Is doing the same thing over and over, but expecting different results.

This quote is often attributed to Einstein, however there’s zero proof of him ever actually saying it. Much like his quote about bees, “If the bee disappears from the surface of the Earth, man would have no more than four years to live.” He never said that one either. People just like to namedrop him to give their quotes some gravitas.

Anyway. That wreckage above is not the same picture from my last post. Albeart Einstein returned last night and went on another violent, honey-fueled rampage.

Given how matted the grass is, it would appear that he also plopped right down at the scene of the crime to eat the stolen honey at his leisure.

Oh, see all that brown stuff? That’s not dirt.

It’s a carpet of dead/dying bees that stung the bear en masse in a final desperate act of homeland security. And it looks like they might have actually done enough damage to cause the bear to retreat before it completely destroyed their hive.
I say this because, as I was inspecting the carnage this morning, I noticed some brood (meaning baby bees that are gestating in the comb) as well as some capped honey on a couple of the frames. There were also a lot of live bees still flying around angrily or clinging to the exposed frames of their wrecked hive.

So either they stung him enough to make him go away…or he just got full.

Regardless, I had no recourse but to put the whole thing back together, again, and to apologize to my girls for being such a terrible bee dad ahead of Father’s Day weekend.

I have no idea if their queen survived the attack and, if she didn’t, it wasn’t clear if any uncapped brood survived being outside all night. But if some of the larvae did survive, then the nurse bees could feed the correct tincture of royal jelly to one of the babies in their crib cells and create a new queen. (Who would also have to go on a mating flight before she’s able to start making more baby bees, but I’m way ahead of myself there.)

As you can see, once I put the hive together the girls instantly clambered out to the entrance and began fanning their wings.

This sends a “come home!” pheromone signal out to any wayward bees who might’ve gotten lost in the night’s mayhem, since your typical honeybee can’t see a damn thing in the dark.

I don’t really know what to do for them at this point.

I can’t move them somewhere safer; our fenced-in garden is the safest spot I have.
I could put an electric fence up, but once a bear has gotten honey I’m told such things won’t dissuade it anymore. The siren call of the honey is too alluring, and they’ll just endure the shocks until the fence battery runs out.
I thought about putting a chain link fence around the hive, but the Internet essentially laughed at the idea and said I clearly don’t know a damn thing about just how strong bears are. (Seems they’ll either rip the fence apart or dig the corner posts right out.)
A final option, and my least favorite one, would be to get a 30-30 lever action along with a motion sensor alarms and try to shoot and kill the damn thing. No idea if that might work, but I suppose at least that’s some semblance of a proactive effort in trying to protect them.

It’s a damn sight better than just putting things back and waiting for the bear to come back for seconds thirds.

Maybe that’s what we’ll do for Father’s Day weekend…

j.s.