The Scaredy Cat beekeeper?

DO I HAVE BEEKEEPER PTSD?

After I recently got stung to pieces trying to capture a swarm in the wrong manner, all kinds of things went through my pea brain.  Kind of like a person that falls off or gets bucked off a horse, I was reluctant to do my normal bee routine. I was having trouble wanting to get back out there and tend to the remaining bees that I did have. Although I know that with my suit and gloves on, the chances of getting stung again were not really very likely.  And I always take great pains not to crush anyone.

But I had never in 5 years of owning bees gotten to really enjoying them.  I did not enjoy the fact that they really didn’t like my presence, and could act really hateful at the wrong moves.  Adding to the fact was that I had changed my bees from Russians, to two different other breeds.  One of these breeds was Italians, which did not seem to be very touchy.  The other breed was a mutt breed called “survivor bees” who seemed calm, but with no warning would explode into a rage.  I had never had any bees that temperamental.

My Russians would always head butt me before actually stinging, so I had some kind of warning.  But they were very swarmy, so I changed types last year.

Anyway, after the attack I was leery of bees, not terrified, but reluctant.  I knew I needed to tend to them, but I found all and any kind of excuse to put it off.  However, I did consider the idea at the last that aside from that reluctance, those survivor bees did seem to be a tad screwy.  And since I didn’t actually see them leave the hive in a swarm, I entertained the idea that possibly these were not my bees, but a feral bunch from somewhere else.  OR “Africanized bees”?????

The culprits. Bee guarding entrance to hive.

But none of that explained that one hive in the back that was super touchy.

I thought possibly if I requeened all the screwy hives . . . And I also thought about selling all the darned bees, because what good is it having them if you don’t maintain them?  I didn’t mind having a few hives (2 or three), but six was a maintenance thing if you didn’t really love it.

Hey, here I am posting umpteen articles on how to take care of bees, and I didn’t even feel comfortable around them enough to want to keep them any more.  I opologize profusely.  But it is the trooooooooth.  I can stand sitting in a chair in front of the hive without fear at all.  But I put on that bee suit, and I know the bees will like me up until the point that I remove some frames.  Then they just lose it.  I keep going, but they are pissed and I do not enjoy them being pissed at me.  I guess I just want my animals to like me because I take so much care taking care of them.

Finger sting

It’s not as if I’m terrified, or in fear of my life or anything.  I know that it isn’t personal. I know the bees don’t hate me personally, or even all people personally.

My eye . . . swollen up

I think I need a beekeeper shrink . . .  But now for my other reaction

I got up the morning after writing the above article.  I was not even awake, with bleary eyes, cricked neck, and another thought coming into my not yet awake mind.  Here I am spending my hard earned money on beehives, frames, beetle traps, time out of my life, etc.  So I resolved to look at this in the opposite way for once.

• • They cost me over $100 each. x6 = $600
  • Their hives cost about $150 each. x6 = $900
  • The beetle traps cost at least half that each. x6 = $300
  • The extra supers cost a certain amount.
  • Extra excluders cost a certain amount.
  • Powdered sugar for shaking, and miscellaneous equipment probably cost at least $100
  • A SMALL spinner for spinning frames of honey cost $120.
  • Maintenance averages 2 weeks a year. That equals 5-6 months out of my life. Which is equal to a large vacation.
  • I worry over the parasites that attack them.
  • I have to go out in the cold and make sure they don’t freeze to death or starve.
  • I have to go out in a hot bee suit and sweat over them while they try to kill me.
  • Bee stings make me itch and dig my skin off for at least a week.

And the bad possiblities . . .

• • They are in MY backyard.
  • They are bought and paid for by me.
  • They are taken care of with time out of my valuable life.
  • I only ask for PART of their food, which is extra they won’t use.
  • They live at my discretion.
  • The beetles would get them if I didn’t do something about it each year.
  • They could have gone to someone that bangs on their hive.
  • They could have gone to someone that likes to smash bees.
  • They could have gone to someone that puts poison in their hives.
  • They would just act like bees and die a like a bee if I didn’t take care of them.

