Last night, Noah and I, attempted (without success) to put the trailer tire back on the rim. I am convinced that someone crept out to my trailer in the middle of the night and put a larger thinner tire on the rim.
Perhaps I'm paranoid but, then again, is it so inconceivable that someone bought a different tire, aged it so I wouldn't notice, then waited for the tire to come off the rim, then swapped my tire for theirs, and then hid and watched me fight for an hour to get a seal... all the while laughing manically? "When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth." Well played, Tire Bandit... well played.
Well we bought a new tire, waited for the rain to pass, and then, with only a little daylight left, we decided to only take the top box from the 6 three deep hives.
To remove the bees from the supers, we smoked them until they ran down. Of course this didn't get rid of all the bees, so when I got home, I used my air-compressor to blow the rest of the bees out - that didn't work at all. Next time, I'll use the leaf blower.
The only way to keep the bees from coming into my house was to take the frames out, one by one and shake off the bees. Then two frames at a time, I carried them in. It was a totally unproductive way to go about it all.
However, as I was taking the frames out, I found 5 that had brood still in them (one with pretty young larva), so I grabbed an empty 5 frame nuc and made a split. Now I don't know if this will work, given there wasn't much pollen and the brood may have gotten chilled on the drive home. Nonetheless, I accidentally brought about 2lbs of bees to the house and this gave them a new home. If it works, then great. If not, nothing lost.
Today is my half-day at work but since it is expected to rain for the next 10 days, I will spend my time extracting the frames I brought home last night.
Super Count: 20 Hives and 1 Five-Frame-Nuc
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