Yesterday I opened up all of my hives for a routine inspection. It was hot, but that is supposed to be a good time to open the hives because it is causes the least amount of disruption to the bees. I was wearing my veil and some heavy latex gloves and everything was fine until I got to the third hive. I must have torn a small hole in the glove on my thumb because one of the girls (all the workers are female) stung me a good one. It is completely my fault, I should have replaced the torn glove (I have a whole box of them). I yelped, jumped, swatted and ran, all the things a beekeeper is not supposed to do, lol.
All of the hives seemed to be jammed full of nectar, normally a good thing because they will turn it into honey, but it seemed like every nook and cranny was full of nectar, honey, or baby bees. If the bees don't have any place to store food or make babies it could trigger their swarming impulse. I am as ready as I can be for them to swarm, (I have 7 swarm traps sprinkled all over my property) but I would rather they all stayed home and made more honey.