So, who cares if the bees actually LIKE me?

The perks used to be getting to watch bees and observe their many ups and downs.  And HONEY, the main thing that is not replaceable by getting it at the grocery store in the same manner.  The honey is storable for very long periods of time, tastes great, make great gifts and can be sold.  You can actually stockpile it, put it in your coffee, tea, cook with it, etc.

Well, they are insects.  And in their little pea brains I probably should not expect any more than that.  And I’m sure I wouldn’t get a heck of a lot of money if I sold them.  And that would also mean having some inspector running around my yard telling me what I already knew in the first place, which is that I have a few small hive beetles. Yeek.

So, I’m back to square one.  I need to get out there today and fix those hives so they’ll survive some more and see if they have any extra honey after swarming all over the place.  Anyone have one of these epiphanies?

BEE ATTACK! Holy Moley, aaaaarrgh!

Darn it, I neglected to get to the hives early enough this spring, and had two of them swarm in the last week (which I did capture because they stopped low enough on branches I could reach)  Those two safely put in boxes, I had intended on doing all the hives today. Today did not wait for me.

The box, the tree, the bees

I have 6 stings, two on my head (the worst ones), and various other parts, and a big headache.  I knew when I got up this morning that I really just needed to drink coffee and fool with the blog.  Now I’m fooling with the blog after the fact. Two Benadryl tablets and Denvers Sting Stopper are helping a little. (update 1 hour later a lot)

I went out with my coffee to look at the hives, just look. Oops, another one was in the process of making a swarm tornado around their hive.  This, I must note, was one of my peaceful hives of bees, very mild natured.

Onward with the story . . .

I thought, to myself, “Dangit, I can’t do anything about it now, I’ll just have to wait for them to light somewhere and then I’ll get them if they’re low enough.”  I then went back into the house.  I hate worrying about something that I can’t control anyway, and I wanted my coffee.  I wasn’t even awake quite yet.

My hub, who is vigilant about these things kept going outside and checking.  He finally came back inside and informed me that they had lit in a tree, OVER THE SHED.  THE TALL SHED.  THE SLIPPERY METAL ROOFED SHED.  I went to look and sure enough they were on a tree branch above the roof.  I estimated if I stood on the peak of the roof and reached up they would still be two feet over my hand.

NOW the theme song to JAWS starts to play in my head.

This is how high it was

My husband, always good with ideas, starts telling me how to do it.  And I’m-a-thinkin’ that I don’t want to do it.  But I get ready to do it anyway.  I prepare a hive bottom, with all the fixin’s but get a cardboard box to take up to the roof at his suggestion.  I am not strong enough to carry a wood box up there. He holds the ladder and I go up with the box and no suit. I repeat, I did this with no suit (stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid)I needed something to pull the branch down so I could shake the bees into the box, so he got me a hoe to do it with.  Little by little, step by step I slid myself on my hip to the peak of the roof.  Now the JAWS music is getting louder.  It is really slippery, but I am trying to position the box and I can’t get a bead on whether it’s right under the bees.

I shakily stand up and put the hoe over the end of the branch.  I look at the box.  I give it a big, sharp, SHAKE!

All of a sudden the bees fell into part of the box.  Only 1/16th of them fell into the box, the rest fell beside the box. Dang, the box was out of position.

And suddenly I was in a tornado of really angry bees and they were attacking all of my UN-suited body!  Boom! Just like that I was trying to get off that roof, the slippery roof.  I tumbled over and slid almost off the edge, grabbing the top of the ladder, which was not close to me, and tipping it out of alignment with the roof.  My husband, who was at the bottom quickly grabbed the ladder and dragged both it and me back into position as I scrambled down it unceremoniously (did I spell that right?)  Oh, who cares about spelling, I’m traumatized.

I almost fell down that ladder while being stung multiple times by a tornado of really pissed bees.  I mean REALLY.

