Bee notes, continued

When I got to Harvey's Honey, in Elmer, there were two ladies waiting for me. The older lady put on her bee hat and gloves and went to get the nuc while I paid and petted a small dog. She had the same gloves I have. She told me I could wash my hat, too. Good to know that. The strings for making the hat netting seal are pretty much a cross your heart kind of thing. On a cold rainy day like Thursday, sweats were a good enough bee outfit.

Mrs. Harvey told me that the lid was just resting on top. I should remove the foam plug when I got it into place and step away. I did that and had to leave the bees till Sunday. Friday morning, there was activity from both hives as I was leaving for another trip to Allentown for plants. Saturday I left before it was warm or sunny enough for much activity. I got back too late to do anything.

Yesterday, my husband thought I should rotate the new hive 90 degrees so that the flight pattern for the new hive would not interfere with the old hive.

This morning, my husband noticed that there was no activity in the established hive. I suited up and checked the old unused hive for moth sign and other bad things. I picked the best of the frames and got the top super set up for the new hive. I moved the hive base into the 90 degree rotated configuration. Then I opened up the nuc. It was completely full. The noise was instantaneously loud, even though I thought I had smoked them enough. Also, the top of the nuc did not come off easily- it was nailed on one side. I got my hive tool and started working the top off from the back of the hives. Then I moved the nuc frames to the bottom super. I did not have time to notice the queen, though I did see one bee with red legs. What is up with that.

I got stung through my pants about 3 times, but I focused on getting the 2 supers put together. I will put the honey supers on later this afternoon.

Now I am worrying about not doing that sooner for the established hive and this new one.