Stung by Bees. Yup, Been There.... Done That

We've had bees for a few years now.  We used to keep the hive between the shed and the fence at the back of our property.  This was a good, sheltered place for the bees.  Our neighbors planted some raspberries at the back of their property, close to the fence and thereby, close to the bees.  I'm not sure how they really felt about having so many bees near the raspberry patch and as their berries flourished, they sprouted up next to our shed.  I LOVE raspberries and decided it was time to move the beehive so we could access and keep the fruit.

This is the beehive, surrounded by raspberries.  Time to move the beehive.

My bee suit is only a jacket with a cinching hem.  It goes just below my belt and hugs me tightly so bees are unable to get into my jacket.  The cuff of the sleeve also cinches tightly and long gloves are worn prior to putting on the suit.  The top seals up with a mesh mask to allow me to see what I'm doing, but to also protect intruders from getting inside.  I feel pretty safe wearing this outfit with some good jeans and long boots.

The beehive breaks down into several sections, each about a foot deep.  Inside each box are several frames.  The upper boxes are stored with food and the lower chambers are where the queen lays her eggs.  The boxes can be quite heavy when the frames are filled with honey.

When I get into the hive, I separate and lift out the boxes so I can view them.

At the time I decided to move the hive, I no longer had horses and decided an open stall would be a great place to relocate the bees until I could determine a more logical place.

In my effort of lifting a box and maneuvering around the shed, I had to raise my hands high so I wouldn't damage the raspberries.  Did you hear what I just said?  I had to lift the box and raise my arms up......

Okay all you logical folks who have more brain cells than I do....as I lifted my arms, what happened to the cinch below my waist?  Yup, you guessed it..... the jacket came up and exposed me to thousands of bees.

I didn't realize the problem until a few steps towards the horse stall, carrying a heavy box.  It was then I saw several bees flying around on the inside of the mesh mask.  This is scary, folks!  Nothing quite like being trapped inside a suit with bees.  When bees are angry, I generally move away from them quickly.  If I tried to run away, these angry bees would go with me.  I managed to walk the box over to the horse stall and I set it down.  I then started walking towards the house trying to figure out how I was going to remedy the situation.

Several of my kids were outside playing and I didn't want to lead bees inside my suit, and those that were following me from the hive, over to where the children were playing.

I motioned to Coralee to have the kids go into the house.  She knew something was wrong.....

Everybody went inside.  I continued to walk towards the front of the house.  I couldn't do much about the bees that were inside my suit, but I wanted to get out of sight and out of mind of the other bees that were now following me.

You ever see the old Winnie the Pooh cartoons with Pooh stealing honey and then being chased by bees?  He runs to the lake and jumps in and waits for the bees to go away.  Well, folks, they don't really go away.  They wait....

I've learned it is important to enter one door of a house, but come out another when going back outside to upset bees; otherwise, they'll wait for you.  This was part of the reason I walked to the front of the house and didn't strip off the jacket in the backyard.  Also, the more distance away from the bees the fewer there were to follow me.

As I was walking (you don't believe I was walking do you?  You think I was screaming and running around in circles, flailing my arms like a madman), I could feel the pain of the bee stings.  They were getting me on my arms, neck, ears and head.  With each bee sting, I was getting upset.  I was thinking of all the ways I was going to kill them all.  In the meantime, I squeezed the sleeves of my jacket to kill the bees that were attacking my arms.  Big mistake!  I wasn't very effective in killing the bees, but they were becoming more effective at attacking me.

I lived to tell this story.  I was able to get to the front yard and peel off the jacket.  Fortunately, most of the bee stings didn't swell up.

The bees are now located next to our house and the kids enjoy watching them from the window.  Our cats also like to watch the bees.  This picture was shortly after installing a new package of bees following a particularly hard winter.

I was eventually able to move the rest of the hive and later moved it to the west side of our house.  Of course this time, I moved the entire hive with a dolly and I cinched it up with straps and duck taped the openings.