Bees in the feed

[zazouse]

This time of year water drives the hunt for feed. We have twenty hives located about 100 feet from the peafowl pens. In the heat they seek water wherever it can be found. There were probably a hundred on this faucet drip. This faucet is in front of the pens. If you are afraid of bees, you can't exist at the farm right now. I love standing between the faucet and the hives in the flight path and watching hundreds of them fly back and forth just to see how they divert around you in flight. The foragers that collect water will also sometimes side track to nearby food. Ours can be in the peafowl and chicken feed at this time but the birds ignore them.

Great photos i love bees

 

[Garden Peas]

I'm feeding my peas Purina Flock raiser crumbles. I live north of Leander Texas  in a 11.6 acre tract.  The bees keep being a problem. This morning I found one of my favorite male peacocks dead. I see all of them being afraid to eat and I don't know what to do. Please help

Send bird for necropsy to find out what killed it.
Call beekeeper locally and get help.
Make sure the bees aren't africanized.
Good luck

 

[Garden Peas]

We recently had a bee problem that turned out to be yellow jackets. They were fatter than the ones I'm used to, so they looked like bees.
Glad they are gone now, money well spent

 

[KsKingBee]

I have bees at my feeders also i made them some sugar water for the bees and everyone is happy now

Instructions

1. • 1​
     Fill a large stock pot with distilled water and sugar. Use one part water to two parts sugar. Use cane or beet sugar.

1. • • 2​
       Place the pot on the stove and heat the water. Set the stove to medium heat. Stir constantly to dissolve the sugar completely in the water.Do not burn it if you do start over
     • 3​
       Add 1 1/2 tbs. of apple cider vinegar for each gallon of syrup. This will prevent the sugar water from freezing.

Zaz, OkieQueenBee and I love you!

I had typed out a long post for the OP and then my computer froze up and I lost it.

Bees are very opportunistic and will forage whatever they can find whenever they can fly. Their priorities generally lie with what the hive needs at the time, nectar, pollen, water, and propolis. During the winter when there is no fresh nectar or pollen they will take any good substitute, sugar water and grain dust are right there at the top along with soda cans and cake icing at the bakery dumpster.

The bees did not kill that peacock, so the OP should probably try to find out if it was injury, worms, coccidiosis, blackhead, or infection. I also suggest that the OP start feeding his crumbles in a wet mash so not to entice more bees to his pens. I am all about providing for the bees but once you start feeding them the little buggers will keep coming back for more. If you do want to feed syrup I will make a few points; sugar is sugar, it does not matter if it is beet or cane to the bees, it is sucrose. To help the bees digest the sugar add 1/4 teaspoon of cream of tartar or lemon juice to the liquid to help turn the sucrose into fructose. This will help the bees to digest the sugar. Vinegar is fine also as it will keep the sugar from molding, and do not worry about the 2/1 sugar solution freezing, it will not freeze even if you forget the vinegar. And last, put some kind of floatation on the syrup so the bees do not drown.

 

[KsKingBee]

Send bird for necropsy to find out what killed it.
Call beekeeper locally and get help.
Make sure the bees aren't africanized.
Good luck

If you know where the hive is, call a beekeeper. I ran a professional bee removal service for fifteen years and there was no greater nuisance call that the ones where people wanted me to take the bees away that were visiting their flowers. Then they would get mad at me because they were asking for the impossible.

 

[DylansMom]

If you know where the hive is, call a beekeeper. I ran a professional bee removal service for fifteen years and there was no greater nuisance call that the ones where people wanted me to take the bees away that were visiting their flowers. Then they would get mad at me because they were asking for the impossible.

Isn't it just amazing how totally clueless some people are about nature and the world around them? I find it hard to understand how they have made it to adulthood without learning anything about the plants and animals they share the world with.

 

[KsKingBee]

Isn't it just amazing how totally clueless some people are about nature and the world around them? I find it hard to understand how they have made it to adulthood without learning anything about the plants and animals they share the world with.

One of the funniest/saddest calls I had was a young lady who had a swarm on a fence in front of her home. It was right next to the sidewalk and she was afraid that the school kids that walk by were in danger of being stung and wanted me to come out and remove them.

Being that I was a professional service, I would charge a modest sum to recover my expenses, normally about half the amount that a pest control company would charge to come out and kill them. The young lady who had previously claimed that they were a danger to the kids, yet was lamenting the charge saying that the bees were 'Just babies, they don't even have their wings yet'......

 

[zazouse]

I put the sugar water in a quail waterer with a pebble in front of the hole ,no bees can drowned in that.

 

[KsKingBee]

I put the sugar water in a quail waterer with a pebble in front of the hole ,no bees can drowned in that.

That's a great way to do it! We can't open feed on the landings up here, it sets off too much robbing. Arrg! All my bee pictures are in a file that this site won't let me open!

 

[zazouse]

Isn't it just amazing how totally clueless some people are about nature and the world around them? I find it hard to understand how they have made it to adulthood without learning anything about the plants and animals they share the world with.

you got to live it to learn it it is a cultural thing, you live the hussle and bussle of city kinda life and you don't have time to stop and smell the roses, you live out in the countryside and the roses are right out your back door