Beehive Drama: Adding Honey Super, Bees Get Agitated

Time to add a honey super to each hive. I ended up doing the opposite of what I was planning on doing, lol.

[@65smallguy]

We all have to start somewhere so I don't mean any disrespect. Your body language suggest you are still afraid of the bees. You need to learn to relax. A bee sting is uncomfortable but it's going to happen, just accept it. Bees hate the brush put it away unless you are harvesting honey and need to get the bees off the frames. The bees were fine until you brushed them off the lid, that's why they came after you. Just like swatting at a bee is more likely to get you stung. Good luck with the hobby.

[@cawjr69]

Thank you for the info.

[@Manuherikiabeekeeping]

Hi from central Otago southern New Zealand 👋 Ohhhh buddy, if you think that's aggressive you ain't seen nothing yet😂 when I started as an apprentice beekeeper, my boss decided to play a little joke. Every trade has the little tease the new apprentice joke, this is what I got. He took me to a hive and said "yes open this one down to the bottom brood chamber, Ill just light my smoker". Started and took the lid off, took the inner cover off, cracked the top box free with my hive tool and ZOOT! every bee in that hive shot up there like a tornado in reverse. It was a Queenless aggressive hive that had rejected the first Queen they'd been given and killed her and they were not pleased to see the new apprentice beekeeper 😂 my boss meanwhile locked himself in the truck and lit a cigarette, laughing. I had that much smoke going you could have seen it from the moon😂 great video 👍 probably a good idea to just leave them for a half hour after weedwacking especially if it's poor flying weather.

[@cawjr69]

That's the worse they have been for me so far. I totally expect them to be more agitated eventually.

[@Manuherikiabeekeeping]

@@cawjr69 the mature workers are the grumpy ones. I got stung in the eyeball 🐝 yes, she got me in the left eyeball 🐝⚡😫😂 two weeks ago because my old veil strap broke at a bad moment (trying to straighten a stuck down plastic excluder)🤦😂 cool day, bees unable to fly, and checking a hobbyists hives so I only had the old hat in the boot of the car, he rang me on the way home from town🤦I think as you said the biggest problem you had there was a lack of smoke, a few little puffs just to push them off the top bars would have helped but overall I think you've got pretty calm bee's. Just keep relaxed, and if you feel you're provoking an aggressive response and you don't have your smoker, just close them up and go get your smoker. By the time you get back the hive will have calmed down and you can pop your super on. Great looking hives👍 I think they'll do well.

[@Manuherikiabeekeeping]

Lol, I actually forgot to tell you a little trick, I meant to mention. I assume that new second super is all foundation? ( New frames?) To encourage the bees up into the second super and start drawing comb, take two partially drawn frames from your first honey super and pop them in the middle of the new super with a frame of foundation in between them. Drop the two foundation frames from the new super into the lower honey super either where you pulled the drawn frames or at both edges of the super. Drawn comb will encourage the bees to work the new frames of foundation much faster and comb is the second most important thing in a hive next to a good Queen. I don't know if you follow any experienced beekeepers on KZbin but Kamon Reynolds and Bob Binnie and Peter Cowin the bee whisperer are some great north american beekeepers who have fantastic videos, lots of great advice and experience. I've been at this since I was fourteen, I'm now 54, and I'm always learning something new from other beekeepers around the world.

[@cawjr69]

@@Manuherikiabeekeeping Sounds good, I will try that.

[@cawjr69]

@@Manuherikiabeekeeping Ouch. I'm fully expecting to be stung, hopefully not the eye. Hope you don't have any lingering issues over that one.

[@KajunHomestead]

[@doncorsaut2944]

You don't seem very confident

[@cawjr69]

@@doncorsaut2944 I'm trying to work on it, learning as I go.