A BEE thread....for those interested in beekeeping.

[Double Kindness]

Whoo hoo. I just ordered 2 packages of Italian bees. Next we're starting up our hives. We also got in our order from baker creek seeds to plant our property and gift seeds to the neighbors to plant in their yards too.

I started out 7 months ago asking my neighbors to stop using pesticides and gmo crops, they are all excited about bees, honey and I've been sucking up to everyone with eggs too.

 

[mak1]

If any body needs 5 frame nucs in the WA, ID, MT,OR area I will be selling some

 

[KingOfFools]

Hey everyone,
In Southern California, and just put on our first Honey Super. Hope the good weather spreads out. My bees are happy and busy with full pollen baskets. Anyone else in SoCal doing the same yet?

 

[mak1]

Northern cali

 

[Hatchery Hive]

I red this online and thought it was very accurate:

List of Beekeeping Rules!​

Three basic facts about getting stung?
1. If you keep bees, you WILL get stung...
2. Bees suffer and die if they sting you. (Remember: stinging you is far down a bee's priority list.)
3. If you get stung, you are the one making the mistakes! (Usually, a lot of them!)

NEXT: You can break only a few of the following 26 rules and not get stung, but each additional broken rule will exponentially increase your chances of being stung.

Work with the bees when they are content, when the weather is fine
1. Work your hives only on “Blue Bird Sky” Days.
2. Do not work your hives in wet conditions or when storms are coming in.
3. The best times to work your hives is in mid-mornings and early afternoons.
4. Do not work too long in your hive.

Wear proper protective gear and equipment
5. Wear only light colors when working your hive.
6. Wear slippery materials and loose fitting suits for more aggressive bees.
7. Wear thick, tight fitting, leather gloves.
8. Wear a good quality veil and never open it for any reason.
9. Any flesh not covered is “free game” for a sting.
10. Use a smoker.
11. Use a bee brush with a light touch to move any bees out of the way
12. Use a hive tool to remove dead Bees.
13. Use a hive tool to pry just enough to separate the supers at the corner.
14. Avoid keeping your Hive tool in your bee-suit pocket.
15. Do NOT wash your bee suit too often.

Watch your behavior and theirs
16. A trapped bee WILL always sting.
17. Do not smoke bees too closely.
18. Make all your moves slow and deliberate.
19. Don't run away - no matter how strong the urge!
20. Guard Bees will “bump” into your veil as a warning, before they sting you.
21. Untrained pets and bee hives do not mix!
22. Pay attention to the volume level of the hive’s hum.
23. Do not approach, or stand in front of, the main door of the bee hive.
24. Try not to squash any bees.
25. Don't eat bananas before and Inspection.
26. Inspect more aggressive hives first and leave inspecting the calmer hives for last.


After you get stung: Take time to review these rules and count up how many you broke before you finally got stung!

- Read all about the explanations behind each rule in the following pages.​

 

[Hatchery Hive]

What I really liked was the explanation that went with it:

The Explanation of the Rules!

Work with the bees when they are content, when the weather is fine

1. Work your hives only on “Blue Bird Sky” Days.
Honey Bees are Happiest when they are able to bring in food for their colony. Any environmental conditions that prevents them from foraging will have a negative effect on their attitudes. Bees don't like strong winds because it makes it harder for them to fly. Cloudy and overcast skies blot out the position of the sun, preventing them from effectively navigating and locating sources of food.

2. Do not work your hives in wet conditions or when storms are coming in.
A Wet Hive is an Suffering Hive! Honey Bees cannot fly when they are cold or wet. A cold and wet bee will become paralyzed and stranded by rain when away from the hive; making them vulnerable to predators and drowning. So, Bees have the ability to sense incoming storms while in, or away from, the hive. The fear of storms deeply agitates bees. Never work a hive just before or during a storm. Thunderstorms are an even worse idea.

3. The best times to work your hives is in mid-mornings and early afternoons.
Excessively hot afternoon temperatures make bees more aggressive. It takes enormous amount energy, and a huge portion of the population away from foraging, to cool a hive on a hot day. The honey bees have to spend their time gathering and spreading water drops throughout the hive and then the effort to fan them with their wings to cool the colony. Robbing tendencies between hives increases during hot weather when food sources become scarcer. Therefore, more aggressive Guard bees are required to protect the front door of the hive. Also, by mid-morning all the foraging bees will have left the hive; lowing the sheer number of bees who may wish to potentially sting you.

4. Do not work too long in your hive.
Inspections should take no longer than 20 minutes or so! If the Hive is kept open for too long, the bees will become more aggressive due to fears of having to “protect a wide open, exposed hive from predators.” Also bees prefer darkness in their hive. The longer you have the hive open the more agitated they will become, and the louder their “hum” will sound.