But I made it down the ladder.  He also got stung because they followed me down that ladder and all the way to the house.  My forehead, wrist, cheek, legs, ankles, I dunno where all else. The JAWS music has stopped.  I done been TACKKED!

Attacked by swarming bees which most people will tell you are not stingy. On the other hand, it’s a toss up who attacked who first.  I’m sure my approach was the first blow. So maybe the reality is that I attacked them and they just defended themselves.

So, after my HUB, told me that I should have done it a different way.  I should have, and that’s for sure.  He did try to tell me when I was climbing up the ladder another way, but I was shaky and not about to stop. The bees are back on the branch, and he is right now trying to tell me how I can do it.

Mah Stunged Eye

Personally, I’m having second thoughts about bees, but that’s in the heat of the moment because I wrote this just 30 minutes after the incident.  He’s talking about finishing the job, and I’m telling him I would rather talk about it after breakfast.  He’s so positive and up about things. And very brave for staying and grabbing the ladder instead of running off to keep from being himself stung.

(He does love me . . . I THINK)  Just hit me, just slap me for goodness sake. I’m way too old for this shit. My head hurts.

 

Hive Beetle update April 2014

One of my readers wrote to me asking advice (I added a few sentences later):

I just read your blog about hive beetle. We had them for the first time last summer. Noticed it when we found a huge pile of bees on the ground. Bees had been in that hive since spring. When we opened up the hive, we discovered a large amount of hive beetles. No other hive was disturbed. We have four hives. I installed another swarm a few weeks ago and they absconded. Was thinking about making the cd case trap. We cleaned out the box, burned the inside, and installed another swarm in the same box. Less than a week later, we had dead bees again all over the ground. No beetles, though. It is strange how this has happened, but will be destroying that box, but first will douse it with 50/50 bleach and water. No other signs of any disease or anything. You mentioned using roach bait, I have some of the powdered bait, would you suggest I sprinkle it on the ground near the back of the hives? Also, what kind of nematodes should I purchase? ~ Gloria

Dead bees after hive beetle infestation

I know the feeling. You do all that work and there they are, a big mess.  How are your other hives doing?  Are they free of problems? In my case, after all of what I did to get rid of beetles I decided several things:

• That I couldn’t tell if the nematodes did anything.  And they are really expensive.  So I decided not to get them a second year.  Maybe the original ones are still alive in the soil and working.  Who knows?

• The beetle traps with poison in them didn’t catch anything at all.  I don’t know why, but other people say the opposite.  They catch beetles for them.  I caught none.

• I think the MOST effective thing I did was to use the beetle vacuum that my husband designed for me.  See my article HERE.

• I forgot to add something.  POWDERED SUGAR SHAKE!  You put powdered sugar in a flour sifter or something similar, and shake this all over your bees and inner parts.  It riles the bees up irritatingly, they attack whatever is in there.  And it makes things slippery so that mites and whatever falls into your oil trap.  Do this regularly, maybe once a month during fine weather.  It’s non toxic, and the bees will eat the leftovers.

• OOPS! forgot something else my husband reminded me of.  We have our hive up on a deck up off the ground.  And several times a year we wrap the legs in rags and soak that in used transmission fluid and kerosene half and half.  It keep ants and all kinds of things from crawling up to the hives.  Additionally, my deck legs are sitting on concrete blocks for leveling.  I douse these with oil too.

• Additionally, and this is very important. There must be enough bees in the hive to cover all of the frames, and chase the beetles and harass them.

Bees will corner beetles and keep them in corners and make it difficult for them to breed.  They even resort to using propolis to wall them in. But if there is too much space, such as adding a super prematurely, and too little bees to cover the space, the beetles will be able to evade persecution, running in all directions and hiding in the cracks.  This gives them ample time to lay eggs and multiply.

I think, if your other hives were not overcome with beetles they had a big enough population to defend and corral the beetles that they did get.  It’s possible that your failed hive was the opposite, and even that beetles were not the original problem, but what weakened them enough to make them overcome with the beetles.  So check for any other problems.

