Learn something new every day.

Yes, I've learned that lesson well myself. I won't even crack the lid open at sunset anymore.

>Bees don't fly at night but they sure can crawl and sting.
And
>Leave the hive closed at night.

Two good lessons...

Wow! I had just assumed they stay put at night and wait until there is light out.

Thanks for sharing this experience.

This will give you a laugh, I went to one of my apiaries one morning to find 3 nucs had the entrance feeders removed and laying on the ground beside them. beside two of the nucs were clumps of tape with bees stuck to them. apparently someone figured the same thing bees do not fly at night, so they decided they would remove the feeders tape the entrances and abscond with a few nucs. fortunately for me bee do defend their hives vigorously at night, and these were very strong nucs. The surveillance cameras showed two hooded figures dancing and jumping about flailing there arms considerably before abandoning the attempt. In spite of the fact I had their license plate number on video, I did not bother calling the police. I figure they got a lesson on their own.

Now thats funny. I'd have still called the police cuz they may come back, only better prepared next time!!!
One time in my rambunctious youth.....one night while crusing the neighborhood, I stole a porch plant from a front porch. (yes, I was wrong but got paid my dividends!)
So I'm holding this plant in my lap in the dark as my buddy drives and after a few minutes I feel something crawling on me. He turns on the dome light in the car and to
my horror.......I had probaly 3 dozen or more spiders crawling all over me and more pouring out of the plant! That plant went out the window so quick and the car came to a halt as we both jumped out swatting and stamping spiders. Never took another plant. Lesson learned!

Cliffton Leverett said:

Well I had to move a very strong hive tonight. It is chock full of bees and it has 3 supers. (Not all full). Well I also wanted a second deep to ease crowding. I figured hey bees don't fly at night and I can barely lift the hive with the supers on so I'll break it down and place the second deep when I go from truck to hive stand. Well as soon as I slid the hive bodies off the bottom board the girls massed on the outside of the hive. Then I started getting stings on my ankles. After a bit and about 10 stings I finally got every thing together and got out of my out yard.

So what did I learn?

Bees don't fly at night but they sure can crawl and sting.

And

Leave the hive closed at night.

Click to expand...

Not really an "I told you so" because I'm sure mine wasn't the first story like this on here but...

http://www.beesource.com/forums/showthread.php?295292-Why-not-to-visit-the-hive-at-night

Santa Caras said:

Now thats funny. I'd have still called the police cuz they may come back, only better prepared next time!!!
One time in my rambunctious youth.....one night while crusing the neighborhood, I stole a porch plant from a front porch. (yes, I was wrong but got paid my dividends!)
So I'm holding this plant in my lap in the dark as my buddy drives and after a few minutes I feel something crawling on me. He turns on the dome light in the car and to
my horror.......I had probaly 3 dozen or more spiders crawling all over me and more pouring out of the plant! That plant went out the window so quick and the car came to a halt as we both jumped out swatting and stamping spiders. Never took another plant. Lesson learned!

Click to expand...

What on earth were you going to do with a porch plant? LOL

I'm really grateful you all shared this today as I was thinking I need to move my hive into a more sunny location and I could just do it at night...

Moving them at night should not be a problem, as long as you don't need to break it down to do so. Just cover the opening with #8 hardware cloth and go. I let the hive sit in the new location for a while, maybe 30 minutes or so, to let the bees calm down before removing the screen because they sometimes come out hot if you don't.

Yeah, I think we all make that mistake.... ONCE!

I would think if you used a flashlight, the bees would fly at the light. Is that right?

>I would think if you used a flashlight, the bees would fly at the light. Is that right?

Unless it is using a red filter, yes.

Wow! Good to know, I'm sure at some point we would have made the same mistake. I hope you had some plantain growing nearby. I've found that chewing the leaves and making a sloppy poltice for the stings is almost miraculous in relieving the pain. Works well for itchy bites too. Blessings!

Michael Bush said:

>I would think if you used a flashlight, the bees would fly at the light. Is that right?

Unless it is using a red filter, yes.

Click to expand...

I don't know Mike... I've heard them react to being exposed to my red LED head lamp, I can place my hand over the lamp back and forth like a shutter and hear them all buzz a bit differently when hit with the red light vs no light.

I try to just leave them alone when it's dark, however, on those rare occasions that I end up catching a queen before work to mail out, my red flashlight gets flown at a lot less than a white one.

Michael Bush said:

I try to just leave them alone when it's dark, however, on those rare occasions that I end up catching a queen before work to mail out, my red flashlight gets flown at a lot less than a white one.

Click to expand...

Oh, definitely less disturbance. I actually shot a video with my phone last night of them hanging out on the front and the video ends with me quickly walking away as one of the girls flew at the light on my phone and landed on my finger. Let's just say I'm a bit gun shy after our last night experience.