Taking off honey supers

Not a lot to it really, take the box and run. Except…, I want  the box to be too heavy to run with, and the terrain to be somewhat even. Of course, there is the spectacle of thousands of angry, possessive bees taking to the air to contend with. They are swooping and diving and desperately trying to get rid of the thief…me! Hopefully, it will remain a spectacle for the duration of the extraction and first contact is not achieved! Bees’ kisses AKA stings are never nice. 

Oh, and then there is the unexpected, which in hindsight and previous experience I really should have expected.

During the pre-harvest inspection it was wonderful to see honey in the supers. The lane to the knoll the hive perches on, has a ditch on one side with brambles and bushes and there is an unfenced field of lush long undisturbed grass to the left of the lane on the way in. This field rolls on into the distance for several green acres. The hives on their perch of stones is at the end of the short lane and faces another such swath. There is a river running the length of the second field making it is a gloriously peaceful haven for beehives.  

But I should have known.

Long grass needs cutting for silage and in a blink of an eye (two days) the fields had been given a crewcut. Before I even opened the gate, I saw the cows, no bullocks, no heifers!

Oh!

Oh dear! 

Where there are heifers…there could be a bull. I hadn’t been expecting that! Not another bovine encounter!

I drove slowly down the lane and the heifers weaved back and over across the lane leaving it until the last minute to actual get out of my way.  A group of them were sheltering nicely at the back of the knoll (the front being where the bees are) sat sprawled like a pride of lions. My trusted sidekick spotted him first. Ooooooh! A big, black, curious angus bull standing guarding the pride.  We stopped near the pride at the place I would usually park but our car was soon surrounded by nosy heifers with the young bull standing majestically but quietly, not sure what to make of us.

Never trust a bull! Tinkled the warning bell in some recess of my brain.

I moved off the lane to get away from the mob and into the field and parked front of the hive thanking the stars that the ground was dry today.  The cattle stood a respectable distance watching our every move – curiously got the better of some and they edged in front of the car.

We opened the car doors to see if they would come closer or go away. Neither, they all stood their ground. Finally, some moved a few feet further away to munch on the stubble.  My sidekick wanted to leave the doors open so that we could run back into the car if we needed to. Oh, he of little experience. He hadn’t seen the wonderful display on my last visit (see Kevlar).  Our aim (apart from collecting honey and not bull-fighting) was to keep bees out of the car. The supers were going on a trailer this year for the first time and my car was to remain bee-free. This was his first time my sidekick had been up-close hands-on taking honey supers off.  Saying nothing, I closed all doors and checked all windows. I wasn’t comfortable being parked so close to the hives but what could we do with the threat of a bull?  Come back another day is the obvious answer which I ignored.

I stepped over the wire separating the little knoll from the field and wondered would the cattle stay watching the entire show.

I hadn’t long to find out.

Off with the lid and out came a flood of bees. I don’t know how bees don’t collide with each other as they zap about the place in such numbers. I’m again grateful for my new suit! Off with a honey supper and, as I pass it to my sidekick, I hear the thumping of hooves. The heifers and bull are at a nice trot going as far away from us as they can go. It made me laugh to think of the fine big bull being scared by a little bee. Ok, ok, so there were many little bees and I’d do the same thing. Still, when it comes to beast v bee.  Bee wins!

We loaded and strapped everything down without our bovine audience.

I walked up the field to shake off the bees that were following me, but it wasn’t enough. The car being so close to the hive meant that when I eventually opened the door to drive off about a hundred bees came in with me.  My sidekick was learning fast, he decided to walk up the lane!  It wasn’t so bad, all I had to do was drive away from the hive and once away from the hive bees calmed down and took to crawling up the windows and flying out.

I didn’t leave them all behind though. The next day, when I opened my car out flew several bees. There was plenty of evidence of bees in my car, on my windows, on my dashboard and on my seat – they knew which seat to pick! Only one thing for it, get out the scrubbing brush and remove all the yellow specks of bee poop!  

Cover image from here

  


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