Now that I'm down to one "strong" hive, I decided to get two additional nucs and start two new hives for 2011. I'm not quite confident enough (or have enough time to watch carefully) to make my own splits. Although I understand that with patience and care, it's an easy process. Rather than try to split the strong hive before it swarmed (see the swarm article) back in December, I contracted with a local apiary to purchase two nucs when they were ready in late March or April.
The weekend of April 2 was scheduled for pick up. I'd take the new nucs, transfer them to the new hives and viola -- two new hives to build up.
Logistics meant that I was unable to get the nucs on the weekend. I drove out to the apiary early on Monday morning. Picked up the two nucs. The apiarist had waited until late Sunday night to close the nucs, once all the field bees had returned. We loaded them into the car about 7:30a.m. They were neatly ensconced on their new stand by 8:15 a.m. Safe and sound. One at the farm, surrounded by red clover, the second back at the house in the open, close to the lake.
When I checked on both about 9:30 a.m. Bees from each nuc has begun to fly,figuring out where they were.
All was well until about 3:30 a.m. the next morning when severe storms raced across the county. A tornado alert was issued. The power was out for a few hours. At early light, the nuc down by the lake was fine. Downed branches, blown leaves, chairs tumbled over, but the nuc stood firm on its base.
As I left for work I knew I wouldn't forgive myself if I didn't check on the baby bees at the farm.
I drove down the long pine-tree lined easement, noting that no apparent damage was done, no downed limbs -- I was sure I was worrying needlessly. And, then, I pulled into the field and spotted the nuc crashed over on its side. The top was cast to the side -- top bars of the interior frames exposes. The bottom was separated from the base and leaned at an angle against the brick base. Bees clustered on the exposed woodwork.
Fortunately, the temperature had dropped significantly as the storm passed through the area and now in the early morning was about 50 degrees. That was probably why the bees were still in the disheveled hive. Had I waited longer they might have absconded.
I still had my veil in the car. I thought: stay focused, stay present. I approached the nuc, righted the base and box on the stand and carefully settled the top back on the base. Ants had already found the sweet honey. I was not stung by any bee, but was bitten by ants. All the errant bees began to find their way back into the hive.
I'll know within the next week if the queen survived the tumble. The storms affected three states, killing more than a dozen people. Me and the baby bees were lucky.
