New from Western NC

Hello. New here, just got my bees in May. Picked up 2 hives that were left behind when someone moved away. I feed them a couple times last winter and in early spring then picked them up in may. Found out just how heavy a deep can be while trudging in mud in the dark with a flashlight pointing at me from the back of a truck blinding me as I could not see out of my veil. Was wearing motorcycling leathers and boy was it hot.

Then they were home and a couple days later I got up the nerve to inspect the frames. What a mess. The foundations had fallen and the brood nest was a convoluted mess of a thing in both boxes. One was worse than the others.

Overall it has been fun. I am enjoying the bees and have only had 2 sting, one on purpose so I would know if I was deadly allergic and the other due to a mistake I made when not wearing protection. The first I got because I opened the box intentionally with no gloves and short sleeves during a thunder and lightning storm just before it started to rain. I did not get stung even then until I scooped up a handful. Finally a sting while others were home to call 911 if I was allergic.
The second was when I had guests wearing my protections and held a frame directly over the smokers output. I would have stung me too. It is funny that I had to work at getting stung, these creatures are forgiving to be sure. I still respect them and realize that dropping a box or frame could get me stung bunches.

So here I am having a mid-life crisis and making plans to add 10 move hives next year. I will order 5 and plan to get 5 splits from what will be 7 hives. My milage may vary. This next winter will have a lot of frames and foundations in it.