Wear proper protective gear and equipment

5. Wear only light colors when working your hive.
Bees don’t like black. Bees will attack dark things that move because they think that they are bears or skunks or raccoons. Bees will attack dark areas of the body such as the eyes. Bottom line: Dark cloth makes you look like a honey eating, big, bad bear. Not good.

6. Wear slippery materials and loose fitting suits for more aggressive bees.
Wearing suits made of slippery material makes it harder for angry bees to get a grip on you, which they need to get enough leverage to inject the sting. An off balanced bee is a sting not delivered. Also, wearing loose fitting clothes makes it harder for bees to reach your skin with their stinger.

“You can’t touch this!” –M.C. Hammer​

7. Wear thick, tight fitting, leather gloves.
Thick gloves are good for keeping your hands protected from stings. The longer they are to the elbow the better. You will want to own tight, well-fitting gloves. All gloves make it harder to grab frames and you may end up killing more bees because you may not be able to accurately feel where you are grabbing items. Gloves that are too big or that don’t fit your hands accurately make this problem much worse.

8. Wear a good quality veil and never open it for any reason.
Every good beekeeper needs a veil because stings anywhere on your face are very painful. The face is also the favorite target for any angry bee. If you have an abundance of hair you really need a veil because Big Hair is a bee snagging magnet. It also pays to keep your hair secured inside your veil so that it doesn’t fall in your eye while working in the hive. For that same reason, if you have glasses, get a strap so your glasses won’t fall off your face inside your veil and keep it where you store all your bee tools.

9. Any flesh not covered is “free game” for a sting.
Bees and bear skin do not mix! But if you simply MUST only wear that tank top smoking your exposed skin with your smoker will help hide the scent of your bare skin. Some old timers work their bees with bare-hands because they have learned that bee stings actually treat arthritis symptoms. Assuming, of course, that they are not allergic to bees to begin with.

10. Use a smoker.
Smoke repels, calms, and distracts bees by causing them to fill their bellies with so much honey they become passive. Smokers are used to get bees inside the hive and cover up the scent of the beekeeper. Do not over smoke the bees, or they will panic and fly away thinking their hive is on fire. Learn how to light your smoker and decide what kind of fuel you prefer in your smoker.

11. Use a bee brush with a light touch to move any bees out of the way.
There are many times during an inspection when you will need to move an out of place bee off of an object or out of the way of a tool or a super so the don get smashed. The bee brush is a soft brush that will push them out of the way. Some folks also use a handful of long grass. In Europe, they use a big feather. I find that simply lightly blowing on them through my veil gets them to move as well.

“Eeeek, run, he’s got bad breath!”​

12. Use a hive tool or bee brush to remove dead Bees.
When you open your hive you will find the occasional bee fatality that was not yet removed by the colony. These bees need to be removed for the health of the hive. While lending your worker bees a hand with “The Dead”, remember not to brush away the dead with your hands or try to pick them up between your fingers. Even long dead bees can and will sting you. You can tell how healthy and strong a colony is by how many dead bees there are. If there are a lot of dead bees then this colony is too weak for all the workers to remove them all. It may have some other underlying conditions that you might want to inspect more closely. Also, the hive tool is really good for smashing hive beetles too.

13. Use a hive tool to pry just enough to separate the supers at the corner.
Bees like to secure their hive into a single unit by using propolis they collect to glue the hive supers together. One cannot separate the glued parts by hand without suddenly and violently ripping the hive apart. When using your hive tool to pry apart the “Glued” supers, just pry at the corners enough to break that Propolis seal, which will make a “crack” sound. Then remove the supers by hand.

14. Avoid keeping your Hive tool in your bee-suit pocket.
Hive tools can rip and cut holes in pants so make it a habit to keep your hive tool handy in your beekeeping toolbox, not in your Bee suit pockets. Even a small suit tear is a big open door for angry bees.

15. Do NOT wash your bee suit too often.
Try not to wash you bee suit often. The residual smoke scent is still useful for masking your scent from the bees. If you “simply MUST” wash your suit; Hand wash it. Washing machines can easily damage your suit and veil.


Watch your behavior and theirs

16. A trapped bee WILL always sting.
Try to avoid bees becoming trapped inside your bee suit or inside you clothing. Never cup a bee between your bare hands. This one mistake alone will get you stung, every time.