NOTE:  My hives only had a few beetles one summer.  I left for a week long vacation, after putting extra supers on all the hives hoping to prevent a swarming.  When I came home the beetles had taken over all the hives.  CAUSE:  I gave them room to escape by putting the supers on too soon.

I also think that the powdered sugar shake, combined with the Freeman Beetle trap, and sucking the beetles up regularly with a low powered vacuum can keep the population down to manageable levels.

The Freeman oil Beetle Trap is different from other oil traps, in that it doesn’t have ledges at the bottom for varmints to hide and lay eggs in.  Which leads me to my other article about sealing cracks in the hive.  See my article on how I sealed the cracks permanently HERE

Bee deck 2010 before beetle invasion

Leg of Bee Deck where you wrap the legs

Probably using a combination of controls is what helped my beetle thing.  But I think the sweeper was best.  I never completely got rid of every single beetle, as they came back the next spring. (They overwinter in the hive, and hatch normally in the dirt outside the hive if not actively reproducing inside the hive)  So the bees keep them warm for the winter.  How convenient.  What I did was to cut the population down to less destructive levels.

The way I used the sweeper was that whenever I opened the top lid of the hive to check or mess with the bees, I flipped it over quickly and vacuumed any beetles running around as quick as I could, dodging bees all the while (it WILL suck up bees too).  Then I switched to the inside top of the hive and chased any beetles I saw running on the top board and/or up over the sides of the outside of the hive.

I made this a regular thing every two days while the beetles were thick, and then every week, and then every two weeks.  Until I only saw a few.  It really cut down the beetles, all of which are breeders that you want to kill.  Now I only regularly see 4 to 5 beetles when I open the top cover.

Make no mistake, these four could become many upon many if left unchecked by controls.

I’m working on some kind of front of the hive entrance trap, because when beetles come back, they just fly to the front entrance of the hive and crawl right in!  I’ve actually watched them DO this, and once inside they make a mess.  And that mess is what makes your bees leave.  They just give up in disgust because their honey is rotten, their babies are eaten, the maggots are everywhere, and stinky slime is all over the place.  It’s a science fiction, but NOT fiction horror movie made for bees.

Also, although I’m no expert, from reading what you said, I wouldn’t sprinkle the roach bait on the ground, because bees can be scavengers in the spring, and they might pick it up and bring it back to the hive.  I didn’t use powdered roach bait.  They (other people) recommend the roach bait that comes in a syringe in a past form, and you put it in a CD case when you use it.  Like I said, it didn’t work or catch anything where I was at.  The CD case makes sure the bees can’t get it on their feetsies.  Also, with the CD case, you can see if any beetles end up in the CD case.  In mine nothing was caught.

We used a big RubberMaid tub to soak the nasty parts in overnite, and then used a power washer to heavily spray the bleach solution completely off all hive parts.  Bees are sensitive to smells.  And then air dried in the sun for a week before storing the parts for winter.  Then the next year I got new bees.  So my parts had time to air out and get rid of any bleach or smell.

LAST NOTES JUST IN CASE:

• I would make sure you have oil traps on the bottom (I recommend the Freeman Beetle Trap) they catch LOTS of beetles and mites.

• I would make sure you don’t have some additional problem like mites, or disease on top of having beetles.  It’s possible to have multiple problems at the same time.

• And bees can go out and get poisoned, come back to the hive and die from it.  We can’t do much about that.

• Sometimes, when a hive is weak, the other hives will rob it out.  But not likely if the honey is crapped out and nasty.

You can get an idea of mite populations if you take a piece of sticky shelf paper and put it sticky side up under your ventilated screened hive bottom (you got one?) to catch dead mites.  Then you count the mites that stick to it.  Don’t put it where the bees can get to it, or they’ll stick to it too (grin)  OR you could just reley on your oil trap to catch the dropped mites.

