i have flowers planted everywhere so that the bees will pollinate my veggies
and hubby is the bee keeper and we have had hives and bees and honey for a very long time
many years ago we had bees and lost them to the mite problem..which turned out to be an easy solution..
but in the mean time we had a stretch with no visible bees..it was scary
i sat in my labyrinth and ask them to come back..and joy of joys a swarm landed in the huge maple by the blacksmith shed..and many a swarm were caught and transferred to hives
..being wild they were very gentle bees
then again bee problems and
in the fall of 2010 a young bear got the last of our hives and the tree bees were frozen out
not to come back
:'(
well this spring i ask again for the bees to return and as i walked by the tree
would here a 'we're coming'..of course most think i'm a nut job..but that's ok by me
being close to nature it bliss...
and this morning as i went to feed the feral cats at the barn ..i looked up at the tree
and there were BEES...coming and going..bussing and working..and i laughed
and thanked them and the tree for having them
and now the work of pulling out some hives and being ready if they swarm
cause the tree can only hold so many
the bee tree
(http://i45.servimg.com/u/f45/13/55/53/83/hpim2414.jpg)
how absolute wonderful today is..
EN~JOY
A ray of brilliant sunshine in an otherwise dark time. I'm so happy to hear!
What a wondefully touching story, Sky!
Your property must be as beautiful as I envision it, and as a gardener, the trees and plants do listen!
Bees? yep, they do too.
We have only one little bee box, and it's open all the time, so they come and go.
Do you have any advice for maiking it more desirable to travelling bees? Some days there are hundreds in the passionvines, yet others...no buzzing.:(
I wish I was better with my camera, and uploading pics, but it's running on Picasa and the images dont upload to PRC worth a darn usually.
I find the honey to be very dark, too, any thoughts on that? We have lots of hibiscus, and firebushes, and the bees seem to love the passion vines(four kinds) and the texas sage the best. I would like to have more hives, but my wife gets a bit worried for our doggies when the bees are swarming around the yard, but amazingly enough, Ive only been stung a few times in twenty years.
Have a great day!BzzzBzzzBzzz!:D
Littleenki
LE
yeah .. i call this piece of land my resort..lol
and what exactly do you mean ..by an open box..????
basic bee keeping is relatively simple.but i could provide you with the steps..
hubby is the not afraid to be stung guy..i do clean up and we both do
honey extraction..
that is why i am thrilled they returned...pollination plus i am almost out of honey
Hey, Sky, what bee happenin'? ;)
Our box has an opening on the front, and the bees get all bunched up around it, and you can only see a little hole to the inside!
Sometimes they just leave for a while, and I run up the ladder and grab some scrapins, but most of the time they are guarding that hole!
I would like to have a hive or two, done right, so yes Ill take any advice you guys can offer!
Ill bee waiting!LOL!
Cheers!
le
ok..i'll get back as soon as i can..had to replace my modem and have some other things i have to do first..
but i don't think you should be scraping anything from the front opening..
mostly if the bees are in the opening they are fanning the hive to cool it
i'll bee backkkk ;D
Quote from: sky otter on June 07, 2012, 07:50:44 PM
ok..i'll get back as soon as i can..had to replace my modem and have some other things i have to do first..
but i don't think you should be scraping anything from the front opening..
mostly if the bees are in the opening they are fanning the hive to cool it
i'll bee backkkk ;D
Thanks, Sky! Ill stay away from that hole then, good advice as they arent very happy when I go there!:-)
Ill look forwar to building a new setup and will bee happy to make some honey, honey!;)
Cheers!
Le
ok.. i think the best i can do for you is direct you to these sights and let you check them out..
there are a lot of details to building a bee hive but once done it seems simple..also you can buy absolutely everything to start...
Dudant is a source we have used for a lot of new stuff..but i think like most gardening it's really nice to talk to someone in your area who is doing what you want to do..
so..for you
http://floridabeekeepers.org/
with a forum
...and some cool video's.. i liked the one for the kids..
nice basic set up on this one
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVaYD3e9KOA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQH345SO_ac
some weather info with this one and some good basic stuff
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdCDAu6CX7k
http://www.dadant.com/?gclid=CJaloMWAvbACFYic7QodgVC1mQ
i hope this is a good start..but after you check them out if you have any questions yell..
if i don't know..hubby probably does
8)
Thanks to both of you guys!
Our bees are going to have a nice bee condo!
Great links, Sky, and Ill take pics when they are setup!
