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Ghana Day 4
Tuesday, July 5th - During the lecture portion of the day we discussed topbar hives and splitting hives. We were planning to go open beehives for the first time that afternoon. Courage was a bit skeptical about doing it as early as 3pm but I was insistent.
"are you sure we should go to the bees at 3:00? It's too hot?" he asked once again around 2:00.
"How hot is it?"
"It's 32"
"Oh that's not hot. Yes we will go"
Arriving at the teaching farm around 4:00, everyone is putting suits on. An old man from the college is telling us we can go look at the hives but we can't open them during the day. We the first group get suited up and head out down the walkway past the turkeys and chickens to the field with the beehives, we stop to fill the smoker and the old guy comes up to us again to tell us we can't open the hives. I rather snappishly tell him we're going to open the hives. Someone says "we need to ask Courage" (he is at the time away bringing another group over to the farm) and calls Courage and hands me the phone
"What's going on?" Courage asks me
"We're about to go into the hives"
"oh, okay."
I hand the phone back. Then I load the smoker myself and lead the group to the first beehive (well, the furthest one in the area actually). It goes fine and the bees are docile enough I'm even able to take my glove off. As we return everyone stands in the smoke of the smoldering fire on the ground where we had gotten the smoker started, until they're free of bees and then continues on down towards where everyone else is waiting. Not everyone does this but I always make sure to remove my veil before I approach other unprotected waiting people, because if I don't feel safe taking my veil off I shouldn't go near other people. On any account we successfully don't bring any bees to where everyone else is waiting. As we return the guy who had been telling us we couldn't open hives is grumbling "it's because there wasn't honey in the hive that you could open it."
The inspection of the second hive goes much the same, with the added bonus that we found the queen on the very first comb I removed. Also the first hive pretty much I alone had removed top bars but this time I made sure a few other people got opportunities to do so. Then we once again returned to where everyone else was without incident.
For the third and final group we went out to the hive that had come out and stung me just for walking by the other day. I could see it had a great deal of bees in it. Someone who evidently worked for the farm tried to dissuade me from opening the hive because it was "very badly tempered," but my philosophy is that you have to deal with beehives of all temprements.
Sure enough as we smoked the hive and took the lid off they immediately started responding more aggressively than the others had. Tapping the topbars to figure out where it was vacant underneath to remove those topbars first it was apparent it was almost entirely full. Most of our bee suits, which were often odd looking (there will be pictures), were adequate protection (and I was pleased to find the light "blue smock" I was using worked fine), but one woman soon was getting many bees in her veil. She stood the desperately clutchign tat the bottom of her veil to try to hold it closed, and soon one or two other people were trying to help her. Later Courage would say he had deemed her veil insufficient before she had even gone out and told her not to go. While I continued to work the hive someone started another small ground fire near us (fortunately the ground cover was not dry or overly flamable) and she was manouvered into the smoke. I continued going through the hive. I thought about stopping to help the woman or just closing it up because the bees were so angry, but others were already helping the woman and I wanted to demonstrate that you can work right through even a badly tempered hive. Presently someone fireman carried the woman away on their shoulders. I continued working though with a rising anxiety that we could have a serious injury on our hands.
Presently I finished going through the hive and put the lid back on. We then tried standing in the smoke for a fair bit of awhile but the bees didn't dissipate. Some people went back to where everyone else was waiting, but they still had bees following them and it caused a panic over there and everyone fled. I tried walking a big 100 meter loop around the field but the bees didn't stop following me. By now there were only about three others who hadn't somehow returned or completely fled the area. We went to the far end of the farm where there was a thick plantation of trees, and by walking in a zigzag through them one could lose all the bees -- but then the bees that had been left would still be between us and the exit of the farm. Also I realized the smoker was still by the angry hive and went back to retrieve it. Several times I got myself bee free but... as there were still two other people who couldn't return I stayed out there with them until finally they were able to return. Finally they had gotten into the enclosed building where people were taking shelter. I was able to take my veil off as I walked back to it myself, though there were still angry bees flying around and it was a bit nerve enducing but I won't return with a veil on. They opened the door and I quickly stepped in. The woman was lying on the floor there moaning and people were giving her water and putting some kind of ointment on her face. I had to go back out though to get my hive tool (it probably would have been fine where it was left but i refuse to let a fear of bees prevent me from thoroughly doing everything that should be done). We all waited in there (an hour?) until the car came back for us. It felt a bit like hiding from zombies or something. The old man who had been telling us not to go initially smugly told us that it was because that hive had honey in it that it was badly tempered (and by extension proving his point that hives with honey in them are badly tempered), though as I pointed out, why had honey been harvested from the others but not that one? I deduce therefore that that hive wasn't harvested BECAUSE it was so badly tempered that that is why it still has honey in it. Finally it was by now dark, and the car wouldn't approach a few hundred meters of the farm anyway but we walked out to where it was and exfiltrated the area.
The next day the woman was fine and back in class and everyone was still in good spirits. And in fact, I think the whole experience served as a "team building" or bonding experience for the group. I would have preferred if all the hives had gone as easily as the first two but the experience with the last one was an important lesson. We talked about the experience as our first agenda item the next day, and among other things talked about being careful about going back to where other people are when bees are pursuing you, and about requeening a badly tempered hive.
And now hopefully I'll have time to write up the NEXT day's wild adventure!
