A J Christ : Bees?
In the other post you say you handle bees, I got a question for you. Out on the farm there is a wood fence post that a metal bucket was hung upside down on the top of it years ago. Well about 3yrs ago some honey bees made a hive in it. I noticed this year they have finally built the hive enough that it has 3 long "shoots" of hive sticking out the bottom about a foot. I'm dumb when it comes to bees and honey so here goes. Is there a way to get the honey without smoking them or using a bee keeper? Like in the dead of winter? Or would the honey be ruined by then? Or worse, would I uncover the bucket to find I just pissed of the whole, dormant, swarm?[B)]
Seems like a waste of good honey. Any suggestions? I'm not opposed to using a bee keeper.
Ben
Seems like a waste of good honey. Any suggestions? I'm not opposed to using a bee keeper.
Ben
0
-
use a pro with the intent to save the hive ....have read reports of mass hive die-offs around the country with no real answer yet..bees are invaluable to agriculture...bees are our buddies!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 0 -
wow. good deal a natural hive, don't bother it. now you need to build another 10 ft from it with all the frames so you can rob some and leave some. dont rob from the natural hive. they wont have enough to eat, as sometimes you can't reseal them and they'll leak. if you build one and set it a colony will split soon as they elect a queen[;)] 0 -
Ben:
Get up with an experienced bee keeper. Worst case you'd weaken the hive, get stung and not get any honey. Do this right and you get some honey, no one gets stung and the bees survive to make more honey for next year.
Note that in your part of the world you may have Africanized bees, rile them up and you'll have a real bad day. The time of year to harvest hney is early August. That way the bees have enoug time to replenish their honey to survive the winter. Never open a hive in the middle of the winter unless absolutley needed.
Honey is the only natural food that keeps for a real long time without any preservatives, they have honey thousands of years old out of pyramids in Egypt, still good and edible today.
A good bee keeper will be sure they aren't Africanized and if he's good, work the hive without smoke. You read the bee's mood, time of day, nectar flow, weather conditions, etc all come into play.
If they are Africanized, best course of action woul dbe to destroy the hive, the honey should be able to be salvaged.0 -
If you are interested in beekeeping, call the county extension office where you live and they should point you in the right direction. I kept bees for years. Unfortunately, I got out of it about 10 years ago because of back problems. If you are interested, get someone to show you the ropes. If these are "good" bees, buy a hive body, set it up near the bucket, remove the comb and bees from the bucket and move it all into the hive body. They "might" stay and take up residence in your hive. Give them the rest of this year to settle into their new home. I used to get all my supplies from thsi company www.kelleybees.com Check them out. Very helpful people! 0 -
Thanks guys. Well to tell you the truth there ain't much that scares me except hights and bees/wasp. Snakes, no problem. Never had a snake out run me.[;)][:D] Got stung twice last year, both times between the eyes.[:0] Looked like that poor kid from the movie Mask. A bee keeper it is! I actually know one out here, as we tried to get him to set up some hives on the farm but told us he couldn't because there were other hives set up at the neighboring farm and we were too close???
Quick bee phobia story.
About 8yrs. ago there were a swarm of honey bees that had found their way into a wall in my house. Called the bee keeper and he poisoned them (with wasp spray if I remember correctly). That winter I remodeled my kitchen and one of the walls that I replaced the cabnets on was the wall the bees had been in. Tore the old cabnets out, installed the new ones but replaced the corner cabnet with one that sat IN the corner 45*, which left a space open behind it. Well spring comes and everythings good until one morning I'm woke up by this darn bee in my bedroom. I really didn't think much of it, I'm in the country and it's not uncommon for something to find it's way in. I walk into the kitchen and, I snit you not, the whole swarm was in there![:0] It looked like one big black cloud. Bad part was my keys were across the room and the only way out was to walk through the middle of them. Now remember I'm terrified of bees/wasp.[B)] Was the worse experience every walking through them feeling them bouce off me. Made it to the door and I was GONE! Turns out I had left a whole open in the wall behind the corner cabnet and either a new swarm came to the hive in the wall or the bee keeper didn't poison them all. Well I pumped some straight Dursban in the hive later that day and when I got back that evening they were all dead, all over the place, big mess, but I didn't care them suckers were dead. Haven't had any come back since....or had any termites.[;)]
Old field just built a new location on the farm and there was a hive in the hollow of a tree they took down. Been in there for at least 2yrs.
Who says there's a shortage of honey bees?[;)][:D]
Ben0 -
Got friends in Los Lunas and Jemez (about 75 miles apart) that lost bees this last year; hives are empty, no dead bees, no wasps, no comb; NADA!
Strangest thing is; no predators try to occupy the hives after the bees split.
Was talking to a lady that farms alfalfa in Artesia that had to get a beekeeper from Georgia to bring a swarm to pollinate this year because nobody had extra bees in Artesia.0 -
Lost hives
I've lost a couple of hives through the years. Hive box empty. Usually if bees abscond a hive, other bees will come by and rob out the honey. Not in this case, other bees won't go near it.. Did notice that just before all activity ceased, the bees were very ill tempered and would sting anyone approaching the hive, unusual behaviour for Italian bees which are usually docile and tolerant.
Did notice that the bees were building comb the wrong way from how they usually do it.0 -
A shotgun is ineffective against a swarm of bees... 0 -
quote:Originally posted by A J Christ
Lost hives
I've lost a couple of hives through the years. Hive box empty. Usually if bees abscond a hive, other bees will come by and rob out the honey. Not in this case, other bees won't go near it.. Did notice that just before all activity ceased, the bees were very ill tempered and would sting anyone approaching the hive, unusual behaviour for Italian bees which are usually docile and tolerant.
Did notice that the bees were building comb the wrong way from how they usually do it.
The same thing happened to a buddy of mine's hives a few years back.
My son came home from school a few weeks ago talking something about
how cell phone signals are messing the bees up somehow, and they are
dying off because of it. Then went on to tell how some philosopher
(forget who, or the details) predicted this, and said when the bees
were gone, so would mankind be..within about 4yrs.0
Please sign in to leave a comment.
Comments
9 comments