I ordered my nematodes from here: 
Note:  They are tiny in a zip lock and a wet gel to keep them alive and a cold pack.  And they are sensitive to overheating, drying, AND poison.  (Another reason not to sprinkle poison around the hives)  You have to keep the ground moist or they will dry out and die.  We put ours in non-chlorinated water (chlorine is bad for them), and sprayed them on the ground under and around the hive.

Southeastern Insectaries, Inc.
606 Ball Street, PO Box 1546, Perry, GA 31069
Office 478-988-8412   Fax 478-988-9413  Toll Free 1-8777-967-6777
Email addresses:
sei@windstream.net
southeasterninsectaries@gmail.com

 

Beehives in cold winter winds

Although I live in one of the not so arctic areas of the US, but THIS winter had a few extreme cold snaps, and I improvised a wind break for the beehives.  I was mostly worried about the wind, as these are first year hives.

Beehive wind and rain protection. The hive setup

The winds were deeply chilling, and I got out my old sheets, couch covers, and bundled up to go and cover them before night came.  It was vurrrry windy (30 MPH), and I took sheets of solid foam insulation to cover the sides on the bottoms because I have  ventilated bottom boards.

Beehive number ONE (the Italians) with wind and rain protection

Then I covered the entire hive, including the front entrance clear to the ground floor with couch covers and sheets.  My aim was not to completely seal the hive, but to break the wind.

Beehive number 3 with winter protection from wind and rain

When days come that it isn’t really badly cold, I just lift the front to expose the entrance so the bees can get out and do their “business”, whatever that might be.

NOTE:  the things on the top of the hives are scavenged from an old hot tub cover, and are foam covered with Naugahide upolstery material.  They are waterproof, and can be used for shade if needed, or rain and snow.  I’ve had them for several years and they also come in handy to set things on top of when I’m tending hives any time of the year.  You just don’t put your smoker up there.

Small Hive Beetle Sweeper

Last year when we had our huge beetle infestation my husband, overwhelmed at the mess, said he was “tired of squishing beetles” and invented me a BEETLE SWEEPER!  This year with my new bees, I have been using it every few weeks in my beehives, clear up to when the bees are left alone in the fall for the winter.  It works really good.

Brand and power of sweeper

He took a small, low powered sweeper, and cut the end off of a transmission fluid funnel like this one:

Transmission fluid funnel used to make nozzle

He then inserted it into the tip of the hose and secured it with electrical tape wound really tightly.

Nozzle with cut off end taped inside of it

And this is the result:

Finished small hive beetle sweeper

I just lift the top lid of the bee hive and lay it down quickly so that the beetles that might be in the lid do not scatter or fly off.  And you have to be VERY careful to avoid the bees because it will suck them up too.  And you can’t release the bees without releasing the beetles, so they are gone.  But you’ll get the hang of it after sucking up a few bees.  You will learn to gauge just how close you can come without commiting a bad thing.

Me using the hive beetle sweeper on my own hives

I have found that if I do this on a regular basis, after a while lifting the lid and examining shows only a few beetles. I think it’s having a good effect on the population.  Keep in mind, I also have bottom oil traps too.

Lighting a bee hive Smoker

There are various ways to do this, and everyone has their favorite type of fuel for a smoker, but this is how I do it.  The man that sold me my first hive used the fuel that was handy to him, which was pine needles.  So I simply adopted what he used, because I can get them most anywhere for free.  Other people use other things, which I will eventually research for everyone.  You can even buy smoker fuel online if you need to.

I get my pine needles from under some pine trees outside of a factory in my town.  They have a row of them outside their gates, and I take several bags and fill them up, which lasts me for a couple of years.  (only gather the dry needles) There may even be someone you know that has pine needles in their yard that they want to get rid of or throw away every year!

Lighting a bee smoker

I bought the biggest stainless steel smoker that I could afford.  This gives lots of room for fuel, and you don’t have to refill it in the middle of opening a bunch of hives.  I go out into the yard, preferably on a non grassy or cement spot to light it.  I take with me a bag of pine needles, the smoker, a hive tool, an old pancake turner, a bic lighter, and a pair of scissors.

