NOT THE BEES!!!

So, I understand the irony of posting this right after "Chiller Bees" but because of my limited internet access this is just the way things ended up. I was saving this post for when I got stung but the events of this past Friday screamed "NOT THE BEES!" almost as ferociously as Nicolas Cage does.

So here goes the events of this past Friday the 13th:

Erin and I wake up to just another normal day. At breakfast we ask Kwao what is on the agenda and he tells us that he wants to go take down the hive in a tree next door. Cool. Sounds like a plan. We get all our gear ready and walk to Strawberry Fields Together, ready to take down the hive. Since the hive is high up in a termite's nest in a tree, Desmond brings his chainsaw. After some discussion it is decided that the best course of action is to simply cut the tree down, let it fall over the gully, and work from there. Good. Solid plan. So we all watch as Desmond goes to work...

Unfortunately, I stopped taking the video at exactly the wrong moment. Literally seconds after the video ends, the bees started making their way across the gully towards us. No one had geared up yet so we started backing away carefully to let the bees calm down. All of a sudden everyone is running. I hear Emmanuel's frantic cries, "the bees! the bees!" Erin, calmly running beside me informs me, "shit, I think there are bees stuck in my hair." We stop to get the bees out of Erin's hair but unfortunately, she gets stung anyway. Now, I hear bees buzzing all around me and I realize they have caught up to us and are now in my hair. So there Erin and I are, running away from the hive whipping our hair back and forth like no others. Now we are far enough that we begin to slow down, laughing hysterically at our circumstances when Emmanuel sprints towards us crying that there are bees in his hair! We stop to untangle the two bees from his dreadlocks before continuing our journey home. Miraculously, I did not get stung at all! We chilled at home for ten minutes or so before returning to the hive to find Tom. Tom stayed the entire time and only got stung once. After all that excitement, though, it was time to get to work. The rest of the day was less exciting, thankfully. We tied the comb to our frames, found the queen, and wached as the bees filed into their new home.

Desmond's bee outfit after the chase

 The hive

The queen! She is the one with the big butt. No joke. We put her in a queen cage to make sure she was in the hive and that the rest of the bees would follow. We let her out once the bees got settled.

The bees entering their new home

Chiller Bees

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!

Hollow Tree Hive

The other day we took down another hive out of a hollow tree. The comb was feet long, it went so far up the tree! We put the bees in one of our newly constructed 2 foot hives and they seem to be liking it so far.

Our hive next to the fallen tree. The hole in the tree was their entrance.

Our comb-tying station. We tied in pieces of comb to frames that sit in our top-bar box so the bees wouldn't loose their brood, nectar, or honey supplies.

Bees!

Cute bee sucking out honey from removed comb as fast as she can. No worries, bee! We're giving it back to you.

Brood comb tied into a frame.

A queen cell!

They seem to like their new home.

Also, check out Erin's Blog for more on our life beekeeping in Jamaica!

Black Sand Beach + Waterfall

Today Kwao took me, Erin, and Tom to Black Sand Beach and then we hiked up to a beautiful waterfall!

A view down the coast.

Some goats we met along the way.

Ruins from a town that used to be there.

Me and Erin on Black Sand Beach.

The waterfall

"Tom, why do you love bees? I hate bees but you love them. That's why you get bit so much. You love them and then they kiss you all over." -Emmanuel


Tom and Emmanuel

I've Got Bees on My Head

but don't call me a bee head.

Today we transferred a wild hive that Kwao had up on their farm. He had it in a Langstroth hive and we transferred it to our larger, beautiful top bar hive. It took a long time to tie the comb on to the bars but it was an exciting experience. As we were cleaning up, though, I noticed many bees on my head and pointed them out to Kwao. It was then that he noticed the queen was sitting on my head! But before we could do anything she flew away. Hopefully she either flies back into the hive or they raise a new queen. I am optimistic :) 

All the bees in our top bar hive!

Capturing Wild Hives

The Internet has been down for a few days here and we've done a lot since then. We've taken down three wild hives and built two top bar hives!

 Building a top bar hive

Joshua filling the top bars with beeswax

The finished hive!

After building them a new home we went on an adventure to get some bees! Taking down the wild hives was insane. Damon, Kwao's cousin helped us move the bees from the their wild hives to our luxurious top bar hives. Two of the hives were in large termite nests and the other was a small swarm attached to a tree.

Breaking open and smoking out the first wild hive (Thanks, Emmanuel and Melcizedek for filming!)

Taking down the second wild hive.

Taking down the third (mini) wild hive (bareshirt beekeeping?)

Hopefully our bees are happy and will start building on the top bars soon! In other news, Tom and Erin are here! So now the real work will begin :) Unfortunately, that means Iver has left.

Your cutlass skills will be missed.