So to a new year with the bees, as expected none survived the winter so yesterday I collected a single nuc package comprising of 4 frames. This morning I put on my gear and set about placing them into a hive. All seemed to be going smoothly when I felt myself being stung on my waist, then on my arm.
Strange I thought as I was securely enclosed in my jacket etc. then a few bees were flying in front of my eyes behind my veil, whoa, something is definitely wrong here. I looked down to see my jacket zip had broken and I had a nice torso full of newly released bees who did not seem to like me very much!
So I placed the last frame in, added some syrup and replaced the lid, before slowly, very slowly, removing my gloves so I could take off my bee keeping jacket and shirt which I gently placed on the ground before making an even slower retreat through the flying bees safely away from the now populated hive.
I got away with only three stings. Not a great start to the year with them. So a new zip has now been installed on the jacket and the search has started for a new outfit but I will be looking for a full suit this time.
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