Cheers!
Le
you are most welcom..
and on the dudant site is a learning center place..i forgot to say that..
but gotta sign off..nasty electric storms again
can't wait till you get you hive up and have pics..
you're gonna have some yummy times
;D
Otter !!!!!!
I remember when you lost your bees. :'(
Freaking glad they came back!
Your great tale reminds me that I have to get some honey from dad this weekend. He is allergic to bees, but as he has a friend who is a bee keeper sorta person he was given a hive of passive little buzzers. I have to admit it was so funny seeing my old man walking to the mouth of the hive of these little passive buzzers waiting for them to chomp him....which they didn't LOL
Heck your bee tale reminded me of the honey hair excursion I told you about ages ago LOL hahaha.
Quote from: sky otter on June 07, 2012, 09:57:45 PM
you are most welcom..
and on the dudant site is a learning center place..i forgot to say that..
but gotta sign off..nasty electric storms again
can't wait till you get you hive up and have pics..
you're gonna have some yummy times
;D
How cool!
My box isnt anything like that one, its just wide open and they come and go!
Ill bee building a couple of the easy ones in the first video, and will buy the bees from the bee guy who does my box and my neighbor's boxes. He told me he gave me my box to have another place for them to go in the neighbor hood.
And I thought he was just being a nice guy!LOL!
When he has a batch of them ready, my boxes will bee done, so everything should bee going buzzingly!
Thanks again, Le
Nice thread. Lots of good information. I think we tend to forget how intrinsic bees are to the planet's survival.
Shasta
they need to have shallow water where they can get a drink..they need the water to make the honey..
maybe your water source is the reason for the dark honey you mentioned..
thry found one of my bird baths in a year where the creek was almost dry
(http://i45.servimg.com/u/f45/13/55/53/83/hpim0419.jpg)
Greetings:
Beeing busy, we found this:
(From our friend Linda Moulton Howe @ EARTHFILES (http://www.earthfiles.com/news.php?ID=1972&category=Environment))
Legal Petition Asks EPA to Ban
Nicotine-Based?Pesticide Clothianidin Click for report. (http://www.earthfiles.com/news.php?ID=1973&category=Science)?
Click here to contact Congress. (http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/7106/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=10078)
QuoteYesterday we joined beekeepers and partners in filing a legal petition that calls on EPA to suspend registration of Bayer's controversial bee-killing pesticide, clothianidin. We also delivered over a million signatures from individuals around the world calling on the Agency to take decisive action to protect honey bees from neonicotinoid pesticides before it is too late.
Bees are still sick, and EPA is still stuck. Bees and other pollinators are still dying off at catastrophic rates – commercial beekeepers lost an average of 36% of their hives last year according to U.S.D.A.
Honey bees pollinate one in every three bites of our food and, as indicator species, they serve as sentinels whom we ignore at our peril.
With today's petition, we're redoubling our efforts to protect them.
(http://i1073.photobucket.com/albums/w400/thorfourwinds/HoneyBeePurpleHeadline.jpg)
- Purdue Univ. Reports Clothianidin At "Unprecedented Levels"?in U. S. Is "Highly Toxic to Honey Bees." Click for report.
"Neonicotinoid insecticides in 2012 will be in nearly 200 million acres of annual U.S. crops. ... 2 or 3 billionths of a gram?of
clothianidin - if it is fed to the bees in sugar solution -
is a lethal dose."
- Christian Krupke, Ph.D., Entomologist, Purdue Univ.
(http://i1073.photobucket.com/albums/w400/thorfourwinds/BeesCornClothianidin.jpg)
Honey bees fly through Indiana corn tassels accumulating?clothianidin-contaminated pollen on their bodies.
Clothianidin is a neurotoxin that in tiny amounts?kills honey bees.
Image by Peacebeefarm (http://peacebeefarm)
Bee happy...
tfw
Well I got a a litre jar of cold extracted honey from the old man today... You folks are missing out :P
Also walked away with a bee education and cold weather. Keep some honey in the hives so the bees can survive winter so when spring comes they are ready for a good round of buzzing... Bee's won't tolerate tea leaves ;)
Sure enough I got a tale today of the old man running around avoiding the buzzers LOL after a rather innocent watering incident LOL.
two nice vids at the link..it's aol so i can't move it
laryy chen's is the second one
Larry Chen Finds 50,000 Bees Inside Walls Of His California Home
The Huffington Post | By Kyle McGovern Posted: 07/12/2012 12:04 pm Updated: 07/12/2012 3:00 pm
This is not the kind of buzz you hope for.
