I went to my friend Diane's house on Saturday to see her work her seven hives. That's a lot of hives! She was speedy and decisive working in her 5th year of bee keeping. A very different experience from hanging out with new-bees where we spend several minutes on each frame. You can imagine with so many hives that it would take an eternity to work your bees if you took that much time on each frame!
Her bees were very well behaved, but after working one hive they were ready for us to leave. How could we tell? When honey bees are fed-up with you bothering them, this is the warning they give you:
Butts UP!
Diane told me early on, that if she opens up one of her hives and they give her the 'butts up' right off the bat, she just closes that hive up for another day.
Aren't they funny looking with their little butts sticking up in the air?
It's a new way of communicating. "Honey, I'm having a bad day. Get lost!"
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1 comment:
Interesting! I love your posts on bees. And, btw, our beekeeper neighbor invited us to assist the next time she extracts honey. Yesssss... We are def. taking her up on the offer.
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