"are you sure we should go to the bees at 3:00? It's too hot?" he asked once again around 2:00.
"How hot is it?"
"It's 32"
"Oh that's not hot. Yes we will go"
Arriving at the teaching farm around 4:00, everyone is putting suits on. An old man from the college is telling us we can go look at the hives but we can't open them during the day. We the first group get suited up and head out down the walkway past the turkeys and chickens to the field with the beehives, we stop to fill the smoker and the old guy comes up to us again to tell us we can't open the hives. I rather snappishly tell him we're going to open the hives. Someone says "we need to ask Courage" (he is at the time away bringing another group over to the farm) and calls Courage and hands me the phone
"What's going on?" Courage asks me
"We're about to go into the hives"
"oh, okay."
I hand the phone back. Then I load the smoker myself and lead the group to the first beehive (well, the furthest one in the area actually). It goes fine and the bees are docile enough I'm even able to take my glove off. As we return everyone stands in the smoke of the smoldering fire on the ground where we had gotten the smoker started, until they're free of bees and then continues on down towards where everyone else is waiting. Not everyone does this but I always make sure to remove my veil before I approach other unprotected waiting people, because if I don't feel safe taking my veil off I shouldn't go near other people. On any account we successfully don't bring any bees to where everyone else is waiting. As we return the guy who had been telling us we couldn't open hives is grumbling "it's because there wasn't honey in the hive that you could open it."
The inspection of the second hive goes much the same, with the added bonus that we found the queen on the very first comb I removed. Also the first hive pretty much I alone had removed top bars but this time I made sure a few other people got opportunities to do so. Then we once again returned to where everyone else was without incident.
For the third and final group we went out to the hive that had come out and stung me just for walking by the other day. I could see it had a great deal of bees in it. Someone who evidently worked for the farm tried to dissuade me from opening the hive because it was "very badly tempered," but my philosophy is that you have to deal with beehives of all temprements.
Sure enough as we smoked the hive and took the lid off they immediately started responding more aggressively than the others had. Tapping the topbars to figure out where it was vacant underneath to remove those topbars first it was apparent it was almost entirely full. Most of our bee suits, which were often odd looking (there will be pictures), were adequate protection (and I was pleased to find the light "blue smock" I was using worked fine), but one woman soon was getting many bees in her veil. She stood the desperately clutchign tat the bottom of her veil to try to hold it closed, and soon one or two other people were trying to help her. Later Courage would say he had deemed her veil insufficient before she had even gone out and told her not to go. While I continued to work the hive someone started another small ground fire near us (fortunately the ground cover was not dry or overly flamable) and she was manouvered into the smoke. I continued going through the hive. I thought about stopping to help the woman or just closing it up because the bees were so angry, but others were already helping the woman and I wanted to demonstrate that you can work right through even a badly tempered hive. Presently someone fireman carried the woman away on their shoulders. I continued working though with a rising anxiety that we could have a serious injury on our hands.
Presently I finished going through the hive and put the lid back on. We then tried standing in the smoke for a fair bit of awhile but the bees didn't dissipate. Some people went back to where everyone else was waiting, but they still had bees following them and it caused a panic over there and everyone fled. I tried walking a big 100 meter loop around the field but the bees didn't stop following me. By now there were only about three others who hadn't somehow returned or completely fled the area. We went to the far end of the farm where there was a thick plantation of trees, and by walking in a zigzag through them one could lose all the bees -- but then the bees that had been left would still be between us and the exit of the farm. Also I realized the smoker was still by the angry hive and went back to retrieve it. Several times I got myself bee free but... as there were still two other people who couldn't return I stayed out there with them until finally they were able to return. Finally they had gotten into the enclosed building where people were taking shelter. I was able to take my veil off as I walked back to it myself, though there were still angry bees flying around and it was a bit nerve enducing but I won't return with a veil on. They opened the door and I quickly stepped in. The woman was lying on the floor there moaning and people were giving her water and putting some kind of ointment on her face. I had to go back out though to get my hive tool (it probably would have been fine where it was left but i refuse to let a fear of bees prevent me from thoroughly doing everything that should be done). We all waited in there (an hour?) until the car came back for us. It felt a bit like hiding from zombies or something. The old man who had been telling us not to go initially smugly told us that it was because that hive had honey in it that it was badly tempered (and by extension proving his point that hives with honey in them are badly tempered), though as I pointed out, why had honey been harvested from the others but not that one? I deduce therefore that that hive wasn't harvested BECAUSE it was so badly tempered that that is why it still has honey in it. Finally it was by now dark, and the car wouldn't approach a few hundred meters of the farm anyway but we walked out to where it was and exfiltrated the area.
The next day the woman was fine and back in class and everyone was still in good spirits. And in fact, I think the whole experience served as a "team building" or bonding experience for the group. I would have preferred if all the hives had gone as easily as the first two but the experience with the last one was an important lesson. We talked about the experience as our first agenda item the next day, and among other things talked about being careful about going back to where other people are when bees are pursuing you, and about requeening a badly tempered hive.
And now hopefully I'll have time to write up the NEXT day's wild adventure!
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- Erulisse (one L)
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Indeed!
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Kind of scary but you know how to handle bad tempered hives!
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Yes I could imagine one being a bit overwhelmed if one had less experience, but fortunately I have a very significant amount of experience with bad tempered hives!