Larry Chen, a 27-year-old photojournalist, discovered a hive of 50,000 bees inside his California home last week, ABC News reports.
Rather than wipe out the colony, Chen decided to call a specialist who would simply relocate the bees.
"I figured they wouldn't bother me too much," he told ABC. "I got stung once but I was more curious about how big the hive actually was."
Chen found a professional beekeeper -- Mike 'The Bee Guy' -- on Craigslist, who vacuumed the insects into a custom-made device and placed them in two boxes, which held 20,000 bees each.
A documentary on the endangerment of bees prompted Chen to contact Mike, who is a member of Backwards Beekeepers -- a rescue organization that you could say has a "hive" mentality.
"My policy is to relocate, not exterminate," Mike said to ABC.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/12/larry-chen-bees-inside-walls-california-home_n_1667930.html?utm_hp_ref=weird-news
Great post, Sky, and that fog was eerie!
Soon the bee guy will bee back(pun intended:)) and install two boxes for us.
Hopefully the bees he finds will be friendly! :)
It needs to be law that exterminators cant kill bees and there needs to be a pro called to relocate..they are so good at it, and there are no toxic chemicals involved either. win-win!
Cheers!
I'm not a fan of bee stings, but I am a fan of bees. They're such a necessary part of the ecosytem. Plus, I really like hot biscuits with butter and honey!
Shasta
;D
lol..just another amazing bee story in the news..i wonder who had to count them..lol
3 million bees seized from Queens, N.Y., man's homeBy Elizabeth Chuck, NBC News
Approximately 3 million bees were found swarming around a man's Queens, N.Y., home on Wednesday night, and were confiscated -- to the relief of his neighbors.
Follow @NBCNewsUS
Yi Gin Chen had beehives packed into the backyard -- about 45 hives in total, said Andrew Cote, president of the New York City Beekeepers Association. Cote said Chen, a beekeeper in his native China, had contacted the beekeepers' association earlier in the month for help with the bees because he was trying to sell his Corona, Queens, home.
Chen allegedly started with one hive a couple years ago, and the insects kept multiplying, reported the New York Daily News.
"It's gotten out of hand," Chen told The Daily News Wednesday night as New York City Police Department officials and volunteers from the Beekeepers Association collected the bees. "I don't have the time or resources to do this."
Cote said Chen's real estate agent contacted him a few weeks ago and told him that Chen, who only speaks Mandarin, had "four or five hives" that he wanted to sell.
When Cote arrived at the home, he was shocked to find it was actually 45.
"That's something like 3 million bees, which is more bees than there are people in Queens," Cote said Thursday from his honey stand at a farmer's market outside Manhattan's Rockefeller Center.
"Many of the neighbors were tremendously upset about the bees and fearful to walk out their door because it literally led to three feet from the mouth of an open hive, each of which had approximately 60 to 80,000 bees," Cote said.
Cote said he advised Chen to immediately register the hives with the city, per local regulations, and also gave him suggestions to make the situation better for his terrified neighbors.
One resident, Louie Socci, told the Daily News he called the city once to complain.
"It's like a big swarm of a couple million bees. You never seen anything like it in your life," Socci told The Daily News. "The guy's nuts. I called the city once and they didn't do anything."
Last night, during the four-hour operation to seal up the hives and remove them from the property, Cote discovered that not only were there a lot of bees, but they were also in poor health.
"The bees were in terrible condition. I'll be surprised if any of them survives the winter. He stripped them of all their honey," he said. "The average weight of a hive at this time of the year would be at least 180 pounds, and these averaged 40 pounds. He took all of their honey and didn't leave any for them."
(http://i35.servimg.com/u/f35/13/55/53/83/12082310.jpg)
It's not clear what Chen was doing with the honey, but Cote suspects based on conversations he has had with other beekeepers in the area that he was selling it.
Beekeeping has been legal in New York since 2010. No license is needed, but if beehive owners don't register their hives, they can be fined.
It's not known yet what charges Chen may face. Calls from NBC News to the New York Police Department were not immediately returned.
Anthony Planakis, who heads bee control for the NYPD, told The New York Post of Chen's home, "Picture 45 dogs in one apartment. It's cruelty to the bees."
New York City has ramped up its bee-control efforts recently. Earlier this month, Planakis -- who has been fighting stingers since 1995 -- was promoted from officer to detective by NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelley, and granted a "bee-mobile" and other equipment, The New York Post reported.
