We cleaned up what we could last night with an army of angry bees reminding us that what happened is not okay. Crime scene investigation revealed it was definitely a bear (total jerk, this was no sweet Winnie the Pooh bear). He ate all of the comb/larvae/stored pollen/capped honey from the Bina hive (Broken Chair Honey)! The remaining bees from that hive were bearding around one of the legs of the hive, it looked like they were hanging on for dear life. We could not find the queen and moved those bees to the Bee Castle hive with new frames/wax foundations. Not sure how they will do...this is an especially heartbreaking loss.
The Sting hive (green brood box) lost 7 out of 10 of their frames. The bear ripped the foundations and all of the contents from the frame. Ugh. We did find the queen (95% sure) for this hive and most of the bees were piled on the remaining 3 intact frames on the ground. The bees were carefully moved back into the hive by my super awesome bee-keeping sweetheart.
Rocks on top of the hives, ratchet straps tied to ground anchors, light and noise alarm moved to the hive area, and a temporary fence (the great-bear-frustrator) were added while we wait for our electric fence. Operation Apiary Fortification is underway.
The broken remains were loaded into a wheelbarrow (along with a hoard of confused bees that were hanging on) and covered with a tarp before the rain set in. Exhausted and discouraged, we called it a day.
This morning revealed that the Sting hive is doing alright and the Bina hive (now in the Bee Castle) is struggling. There were still bees hanging out in the wheelbarrow and I was feeling similar emotions to when our house was broken into while we lived in Vegas. But dealing with the remaining carnage and putting the original Bina hive back together was cathartic...and an interesting thing happened. As I placed the roof back on the hive, some bees (I am assuming they are Bina bees) came and just hung out.
I moved the hive back to the apiary area and left all of the bees alone for the rest of the morning. They still seem more agitated than usual and we are not sure how the rest of this season will go. We had some good news through a new bee-keeping friend of Tim's at work. He is going to give us a split and he put up a swarm box to try to help us rebuild our apiary.
We appreciate the love and care everyone has shown for our bees...emotionally invested. We understand why farmers don't name their animals, even the littlest one. We are not going to give up with this adventure (or stop naming our critters), but it is a good reminder to be thankful for the little things.
Today I am thankful for some new netted Irises that bloomed and for time to hang out with and care for our Gerards who are doing well and making a ton of Vermicompost which is now feeding our gardens (our corn and potatoes are growing well).
