With Great Sadness…Goodbye Bees
So, this was a tough summer.... I had to find a new home for my honey bees.
First I need to say: I love my honey bees.
However, I could not keep the winged-wonders in my backyard (I had 2 active hives and 1 nucleus colony). I had been stung several times early in the summer due to bad luck (no issues with honey bee stings the past 3-4 years) and when trying to get a little striped lady out of my office one almost fatal summer afternoon, she stung my fingertip.
Within ten minutes, I had problems breathing and my skin was on fire and itchy. I could not stop scratching. Hives erupted all over my body. Threw myself in a tub of epson salts and water. Thank goodness I have been keeping up-to-date epipens and Benadryl with my bee keeping supplies... my husband Theron was available to make the injection.
I put the call out to the DC Beekeepers association for help. Then the saga was written up by avid beekeeper, Caroline Boucher Hutton:
Alston Taggart’s storied bees are nearing a happy ending. Huge appreciation to her for the loving care she gave them for years, and for her generous donation to the school program at DC International.
Denise Lyons coordinated the move last night. The two larger, main hives were moved (mostly) without a hitch and set up at DCI last night.
The nuc presented a problem because it was so heavily bearded, though. After some brainstorming and consultation with our fearless leader (Toni Burnham), we decided to return early this morning and move the colony to larger equipment and re-attempt to move it in a few days. As you can see, the hive was fit to burst! But they are now in space that is twice as large. We left the empty nuc gear so that the box-clingers could migrate over at their leisure.
We would also have been sunk without the help of newly Andrea, John, and Carlos (new-bee volunteers recruited to help move the bees.) THANKS!!!!
HUGE SHOUT OUT to the super bee-committed women who have taken my honey bees to their new home at DCI. Thank you Denise Lyons and Caroline Boucher Hutton for your strong commitment to these amazing creatures.
Sad that I can no longer care for them directly, but happy to offer my graphic design services for free for any pro bono bee causes/needs!