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/08/23/13435771-3-million-bees-seized-from-queens-ny-mans-home?lite/
im a big fan of bees.
ive been putting off investing in them because of the great losses.
it sounds like the industry is turning around.
ive heard of people becoming millionairs from beekeeping.
the price of honey is crazy.
a freind beekeeper told me to rub honey in my hand and put back on hive.
the bees get use to your sent and leave you alone.
the color of honey is determined by the plants the bees go to.
the lighter the color,the more its worth.
im usually a pacifist but this bayer thing boils my blood.
another thing about bees that bothers me are these companies that truck bees from minnesota down here to texas.
i worry they spread viruses.i think the practice should be halted.
i love this thread sky and hope to hear more from you on this subject.
From Dr Joe Resnick
Parasites that attack Bees...
This is a 'trachea-mite' that attaches to the bee's air sacks and eventually suffocates the bee...
(http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/526687_4691339594518_1414395673_n.jpg)
This is a 'varrowa-mite'....
(http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/222672_4691344594643_965814902_n.jpg)
Similarly, the varrowa mite clings to the bee's air sack and eventually suffocates the bee....
(http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/556262_4691347554717_767715976_n.jpg)
This is the 'Bee Medica' I 'invented' that kills trachea and varrow mites... The substance inside the microcapsule is Australian Tea Tree Oil...which is harmless to bees. The microcapsules in this slide show are 25microns in size...that is 1/4th the size of a salt crystal found in your table salt...very small. The shell is made of pure Beeswax and the core contains the Tea Tree Oil. The honey bee carries the microcapsule into the brood box where the beeswax is consumed and the tea tree oil is released (spilled). The oil 'off-gasses' and it is this 'gas' containing the Volitile Organic Compound that kills the mites. Pretty 'kewel'...huh?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xDfe5iQ6K8
really cool
I'll bee back
Deuem
Quote from: deuem on February 13, 2013, 09:35:46 AM
I'll bee back
Deuem
We'll bee waiting with open arms. :-* ;)
(http://files.abovetopsecret.com/files/img/lg50aa500a.gif) (//http://)
Quote from: deuem on February 13, 2013, 09:35:46 AM
I'll bee back
Deuem
Well, honey, We'll comb the topics for Your name. [smile] Good to see You peeking from the hive!
ah deuem... so glad to see you....out of the hive and amoung us flowers.... ;)
really good article with lots of pics and explanation
How to count varroa mites with a sticky board
Most beekeepers treat their hives with insecticidal strips during the fall and winter, but the chemical control method has obvious problems. You have to be extremely careful not to eat any of the honey that was in the hive during the treatment period, which makes life difficult the next spring if the bees didn't consume all of their winter stores. Beekeepers who throw in chemicals every year without testing to see whether their hives need it also start to run up against pesticide-resistant mites --- bad news. Finally, the organic gardener in me has to wonder what such a heavy dose of insecticide does to the honeybees. Luckily, there are alternatives.
We use quite a bit of passive management designed to reduce varroa mite populations in the hive. Foundationless frames and screened bottom boards both help cut down on varroa mite infestations, and the latter also allows us to monitor how many varroa mites are actually present so that we don't put chemicals in a hive that isn't very heavily infested. With winter looming, I figured I'd better check the mite levels in our three hives.
[yellow]
http://www.waldeneffect.org/blog/How_to_count_varroa_mites_with_a_sticky_board/
what a lot of backyard guys did was put vasoline on the entrance and it killed the mites
i use tea tree oil and lilke it but i don't think i would want to put it into a hive...but that is just my opinion
right now i am on my last jar of raw honey and begging hubby to get some hives this year or sale all the stuff we have accumulated thur the years....
i would miss the honey extractor though.. i really like that thing..
its a centrifuge that you turn by hand to extract the honey
oh well
(http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/11083_275043915959814_1073699864_n.jpg)
Robot Bees Designed To Take Over for Real Dying Bees(http://www.slate.com/content/dam/slate/blogs/trending/2012/10/03/robot_bees_designed_to_take_over_for_declining_bee_populations_in_2015_/149910543.jpg.CROP.rectangle3-large.jpg)
Quote
Autonomous robot bugs sound like creatures from a sci-fi flick, but they could be a reality very soon.
