# Opening Hives at Night



## antonio4231 (May 18, 2008)

I have opened my hives at night a few times to manipulate things (feeders, newspaper combines, etc) I always use a red LED head lamp and try to pick a cool night. no smoke. I have never really had a problem with them being agressive. What i do find though, is that the bees are much more likely to crawl than fly at night, so i typically end up with a few girls crawling around on me. So I usually stop out on the front porch, shake my coveralls off well and then take off my veil and shake it out before coming indoors to the light, where the girls will fly. just my 2 cents. Tony


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## donniethebeeman (Jul 2, 2009)

I had always heard that working with bees at night was a bad idea because they are more aggressive and more apt to crawl into shirt sleeves ect. In all my years of bee keeping i had never attempted to do anything with my girls at night and after hearing your story i am glad i havn't. 

ouch!!!!!!!!!


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## DRUR (May 24, 2009)

We live and learn. Bees are excellent at finding a place to enter. I find them more defensive and that coupled with their tendency to crawl and ability to find openings, makes for a miserable experience. I usually only wear regular pants (blue (denim) jeans) long sleeve shirt, veil and sometimes gloves. Needless to say there are plenty of openings, through the gaps in the shirt between buttons, up inside your pant's legs etc. If you use a light they will then fly and crawl, a worse scenario. Experience is a great teacher, and pain will cause you to remember that experience much longer. Just look at them as giving you a PHD in working bees at night.:lpf:


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## antonio4231 (May 18, 2008)

red LED light= bee's don't respond to that spectrum of light. bee suit (or in my case 30 dollar army surplus ammunition loader white canvass coveralls, full length velcro "zipper" in the front and velcro closers at the wrists) I have NEVER been stung while wearing it and I've dealt with some "hot" bees.


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## Ross (Apr 30, 2003)

We usually recommend that you take video when someone asks. We are into cheap entertainment.


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## Nan3902 (May 18, 2009)

Just another story for your "entertainment"...after being stung on the thigh after a bee crawled up my skirt (yes, I was looking at bees in a skirt, just after work), I went to look at them in a NIGHTGOWN !!!!!!! I nicely tucked the nightgown around the tops of my legs so no bees got in. I didn't anticipate dropping a foundation on my exposed LAP !!!! 21 stings to my thighs and legs = do not wear nightgowns to look at bees. 

Nancy
Ovid, NY


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## waynesgarden (Jan 3, 2009)

Nan3902 said:


> 21 stings to my thighs and legs = do not wear nightgowns to look at bees.
> 
> Nancy
> Ovid, NY


That's good advice, Nancy. I never have, but it's a good reminder to me should I ever get an itch to.

Wayne

(By the way, bees have the advantage at night. They are quite used to working in the dark, unless you've equipped the inside of your hives with mini-LED lamps.)


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## BEES4U (Oct 10, 2007)

I have filled inside feeders towards sun down and 2 hours after with no problems.
Ernie


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## suttonbeeman (Aug 22, 2003)

My old saying is....at night bees will find any hole no matter where it is....if they cant find one they will make new one that has never been seen or discovered until then!


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## beekeeping (Jul 1, 2009)

My wife, myself, and an experienced beekeeper (Howard) went to pick up a hive last year. We left the house just as it was getting dark. On the Howard began telling us one of the rules of beekeeping, "Never work in bees at night.". He said that working in the bees at night was awful because they crawl all over you. By the time we got to the site it was dark. We were breaking the rule he just told us about. He said to park the truck about 100 feet away and leave the headlights on. The idea was that the light would be far enough away that the bees wouldn't be attracted to it. All we were going to do is stop up the entrance. Well, it didn't go so well because Howard had new-bees at his side. I got popped twice and poor Howard got stung over 15 times I'm sure. He had to ride back to his house in the back of my truck. As soon as we got inside we promptly removed any remaining bees and all the stingers we could find.

