Fixing ... to leave?

After much anticipation, yesterday Liz from TwoHoneys arrived at my house to help me fix the cross comb issue in my hive. It was pretty exciting and most definitely a learning experience. It was also rather upsetting for the bees, apparently.


When we finished working on the hive, a whole lot of them were gathered outside around the entrance. Liz left and we were hoping that once they settled down they would go back inside, but about an hour later there were even more bees on the outside of the hive, and some on the ground below the entrance. 


I called Liz and she told me I should try to scoop them with my hands back into the hive.  Either they were getting ready to abscond, or the queen was outside the hive (we did not manage to spot her while working earlier.) 


"This will require some courage" she said. And it did, but it was also neat to feel all those bees in my gloved hands. I scooped as many as I could and placed them back inside the hive, and also leaned a tree branch near the entrance on the ground where some of the bees had settled so they could use it like a ladder if they so chose. 


I went to bed optimistic, but saw this morning that they had all clustered on the tree branch "ladder." Maybe the queen is there. Maybe they will be gone when I get home from work. Only time will tell. 

Shot with my phone - bees on the outside of the hive with the stick

We harvested some honey while fixing the cross comb, which is pretty awesome. I didn't get any pictures really since Marc wasn't able to be there, but I will write another more detailed post about what we actually did soon, along with an update about what happens with my bees. Hopefully they will decide to stay. 


We fixed the cross comb. We harvested honey. Some bees died in the process. So it goes.