Monday, I got a call from Commander (Cmdr) Porter (Retired), where one of my hives is residing. He was very concerned that the bees were not coming and going like they used to. “OK,” says I, “I’ll get over there about 2 in the afternoon.”

I finished my work at the house and got my equipment (hand truck) in the Ram. I keep a smoker and hive tools in there all the time, never knowing when I would need them. I got into the truck and turned the key. Nothing happened. Dead battery! Rats! All my neighbors were gone from home. If I had a standard transmission, I could use the hill that my driveway sits on and jump start the truck before it reached the street. However, I have an automatic. Double Rats! I would have to wait for my wife to come home from work to use the jumper cables. She had to work late.

When she got home, it was raining. OK, I will call the Cmdr and tell him I will be late. The phone number is not in my desktop so I grab a phone book and open the white pages. I then get my reading glasses and look for his number. Not there. He must have an unlisted number. Rain stopped. I go out and get the truck jumped off. By now it is dark.

This morning I had some things I had to do before I got started on the outside stuff and I was late getting to the Cmdr’s house. I looked in the phone book again and that was when I found that, last night I had gotten an Alabama phone book instead of my local Florida book. It was nearly 12 noon when I got there and caught him before he sat down to eat. He likes to watch me when I work the bees. Since I had not seen these bees in about 5 months, I was not surprised to smell the hive as I was walking up to it. It did not smell like American Foul Brood (AFB), which, to me, is a strong putrid scent, but it did have a strong odor and I suspected that the Small Hive Beetle (SHB) had taken over. I was right.

The top honey super still had lots of honey as well as the lower honey super. There were lots and lots of beetle larva crawling all over the frames. The tops of the frames were wet which would not be if the bees were still there to keep the humidity down. I had to go back to the truck to get the hand truck. I just got the hive (bottom board, brood box, and 2 honey supers) loaded and started back to the truck when the rain started in earnest. I got to the truck and parked the hive on the ground and ran to the covered porch. We had just started talking and drinking our tea when the rain stopped. I got thoroughly wet and got under cover and the rain stopped. I think that today was not a good day for me.

With the help of the Cmdr, by using a 2 man hive lifter, the hive was loaded intact in the bed of the Dodge Ram and strapped down. He gave me a quart of homemade pickled beets and a quart of homemade sauerkraut before I could say my good byes and leave. I got home without any problems, but when I got out of the truck and before I could get to my front porch, I was drenched again. Needless to say, the hive boxes are still in the pickup bed and will stay there until I know for sure that the rain has stopped.

I hope your day has gone better than mine.