bee respectful

BEE RESPECTFUL

this is a picture of my beehive at the country n
one thing i learned from bee keeping for those 3 years was to
bee respectful of bees

this week i read an article about a bee swarm that landed onto a motel
i think it was a howard johnson inn or one similar to that

when you are a bee keeper you learn rule absolute number one
dont let anyone mess with your beehive

why

they will attack you in large numbers
which they did in the article i read
they zapped folks staying in the motel
they zapped the fireman called and the police

the general consensus was this was a swarm looking for a home
a swarm is a bunch of worker bees surrounding its most prized possession
the queen bee
they will die protecting her
ie
they will sting you inject their venom in wherever they land on you
they prefer the lips eyes up your nose ears
those painful parts
i speak from experience here
after stinging you they die

apparently this swarm also was partially africanized
ie
they tend to me more aggressive
there were around 40000 of them

some fireman and some police and some bystanders ended up in the hospital

when i had my hive i noticed over time that my bees were less friendly as when they started
i started with a friendly gened queen bee
but
over time the wild genes from drones thats the male bees bring into the hive
so
your hive gets more aggressive each year

the solution if you desire is to replace the queen bee each year

think about it
that queen bee getting replaced is a bad thing if you are the queen bee
it doesnt end well for her

our dogs developed like i did a lot of respect for that beehive
ie
they stayed away from it


i only messed with the hive with a total bee suit from head to toe

why
once i just wanted to take a quick peak at them via the window on the back of my hive with no bee protection on
zappo
my upper lip got zapped
it instantly swelled to the size of a hot dog

another time i messed with them in my bee suit
they werent happy at all that day
2 hours later while working in my garden about a 100 ft away
one of those guard bees zapped me on my left cheek
i looked like my wife she had punched me in the face

heck if they were real mad at me they would follow me 10 acres away from the beehive
swarming around my hood
this usually happened when i harvested honey
our dogs hid in the garage


here they are 5 acres away hiding behind a gate
that black dog was bouncer who didnt know about the bees
he got zapped real good when he visited
our dogs knew to go hide

if i could i would make it into the house
after i harvested their honey
you could see them all over our kitchen screens trying to get into the kitchen

so
unlike those folks at that motel
i learned to bee very respectful of bees
keep your distance from their hives
if you are unprotected

on a flower they rarely will bother you
so
appreciate them there
they are busy collecting nectar and pollen
but
mess with their hives
youll tick off those guard bees

you like me will probably only do that once

the organicgreen doctor