Bees (and beekeepers) have good days and less good ones.
Some days it seems they wake up grumpy and ready to be difficult.
My bees are no exception.
Back in January of this year, I visited some hives that were on the property belonging to my friend Christian. Christian lives just a few kilometers from here and it was time for a regular check on the hives' health.
One job on my list was to move a recently captured swarm from a small "nucleus" box to a full sized one. The swarm had established well, the queen was busily laying eggs and workers were happily building new comb and filling it with nectar and pollen.
The hive was getting crowded and they needed to "upsize".
We all know that moving house is disruptive and stressful for everyone, even though the end result is positive. By the time I had almost finished the process, my poor bees were quite confused and disturbed... angry, really.
The new box was surrounded by a cloud of bees although even in the space of the ten minutes since I had moved the last frames, they had started to settle-in and calm down. They knew that the queen was already inside and they were walking or flying-in to join her.
I was holding the old nucleus box in my hands, now empty except for a final handful of bees when I saw that Christian had wandered down to the lower paddock to see how things were going.
Now here is where Christian's recollection of events and my recollection of those same events diverge.
My story: I showed him the (almost) empty box and one bee straight at flew at him.
Christian's story: I hurled angry bees at him and he was attacked.
Regardless of who is telling the story, the result was a painful sting and swollen ear, something that lasted well over the next week and that Christian exhibited each morning at the regular morning coffee gatherings of various Halls Gap locals at the Livefast Cafe. Many offered sympathy. I suggested that amputation might be an option.
In retrospect, I had to admire Christian's bravery in coming down into the lower paddock to observe because this was not the first time he had been "attacked". A similar thing happened about a year earlier.. He was standing several metres away while I worked on a hive. A bee stung him the instant he turned his back to return to the house.
Christian wasn't the only victim. "Paddy Rum" (AKA Pat) of the famous Gariwerd Trail Running group was also targeted when he kindly offered to help me lift some very heavy hives. He was fine until he removed his bee-suit and posed for a photo next to a hive. Pat nearly got away with it before he also got hit.. Coincidentally, also on an ear.
So I guess the takeaway here is that it's dangerous to be friends with a beekeeper though thankfully neither of these two have given me up.
They know that they are welcome to visit my bees any time.