Page 1 of 5
The girls are back!
Posted: Sun Apr 06, 2014 7:49 pm
by rubato
And I couldn't be happier. We received our package bees on Friday eve. and I went out and set up the new hive boxes and got the cute n' fuzzy little girls all settled in on Sat. Morn. We have smaller hive boxes this year which will make moving supers a lot easier. These are 8-frame supers. I've been recovering from a brachial plexus injury for months now and shifting less weight is only a good thing.
I couldn't mow the lawn (I have a push-mower) for the past month so it was pretty out of control, I had to use the string trimmer to knock it down to a reasonable level before the bees were unleashed and my arms are feeling it today.
I'll have to open it up and make sure the queen was released by her 'attendants' and laying eggs in a day or two but for now I'm just happy to see the girls flying in and out of their new home.
yrs,
rubato
Re: The girls are back!
Posted: Mon Apr 07, 2014 1:57 pm
by Lord Jim
Re: The girls are back!
Posted: Tue Apr 08, 2014 1:02 am
by rubato
Did I say 8? 9-frame supers.
The queen is out but I didn't actually get to see her. The candy plug in the queen cage was gone so they let her out. I pulled a few frames and they're busy making wax and stocking the cells with nectar and pollen.
yrs,
rubato
Re: The girls are back!
Posted: Fri Apr 25, 2014 6:11 am
by Econoline
Re: The girls are back!
Posted: Fri Apr 25, 2014 1:08 pm
by rubato
I'll sneak one on my wife's car to give her a smile.
We should have new bees emerging just about now (21 days). I'll open the hive today or tomorrow and see how they are. The activity level looks good and I replaced the anti-skunk device in front of a hive entrance, a barrel cactus. Otherwise skunks will eat the bees like popcorn.
yrs,
rubato
Re: The girls are back!
Posted: Sun Apr 27, 2014 8:38 am
by Lord Jim
anti-skunk device
Nope, not gonna go there...
Just too easy...
Re: The girls are back!
Posted: Mon May 12, 2014 10:54 pm
by rubato
Well they were on their own for two weeks but are doing great. Lots of capped brood, the outer frames a full of honey and pollen and the hive is doing very well. I popped the top off today and had a look. I took out the entrance excluder so they could open up the whole front to help cool the hive on the warmer days coming in the next weeks.
We'll need a new super by next weekend and I'll have to order a new and smaller queen excluder to put on some honey supers...
Happy bees!
yrs,
rubato
Re: The girls are back!
Posted: Tue May 13, 2014 11:49 am
by Guinevere
Keep up the good work, bees. We need you!
Re: The girls are back!
Posted: Tue May 13, 2014 12:46 pm
by TPFKA@W
I wish you would take a few pictures of the girls and post them. It would be the bee's knees.
There is a honey farm near here with a glass enclosed hive attached to the main building. They are intersting to watch.
Re: The girls are back!
Posted: Fri May 16, 2014 11:38 pm
by Gob
Trained beekeepers had to tackle a 5,000-strong swarm of honeybees surrounding a central London store.
The insects were smoked out after gathering around a sign in front of a store in Victoria Street earlier.
Tony Mann, a trained beekeeper, said the bees were flying around the areas "like scouts".
The bees were moved to nearby Westminster Cathedral, where they will be looked after by beekeepers on the church's roof.
Re: The girls are back!
Posted: Sat May 17, 2014 12:14 am
by rubato
Might be too few to make a successful colony. We usually get a 3 or 5 lb package of bees (with mated queen and a few drones) to start a new hive which runs about 12,000 bees on up.
yrs,
rubato
Re: The girls are back!
Posted: Sat May 17, 2014 11:52 pm
by Gob
A beekeeper had to capture thousands of honey bees that had swarmed around a parked car at a Bournemouth shopping centre.
Shoppers outside Sainsbury's at Castlepoint saw the swarm cluster on the black car around midday.
Shopping centre manager Nick Staton said the beekeeper arrived fully dressed and "teased them into a basket with smoke".
Re: The girls are back!
Posted: Sun May 18, 2014 12:03 am
by Lord Jim
Looks like this is what happens when irresponsible amateurs release swarms of bees into populated areas....
