Entries for the 2001 Empty Super Award
This award was first presented in the year 2000. Lyn Shiels was given a beautiful perpetual trophy to hold for 12 months for her story about catching a swarm.
The award is for the best/funniest/strangest/most useful story about a bee related experience. The stories are published first in the monthly newsletter of the Beekeepers Association of the ACT.
Jan Johnston
Unregistered User
(5/19/01 6:09 pm) Reply
Entry 1 - Bees Miss Out On God's Message
Richard was in the backyard inspecting his hives one sunny Saturday morning. The doorbell rang and Jan answered it.
On the doorstep stood an elderly lady and a young man both clutching "Watchtower" and smiling bravely despite the bees which were encircling them and which they were nervously trying to fend off. Jan saw their plight and invited them in which they gratefully accepted. After a few minutes (during which time they did not mention their mission, so overcome were they to be out of danger) Jan peered cautiously outside to check that the bees had gone.
All seemed clear and they were advised to make a hurried exit. First the lady made a successful escape, then the young man crept furtively down the front steps. All seemed to be going well but those bees had been lying in wait for him. They allowed him to reach the letterbox but he was last seen running the sprint of his life down the street, Watchtowers fluttering and bees in hot pursuit. We have not seen these two, or their colleagues, again but wish them all the best.
RobertGardiner
Unregistered User
(5/19/01 6:13 pm) Reply
Entry 2 - How to get the queen laying
We had collected a nice strong swarm a week earlier. The workers were doing all the right things: buzzing into every flower in the garden, bringing honey and pollen in, but where were the eggs? Answer: REQUEEN. We discussed this while we were at the hive. When our new queen arrived, we lifted the lid to put her in when lo! - there had been a huge egg-laying effort. Must have been the bee equivalent of leaving an axe in the chook shed.
RobertGardiner
Unregistered User
(5/19/01 6:15 pm) Reply
Entry 3 - Check your suit
I was in the backyard checking the three new swarms we have in quarantine, when the bees started flying hard around me. I don’t usually worry about that, but this time they seemed to be up close and VERY persistent. I thumped my hood to get one off, so hard that I knocked my glasses off. It was only when I was taking my suit off that I realised the blasted thing was inside my suit! It must have hung around in there from the week before. Guess who checked his suit carefully the next time.
RobertGardiner
Unregistered User
(5/19/01 6:19 pm) Reply
Entry 4 - Don’t be Trigger-Happy
My hives are on a property owned by a leading member of the local fire brigade, so it’s particularly important to be seen to be doing the right thing in regard to smoke on fire danger days. Consequently I often use liquid smoke. It’s not perfect, but at least cuts down the dive-bombing to a squadron at a time.
Recently I was working on a stroppy hive. I pumped a bit of liquid smoke in and laid the pump aside while opening up. They started to play up, so I reached for the pump – just as the hissing indicated that I had left it on spray and there ain’t no more. By the time I got the lid back on and myself the heck out of there, I had multiple stings to deal with, and a certain queen’s abdication in mind.
LynShiels
Unregistered User
(5/19/01 6:22 pm) Reply
Entry 5 - The Case of the Wandering Queen
Last weekend Pat and Lyn Shiels went to Forrest to collect a feral hive located about five metres above a driveway to commercial premises. They were hoping to collect the hive intact because it was ideal for display. Pat courageously climbed the ladder and carefully cut the smaller branches supporting the hive.
Just as he reached out to grasp the final support and cut it the branch in question decided it had had enough and broke sending the hive crashing to the ground. They picked up the pieces and arranged them neatly in the box and sat back to wait for the bees to settle. No such luck. Twenty minutes later there was no noticeable diminishing of activity. Eventually a small group of bees were noticed gathering on the ground under a shrub. Investigation revealed Her Majesty among them. Scooped into an ice cream carton and carried in the direction of the hive she once again took flight. Another long wait and there she was again, this time sitting alone in the middle of the driveway where the frustrated beekeepers had been trekking back and forth. Another scoop and trip towards the hive. Another break for freedom. By this time Lyn was threatening immediate annihilation on the next sighting.
After another wait it became apparent that the bees were at last beginning to settle so it was assumed that HM had heard the threats and decided to go home before the murderous one spotted her.
CecMercer
Unregistered User
(5/19/01 6:24 pm) Reply
Entry 6 - The Case of the Government Benefactor
Cec Mercer had a hive which he suspected was infected with either AFB or EFB. He collected material and sent it off to the lab for a test to determine the fate of the hive.
In due course he received an invoice for some $40 from the lab. Being both honest and efficient Cec sent off his cheque quickly.
What a pity he didn’t study the invoice more carefully, especially the bit where it says that the fee is paid by NSW Department of Agriculture. We think this is our only chance to get Cec for an Empty Super as he doesn’t make regular mistakes like the rest of us.
DavidLillis
Unregistered User
(5/19/01 6:26 pm) Reply
Entry 7 - Freebies
Just before Christmas I dropped off some hives at Steritech in Sydney to be gamma radiated. As I was short of hive straps I just used one per hive pulled up tight to hold the boxes together.
When I returned a week later my hives were outside waiting for me. Unfortunately, however, the forklift had pushed one open and robber bees were coming and going. I quickly straightened things up and bundled them into my trailer before heading back to Canberra.
The next day, on closer examination, I noticed some eggs in one frame and also spotted a queen.
A few months on and the bees are healthy and working well.
DavidLillis
Unregistered User
(5/19/01 6:29 pm) Reply
Entry 8 - Hi-Tech Bees
Recently I had an interesting experience whilst checking my hives at Hall. These bees on a nice day can still be cranky.
In the course of getting organised I hooked my mobile phone on the honey bucket out of the way.
I smoked the hive, then lifted the lid and as I turned to place it on the ground I noticed my phone was covered in bees.
At the end of my inspection when I was packing up I counted fifteen stings in the leather case. I must be using the wrong network.
DerekButler
Unregistered User
(5/19/01 6:31 pm) Reply
Entry 9 - Fruity Bees at Isabella Plains
I was called to a house in Isabella Plains in March when a lady said she had a swarm of bees in her aviary. Both she and her son were allergic to bee stings (badly enough to require medical treatment) so they were unable to cope alone.
I found that she had a walk-in cage containing rainbow lorikeets, whose seed diet also includes dried fruit. Of course in March there was no swarm, but there were indeed many bees clustered around the diced fruit and sultanas in the feeding bowl and on dropped fruit on the cage floor. I cleaned up the floor and removed what fruit I could from the bowl. I suggested that the only thing I could think of was to cover the bird wire with flywire so that the bees would give up and no longer seek out the fruit. So I measured up the cage and left the lady to buy flywire and get a neighbour to cover the birdwire. I hope it worked. I wasn’t sure if the bees would still seek out the fruit through the clearance gap around the cage door.
LynShiels
Unregistered User
(5/19/01 6:34 pm) Reply
Entry 10 - A sweet aroma
Recently Pat and Lyn extracted honey from hives at Burra. The bees have been feeding on stringy bark and are rather stroppy. After a fairly trying time in the shed with a few too many bad tempered companions they swung the buckets into the car for the trip home.
While completing the cleanup and hosing down the area for spilled honey Pat noticed that lots of bees were going under the car where honey appeared to be dripping down. Investigation showed a long split in the side of one bucket and about six or eight litres of honey flowing down under the front seat. A new bucket was quickly found to contain the split one and a hasty retreat to Canberra.
After several hours cleaning our car is almost as good as new but on a hot day you can still detect a hint of the aroma of honey.
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