Have You Seen Any Honey Bees?

[Barnyard Dawg]

Quote:
What do you do with crabapples?

 

[Chicken_Addict]

anyone know how to get rid of those giant wood bees?

i have some near our coop {its built in a wooden horse stall} the lil boogers dive at us and chase us away it is so hard to get to our coop as i am really scared of bees lmao now i take a baseball bat ad have some battig practice with the bees trying to get into the coop rofl any ideas?

 

[keljonma]

We should have lots of bees now and we've only seen 6 honey bees since the beginning of April. Very worrying.

 

[keljonma]

Quote:
Not only a great ornamental, crab apples can make a great jelly because they are a natural source of pectin. They can also be added to other apples for cider production. Some are used as root stock for domestic apples and can be used as pollinators for apple orchards.

 

[chicknmania]

Also, chickens love crabapples! They're small, so they're easy to eat, and when they ripen in the fall the chickens will jump to reach em on the lowest branches. Lots of other birds and wildlife like them, too.

 

[ozark hen]

Quote:
I believe I read that guineas love to eat bees, you might look that up?

 

[Barnyard Dawg]

Here is a article from MSNBC today.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18442426/

 

[ozark hen]

good article, but kind of scary isn't it?

 

[cookinmom]

I saw bees today, pollinating my cucumbers. Yay!!! We have lots of big fat carpenter bees every year. I love 'em. I have actually tried taking pictures of them before

They were kind of blurry

Someday I still want to have a hive or 2 of bees. I know this is dumb, but I would be embarrassed if the neighbors saw me walking around outside in a bee suit. Not that we have many neighbors, but people drive by, ya know.

 

[foxtrapper]

Quote:
I don't know that bumblebees aren't having similar difficulties from the same bacteria.

Bumblebees and honeybees do live differently. A bee colony exists continuously, for year upon year. A bumblebee colony exists only for the summer, just like a wasp hive. The colony dies off and the queen hibernates. A new colony in a new location is built the next year.

And that most likely is the crucial difference. The bacteria seems to exist in the woodware or wax, much like AFB spores. Since bumblebees start over new in a new location each year, they aren't going to be living in a contaminated environment like honeybees do. So I would speculate that should a bumblebee colony get this bacteria, it would die off, without anyone noticing, and that would be the end of it.

The studies I've read so far have shown that new bees on old CCD destroyed hive woodware promptly get CCD. Irradiated woodware doesn't show the same CCD problems. And, waxmoths and other normal pests that come into abandoned woodware don't show up on CCD woodware, until much later than normal.