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

[karl E lutz]

Thanks so much will try after dark tonight.

 

[1muttsfan]

X3 - those are not bees, but hornets. Bees get enough bad press as it is! Spray into the nest at night and run. (I would not recommend pouring gasoline in the ground near a pasture, or anywhere else)

 

[cassie]

X3 - those are not bees, but hornets. Bees get enough bad press as it is! Spray into the nest at night and run. (I would not recommend pouring gasoline in the ground near a pasture, or anywhere else)

My neighbor sprayed gasoline on a hornet's nest. Killed the hornets all right, but he also killed the tree.

 

[mpape067]

Go to a surplus store get a veil, a roll of duct tape, gloves, and try to not have an opening on your clothes. Its hard to find a bug man to kill them but its worth every penny.

 

[tmoore8595]

X3 - those are not bees, but hornets. Bees get enough bad press as it is! Spray into the nest at night and run. (I would not recommend pouring gasoline in the ground near a pasture, or anywhere else)

I assure you--- 1/4 of a cup of gasoline will not hurt the ground. It will not even kill the grass if you pour it directly into the hole. There is no need to run, they will all be dead as soon as you pour it in the hole.

 

[1muttsfan]

You can, of course, use your own methods of control. Anytime you apply substances to the environment it is worth considering the toxicity of those products, and whether there are less-toxic alternatives.

 

[Deb B]

I've found that if the hole is in reach of my hose, sticking the hose down the hole and turning on the water for several minutes works well, too.

 

[1muttsfan]

It looks to me like my hive has swarmed. I checked them before leaving town for a few days, everything seemed fine and they had extra bars to build on. When I came home there were far fewer bees. I checked every bar in the hive yesterday, and they look healthy, do not seem to be agitated, there is capped brood comb including quite a few drone cells, but just not nearly as many bees. I did not see the Queen but I have not seen her since she was released into the hive this spring. Then my neighbor mention to me that a friend of his was driving down our road and ran through a swarm of bees- probably mine.

My understanding is that when they swarm, they leave a new queen to be hatched out to carry on the hive. Is there anything that I need to do it this time?

 

[tmoore8595]

It looks to me like my hive has swarmed. I checked them before leaving town for a few days, everything seemed fine and they had extra bars to build on. When I came home there were far fewer bees. I checked every bar in the hive yesterday, and they look healthy, do not seem to be agitated, there is capped brood comb including quite a few drone cells, but just not nearly as many bees. I did not see the Queen but I have not seen her since she was released into the hive this spring. Then my neighbor mention to me that a friend of his was driving down our road and ran through a swarm of bees- probably mine.

My understanding is that when they swarm, they leave a new queen to be hatched out to carry on the hive. Is there anything that I need to do it this time?

Look for queen cells and eggs. If you find queen cells and no eggs it probably swarmed. If you find eggs and no queen cells it probably did not swarm. If you have queen cells and no eggs, wait a couple of weeks and check for eggs. If you don't find eggs wait another week and check again. If there are still no eggs you will need to get a new queen, or provide them with eggs and newly hatched larvae so they can make a new queen.
After a swarm is a vulnerable time for the hive. Many hives are lost during this time and beekeepers often do not know what caused the loss. Many queens simply do not make it back to the hive from their maiting flight. They fly slower than worker bees because of their size, and are easy prey for birds, dragonflys, etc. Others are just not able to make the flight back to the hive, or go into the wrong hive and are killed by the bees. Checking the hive closely after it swarms is very important.

 

[Steadfast]

I started my journey into bee keeping.

I purchased my first full Italian hive from a bee keeper who injured his back in a car accident and could no longer lift his hives. A huge leap ahead of buying a Nuc or boxed bees.

Here are some photos in this weekends chronological order.

This is the hive I bought just after unloading it.




Waiting for paint to dry on the new hive boxes and supers

Painted on my wifes family crest



Built I much nicer base for two future hives. Which I designed to hold hive frames too.



Sunday's adventure included my neighbor and bee keeping mentor and myself performing this neglected hive's first full checkup along with moving them into the new brood box and adding a second brood box due to obvious crowding... We continued on by Adding a landing pad...Adding a hive beetle trap (I counted only10)...No Wax Moth Larva...No disease...a very strong population... Two frames front and back full of honey so they have plenty of food...



Inspecting and moving the frames over to new home.


Now waiting for them to clean the wax off the old brooder box and lid before I store it for the Spring 2015 when I plan to split the hive...



I am done for the next few weeks now!


Too much fun!