Then I take note of which way the wind is blowing so that I don’t choke myself to death when it fires off!  Make a note, the wind sometimes does not cooperate.  Most of the time it changes back and forth, and I end up getting smoked myself.  This is why I understand the importance of not oversmoking my bees.  They don’t love it either, and it can burn them if it’s too close.

I open the top of the smoker, make sure it’s empty.  Then I take a handful of pine needles, and twist them up like a rope, fold in half, then twist again, leaving some ends to stick out for the first lighting. Note:  it’s important to get the first handful of needles lit pretty good before shoving them down into the bottom of the smoker.  If not, and it goes out, you’ll have to drag everything out and start over again.  About half flames is about right.

Now I take the partly lit pine needles and shove them down into the bottom of the smoker with your hive tool, quickly puffing the smoker to get them to flame up.  It’s okay if flames come out of the top of the smoker, just don’t put your face over the whole thing while you’re doing it. (grin)

Once you have this smoking pretty good, repeat the process as many times as it takes to fill it to the top, but remembering to use your hive tool or pancake turner to pack it in, and puff, puff, puff all the while you’re doing it.

You can pack pretty tight, and the better you puff and pack it, the longer it will stay lit while you are working the hives.  Just remember if you aren’t using it a lot while working, to puff some air occasionally.

The last thing you do before closing the top is use your scissors to cut all the stray “stick-outs”, the edges of the pine needles that inhibit you from closing the lid.  Once the edges of the pine needles are not sticking out, you can shut the lid and go work your hive!

NOTE:  It’s impossible not to get some smoke in your face while doing this, unless you use a fan, which I had not though of until just this moment.  Hey, PROBLEM SOLVED!

HONEY BEE and HONEY FACTS 2

Honey bees can gather the nectar in more than 300 flower types in the United States.

A honey bee must tap 2 million flowers to make 1 pound of honey.

The average worker honey bee makes 1 1/2 teaspoon of honey in her lifetime.

A honey bee visits between 50-100 flowers during one collection trip.

To make one pound of honey, honey bees must gather 10 pounds of nectar.

Honey has a tendency to granulate due to its natural properties. Granulation does not affect the taste or purity of honey.

Granulated honey can be restored to liquid form by carefully placing the jar in a pan of very warm water. (not too hot, cause that can ruin the taste and the vitamins and enzymes)

Store your honey in a dry cupboard. Do not refrigerate honey. Cold temperatures hasten granulation.

Honey does not benefit from pasteurization because it is naturally low in bacteria and other microbes.

Honey contains no fat, no cholesterol, no gluten and no sulfates or sulfites.

Honey is primarily composed of carbohydrates.

Honey is a natural sugar and is easier to digest. Honey is 100% pure and natural. It is made entirely by honeybees from flower nectars.

For all inquiries regarding the use of honey in medical conditions such as diabetes, weight control, etc., please consult your physician.

Honey was found in the tomb of King Tut (fl. c.1350 , king of ancient Egypt, of the XVIII dynasty) and was still edible since honey never spoils.

Due to the high level of fructose, honey is 25% sweeter than table sugar.

Honey is created by honey bees who mix plant nectar, with their own bee enzymes and then evaporate excess water.

Honey has different flavors and colors, depending on the location and kinds of flowers the bees visit.

To the ancients, honey was a source of health, a sign of purity and a symbol of strength and virility.

Nectar can contain 80 percent water, which the bees fan with their wings to evaporate most of.

Honey is antiseptic, antibiotic, and acidic

Natural honey will form into granular sugars

Honey can be used as a preservative

Honey can be used as a sugar substitute

Honey can be used as a facial beauty mask

Honey is used by some people for allergies.  But supposedly only honey from your local sources

NOTE – I understand from hearing from other sources that honey should not be fed to children under the age of 12 months.  I’ll research this further.