17. Do not smoke bees too closely.
Extreme sudden heat makes bees really angry. Smoke exiting the tip of your smoker is extremely hot. It is a good thing to billow smoke under the inner cover when removing it. It is tempting to use the tip of your smoker close to the hive, to more accuracy aim the smoke into the hive. Resist this urge to put the tip of the smoker close to the hive. The fresh smoke from the tip of your smoker, at close range, is fire hot; enough to instantly burn your bees. Not only is this a mean thing to do, but Bees will attack people that burn their friends.

18. Make all your moves slow and deliberate.
Sudden movements make bees instantly defensive and violent. Do not jar or knock the hive or frames. bees don't like vibrations or fast movements. Move your have and frames slowly and deliberately. Never get rushed trying to work your hive under a time limit. keep it short but...Be patient. Do not drop anything. Do not try to shake bees off of hive components. Simply, put them down on the ground and let the bees leave them or brush them off with your Bee brush.

19. Don't run away - no matter how strong the urge!
Bees fly faster than you, and they will chase you if you run!
If you become surrounded with angry attacking bees. Even if they are stinging you.
Do not panic! Simply walk away from the hive calmly brushing them off of you. They will leave you and return to their colony after you retreat 10-20 feet. So, freaking out, screaming and running in circles next to your open hive will bring you even more disastrous results.



20. Guard Bees will “bump” into your veil as a warning, before they sting you.
If this is happening, STOP, walk away - time to reevaluate your list of mistakes…
Often this will happen normally early in an inspection as you begin smoking your hive.

21. Untrained pets and bee hives do not mix!
Dogs can be trained to work with honey bees. But it is best to leave them at home or tethered away from the colony you intend to work in. Dogs are fast, loud, and look a LOT like bears!
Note: Strangely, chickens and bees never bother each other, and can live near each other.

22. Pay attention to the volume level of the hive’s hum.
Is the hum of the hive getting louder? Warning: A loud hive is an angry hive!
As a hive gets more agitated the noise from the hive will get louder. As the sound increases try smoking the hive to calm it back down. If that does not work then finish quickly what you are doing and close the hive back up. There is always another day. The loud hum of a stressed colony attracts predators to attack and rob the hive.

23. Do not approach, or stand in front of, the main door of the bee hive.
Do not approach the hive from the front. You will get stung by incoming and outgoing bees who are foraging for food. “Guard bees” aggressively protect the door at the front of the hive with their lives and are called that for a reason. Always approach the hive from the side or the back so the bees can continue to do their work unimpeded.

24. Try not to squash any bees.
Bees put out an “attack” scent as they die which instantly causes the bees around them to attack.

25. Don't eat bananas before and Inspection.
Banana breath smells just like the "Attack" scent put out by dying bees. Yikes!

26. Inspect more aggressive hives first and leave inspecting the calmer hives for last.
Are you working multiple hives? Inspections stress out bee colonies. Inspected, stressed hives will warn other hives around them that you are coming. So, it is smarter to get your most temperamental hives knocked out first, before all the calmer hives around it can be put on alarm with reports of your imminent arrival. Also, the longer you work your hives the more fatigued you become and the greater chance you will start making more mistakes. If you are going to start making mistakes due to fatigue, it is better to make those mistakes last, on your most “laid back” hives.

I wanted to share this because i found it soooo correct and a fantastic tool.
All of this was just stuff that we bee keepers just learned over time.
whoever it was who thought to combine a "list of rules" with a greater chance of being stung was brilliant.
Just wanted to share.

 

[1muttsfan]

If you enjoy reading, and like something that's a little different from the average novel, you might enjoy reading The Bees by Laline Paull - I found it quite good, a bit of a fantastical look at the life inside a hive of bees (you do have to suspend reality a little at times, but it is fiction after all). I thought is emphasized how bees rely on smell in a very interesting way.

 

[OHhappychicks]

Hatcheryhive~Thanks for posting this practical info. New with bees, so any info I can get is greatly appreciate it.

 

[Hatchery Hive]

youre welcome

 

[Hatchery Hive]

This weekend I tried to make my own fondant bee food…
The stuff came out like thick golden syrup. So, I reheated it to 245 and let it steam off for 20 minutes…
This time it cooled to a super thick golden glue that made the Labreah Tar Pits look arid…

So, being “clever” I added in tons of corn starch and folded it in…
Waaa Laaa the perfect soft fondant consistency!

After making 20lbs of this stuff, over 6 hours, I looked up info on "bees and Corn Starch" on the internet.
The shocking results were not even subtle!

DANGER! DANGER! DANGER!
I found out that had I fed this much corn starch to my bees, I would have killed off my whole hive with in a week.
turns out that corn starch kills bee with in 3 days of dysentery!

So I blew 6 hours and over $20 making “Rat poison” for my honey bees….
So, of course, I trashed it all…. I am so angry….