As I shared earlier, sadly my Honey Bees did not survive the winter and my hives sat empty this spring, when I was unable to order more due to the pandemic. However, hope springs eternal! Therefore I made my hives as welcoming as could be to hopefully attract new bees. I left the frames laden with fall honey inside the freshly cleaned hives, and sure enough the bees started returning.
At first they only made quick visits to raid the hives of their precious stores of honey while they patiently waited for flowers to blossom in the early spring. However, as time progressed I noticed they were lingering longer. Honey Bees could be seen happily buzzing around my hives in the early morning and in the evening too, well past the times they would be out foraging for pollen. A quick inspection by Dad, and sure enough, although there weren’t a lot of bees, there were signs that my hives were buzzing with activity again.
That is until masked bandits vandalized my hives and frightened my Honey Bees away! It all happened in late June. Yes, that same week just before Mom’s surgery when we had all sorts of other trouble. One night Asa uncharacteristically started barking. Sadly I ignored his warning that he heard something, and awoke the next morning to find my beloved hives toppled.
At first Mom jumped to the conclusion that our neighborhood bear was to blame. However, as a great detective, I knew that if it were a bear the damage would be much more extensive. I also knew it couldn’t have been the skunks who were known to bother my hives previous summers. Skunks aren’t that mischievous. They tend to just whack the side of the hive to get the bees to fly out, turning the hive into their own personal Pez dispenser.
No, this wanton act of vandalism needed dexterity and strength. But not enough strength to destroy the hives. This vandalism could only have been perpetrated by the raccoon that I saw lurking about my yard earlier that evening. He must not have acted alone though based on the amount of damage. However, it is clear no matter how many there were, they got what they wanted. The delicious frames once full of honey were scattered on the ground. Oh what a stinging insult to an already disappointing summer!
Optimistic the Honey Bees would return, I devised a plan with Dad. While I sniffed around trying to find the culprits, Dad cleaned up the area and secured the hives to their base. Then we waited, hoping the Honey Bees would return. But alas, they did not. You know who did return? The raccoons! They knocked the hives down again last night! The Lemmeez Hive stood strong against the assault, but sadly Azzza Hive crumbled. That’s really no surprise, actually. I bet if there were any Azzza Bees left, they probably thought they were playing a game with their new friends! Does this mean the end to any hope of catching wild Honey Bees this summer? Sadly, yes.
However, this stinging insult has been a good learning experience for when my hives are all abuzz next spring. Although the electric fence is turned off this summer, we need to use this time to make improvements. Dad is going to make the electric fence harder to breach to keep the skunks and raccoons away. Also we will make sure the hives are more secure on their base. Thus if the masked bandits return in the early spring, when the hives are at their lightest, the raccoons won’t be able to easily push them over. And third, yes I admit, next time Asa randomly barks in the night I will pay attention to what he says!
