To all Forum Members:
I'm going to give each and any of you an opportunity to get the heck stung out of you. I have three hives that I believe have all been superseded with Africanized queens. These bees are HOT.
If someone wants to come down and replace these queens I will supply the queens, and I will take you on a nice feral hog hunt and feed you some good Texas cooking. A nice bunkhouse awaits you on the larger 600-acre ranch. Turkey season is open through May 15. Now comes the problem:
My latest venture into these hives was last Saturday, May 1. I wore my new Ultra Breeze bee suit and some vented sleeve cowhide gloves from Mann Lake. I slowly smoked the hives and starting at the entrance and then following on upper entrances and any cracks in the finger joints. I did this for a couple of minutes and the bees seemed to be fine. Then I removed the top cover and smoked through the vent hole in the inner cover for a minute or two. The bees were busy and moving quickly but didn't seem to be out of hand. I then lifted on corner of the inner cover. It was propolized so I used the hive tool and as I lifted it I smoked under it. I got the inner cover off and slowly smoked down into the frames. The bees were buzzing more and I let them calm down a bit, maybe another minute. Then I put my hand on one of the frames, and my veil and jacket top were covered with bees. I'm talking about enough bees on your veil to hinder one's eyesight. They never left me. I did another hive with the exact same procedure and the same result.
I then went to the third hive and once again had the same experience. Somewhere along the way from hive two to hive three, the elastic leg bottoms slipped over my boot tops. I was wearing brogan shoes that come to the top of my ankles. I felt a burning sensation on my right leg and then my left. I gave both legs a good smoking pulled the leg bottoms back over my shoes. In that 20 to 30 second time interval I received 15 stings on one leg and 12 on the other.
These bees were hot last year but not this hot. One of my old pals said to use some sulphur dust in my smoker and it would keep most of the bees off me. He also pointed out that I could mix the sulphur stronger and plug the holes in the hive and kill the hive with sulphur-laden smoke. These bees have been great producers, but they are now so hot that I fear for the safety of others. They are in an isolated place, but people go everywhere eventually.
Seriously, I spoke in half jest at the beginning of this tirade, but if anyone wants to experience Africanized bees I would roll out the West Texas hospitality. The hog and turkey hunt are standing offers.
Lazy