What you describe fits pretty well with my experience also. I'm as sorry for you as I was for Howard. He still helps us.


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## earthchild (Jun 30, 2009)

21 stings!!! How are your thighs looking?


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## USCBeeMan (Feb 7, 2009)

Moved 5 or 6 hives from my house to a farm at night. Waited till dark to close up their entrances. All was well and proud of myself. Got all hives in the back of my PU which had a camper top.

Easy rding to the farm on a few bumps the last 100 yards. Had my PU behind the hive locations so that I could work using the light of the PU. Had on my suit and veil. 

I knew how bad bees are at night. Had my smoker lit to keep them under control as I opened the entrances. Bad move. Next time I will wait until the next morning. These bees were really ticked at me. It got worse as I went down the line opening the entrances.

The girls were after me like white on rice. I smoked my head where they were mostly congregating, walking fast in circles spinning like a top with the smoker bellowing out smoke. Was getting so dizzy that I had to stop (it wasn't working anyway). opcorn:

Started running in the dark out in the tall fescue pasture falling occassionally puffing the smoker just in front of my face hoping the trail of smoke would make them give up. :gh:

NADA!!!

Those girls were wanting a piece of my flesh!! Evil women!!! Spurrned women!!!! :lookout:

Got stung just a few times. Ran around in the dark in the field and came up on my PU from the back side in the dark. They were still on my butt. It was hot that night and I was full of sweat and miserable. Jumped in the truck rolled down all of the windows and sped away as fast as I could. Got on pavement on drove much faster that was safe on the winding country roads hoping to blow them out the truck. Got to the 4 lane road. Stopped to pull off my veil. Thought the were all gone. But realized a least one was still in the truck. Left off veil as went down the highway around 80 mph.

Got home and saw one in the truck. Took the suit off and put it in the little room with the washer and dryer. Found one of the girls on me and smashed her.

Next morning, I found a couple just inside the house on the wall and more in the truck.

I can laugh about it now and I wish someone was there to tape the whole event. It would have been a winner on America's Funniiest Videos. :gh:

Moral of the story: Move the hives at night but open them up the next morning. All of my boxes had SBB and were sitting on 2 flat landscaping timbers that were resting on cinder blocks which were standing on end. Can't remember if I used cloth stuffed in the entrances of stapled screen wire.


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## beekeeping (Jul 1, 2009)

:lpf: OMG! Thanks for the laugh.

BTW, I was too ashamed to admit it before, but after this laugh I feel much better. The reason Howard got stung so bad and the bees got out were my fault. Howard had the entrance blocked with chicken wire and cotton balls. I thought one of the cotton balls needed some adjusting. Big mistake. That's when the bees attacked. I ran and told my wife to do the same. None of us were wearing anything protective. Howard stayed by the hive and insisted on trying to fix my goof. That's when they let him know it just wasn't going to happen on that night. We left them and came back the next morning to stop them up proper without incident.


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## Terry Small Jr (Aug 31, 2008)

Our standard procedure is to wait till dusk, when the field bees have returned, to start loading the trucks. We get the trucks loaded ASAP when the bees are no longer in the air. When we get to the destination, it's fully dark, the girls are crawling, not flying. We just know, especially after the first time, not to touch the truck. The only thing that contacts the truck is the forklift, only as long as necessary.

As long as I follow 'the rules', ie; no touching the truck, I don't get stung on most moves.


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## Terry Small Jr (Aug 31, 2008)

Forgot to mention, I thoroughly wipe myself off after removing the straps & ropes. That's when I'm most likely to take a sting.


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## Jer733 (Oct 5, 2008)

I just was talking to a fellow this weekend that is a former African beekeeper of Africanized bees

He says that they HAVE to work those bees at night, much too nasty to work in the daytime.



Wow.


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## beekeeping (Jul 1, 2009)

I have heard this too about Afican keepers of AFB. Interesting. Don't think I'd care to work in them then either.


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