A prickly problem to avoid being stung

Thistles had rather rapidly grown in front of 3 of my beehives recently. Removing them had to be a job better done after sunset when the bees had settled down and were not flying in and out of the hives. So, last night, after closing up the hen houses and duck run, with the torch as my source of light, I scrambled about the hives and pulled up as many thistles as I could remove. I fed them to the goats who love them. The photo above was taken this morning. The flight path of the bees is now clear!