I'm Emily, New beekeeper (-haver, at this point?!?) Northwest of Boston, MA.
 
I installed two pkgs of bees this April.  Everything has been going well,
considering bears and so forth, and my hives are very strong. They have been
hanging out all over the front of the hives since July.
 
This past Saturday I pulled off the honey supers, and harvested about 140#
of honey... Much more than I ever expected from new hives.  The bees were
reasonably docile, and no one was looking for trouble.  I set my frames up
for cut comb honey since I wasn't  expecting enough to make extracting worth
while.  I put the emptied frames outside about 50 - 75 feet away from the
hives to let the bees clean them, which they did in just a couple of hours.
 
Sunday, I noticed that the bees were chasing the birds away at the
birdfeeders and
bird bath. Hot, humid and oppressive weather.  Hurricane Bonnie in the south.
 
Monday I went to the hives to put in Apistan strips, and 2:1 syrup laced
with Fumidil-B and Teramycin.  Smoked and pried up the back edge of the top
deep and the bees exploded. Like an underground hornets nest.  My husband
and I were covered with very angry bees. Needless to say, I resemble the
Pillsbury dough boy, as does my husband.  I don't think he will help me
again......and the bees are currently unmedicated.
 
What did I do wrong?  Go into the hives twice in one weekend?  Should I have
taken the clue when they were chasing the birds?  Is it the rapidly falling
barometer all weekend that affected them?  How do I get the meds on them?
The top deep super is too heavy for me to lift (I can barely crack it from
the back).  I am tempted to just get the 2:1 syrup on the top and wait until
early spring for the Apistan, when the population is down, and the top deep
isn't so heavy.
 
Please, I need some advice.  (If there are any words of encouragement, they
would be welcome, too.)
 
Thanks,
Emily
Emily M. Pruyn
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