A New Bee Experience:

We've known for a few weeks that Adam needed either to split a couple of his hives or to give them empty boxes underneath. They were getting too full of bees, and were likely to swarm if not given more room.

The hive on the far right has lots of boxes and plenty of room. They tend to "beard" extra bees on the outside because that hive remains in sun longer, and is warm, so the bees come outside and fan the entrance with their wings.

However, two hives down from that one is a solid red hive, really a nuc box, that is quite full. In the photo above, you can see how the hive on the end (a Warre hive) is bearding, and so is the hive two doors down.
The difficulty in splitting these hives is (unfortunately) the frames we've been using. Adam switched to simple "top-bar" frames in his hives a few years back. They are so easy to make -- just one piece of wood that lays across the top of the box. The bees make the comb, drawing it down from that top bar. They don't need frames with wood on all four sides, and they really hate the fake plastic comb foundation that some beekeepers put inside the frame.

Adam is now making new frames with side bars.

Except ...  A top-bar frame is just fine if you want to pull the frames out of the hive to extract honey.You're going to cut the entire honeycomb out of the frame anyway. But he doesn't want honey. He wants to grow bees. And to do that, he needs to be able to move his frames -- to take a frame from this hive, and a frame from that hive, and make a new hive in new boxes, without doing any damage to those frames. Top-bar frames are terrible for this.
Bees attach their comb to the top-bar, but they also like to attach their comb to the side. And since these top-bar frames don't have sides, the bees attached their comb to the sides of the boxes! Argh! That's a headache. Adam realized he'd made a mistake in using top-bars. He had lovely frames of bees that he couldn't move anywhere!! So he's begun adapting his old top-bars, adding sides to them.

But some hives were getting crowded. We didn't want them to swarm. We can't split them. What to do? He decided to add an empty box underneath, on each of the crowded hives.

He did that to the bearded red hive I mentioned above. He also did it to the hive in the photo above, the brown 2-box hive with the red strap. He did this one first, and he asked me if I would help him -- when he lifted the two full boxes up, would I please place the empty box on the bottom board for him. Then he'd put the full boxes on top of it. So I did. And that's when my bee life changed forever.

I was stung on the forehead by a bee. I've been stung by bees quite a few times. I usually get a little swelling, itch, and by the next day it's gone. I did have a more severe reaction about 6 months ago to a bee sting. Remember? It was on my left hand, quite swollen, but not too alarming.
This bee sting on the forehead was another matter. I thought nothing of it at first. A little swelling. I put some salve plantain on it, and then some baking soda paste. Still ... it swelled. By evening, my face looked like this:

You can see the swelling in the forehead, and how it is moving to the bridge of my nose and my eye lids and upper cheeks.
Later that evening, my eyes were just slits:

Now I know what my face would look like if I gained 200 pounds, I suppose!
I didn't want to go to the doctor. I hate going for medical help.My general approach to medical help is this: 1) Usually you know if it's a true medical emergency: gaping wound, broken bone, blood everywhere, or unconsciousness. (But a bee sting? Really?) 2) If it's not an obvious emergency, I try ignore all tendencies to panic, treat the condition, observe closely, and assume the body will heal itself. So I wait. I told Adam, if it wasn't better in the morning, we would go in to a clinic nearby. The next morning:

Yeah. The swelling was moving into my throat, and knowing that a blocked airway is one of the serious dangers in allergic reactions, I agreed to go. It's a good thing I did. At the clinic, the doctor prescribed prednisone, zantac, an antibiotic, lots of benadryl, and the greatly-dreaded item: an epi pen.
Yep. Now I get to carry an epi pen with me in my purse everywhere I go. What a pain! (And yes, I do know they are life-savers, and I'm very thankful to have one.) I'm used to being a healthy girl, with no chronic, dangerous health conditions. I guess those days are over. And by the way -- all those other meds left me with a copay of about $20 together. The epi pen? $270. Sigh.
My face is quite improved, although nowhere near normal. I can see again. When I arrived at the clinic, I had a slit of vision in only one eye. Last night I went to my friend's house for an evening of Mexican Train Dominoes ... because if your best buddies can't love you when your face is scary, who will?

Here are my four friends. I took this picture because it includes the sixth member of our group, Muffin. See her, sitting in that chair over there with her red collar on? We want to teach her how to play the game :)