So it turns out that Jamaican bees are the chillest bees on the planet. We're not sure exactly what species they are but they are definitely not the Africanized "killer" bees. Of the wild hives we have taken down so far, they have all been very docile. Part of it is probably because there is no honey right now, so they don't have as much to protect in their hives. But still, Erin and I are finding that we are much braver than we thought when it comes to gearing up to work with the bees. Below are some pictures of what we have been doing the past week or so (minus our Friday-the-13th hive--see "Not the Bees!").
Building a hive bottom with Emmanuel
Erin and I building hives
A finished 2-foot hive; perfect for the wild hives we've been getting
A 4-foot hive; large enough to house the bees permanently
Desmond (our chainsaw guy) cutting a door in a tree stump with bees
The opened hive
A baby bee being born!
Baby Bee's First Steps!!
No bee suit, no problem
The next hive we took down, in another tree stump
Inside the hive
The Bees Go Marching!
When you see the bees marching into the hive like this it usually means that you have the queen in the hive. The queen is crucial. Without her, there is little hope for keeping your hive. However, finding the queen is not always an easy task. We did not see her when taking down this hive but, because of how the bees were marching in and fanning the entrance (telling the other bees to "come here!") we figured that we had gotten her in the hive. Unfortunately, after checking this hive a few days later, the bees had left. Upon closer inspection we found a disgusting number of hive beetles in the comb. This is probably why they absconded but we will never know for sure.
Erin feeding one of our hives--again, no suit!
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