Bees Gone Wild

The bees have been cooped up so long that its not surprising that the sunny weather this past weekend made them go a little nuts. Bees are very tidy and won’t poop inside their house. Periodically if the weather allows, they will take cleansing flights to relieve themselves. But if it’s too cold or wet to leave the hive...well, they will hold it. Imagine being in a jammed packed house where everyone has to take a poop and there is no toilet! Pretty shitty.

Anyway, it’s no wonder that they emerged from the hive a bit grumpy.

Let me clarify..only the Russian hive was grumpy. Seriously, there really are Russian bees and they were down right nasty. In fact, one stung my sons girlfriend, Catherine, right on the tip of her nose. THROUGH THE VEIL.

On the other hand, the Italians hives were angels. I mean, don’t get me wrong, they were still out and about in droves, but they were more curious than anything.  One point during the inspection I looked down and I probably had 500 bees just hanging out on me, but they were chill.

Anyway, Monday I installed two new packages of bees. One Italian, to replace the hive that I lost, and a new variety called Saskatraz. They are a hybrid from California (originally from Saskatchewan Canada) and are said to be very hearty and mite resistant. We will see.

The new Italian Queen is Bianca, the new Saskatraz Queen is Marquerite and the Russian Queen is Anastasia.