Honeybees in the feeder

[azygous]

Very interesting thread!

 

[TexasTony]

Azygous,

There is a big difference between bees & chickens. Chickens are fun, entertaining, more like pets.

Bees are not 'fun', but they are absolutely fascinating. The social structure. The tasks that worker bees go through as they age, and the do-nothing lives of drones (male bees). A queen that can lay over 1000 eggs a day. That can be an egg every minute, 24 hours a day. So every minute she moves to a new cell, eats, poops, etc. And when she lays an egg, she decides if she is going to have a boy or girl (differnet cell sizes, boys are bigger cells). Those eggs 'hatch' 3 days later, and the next couple of weeks that larvae is fed. The female larvae can turn into a worker or a queen based on what she is fed. Then they're sealed in for a few days and emerge as a fully functional bee.

And the worker bees decide when/if they want a new queen, and will make it. They even put the new queen cell in different places depending if they want a new queen or if they are 'swarming' (splitting the hive in two).

As I said, fascinating. And a little fact: honey is basically "bee vomit". They eat nectar, process it internally, and spit it back out. They do that over and over until that nectar becomes honey. And honey even today is used in hospitals to treat wounds to reduce infections.

I know, this is a chicken discussion and forum. But bees are another creature people (and chickens) co-exist with, and I thought some of you would appreciate this info. But it is easier to leave town for a week with bees compared to chickens...

 

[azygous]

Tony, I really am fond of honey bees, even though I'm allergic to their stings. A friend talked me into placing a hive back inside my squash patch, and come spring, he said he'd help me outfit it and install some bees.

But then I encountered another thread here that discussed how sometimes bees can feel threatened by chickens, and they will then attack the chickens who often do not survive the stings. I am changing my mind about locating this hive so close to my coops and runs and where the chickens range.

Is this a real danger or is it overblown? If a hive does present a danger to chickens, how far away must it be located for the chickens not to be in any danger?

 

[Zoomie]

@azygous well, it is true that bees can sting to death creatures that wander close by and then stay there. If the animal runs away, most of the time it's then fine. Normal bees (like what you would have in your area) pretty much give up pretty quick, like say, going 50 feet away, going around the house etc... it kind of depends. The other thing is the bees learn what lives in their area. If you have bees, you'll see them out flying right in front of you, just looking you over from only a foot or two away. They are young bees memorizing what is in their environment. Once they learn that you are part of their environment, they will pretty much ignore you. I always kept my hives up on a bench, and made sure there was a fence around it so the goats could not go stand on the hives or something, and really never had problems even though I had two hives in my back yard with livestock only a couple feet away.

Now, the reason people were so upset over Africanized bees, is that they are far more aggressive and will keep chasing and stinging something really far from the hive. Africanized bees can not live where you are. You won't have them there. If you did, that might be a concern. Generally what beekeepers do is just re-queen the hive frequently, but maybe someone who's actually had to deal with Africanized bees can speak more to this as they don't live where I am either and I have very fortunately never even had to give them a second thought. The winters are far too cold, Africanized bees do not survive that. They are not very good at huddling together in a hive like the bees most of us are used to, and they therefore freeze.

 

[azygous]

Terrific info! Thanks!

As long as I have you on this thread, and you're willing to answer questions, here's a very naive one, I'm sure. How do I kit out the hive frames? Do I need to buy bees wax sheets to weave onto the frames, or will the bees build the wax sheets themselves?

When and how do I install the new colony?

 

[Ridgerunner]

Azygous, is there a bee keeper club in your area? I went to a meeting of the one around here a few years back. No I’m not keeping bees but I found them to be really friendly and helpful. Some of them seemed to take it as a given they had a duty to help mentor new people. It might be worth checking out.

 

[Zoomie]

@azygous what you are talking about is called "foundation". There are frames that have beeswax on them in the correct pattern for bees to build comb on them. You can establish a new colony in the spring when there are things out there for them to eat... first they go out and collect pollen, and that happens amazingly early in the year, which is one of the things they use to feed baby bees. Then of course they will collect nectar when there are flowers to collect it from and create honey from that which further helps to cause the hive to flourish.

That said, there are new types of ways to keep bees that are not quite so labor intensive as the way I learned to do it... you might want to check into that. I would imagine that there are clubs in your area, you may be able to find an experienced beekeeper (as opposed to a bee "haver", LOL) who you can talk to. It is very instructive, if you are able, to suit up and watch someone else work the bees. They can show you where the queen is (the other bees will NEVER walk on top of her although they do not hesitate to walk on top of each other) and that will help to give you a feel for if this is right for you.

That would be really awesome if you started keeping bees. They really help out in food crops, helping to pollinate all sorts of things, plus it is such a fascinating thing to do. You don't HAVE to work the hives. You can just maintain them. Although of course I would caution you to always keep an epipen with you wherever you go, since you are allergic. I did not get stung a lot, but I did get stung from time to time. For me it was no biggie, that would be totally different with you though!

 

[azygous]

Thanks, both of you, for the info. I'll look into bee keepers in the area. I know they're around.

A big issue will be protecting the hive from bears. I'd feel more comfortable locating the colony farther out from the chicken coops, but then it will be harder to run electric hot wire around it. It's definitely something I'd like to pursue.

 

[aart]

Thanks, both of you, for the info. I'll look into bee keepers in the area. I know they're around.

A big issue will be protecting the hive from bears. I'd feel more comfortable locating the colony farther out from the chicken coops, but then it will be harder to run electric hot wire around it. It's definitely something I'd like to pursue.

Solar might do the trick for the hot wire, definitely need it in bear country.

Bee club definitely the way to go for mentoring, and there's forums out there too.
Tho know there are almost as many ways to do bees as there are to do chickens, well not quite-but still.

Almost did bees this last year, have always wanted them and had a windfall to cover the prodigious start up costs,
but decided is was physically beyond my capacity in both strength and stamina.

 

[azygous]

Yeah, I think bees would be totally cool!