People ought to have more respect and concern for their neighbors than to do that.
Re: The girls are back!
Posted: Sun May 18, 2014 2:01 am
by Lord Jim
Santa Cruz (city) An apiary permit for a residential property costs $1,300 and requires a hearing so neighbors can complain ahead of time. The limit is two hives, and they must be 25 feet from the property line.
http://www.santacruz.com/2011/04/26/avoiding_the_sting/
I assume you're all paid up on your fee rube. How'd the hearing go?
Re: The girls are back!
Posted: Tue May 20, 2014 1:50 pm
by Sue U
Lord Jim wrote:Looks like this is what happens when irresponsible amateurs release swarms of bees into populated areas....
People ought to have more respect and concern for their neighbors than to do that.
This actually happens all the time with wild populations of honeybees, much less so with a managed hive. A few years ago I had a very large colony living in the hollow of an ancient tree in my yard. One day a big portion (maybe all?) of the colony de-camped and swarmed on another tree nearby. We called a local beekeeper who came over and basically just knocked the swarm off the tree branch with a broom handle. It fell into a cardboard box he had brought, he put the lid on and put them in the trunk of his car. As he worked we were chatting and it turned out that he is also a local public defender and his wife is a PI attorney who I had known professionally through the trial lawyers association. Of course one thing leads to another, and that's how I became friends with The Beekeeper's Wife.
Re: The girls are back!
Posted: Tue May 20, 2014 9:00 pm
by Gob
Sue U wrote: Of course one thing leads to another, and that's how I became friends with The Beekeeper's Wife.
Sounds like the script for a porno.
Re: The girls are back!
Posted: Tue May 20, 2014 11:42 pm
by Joe Guy
They say the beekeeper's wife is the one with all of the money...
Re: The girls are back!
Posted: Wed May 21, 2014 12:00 am
by rubato
Sue U wrote:Lord Jim wrote:Looks like this is what happens when irresponsible amateurs release swarms of bees into populated areas....
People ought to have more respect and concern for their neighbors than to do that.
This actually happens all the time with wild populations of honeybees, much less so with a managed hive. A few years ago I had a very large colony living in the hollow of an ancient tree in my yard. One day a big portion (maybe all?) of the colony de-camped and swarmed on another tree nearby. We called a local beekeeper who came over and basically just knocked the swarm off the tree branch with a broom handle. It fell into a cardboard box he had brought, he put the lid on and put them in the trunk of his car. As he worked we were chatting and it turned out that he is also a local public defender and his wife is a PI attorney who I had known professionally through the trial lawyers association. Of course one thing leads to another, and that's how I became friends with The Beekeeper's Wife.
Swarming is the normal mechanism for hives to multiply. When they become too crowded the workers sense it and begin making queen cells. Meanwhile the existing queen will take a large portion of the adult workers and go off looking for a new place to put a hive. The swarm will often land on a branch not too far from the existing hive while workers scout around for something suitable. The swarm will then move here and there for a while. The swarm is living off of stored energy they got by gorging on honey right before they took off and which they will need to synthesize wax for comb in their new hive. Swarms are not generally aggressive but then honey bees are not aggressive.
We control swarming by keeping additional room in the hive, which is why I added a super last Saturday. When we had a hive in a more rural area at a friend's house there was so much forage (and so few hives) that they swarmed several times in one spring.
I'll be getting 3 more supers soon because there is a lot of capped brood right now which means more bees in the near future. We have not decided whether these are 'pets' or 'working bees' this year. If they're working bees we'll need a new queen excluder to fit the new hive boxes.
yrs,
rubato
Re: The girls are back!
Posted: Mon Jul 28, 2014 1:52 am
by Jarlaxle
I got rid of a good-sized hive of hornets yesterday.
Liz took one out 10' away from that spot a couple weeks ago.
And I got another one in mid-May.
Persistent little %(%^&^%$#*^%$!@#@!#$, aren't they?
Re: The girls are back!
Posted: Mon Jul 28, 2014 5:16 am
by Lord Jim
I got rid of a good-sized hive of hornets yesterday.
Liz took one out 10' away from that spot a couple weeks ago.
And I got another one in mid-May.
That's why God invented flame throwers...
