Bees, bees, bees!

[BBQJOE]

Bees have invaded my feeder loaded with mash crumbles.
It got so bad today, that I had to empty the feeder back into the bag, a just feed my birds on the ground.
It wasn't so bad when I noticed it this morning, but by afternoon there were hundreds of them!!!

It didn't look like they were flying off with the feed, but they were furiously digging in it like they were looking for something.

 

[LeafBlade12345]

What is your feed comprised of? You don't want to kill honeybees, they are extremely beneficial to our environment and we are already facing a collapse of them with Hive Disorder spreading rapidly, so don't eliminate them. You can buy and put up sugar feeders far away so the bees will flock to those. Good luck! Also, if you find a beehive you can have someone come and relocate the hive.

 

[1muttsfan]

Where are you located? Some areas have had severe drought, and the bees are rather desperate to find food to get them thru the winter. You might try putting your feeder inside the coop for a week or two, where they will not easily find it.

 

[BBQJOE]

I'm in Arizona, and yes, I know the benefit of bees. We have 3 gardens, and the bees are great at their job. We also have several places around the property where we keep pans of water for them.
So no, I don't want to kill them.
I just find weird that they are so attracted to the laying mash.

 

[Jesusfreak101]

I wonder if it smells sweet to them. Mmm or it could be cooler then where there at. Is it kinda like a swarm? If so they may be looking for a new hive sight. I been readingg about them because i thinking of starting bee keeping lol i gone homestead crazy plans to buy a calf for butching come spring and possibly a milk cow and a piggy. I already garden and have chickens and bake from scratch so now adding more things.

 

[BBQJOE]

I too have been thinking about starting some hives, my neighbor tried it without success.

 

[Jesusfreak101]

Thats sad, i hope yours works out better.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

The workers that are harvesting come back to the hive with all sorts of dust. The workers that are nurse bees inspect the dust and tell them "NO! That's concrete dust." Or "Yeah man, that's what I want, show the others where it is." And yes, they will collect portland cement but wont come back to get more.

It's the protein and quality vitamin value they are after. It's either very close to where the hive is or you've a shortage of pollen right now in your area. They are using your feed to nurse brood back at the hive.

Once a brood feed source is found they will come back and in droves. Move your feed station. That might work for awhile. Change to a crumble or pellet so it's not as easy for them to secure the dust. And what I'd do is try to follow them and find where the hive is. If you can secure a wild hive into a wooden hive your way ahead of the game when it comes to beekeeping.

Transferring a hive is somewhat labor intensive and frightening if your not used to working with them but basically what you'd do is cut their comb into shape to fit a langstroth wooden frames. Secure them in place with rubber bands. Make sure you have the queen on one of them and the rest will follow not to mention all the bees still on the comb as your transferring. Any who, you get the idea. For free you get a prospering hive with healthy queen and full of brood and bees. A nuc hive is only five frames to start with. Collecting a wild hive will get you ten or even into a second hive box on top. A very established hive ready to explode in population. You fill the center of hive with bees and comb. Put wazed frames on outsides. So if you fitted 12 frames with wild comb you'd have six in center bottom and six in center of top hive, surrounding that entire thing with waxed frames they will pull out and turn to hive nector and pollen storage. Supers for honey collection go on top of a two hive colony.

AZ I believe has africanized bees in the wild population (I know TX does and even comercial bee boxes purchased are contaminated). They are greatly watered down on the genetic side of things but still pesky to deal with so make sure to wear your gear and strap down pant legs and such. My bees (open breeding carniolian crosses) I only wear gloves for minor inspections unless I'm actually getting serious into the hive then the veil comes on. I did need a smoker when cutting wild comb into frames though.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

Where are you located? When honey bees work livestock feed they are searching for a powdery source of protein to feed to their larva. It is rather late now for honey bees to go into gang buster mode and start raising mega amounts of young brood. But if natural pollen is in short supply then anything is possible.

Trying to capture a wild hive at this time of year is a death sentence for a bee colony because they will be unable to adequately prepare their new digs for winter before bad weather hits.

 

[BBQJOE]

I'm in AZ. It's still in the 90's.