First Observations as a New Beekeeper - Honeybee: Lessons from an Accidental Beekeeper - page 48

hive. The workers entered the hive without objection from the guard bees who stood on
the lookout at the entrance.
My workers seemed to have such a purposeful life, contentedly visiting the crocuses
and daffodils, interrupted only by the occasional cleansing flight . Yes, honeybees leave
the hive to find a restroom. They will never soil their pristine environment, thus en-
suring a perfectly immaculate site for making honey. This fact makes one love these
creaturesmorethanever.Myhoneybeespassionatelywentabouttheirduties,asifnoth-
ing else in the world mattered. If only I could be so content and focused on my own
work.
F IRST P EEKS I NSIDE THE H IVE
Exactly one week after I hived my bees, it was time to open the hive to check on my
queen. It takes approximately three to five days for the queen to be released from her
royalcage.Thequeen'sattendants,whotraveledwithherinsidehercage,andthework-
ers inside the hive had been happily dining on the sugar cork that acted as a temporary
door between the queen and her subjects. Once the candy cork was completely eaten,
the queen would be released, and she would introduce herself to her subjects through
queen substance. This pheromone—a chemical e-mail, if you will—is passed along
from one bee to another through their antennae until it reaches the last bee. This is how
the entire hive knows the queen is present. Once the queen was released into the hive,
shewouldmateandbeginlayingeggs,andalltheactivitiesofaworkingbeehivewould
officially begin. I was hoping that the queen inside my hive had been released during
the first week, and I suited up with my bee veil, hive tool ready, to see how my bees
were doing.
The best time to open up and inspect inside a hive is between ten in the morning
and four in the afternoon. This is when most of the workers are out foraging. There
will, therefore, be fewer bees inside the hive, which makes the job of manipulating the
frames much easier.
First,Iattemptedtolightmynice,newshinysmoker.Istuffeditwithnewspaperand
a few twigs, struck a match away from the breeze, dropped the match in, and watched
it flame out. I lit a second match, set fire to some newspaper, and then dropped it in.
Using my hive tool, I moved the paper around in the canister and added a little air by
squeezing the bellows. A miniature blaze broke out, but then quickly self-extinguished.
Sigh. Lighting a smoker was not nearly as easy as it sounded. I needed a plan and some
luck.
Again I tried the technique of lighting the paper first and then dropping it into the
canister. This time I slowly added dried grass, more twigs, and leaves. After a five-