1. Keep a close eye on your hives. If something happens, you'll have a better shot at fixing it before it's too late.
2. Keep your bee suits handy, even in the winter.
3. Ratchet straps are your friends. Sure, they're a little fiddly to put on and take off, but if a tornado blows through, the cows get loose, the ground gets super saturated and your hive falls over...
Yep, one of Stella's hives fell over last night.
Sometimes with bees, you just have to get lucky. Too Busy Bees got lucky today. That hive tipped over on a 50+ degree day. The hive was still really heavy and we unfortunately we had to take it apart to lift it back up on the stabilized blocks. If it had been colder or raining, those bees would really have been in dire straights.
But, like anything else, the harder your work, the luckier you get. Stella keeps a close eye on her hives and called me first thing this morning to let me know we had a problem. She had all the necessary equipment on hand and we were able to work quickly. A simple ratchet strap holding everything together until we could set things right was our ace in the hole.
While you hope you never need your insurance policies, they are good to have it if you do. I just hope those ungrateful, angry bees remember that ;-).
10 comments:
That's a honey bee quilt block on the barn! Very cool! Glad the ungrateful, angry bees didn't freeze.
We lost two of our hives over the winter. They were new last Spring. Been checking that third one and hoping it makes it. Bees, chickens, horse, sheep, I think we are crazy sometimes.
nice selfie!
Those cranky bees may not be grateful today to Stella for saving their hive, but I'll bet this summer they'll pay it forward to her, I just know it! :-)
I hope the queen did not get crushed. May be worth checking in a week or two. She should start slowly laying anyway by now, which will make it easy to know whether she made it through the tumble or not. The hives seem to be strong, seeing that they are 2-3 deep.🐝
Glad that worked out. Don't want any bees to hit the road.
Hi Stella! Good to see you two! Glad it didn't happen during all that cold and snow.
Good save ladies! I Love that quilt block on the building:)
WooHoo...saved by a ratchet belt! Have not considered securing my hive this way, but it's a great idea. Our girls are bringing in pollen, so having our 2nd good winter with them here in South Carolina. Will split our hive in the Spring. Any encouraging words for a newbee on building hands-on courage during hive inspections?
Sooooooooo, if we need help setting up a hive or two,(we are still kicking it around.)I'm calling you. Your the expert! :0)
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