Scientists at the Universities of Sheffield and Sussex in England are designing the first electronic bees in hopes that they can "supplement or replace the shrinking population of honey bees that pollinate essential plant life," according to the tech blog io9.
The Green Brain Project, as the effort is called, will upload real bees' senses of sight and smell into the tiny robots. Scientists hope these basic cognitive abilities will allow e-bees to detect odors and gases from flowers, just as bees do. The project plans to release the bees in 2015.
Along with making the world safe for pollination, these bees don't sting. That is, unless they get into the wrong hands ...
SOURCE (http://www.slate.com/blogs/trending/2012/10/03/robot_bees_designed_to_take_over_for_declining_bee_populations_in_2015_.html)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qvdEcPka8M
Engineers plan to upload bee brains to flying robots(http://cdni.wired.co.uk/620x413/o_r/robotbee.jpg)
Image: ShutterstockQuoteEngineers from the universities of Sheffield and Sussex are planning on scanning the brains of bees and uploading them into autonomous flying robots that will then fly and act like the real thing.
Bionic bees -- or perhaps that should be "beeonic" -- could, it is hoped, be used for a range of situations where tiny thinking flying machines should be more useful than current technology, which might mean seeking out gas or chemical leaks, or people who are trapped in small spaces. They might even help pollinate plants in places where natural bee populations have fallen due to the still-mysterious Colony Collapse Disorder.
It's important to note that this won't be an entirely comprehensive model of a bee's brain -- it's only going to be the parts associated with its sense of smell and vision. These modules will be melded with other software to form what the team call a " Green Brain", one that can react to new situations and improvise rapidly just like a "real" animal or insect brain.
The project has been funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council with a £1m grant, with Nvidia providing some of its top-end graphics processors for the development team to work with. The aim is to get the "cybee" flying by 2015.
The head of project, Dr John Marshall, said: "Not only will this pave the way for many future advances in autonomous flying robots, but we also believe the computer modelling techniques we will be using will be widely useful to other brain modelling and computational neuroscience projects".
The prospect of a robotic animal that's as mentally capable as the thing it's trying to mimic might seem exciting, but bear in mind that swatting one of these away might prove a little trickier. That's especially pertinent as recent research has indicated that many insects, including bees, have personalities like vertebrates -- let's hope they upload a relatively laid-back bee's brain, lest it go rogue.
Wired News UK (http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-10/03/robot-bee-brains)
I don't know about bees but vasoline around elctrical boxes keeps fireants away and will last years.
this is cool..
http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2013/02/scienceshot-when-sparks-fly.html
Along with sight and smell, bumblebees can detect flowers via their electric fields. Scientists already knew that as bumblebees fly, their wings generate positively charged static electricity. Flowers usually have a negative charge compared with the air, a difference that helps carry pollen from a flower to a bumblebee pollinating it (shown here). Now, lab tests reveal that bumblebees can learn to distinguish artificial flowers providing a sweet solution and having a certain pattern of electric field from similar artificial blossoms dosed with bitter liquids that sport a distinctly different electric field. These results suggest that the insects can also distinguish among natural flowers by their electric charge, researchers report online in Science. This matters because a flower's charge changes temporarily after a bumblebee visits it, possibly helping other bees avoid a flower that's now low in pollen. Furthermore, the researchers contend, if bumblebees can distinguish among blossoms with a lot or a little nectar, the insects won't be turned off by an entire species of flower after a few low-reward experiences.
can't move the vid so i hope it stays long enough to be seen
http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/study-bees-and-flowers-communicate-using-electric-signals/2qi61ypb8?q=newsy&rel=msn&from=en-us_msnhpvidmod&form=msnrll
Study: Bees and flowers communicate using electric signals
It's always been believed flowers use colors, shapes, and scents to communicate with insects, especially bees. But an article published this week in the journal Science, shows researchers believe electrical charges also play a key role in the pollination process.
Date: 9 hrs ago Views: 2047 Video by: Sci/Tech
Hey Otter Bee :D
Is this the Video you wanted to post Love ;)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5I9OwaLRv8
Way cool :D
ive always been curios about charges on plants but have never heard of any science.i thought about it when looking at cedars.most connifers should have a low charge due to all the little points and flower petals and big round type leaves should have a high charge.
cactus may be bastards or giant capacitors.great thread.
ah no soma.. but thanks
it's here
http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/study-bees-and-flowers-communicate-using-electric-signals/2qi61ypb8?q=newsy&rel=msn&from=en-us_msnhpvidmod&form=msnrll