Camp Kintail is home to two beehives! Regularly Hydra and Flame head out to check up on the colonies to see how they are adjusting to their home at Kintail. Here is a short list of things that Flame has learned along the way…
1. In general, the bees are pretty chill! Each bee knows what to do and when to do it. In reality Hydra and I are more observers than anything else.
2. I am very VERY grateful for Ken and Shaunna MacQuarrie or as I fondly refer to them our “bee mentors”. Each time Hydra and I head out to the hives we take many pictures with questions that we send to the MacQuarries and they always get back to us with their insights promptly with words of encouragement.
3. Fresh comb full of honey straight from the hive is one of the most delicious things I have ever tasted! This year our goal is to get the bees through the winter, so we won’t be extracting any honey. However, these busy bees will build comb wherever they have space to do it, so occasionally we have to scrape off and collect some honey filled comb when we do our inspections. What a treat!
4. I am talking to the bees a lot more than I thought that I would. Mostly things like, “How is everyone this afternoon?”, and “Excuse me! You’re in the way of my hive tool.”, or “Silly Bee! The hive is that way!”.
5. If the bees are unhappy – you will know! Active hives are a lot quieter than you think. However recently, Hydra and I had our first experience with an irritated hive. As soon as we opened it up we noticed that their behaviour was different and their buzzing was heightened. We knew right away something was different.
6. When bees are unhappy or irritated they will bounce off the face mask portion of your bee jacket.
7. When the bees are bouncing off the face mask portion of your bee jacket you are probably going to get stung.
8. Bees can sting through jeans.
9. Bee stings aren’t that bad. They hurt for a moment but then you just carry on!
10. Bee related humour and puns are quickly BEEcoming my favourite type of humour…even though it really STINGS when no one laughs!
That’s all for now! I’ll BEE in touch in a couple months with more News from the Kintail Hives!
Flame
Beekeeper in Training