Bear Attack!

Friday, just over a week ago, after a delicious but heavy dinner at Geronimo, Robert, my Mom, and I were taking a stroll and decided to return to the house via the backyard arroyo. As we approached the apiary we came upon a confusing situation, a beehive sitting outside the fence. 

Reality snapped into place as I noticed the scattered frames, electrical wiring, and fence slats. A bear had broken into the apiary, undeterred by the electric shocks, and removed my hive. The beast carried the upper-most box out behind the fence, invisible in this photo, leaving two mostly complete boxes upright as you see them. 

Unfortunately, there was nothing we could do right then to protect what remained. Bees are extremely defensive after dark, because that’s when bears attack. Even if we were able to get the bees back into the apiary, we couldn’t fix the fence or repair the electrical defense in the slim daylight remaining.

At dawn Saturday morning, I found that the bear had returned, knocked the hive on its side, and took 5 more frames, including some with brood larva. The remaining bees formed curtains on the now open sides of the deep box to try to protect and keep their remaining brood warm.  We pulled the deep brood box and the half-full medium back inside the fence. The deep box is quite heavy and it took both of us to wrangle it back in place. Smoke didn’t convince the bees to break their curtain and so Robert gently scooped them inside using gloved hands so that we didn’t mash them as we placed the box on its base. We had 10 medium frames with mostly empty honeycomb in the workshop from our July harvest. The best of these I used to replace the frames the bear had destroyed. It takes an incredible amount of effort to build honeycomb and this will give the hive a leg up in their recovery. (Photo below shows the bees a day or so later trying to keep cool. I’m pleased to see so many. The box needs to be leveled, easier said than done.)

After getting the bees more or less back into place, we went to the hardware store for supplies. Then, Robert set to work replacing fence slats using screws with built-in washers so they wouldn’t rip through the wood so easily. Providing support by ferrying supplies and just hanging around, I was stung in the forehead while carrying a fence slat to Robert. Immediately I went inside to remove the stinger and apply ice. As I ran into the house, I realized that I was wearing a dark-colored t-shirt. Stupid! After a bit, I returned to continue support wearing a lighter colored t-shirt and a bee veil. 

Robert had replaced all of the fence slats and started to work out how to add some supporting braces by the time he was stung on his nose. By then we had a secure enclosure and some limited electrical protection. Good enough to leave to go see the play we had tickets to see. Sunday Robert finished repairing most of the electrical defense. (Below, a wildlife camera photo of Robert continuing to repair the electrical protection as late as Wednesday).

Monday morning I awoke to find the large welt on my forehead had swollen to nearly completely shut my left eye. Mom and I went to the grocery store to get some Benadryl and the cashier gave me a double-take when we checked out. All day Monday the swelling worsened. I took a photo of myself as documentation so that I can show my doctor when I ask for a prescription for an Epi-Pen. No, I’m not sharing that with you. Tuesday morning I was better enough to be able to drive to Albuquerque to drop Mom off at the airport, but not good enough to want to go to our usual games night. Even Thursday morning, I still had somewhat puffy eyes and as I write on Sunday morning I still have a good welt on my forehead. No fun, but I’m not worried about myself like I’m worried about the bees. 

If this were a normal summer, I’d feel better about their chances, but the drought is limiting the available forage. At our Thursday night beekeeping meeting, many reported that they have no harvest this year and some bees are starving. Both of our hives are losing weight and we are feeding them sugar water to try to help them maintain. Also, the bear returned again in the wee hours of Friday morning.

As we were coming home from our beekeeping class Saturday afternoon, our friend and fellow beek Allison commented that “beekeeping is both easy and a lot of work.” I agree.

Thanks for reading.

Kelly