Early summer update from Mark's apiary!

The calendar may say early summer, but it has been a long, hot season already. Here in North Carolina, we had a mild winter, a really warm spring, and now summer is guaranteed to be a real scorcher too.

The last three days have been some of the hottest temperatures on record. Even though Friday's official record breaking high was 102 degrees, here at my house the thermometer registered 105 degrees. It was so hot, the city parks were empty and there weren't that many people stirring around outside. Facebook even lit up with people posting pictures of thermometers showing the miserable heat. Then on Friday night, a storm blew through Virginia and into North Carolina which caused all sorts of havoc including trees down and thousands without power. Luckily the only problem at my house was the large limb of a black walnut tree that straddles my property broke off and hit the ground in my neighbor's yard.  

Even my honey bees are a tad testy because of the oppressive heat. Trying to be merciful, I had a Boardman feeder on one of the hives and figured that with that part of the entrance blocked, it had to be really hot inside. So I decided to remove it until the heat cools down in a few days. As always, I suited up and went down to take the feeder off -  when WHAM, I got stung on the back of my left ankle! One of the ladies who didn't want me around the hive hit me before I knew it. She found a spot not covered by my overalls and let me have it full force. It was, without a doubt, the worst sting I've gotten this year. I've been stung three times this year, once on the ankle and the other two under my right arm (30 days apart and in the exact same spot). Oh well, just one of the few hazards of being a beekeeper.

While the sting of a honey bee hurts, it is nothing compared to a yellow jacket. I make no bones about it...I hate yellow jackets! Here was the first (and hopefully, last) nest I've found this year. It was in the back yard and I found it while I was petting my neighbor's dog over the fence. I glanced over a few feet from where I was standing and there they were...a steady stream of nasty, ill tempered devils coming out of the ground. As you can see in the picture, it was easy to find the entrance hole since it was about two inches wide and going straight down. So I waited until it got dark and sprayed it with wasp and hornet killer. While I hate using chemicals, I'm not going to get into another nest of hateful yellow jackets. Been there, done that - but no more. After I found stragglers the next day, I stuck the water hose in the hole and ran it for an hour. That apparently ended that problem since I've seen no more yellow jackets there in a week. Oh, and this was the same location where I killed a nest in 2009. Last year's nest was 6 inches from my front walkway. I don't know what it is about my yard that attracts yellow jackets, but it seems I've had to kill about one nest per year since I've moved here. Needless to say, I've gotten really good at spotting them before they spot me, thank goodness!

Hope your summer is going well! More updates later!

They're back! The yellow jackets are back!

Okay, so I thought I had totally gotten rid of the yellow jacket's that I found in my yard this week. I was pretty proud of myself for destroying the nest and getting rid of the angry yellow menace. Boy was I wrong..

Yesterday, thinking that I would go out and see if the ground was sinking where the entrance hole was located, I peeped out of the laundry room window, which is about 20 feet from the nest. As my eyes settled to the location of the hole, and I see one, then two, then five yellow devils, all flying around. Thinking they could be stragglers, the ones out foraging on the day I poured gasoline down the hole, I didn't give it much thought, and figured they would go away.

Wrong. This morning I look out and there they are again, about five to ten of them, flying over the old entrance hole (which was filled in when I poured gasoline down the hole). So now I realize that they must have a second entrance/exit hole somewhere, but I can't find it. I have watched and waited, but they fly around...land here, land there...but for the life of me, I can't see one point where they are coming and going. I just don't know where it is, and it is irritating me. I've encountered yellow jackets in years past, matter of fact, last year I had one within feet of where my bee hive is now, but this is the first nest I've run into that I couldn't destroy.

Now I'm a man on a mission. I plan to watch the ground to see what they're doing, then when I find the suckers, I'll go Dirty Harry on them. I hate yellow jackets. I got into a nest of them as a kid and they stung me repeatedly, getting in my clothes and hair and going crazy on me. I plan to return the favor.

Stay tuned!

YELLOWJACKETS and divine intervention...

I have to admit that I'm not the most religious person in the world. Like others, I have my beliefs about what lies beyond and even what happens here on earth, but rarely do I ever talk about it. Sometimes its better to keep those ideas to yourself. It keeps everybody happy and out of a fuss. Same thing with politics.

But in this situation, I just had to blog about. It was my encounter with yellow jackets while mowing my yard today. Read on...

After returning from a morning doctor's visit (I have a horrible sinus infection from the air conditioning, I get one every year) I decided to mow my back yard and concentrate close to my bee hive because the grass was a little high. After having my yard graded, I planted grass, and now it is coming up like crazy, so I decided to mow and trim near my hive too. Even though I've been all around the hive with my weedeater, and without my protective overalls, I decided that since I would be using the lawn tractor, it might be a good idea to wear it just in case they get a little testy because of the noise. Besides, I'd already been stuck once today (a shot in the rear at the doctor's office) and didn't want to try for more from my girls.

I mowed all around the hive and didn't even get a response from my bees at all. I guess they had other things on their minds, and I was the least of their concerns. And while I was at it, I decided to mow up the fence line which separates my yard from my neighbor's. But the sun was beating down and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. I started to get soaking wet with sweat from my overalls so I went inside the house to take them off and come back to finish mowing the back yard.

In jeans and a tee shirt, I cranked the lawn tractor and decided to continue mowing near the fence line. I made it right to the fence line and that's when I saw it. A cloud coming out of the ground. A thick cloud coming out of the ground. A thick, yellow cloud coming out of the ground and it was in a frenzy. I bet there were at least a hundred or more and the cloud kept getting thicker.

YELLOW JACKETS!

Now mind you, they were flying in the same exact spot I just ran over with the lawn tractor while I was wearing my protective overalls. I normally just wear them when I'm at the hive, but for some odd reason, I wore them going up that fence line and right over top of that yellow jacket's nest.

Needless to say, I panicked. I turned the ignition off and jumped off the tractor with the blades still engaged, so when it shut completely down, it backfired and sounded like a pistol went off. I stood a good distance away and watched them and finally figured where the entrance was. And that's when I decided on a plan of attack.

WARNING: Don't try this at home. I just have to say that just in case you're thinking of doing it if you find a yellow jacket's nest in your yard. I don't want you to get hurt and blame me. Nuff said? Okay, so I suited up again and took some gasoline and burned the area where they were flying out and hoping that I got some yellow jackets in the process. Then when I put that out with my garden hose, I found the entrance hole..that was big enough to put my index finger inside. At that point, since there was no danger of fire, I took more gasoline and poured it inside the hole, maybe a half to one gallon, and just stood back and watched. A few were determined to get to the hole, and I even got divebombed a few times too, but they eventually went away. An hour later, I would see the occasion yellow jacket fly over the hole, make a few passes, then fly away.

I then finished mowing my back yard which looks great now. And bee-free too (except the honey bees in my hive).

About me wearing the protective overalls that far up the fence line. I have no clue why I decided to do it, but I did. Maybe I just thought about it and did it...or maybe there was some sort of divine intervention that forced me to wear them. Whichever it is, all I can say is, thank you, thank you..THANK YOU!

Until next time, watch the ground when you're mowing, and bee careful!