The Sweet Taste of Honeybees

This hive is the remnants of a swarm. The old queen left with the majority of the workers this spring and it's been struggling ever since.

When a hive swarms they take most of the honey stores with them. They gorge themselves to the point that their stomachs are so full it's almost impossible for them to sting. That's why it's so easy to catch a swarm, that's why and when they are at their calmest.......well, unless you have girls like ours ;) NOT saying they don't get testy but they are pretty sweet girls.....

I know that I've mentioned this before but I want to say it again. Becoming a beekeeper was not my idea....my husband had been wanting to have bees for quite sometime, when out of the blue a swarm appeared in my mothers grape arbor. Now, how strange is that? We caught them but had NO clue what so ever about honeybees! There wasn't information even on the web as far as we could find. I do have a cousin however, that had had bees so I called her......she was a wonderful help but when you live so far from each other things get distorted over the phone...especially with an imagination like mine! LOL I mean a bee box was like a huge chicken coop to me! LOL I had never seen a bee hive or box!When you don't "know" something and you're interested....it's best to study up on the subject before diving in ;) But to our defense we didn't have time....we had a swarm....ready for capture! That day was such a hoot! Another story for another time ;) Not only that sighting but I was at work and someone said there was bees hanging from a new building down the road and no one could find a beekeeper to get them. That started me on an investigation....I needed to find a beekeeper. This was about four years ago. We found a beekeeper and after some time passed and getting things ready, studying up on them,buying suits and equipment, etc., we decided to buy a hive of bees from him. We were hooked! I remember the first time I went into the hive with my husband......I was totally mesmerized! The awesomeness of how calm they were......they carried on with their business like we weren't even there! My husband has gotten used to me being slow and looking over every detail when I go into them and I have gotten quicker but still I work slow. Well, getting back to the story......

Ever since these girls split they have been getting robbed of their honey and they keep losing their queen. Just last week they had a new queen, but something didn't seem right with them over the last couple of days so I went into them yesterday and the new queen was gone....all of their honey was gone, they did have pollen but I could see where they had been robbed again. So I took them apart and put them into a nuc and me and my husband moved them (hopefully) to a more secure spot last night when it got dark.

Once I placed them in the nuc box, I kept going back out there to check on them to see if they were going to except the smaller home...they were but some were still hanging out on the old home box ;) ...now something I had been suspecting around here but hadn't actually caught gulping the evidence......that is until now! Caught on camera! Look closely at the pictures below....
Do you see what I see??
Yep, a toad frog! Can you believe it??? And to think that "Ms. Nature Nut" herself rescued those amphibians from a drying ditch!

It just goes to show you....someone...or something...is always out to get you...no matter how sweet you are!!!!

Until next time...

BEE SWEET! ;)

Julie