What was your Biggest Mistake of the Week?

[Wandering Man]

B13's desire to receive the award for Biggest Mistake triggered a slew of mistakes I've made.  And I realize I probably make at least one a week.

So, here's the challenge for everyone on the forum:

Tell us (if you dare) what the biggest flub-up, brain malfunction, ready for the Blooper Reel mistake that you've made this week?

Some of us will be returning to this thread every week, I suspect.

[Wandering Man]

And I'll start with mine.

3Reds and I caught a swarm in our flower-pot style bait hive in our back yard.  We waited a few days, then moved the bees into a nuc.  The bees attacked me at the first movement of the bait hive because all of their comb fell off.  We scraped it together and rubber-banded what we could into frames, dumped the bees into the nuc, found the queen and dumped her into the nuc, too, then put the nuc on a stand I attached to the tree and left them alone.

The bees moved in, no problem.  I called and ordered a new queen, talked to a friend about buying the nuc, and we set our calendars for when and what to do with the hive.

Mistake?  I didn't bother with a queen excluder/includer.  The next day the bees told me to mind my own business and abandoned the nuc.  Now, I've had to cancel the order for the queen and tell my friend he's on his own for his next hive.

And, earlier this week I may have set myself up for a mistake to be revealed on Sunday.  You'll hear back from me if I messed that hive up, too.

[Jen]

Hey WM, I too have learned the importance of that queen excluder with swarms, the hard way. The other way to keep the swarm in place is putting a frame of brood, sans queen from donor hive, into the nuc as well. But I have also learned that that single frame of brood is not a guarantee to anchor the swarm. So I use a frame of brood and the queen excluder for about one week. So far have had good luck that way.

[Wandering Man]

Hey WM, I too have learned the importance of that queen excluder with swarms, the hard way. The other way to keep the swarm in place is putting a frame of brood, sans queen from donor hive, into the nuc as well. But I have also learned that that single frame of brood is not a guarantee to anchor the swarm. So I use a frame of brood and the queen excluder for about one week. So far have had good luck that way.

Queen excluders are usually a source of my "mistakes of the week."  On two prior occasions I put in queen excluders, but didn't include the queen inside the hive.  Those swarms also absconded.  :(

[Bakersdozen]

Mine was definitely forgetting to release the queen.  But, in my defense, I chose to spend a few hours of sunshine checking hives instead of trying to mow grass.   

[Bakersdozen]

I am going off topic a little bit, but I want to ask a question of those using queen excluders to hold a swarm in a box.  Do you feed those swarms once you have caught them?  Feeding should hold them in place.

[Jen]

Good morning Baker    Back in the day, I would add a jar of 1:1 syrup for the swarm. The girls couldn't care less about the syrup. They are engorged with honey and able to feed the queen a little bit, but not much because she is slimmed down for flight, and they want to keep her that way until they find their new home.

From my readings and learnings, food is the last thing on their minds, their number one goal is to find a new location pronto and get the queen settled. And even if they do choose a home and work to settle in, their swarm drive is still active, and they may take off again.

So for me feeding didn't work. What does work is locking the queen in the box with frames of drawn comb and letting the bees come and go as usual for about a week. Then the swarm drive has settled down. 

[Lastfling]

Well, this is my worse mistake this week.  A few minutes ago I was setting up a hive stand beside a swarm I had hives a few weeks ago.  The initial stand was a little unstable so the intent was and is to set a new stand several feet to the side using cinder block and 4x4 cross pieces.  As this hive has been calm and since I wasn’t messing with them and was working about 3 feet to the side, I was sans protective gear.  Might you see where this is headed LOL.  Well, I got cinder blocks placed and leveled along with 4x4 and was just raising up to head to house when BAM she flew directly into ear.  No messing around just a direct flight into ear.  At first it was kinda like what?? Then when the buzzing decibel level pegged out my personal freakout meter did to.  It took nearly a minute that seemed like hours to get the lady out and unfortunately she left a “gift”. 

When I head back in a minutes to move hive to new stand - you bet ya booties I’ll have the veil on.

PS-  it’s hard to find a stinger in your ear without help - haha


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[Wandering Man]

Okay, updates for me.

First, my absconded swarm; the neighbor from 2 doors down came looking for me because she heard I was a beekeeper, and she was hoping I could remove a colony from her house.  It looks to me like my absconded swarm found a new home! 

I gave her the names of 2 swarm removers and an apology.

Now for the action that I feared was a mistake. We introduced a queen in her queen cage only a few seconds after we killed the resident queen. Luckily the new queen survived.

[Les]

Checking on my pond around 7:30 pm and as I was walking across the yard I looked over at my currant bush
and lo and behold another swarm.  Ran and got a deep, threw in some old comb, threw on my jacket and veil
and ran outside (too much running for this old lady)!  Got lucky, they were close to the ground.  In the excitement and habit, I spit out a bug.  What?  Wait a minute, how could I spit out a bug???  Yep, forgot to zip up and that was no bug, it was a honeybee!!  Darn I got lucky!

[Wandering Man]

Wow Les! You were lucky.

[Bakersdozen]

Oh the horror stories!  Les, you got lucky!  Lastfling, not so lucky!
Jen, thanks for the update.   I realized my comment was flawed when I reread "feeding should hold them in place."  There are no absolutes in beekeeping! 
The bees ignoring sugar syrup may be because honey bees usually swarm when there is a strong nectar flow on. 
As we know, different colonies will have different characteristics.  A strong swarming instinct could vary well be one of those characteristics.

[Jen]

Good Morning everyone 

Geez! a bee in the ear, and a bee in the mouth.. I haven't experienced those yet, but I've had plenty of stings straight up the nose, copious amounts of snot, tears, saliva quickly ensues. I do know another beeks who got a bee in the ear and the bee got stuck, there wasn't anyone at home to help get the bee out of her ear so she had to use tweezers and a mirror to dissect the bee out of her ear.

Hey Baker  Being a mentor now, of which I love, when I'm asked a question from my mentee's, my answer invariably will be.. Maybe, It's Possible, No guarantees, No sure let's see what happens 

[Bakersdozen]

Hey Baker  Being a mentor now, of which I love, when I'm asked a question from my mentee's, my answer invariably will be.. Maybe, It's Possible, No guarantees, No sure let's see what happens 

 
I like to say, "It's a science experiment!  We'll see what happens!"   

[tecumseh]

none so far expect perhaps for spending too much time and money remodeling my honey house.  with a one man show somethings have to wait to get important stuff done.

Bakersdozen's comment (above) reminds me of a comment made by my father in law (the brain trust of the family).  He is a geeks geek and has a work resume and major patents to establish his credentials..  As an example he in the most humble fashion speaks of working in Oppenheimer's Lab extracting U235 during the big war.  Anyway back to Bakers comment.... he has told me (on several occasion) that 'science (or scientist) may tell you something is impossible until someone proves otherwise'.

I make so many mistakes about things I do that it is sometimes difficult maintaining a list.

Gene in Central Texas....
   

[Jen]

Tec 'I make so many mistakes about things I do that it is sometimes difficult maintaining a list.'

And then all the time it takes to wander around looking for the list...

[tecumseh]

Jen I decided long ago that life is a bit like tossing a coin... it is a 50/50 deal no matter which way you go and the only way not to make mistakes is to do absolutely nothing at all.