HONEY BEE FACTS 1

HONEY BEES ARE NOT NATIVE TO THE UNITED STATES
They were imported by Europeans in the early 1600’s to America.  But they are native to many other parts of the world, including the Middle East.  For over 150 million years they have been making honey all over the world.

HONEY BEES ARE VEGETARIAN
They eat honey, pollen, nectar, and royal jelly.  Wasps, hornets, and yellow jackets are carnivorous, and eat other insects.  They also are a lot more touchy and stingy.

BEE VENOM is acidic.  Wasp, hornets and the like have alkaline venom.  It still hurts no matter . . .

HONEY BEES AREN’T MEAN
They protect their food, queen, babies, and home from predators.  Foraging and swarming bees aren’t apt to sting unless you bother or step on them.  If you make them angry they will normally only chase you about 50 feet. Bees on or in a hive will guard and protect the hive and their family, and they post guard bees for this purpose.  The hive contains their young and the queen, and also all the food they have stored over the summer to feed them in winter.  Without any of those they would not survive.  I think I’d protect that!

HONEY BEES DIE AFTER STINGING PEOPLE – BUT . . .
When they sting and die they give off a smell that alerts other bees that an enemy is around.  They are much more likely to attack and sting if they smell this.  Don’t squish bees, they take it personally.

HONEY BEES LIVE FOR 60 DAYS  Except queens, who live much longer I remember someone saying about three times as long as the workers.  Although I have heard the queen can live for up to three years, I cannot confirm that as of today.  Let me know if you know the answer to that.

HONEY BEES HAVE ONE QUEEN (unless another is born)
There can be only one.  If any more are born they have a big fight to the death or one leaves. She can lay over 1500 eggs a day.  Worker bees create new queens by feeding the larvae Royal Jelly, which they produce from special bee glands.

WORKER HONEY BEES ARE FEMALE
Male bees don’t do much work at all, except to date the queen for a short while. In fact they get tossed out of the hive before winter so they won’t eat all the food.  But spring more hatch out.

MALE HONEY BEES HAVE NO STINGERS
Yep, that’s right.  You can pick them up with your bare hands and they won’t sting you.  If you can dodge the guard bees while you’re doing it.  They are called DRONES.

HONEY BEES HAVE TWO STOMACHS     (One of them is for nectar and honey)

HONEY BEES HAVE FIVE EYES
They can see ultraviolet light, and red is seen as dark brown or black.  The eyes also have tiny hairs that can detect wind speed and direction.  Some of those eyes are in the top of their heads.

HONEY BEES HAVE FOUR WINGS
Their wings beat over 11,000 times a minute. And they can fly 15 miles an hour.  But if you are being chased you will swear it’s 90 miles an hour.

HONEY BEES HAVE THREE PAIRS OF LEGS
Their legs are used to walk, grasp, clean their antenna (or doorstep, or other bees), carry pollen or propolis (resins from plants they use to close crack in their hives)

A HONEY BEES ANTENNAS
A Honey Bees antenna have sensors that detect odors.  In 2003 some bees were trained by researchers to associate the smell of explosives with food, therefore being able to detect bombs.

HONEY BEES BREATH THROUGH THIER ABDOMENS (stomachs)
This is also why they are so easily poisoned by pesticides.  And why dusty stuff irritates them.  I even feel sheepish using my smoker on them, and do it sparingly.  Sometimes I don’t have to use one.  Sometimes it’s not advisable to use one.  But whenever I omit to bring it to the hives, I always end up going back to get it.  Such as when I accidentally squish a bee or two.  They hate that.  Well, it is murder, even if accidental.

HONEY BEES PRODUCE WAX FROM THEIR BODIES
They exude (push it out) of their abdomens (belly) in flakes.  Then they take the flakes and form them into hexagon shaped cells with their little jaws and legs.  It takes approximately 450,000 of those flakes to make one pound of wax.  I’ve never actually seen them make wax, but I’ve seen pictures.

