I have been keeping bees for 6 year now. I learned most of what I know or at least kind of know, from reading, You Tube and talking to people. I received my 1st nucs 6 or so months before we all got together to see if there was enough interest to start a Bee Club.
Most of my equipment came from a friend who had given up keeping bees many years before, but it got me going. In the large pile of equipment was a smoker.
I had watched many videos on lighting a smoker, but I never mastered how to actually keep it going. I attempted only a couple times over 5 1/2 years to use it but mostly it sat on a shelf in my bee shed.
Last year i finally found I could keep it going long enough but I still didn't use it much. I have really calm bees and thought...I don't need to use this. However I did find it was really great at chasing the bees off the frames and a whole lot less evasive than brushing off the bees.
And so the story begins....
Two weeks ago my neighbour received her first package of bees. They had arrived after a long trip from Chile. We expected them to be cranky and tired after being cooped up in their tiny wooden house for days, but they surprised us. We carefully opened the box and dumped them into their new house without incident. They were calm and relaxed and was only interested in settling in. The following week, i went over to do a mite test on them. Once again they were calm and only interested in bringing in their pollen and setting up shop. Even after rolling the 300 bees in powdered sugar, not one sign of getting cranky.
So last week, which was about 2 weeks after receiving the bees, we decided to check for Brood. I didn't even bother grabbing my gloves or bee coat, as I was there to assist my friend. I had told her a week before, if you ever get a bee inside your veil, don't panic. Carefully and slowly, unzip your hood and remove it and let the bee fly out.
When we got in the beeyard, she said to bee, should I put my hood up and I suggested she should as it never ends well when bees get in your hair. I never really noticed that she had black leggings on. Anyways, she slowly removed the lid and pried off the inside cover. Just then she noticed that she had a bee inside her hood. So she backed away and removed her veil and I got the bee out. When she went back to the hive, I suggested she remove the centre frame because that is probably where we would find the brood and since it was a coolish day, we wanted to make this quick. As she pried the frames apart.....the bees exploded in furry. They were mad and they took a real dislike to her black leggings. I said to her walk away, and keep on walking. I looked at her legs and they were covered with bees and sticking out of the fabric were some of the stingers that had broken away. I was horrified and felt so helpless. I yelled across the field just to keep walking. After what seemed like an hour she had managed to get them all off of her legs.
I told her to go in the house and put on some lose fitting pants and I went home to get my bee coat, my gloves and "the smoker"
As i returned she came out of the house, still smiling and announced that they had counted over 30 stings on her poor little legs. When I had gone back to the house I grabbed our bee clubs Epi Pen, just incase. Thankfully she was ok and didn't need it.
We got the smoker lit and 2 or 3 light puffs of smoke drove them down, I popped out the centre frame, which was covered with newly capped brood and put the hive back together. In under a minute it was done. That was enough for us to see that day!
I talked to my friend off and on all evening, asking how she was. The swelling had gone down after a few hours, but others symptoms started to set in. She started to get really cold and I only assumed that might of been a little shock setting in. Later that night she threw up several times. Over the next days the itch started in. I did take over some allergy pills for her and that seemed to help some. She also told me she was walking around the house with a paste of baking soda and water dabbed all over her stings.
I couldn't believe how this effected me. I stood there feeling helpless of not being able to do anything to help her and seeing all those stingers pumping their venom into her legs and somehow feeling a little guilty for loving beekeeping so much, that she wanted to do it too.
So, this leads me to why I am writing about this in my blog. There is a reason the smoker was invented, (in 1873 by Moses Quinby) A lot of people believe the smoke makes the bees calm. This is not true. It does several things. If the bees get protective and release their alarm pheromones, the smoke actually helps mask the smell so the other bees don't follow suit and attack. It also sends a message of fire. During a fire, bees will engorge themselves with their honey, to prepare to leave their home
Not only does the smoker protect us from cranky bees but also to save the bees from dying after they sting you while protecting their home.
2021 is the year i will be using my smoker more often. Even though my bees are very laid back and calm, a person never knows when something will cause this all to change.
