The last couple of weeks in our backyard have had one thing in common - irritable bees. Normally I get stung very seldom. This year I have had my bare hands inside at least one hive every week since April, but have received only 6 stings. Bees are defensive stingers. In contrast to wasps, bees die when they sting you, so hives that sting excessively without reason would suffer from the loss in population and be less likely to thrive. That means that when a bee stings you, you almost certainly did something to trigger defensive behavior.
Last week I got 3 of my 6 stings in one night. That was an interesting evening in the bee yard, if not fun. Amy and I wanted to do a detailed inspection of the long hive to determine if we needed to continue feeding.
Lesson 1: Bees with stores are defensive bees.
It turned out that the long hive Aureus had plenty of stores, and we could have determined that just by looking at how angry the girls were to have us in their home.
Lesson 2: Bees are more defensive in the evening.
Bees don't like being disturbed late, and we were still in the hive taking photos as the sun went down (expect some of our hard-won images in the next post). Also, as all of the foragers return to the hive, more bees of guard age are available to get agitated.
Lesson 3: Once the bees are upset, they don't care that you are just trying to close up the hive.
Amy got 1 bad sting, and I walked away with a serious sting and 2 minor ones. And putting the top back on the hive was a particular challenge since we (having retreated to regroup) knew that the next person to go within 6 feet of the hive would get stung. Sometimes you just need a beesuit...
On the plus side, at least we know now that Aureus is doing exceptionally well. This hive has tripled in size since it started as a split from Voyager on June 20, and they have plenty of stores and bees to defend them with.
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