This thread is a repository for bee keepers or those interested.
A couple of years ago, a couple of friends an my brother started puttering with honey bees. I didn't buy off because, well, I've never been a big fan of bees or getting stung by them. Last summer I tagged along a couple of times to check their hives and to remove honey bees from a house, public building and an old garage.
I realized at the end of the summer when I was helping them process some, that it's actually pretty interesting, and fits into my expanding "grow my own" logic. I'm not full blown hippy but I see a lot of logic in the self sustaining food thing and I'm doing some of that too.
That said, this thread is about bees, honey bees, bee keeping and bee fighting war stories.
I'm taking the leap and plan to get 2-3 hives this spring and maybe build some bee swarm traps to make it cheaper or to make a few bucks.
Join me and I'll share the real life lessons of an ameture bee keeper. I'm sure I'm going to learn some things the hard way.
"This is why we don't do cutouts".....I've heard that a dozen times from the guys I started out with and now very few of them will do a cutout.
Yesterday's cutout at a grain bin(under the dryer floor) could have gone....better.
I took my 9year old boy to help, spend some time together away from the quarantine house and the siblings, and for man skill training. I figured half hour drive, an hour or two to do the removal and half an hour home. A new keeper met me on site to see it done.
It was a shit show from,the beginning. The floor was double layer of 3/4" plywood over a metal subfloor and a tangle of 4x4 posts, metal beams and double stacked cinder blocks.
The boy jumped right in and I had him running a bee vacuum at the entrance and he did great. He climbed into the bin with me and helped me with tools cutting and opening the floor...that took almost 2hrs....he got hit and tired so I put him in the truck to listen to the radio and relax while I worked.
At some point the bees started getting mean....mean....I have a generator and a vacuum running and can't hear well, then I do and see the boys head peeking over the hole in the bin.....and he's getting mauled by bees...he'd gotten out without his suit on and wanted to ask me a question...and they jumped on his face like he snitched on a prison gang. I pulled several stingers from his lips, nose and ears..and hands. Yeah, I feel like a real dick...my responsibility to keep him safe. Had the mrs come get him and got some medicine in the poor kid.
I finished the work....and yes I got the shit kicked out of me too, no idea how many hits I took but a lot.
7hrs later, a box of angry bastards are in my bee yard probably preparing to abscond.
That was not my best day doing this.
Now I get to decide if I'm going to do a tree removal today....
Got my first swarm of the year last week. I've been chasing this sucker since 4/18!
I was going out to the yard to check everything when I roll up on a swarm about the size of my hand. Couldn't have been more than a pound of bees. What a cute little swarm. I've never seen one that small! It was about 6' off the ground in a little sapling behind the hives. Got a 5 frame nuc box and put it in there, only took about 5 minutes. Easiest one ever!
Then I looked up.
About 25' up in a pine tree was the biggest swarm I've seen with my own eyes, at least 30 pounds. I put a double deep in the tractor bucket, but couldn't get it high enough for them to be interested. They hung out for a couple of days and then were gone. That's the way it goes sometimes.
A couple more days pass, and I get a call that there is a large swarm in the neighbor's tree, not too high up. I went out the next day and there was a tiny swarm in a pine tree about 6' high. They wouldn't let me get within ten feet of them before they started bouncing off my chest. Then I noticed the neighbor has a mature walnut tree that had some bees checking out what looks to be a gash in the trunk about 35' high. I wasn't about to rent a cherry picker and go get them, so I let them be.
The very next day, I'm rolling into the yard and son of a gun if there isn't a swarm in damn near the same place but a little lower to the ground. This might be the same swarm (more than likely), but now it's about half the size. I have a big crate that I'm planning on using for storage, and I moved it right under the swarm. The crate is about 9' tall and when I stood on top of it the swarm was just over my head, but I could reach it. I used a hand pruner to cut off the branch the swarm had attached to. I put the branch over the hive box (I took out five frames to make a little room for the cluster) and they proceeded into both boxes. I put a feeder box on them right away but when I checked the next day they weren't taking it. The flow must be good enough. They've been on top of the crate ever since. I plan on moving them in a few days to another yard I'm setting up half a mile away. [Reply]
The boy is tougher than gorilla cum...looked like hell today. It said it didn't hurt and was normal all day. Looks pretty good now, and while he didn't want to go with me today said he would again.
