Kirk tackles a big cut-out, and helps another new beekeeper get started:
And Larry writes:
Kirk—
It was a pleasure to meet you yesterday and I really appreciate how skillfully and patiently you transferred our colony of feral bees from inside a stucco wall into a hive.
In addition to the sting that I got on my cheek, I got a few more as I was futzing with the hive later. I got a sting on my right wrist when a bee crawled inside my glove, and later when I couldn't find my big, heavy welding glove, I got stung on the left wrist by a bee who crawled inside an ordinary work glove, and on the finger by a bee who was able to sting me through the fabric of the glove.
After you left, I kept spraying the bees clustered on the wall with sugar water, and the clusters kept getting smaller. At one point, I decided to scrape some of the comb off the 2 x 6 studs in the wall, and that's when I got stings 3 and 4.
At about 9:30 pm I suited up again, this time with duct tape around the cuffs of my gloves, and went out to transfer any remaining clusters of bees into the hive. But there was not one bee left on the wall in the old colony space. They had all gone into the hive.
Pretty cool! Looks like our transplant was a total success.
This morning, I went out to the freezer to see about some honey. I cut away some empty comb and cut up the juicy comb into blocks that I put in plastic containers. I mooshed up a lot of the comb that was not as full, and I'm letting the honey drain out of it.
I just had a piece of toast with butter and some of the honey from my bees. Unbelievable! I'm a budding bee dude.
You're awesome, Kirk.
Thanks,
Larry