HONEY BEES ARE AWAKE IN THE WINTER
They huddle together around the queen to keep her warm eating honey for energy.  They need about 70 pounds of honey to survive the winter, and if they run out of honey, they freeze and die.  This is why sometimes beekeepers feed them in the winter if they don’t have enough honey.

HONEY BEES POLLINATE THE FOOD WE EAT
They make help make food for us when they gather pollen and nectar and go from flower to flower.  This places pollen from one plant to another, and fertilizes the plants.  Plants can then make fruit and seeds.

QUEEN BEE ESCAPES !!

I finally got the third hive installed yesterday, but not without a wierd problem.  I had everything in place to put the last bee package into the last hive, and brushed the bees off of the queen cage.  Normally, you pull out the cork in the candy end, and there is still the candy plugging the end of the queen cage.  Then you insert this cage between a couple of frames and during the course of a few days the queen eats herself out and goes into the hive.

Problem is, I took the cork out, and there WAS no candy in it.  The queen crawled out, and FLEW!!  My-O-My was I upset.  I partially covered the top of the hive in case she wasn’t in there and wanted to come back, and made a frantic phone call to the people I ordered the bees from.  Worry, worry, worry.

My bee hive setup.

They told me that they had run out of regular queen cages, and this one was called a “California cage”.  No candy in this one.  The way I was supposed to put the queen in was to take the cork out and immediately put my thumb over the opening to prevent her from escaping.  Then I was to push the cage into the front of the hive and let her crawl into the hive.  Gee, I would have never figured that one out.

Anyways . . . he said that I should observe for three days, and listen to see if they were keeping a low hum instead of an upset hum.  If not he’s see about getting me another queen.  Okay, now I know what to do here.  That did help, and I calmed down.

Now you know how that one goes . . .

INVENTED NEW TOP FEEDER

I almost forgot.  In my upset over drippy feeders, feeders that drown my bees, hard bee candy they needed water to process, etc, etc…  I came up with another idea.  I took some large square cake pans and 1-2 in thick foam padding, and a razor blade and cut it to fit the inside of the pan, leaving 1/2 inch in all sides for a trough.  Then I took and cut v shaped grooves almost through the foam.  That left foam for them to stand on, and even if they got in the syrup they could easily pull themselves out of it.  It seems to be working pretty good.

FOAM FEEDER – The foam looks like you could eat it too.

Then I set the pans on top of an inner cover that has a center hole, and the bees come up and get the syrup!  I have to fill it every two days or so though.  I’m going to fix some kind of float so that I can fill the pan deeper with syrup, and have the foam float to the top, and back down again as the bees consume the syrup.

HIVE BEETLES KILLED LAST HIVE

Rest in peace my girls . . .

Well, it finally happened.  I lost the last hive I had.  It was weak anyways, and ultimately didn’t make a queen in time to make babies and store enough honey.  But to add insult to injury, the robber bees that ended up dealing the last blow were probably from a previous hive of mine that had swarmed.  Big, healthy bees that came back to get the last honey.

HOWEVER, all is not totally lost, because I’ve read that hive beetles can’t survive outside the hive in the winter.  That they need the warmth of a huddle of bees to keep them warm.  So, anyone know anything about this last bastion?  If it’s true, then possibly my bees didn’t die in vain.  Possibly when I get my new order of Russians, they will be able to start new without any outside varmints to eat them alive . . . We will see.

HiHowAreYa

Jewelant BlogAntique Heap Blog

Welcome to Jewelant’s Blog!  It’s a blog about all my interests and anything other interesting.  Got cats, videos, honey bee information, garden pictures, cartoons, militaria, antiques, chickens, and funny stuff. This blog has evolved to encompass hobbies I’m presently messing with, and things I have to do with, and, and, and, whatever pops up in the future.  Currently I’ve not been blogging for a long long time, so maybe it’s time to get back into it.  I don’t sell anything off my blog any more, but do sell on Ebay.  My store link is https://www.ebay.com/usr/jewelant/