I caught a swarm in a trap in my apple tree today that likely came from my hives. I went down to look through and ended up putting honey supers on 4 already. That's way ahead of schedule here.
I couldn't decide about the bees from yesterday...they stayed and looked like they were working but were agitated. I found queen cells in one of my hives that had t been chewed open(some had) and I took a frame from that hive and stuck 3-4 more queen cells into the comb and stuck it into the new hive to be sure there was at least a chance at a queen in there. Not ready to dig too deep in that box yet. If they act sketchy I will consider buying a queen for them.
I noticed scouts at another trap so that's looking positive. I'm on the fence but am wanting to try the treecut out maybe tomorrow..we will see.
I'm planning to take tomorrow off to help a buddy do a cutout and he's going to help me do 1-2 trees. I jokingly asked my boy if he wanted to go(after last weekends ass kicking) thinking he'd tell me it kiss his ass. He shocked me and said "if it's in our town I want to go".
Hopefully tomorrow goes better and I'll get some pics. Chicken house and cedar tree removals. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Iowanian:
I'm planning to take tomorrow off to help a buddy do a cutout and he's going to help me do 1-2 trees. I jokingly asked my boy if he wanted to go(after last weekends ass kicking) thinking he'd tell me it kiss his ass. He shocked me and said "if it's in our town I want to go".
Hopefully tomorrow goes better and I'll get some pics. Chicken house and cedar tree removals.
I would expect nothing less from an Iowanian, your whole family is tough from the experiences you've shared on here. [Reply]
Originally Posted by cdcox:
I’m looking forward to an Iowanian road trip to Washington state and the eradication of killer hornets from our continent. I’ll chip in $20.
Apparently you just need some mantids. Damn, metal indeed.
Before I started beekeeping, I saw a mantis snatch a bee as it flew by. Ate the head first like in the video. Out by the hives, dragonflies will take them in mid-air with zero chance for the bees. They eat their fill and move on. The insect world is harsh/bizzare/amazing. [Reply]
I went with a friend and taught him how to do a cutout yesterday.
It was an old chicken house and when we arrived, I had low expectations. There was no inner lining in the building walls or ceiling....so no cavity for a colony to live. We were told the children said they were in the floor, so I immediately assumed it was a 30 mile drive to find yellowjackets.
I stuck a pry bar into the floor and gave it a shake, and honey bees began to pour out of the eye sockets of an animal skull where the wall and floor met, as well as another spot 2 feet away. Jack pot but ominous signs.
After that it went smooth. I cut out a section of the floor, pulled it up and exposed the comb. We removed the bees with a vacuum and I cut away the comb. On the second to last comb I found and caught the queen. Then I found 10 gallons of older capped comb honey...but I'm not eating honey under an animal enclosure. He fed that back to his bees and some fancy grass eating hippy pigs. Successful relocation but we didn't thave time to get mine done. No big deal, it was good.
Old stanky comb and very little brood so I'm convinced a swarm had moved into an old dead hive.
Do you have any idea of how old that comb might be? In the pictures it looks like they just picked up the blueprints and continued building where the old workers quit. [Reply]
It's hard to tell for sure but I'd guess that really dark comb is more than 3 years old. The light colored stuff is new. Comb is al,
Most white when built and gets stained from pollen etc, but the darkness comes from a "shell" that is left by each larvae as it grows into a bee. The same cell isn't used multiple times, it builds up and gets dark.
I can tell you if you try to melt that old stuff for wax there is a lot of nasty crap to remove and it stinks [Reply]
