Where do we pick up again in this continuing saga?
Ah yes, sadly the OBs (Original Bees) failed in their second winter, so the hive underwent maintenance and has been relocated.
CAM did an awesome job of scraping out old comb, burning out the interior and making that viewing window I pined for!
The 2 untreated boxes also underwent a fresh paint job where before they'd been left in their natural state.
Really not wanting to patronize the large local company for a myriad of reasons (will spare you the personal and the political), I was ecstatic to see the small urban farmer store offering up packages on its Facebook page.
It was here, in fact, that our whole bee escapade began- with a Groupon, an expert and a curiosity.
My joy was short lived, however, only to be put on the waiting list as they'd sold out their pre-orders long ago; which was par for the course and shouldn't have been surprising.
That their cost was significantly higher didn't concern me as much either since I'm always keen to let my dollars speak.
(Though I'm sure the offending business didn't notice in the least.)
As quickly as I'd resigned myself to the likelihood of another year without bees, (Bill The Owner tried to assuage my disappointment by saying it *did* promise to be a "good swarm year" so I could look forward to that manner of filling my hive. Um, no.)
I received a call that space had opened up and would I still like a package? Um, yes.
They were due to arrive in a couple of weeks and there'd be a demonstration as to what to do once you returned home with them.
Since I'd already had that experience, attendance for me was unnecessary, and frankly ill-timed, as it was at 3:30 Wednesday.
After work when that day finally arrived, I drove the short distance to pick up my striped little girlfriends.
It wasn't the huge operation from my first go around, but sure enough, behind a shed off to the side of the main building, I recognized the familiar bee suits, smoker and screen boxes.
Pulling up and approaching with my cardboard box, I gleefully said "Why, I do believe one of those is for me!"
When Bill The Owner turned around, it was apparent his mood did not match mine.
Turns out the majority of the bees hadn't survived the flight from CA to PDX.
To say that he was distressed would be an understatement- he was devastated.
Understandably.
So what he and his helper were doing was trying to salvage as many as possible to re-home into the hives there on the store's private lot used for educational purposes.
He was as patient and explanatory as possible before returning to the gruesome and demoralizing task.
We commiserated and my heart grew heavy as I surveyed dashed hopes, anticipation and not to mention a great loss of revenue.
"Carnage."
It was only speculation, but after conferring with the seller, who swore in all his decades of dealing bees he'd never had such problems, that they'd just frozen to death in the cargo hold.
It'd not occurred to me that air travel was even an option; the previous supplier used semi-trucks- there was always at least one sad story a season which involved a terrible accident and the death and loss of countless bees.
Very dejectedly, I turned into the main store for down payment reimbursement: how quickly one's spirit can change.
So giddy in expectation, then cut down to disappointment in no time flat.
Waiting for the cashier and poking about unneeded supplies before sliding into the small room full of chickies, just as she was about to refund me, the assistant entered with two boxes that'd survived, probably because they'd been sandwiched in the middle and therefore saved from the danger that had killed off the others.
"Look what we found! Do you still want them?"
"UM, YES!"
He was about to hand both over, but I corrected that I'd only paid for and wanted one, save that find for another customer about to hear the bad news I had not too long before.
Truly, it was all luck of timing.
In a strange, small town twist, the next day I was dealing with a customer and her son who happened to mention that they'd been there to help unload the bees upon arrival and collect their package, only to be greeted with the unforeseen tragedy.
It'd so traumatized him and put a damper on their day, all else was affected.
There was no way I dared share my good fortune with them.
Demeanor turning yet again, I happily headed home, thankful for both the pleasant evening weather in which to hive them and glad to even have them at all.
CAM re-assembled the new and improved hive on the front porch, but with only 2 of the 3 boxes.
Then, after suiting up, I dumped them all in after spritzing with sugar water and trusted nature to take its course.
A few things were a little different this time- instead of a can of food inserted in the middle of the cage, there was just a small square of sugar stapled with netting.
The queen was mated and came in a plastic contraption with a sweet already in place, I just had to pop off its cap and tape her to the top bar.
The cage itself was constructed with two layers of screen, inside a tighter weave than the other, in which one unfortunate had managed to get stuck between and die.
In fact, there were a higher number of corpses this time around, but given their trauma it didn't surprise me.
These particular bees were also a Russian/Carniolan mix, though I've yet to figure out how this works exactly- are they a hybrid or do distinctly different breeds inhabit the same hive? To me it looks pretty obvious there are two types as one has a much darker, longer pointier abdomen than the other.
After the install, which seems so violent and disruptive, I left the roof off for the stragglers to rejoin the others.
Just before nightfall I went back out to discover to my dismay that not only were there two small clumps still clinging inside of the box, but that there was another substantial group on the rock border around the flower bed under the hive's front entrance.
By now, the temperatures were dipping and it was getting late, I just didn't see how they'd last outside of the hive and so resigned myself to the sad fact that only a fraction of these survivors would actually survive out here in The Stix.
The next morning on my way to the car for work, all three groups were still there unchanged.
I poked about the cluster on the ground and was gutted that they didn't respond.
A later text from CAM confirmed he'd witnessed the same.
I felt sorry for these ladies who'd traveled so far under such harsh conditions only to succumb once they'd reached their final destination.
But a later text from him after he'd gotten home first, shared the good news that they were gone! Presumably warmed up enough to join the others.
Then he made a joke about tough Russians giving the bees a funny accent.
It was true!
We were back at it.
Three days later I did my (unsuccessful) Queen search.
But I knew she was out from the empty container and chewed on masking tape.
Not to mention the swell of activity and quickly draining sugar:water food.
New comb was being made; I've never seen anything so white, clean and pure.
The window CAM made also confirmed everyone was busy around her performance.
It's been about 6 weeks now and safe to say all is well underway.
Despite a swarm being good for both the environment by introducing more bees to help combat colony collapse and aiding in neutralizing varroa mite infestation, we've added the 3rd box already hoping to keep our lot here longer.
There really are so many of them now.
Maybe that was always the case, but I'll tell you, having them up front with us here on the porch and just on the other side of the picture window from my Poang chair gives you a whole new perspective.
We also now know that they're not the terrifying danger originally suspected, therefore need not be relegated to the far, damp, back end of the property.
Most people don't realize bees don't give a damn about you so long as you're not aggressively threatening them, which is why they make for great home security.
A multitude of bees buzzing willy nilly (they aren't all that graceful, if you can believe it.) between the front door and intruders might give them pause to advance criminal activity upon your house.
Who needs a guard dog when you can have guard bees?
Below are many photos documenting this second go-around.
Indeed, bee keeping continues on a learning curve, but we're feeling much more confident.
And trusting.
1.) Hive renovation
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