen cell (a piece of comb containing a new queen, which looks like a peanut) into the hive and close it up. There are some bees upstairs, but they tell me to get a paper bag after dark and sweep them all into it, then pour them in the hive body.

Mind you it is about 90 degrees and they drank probably a twelve pack while doing the job.

So off they go.

Forward to 10 o'clock that night. I get the paper bag, I suit up, and head up to the hole in the wall. The bees are clumped together, about a softball sized clump, I think Oh good, this should be fine. I get the bag up there, put the brush above the clump and sweep down. OH MY GOD! They start just this high pitched humming and start flying out at me. They DO NOT just fall in the bag. They ARE NOT happy at all. Then I get stung on the leg. The guy at the store says I would be safe in jeans. My heart is in my throat, my adrenaline is pumping, and I just want to run. I carefully close the bag, step off the scaffolding, and walk down the stairs, bees screaming in my ears(luckily the jacket/veil worked!) I dump the bees into the hive, and walk away. I just want to run shrieking but I know I cant. I wait until all the bees leave me and go in the house.

I couldn't go back for 3 hours. I was so scared! Finally at 1 am, after watching a movie with my brother in law, I thought I have to go back. If I don't I will never do it. So I made a batch of sugar water, which I saw in a video is supposed to calm the bees, suit up with snow pants and the jacket/veil, and go back. I took an old window screen, covered up the opening and sprayed them through the screen. Then I took the bag and tried again. they fell right in, no problems. A few were flying around, but they were much better. So I went outside, emptied the bees into the hive, and went to bed, feeling very proud of myself.

The next morning they are all back! I got out my vacuum and sucked up enough so I could see what was happening. There were half inch grooves along the back to the wall, and they were waking into the next stud section. I pounded on the wall and put my ear up, and sure enough I could hear them. Over the next two days i tore out 3 more sections, two with full comb and one with just bees. I finally today got all the comb cleared out, and there was a huge wad of bees up in the joist. Since today we borrowed a veil for Steve, we went up with a paper back and a scraper. We soaked the daylights out of the bees, put the paper bag up, and Steve scraped while I held the bag. We got about 2 pounds of bees out. We closed it up, poured it into the hive, and sealed the hive up. We packed it up and took it 5 miles down the road to a bee keeper, who will let them stay for 2 weeks. If they live we will bring them back here.

I had to kill the rest of the bees tonight ;-( They would have died anyways, and I can't find and plug up the hole until I cleared them out. I really hated doing that. If I ever need to do this again I am buying a bee vacuum so I can get them all alive.


I have strained 3 pints of honey from the first day, and there is about 30 more pounds to process.

I only got stung 3 times, once a day. One in the leg, through the jeans, one crawled up my pantleg, and one got me on the finger through the glove.

I am not afraid of bees anymore.

I also went to the local bee keeping association meeting monday night. What a riot they all are. All have at leat 20 years on me, and they were picking on each other the whole time. The President says "Any old bills?" And they all point to a guy named Bill. Every time they would have a vote they would say "All in favor -aye" then one guy would point to me and say "Jen says no." I really liked everyone, and they had lots of advice for me. They seem like a very knowledgeable but accessable bunch.

Next week is a dog camp, I teach flyball for 4 days. My dad is coming to watch the kids. Dave is coming home Friday. My house is torn apart, the hallway is a wreck, the dining room is still in the process of getting the wallpaper out and painted. The whole house really needs a cleaning since I have been a little preoccupied.

AHHH!

So of course I start cleaning the garage tonight (?) Yeah, I know, Makes no sense. But that is me.


So, deep thoughts. A well? The Grand Canyon? The ocean?

That's about as deep as I am getting tonight.