A beekeeping topic.

[BilletHead]

     I would like to start a beekeeping thread here on general chat. I know @jdmidwest are beekeepers. He is very knowledgeable on this subject, and I am not but learning fast. He and I do different types of hives. I am hoping we have other members that are doing the same and we could all share what we know and don't know. Another resource we could have on here for Ozarks Anglers. As we have come to know this community is not just fishing here. Lots of complaints have come and gone about this place not being all about just fishing but there is more to life than fishing believe it or not. I appreciate the food, gardening, Hunting and other things attached to the community.  If I don't get any input, I will let this die. I don't want to be talking to myself in public. I can do this by myself like I do daily  

   Bee stings included. My existing girls have been kind of grumpy. Warm days I go out to hives and watch them. If I get too close, I am getting pinged on the shaved shiny head. Not been stuck yet but it's going to happen. 

[jdmidwest]

Must be the smell of your shampoo that attracts them.....

[tjm]

Or it may be where you stand, I've watched bees returning from 'out there' to the hive traveling a "bee line" fly right into something or some body that wasn't there when the "bee line" was established. Disclaimer, I'm not and never was a bee keeper, but I have coursed them through the woods. Don't know how the bee line works but they seem to have precision flight paths. The pinged but not stuck makes me suspect you blocked one.

[BilletHead]

6 hours ago, tjm said:

Or it may be where you stand, I've watched bees returning from 'out there' to the hive traveling a "bee line" fly right into something or some body that wasn't there when the "bee line" was established. Disclaimer, I'm not and never was a bee keeper, but I have coursed them through the woods. Don't know how the bee line works but they seem to have precision flight paths. The pinged but not stuck makes me suspect you blocked one.

           You are spot on about the "bee line". I was fully aware of the flight path that day. Two places they were working. The Ozark witch-hazel has been blooming and I have done some light sugar water feeding. I am not sure if they are getting any nectar out of the witch hazel but carrying pollen to the hive big time. So, I did attempt to avoid the path.  IT is going to warm up today and I suspect they will be out and about. The third hive build is outside. Need to clearcoat the artwork on the outside. When it dries will set it in place. Traps will be put out in selected places where swarms were caught last season. Plus am going to build some Russian Scions and hang around the bee yard (wish me luck). Maybe make it easier to collect swarms out of our existing hives.  

[Daryk Campbell Sr]

You are right,  this community is about much more than fishing.   That's why many of us have stuck around.  I enjoy reading about the beekeeping processes.   I do hope this catches steam. 

[BilletHead]

1 minute ago, Daryk Campbell Sr said:

You are right,  this community is about much more than fishing.   That's why many of us have stuck around.  I enjoy reading about the beekeeping processes.   I do hope this catches steam. 

            Thanks Daryk,

  I find it hard to believe that as many forum members that belong here there are not more that have dabbled in the hobby. 

[Dutch]

I’ve only had one experience with bees.  When we were renting the farm house some got in around the mortar and built a hive between the garage ceiling and one of the bedroom floors.  I contacted some bee keepers and no one wanted them.  Through the Green County Bee keepers assn. I found a guy who would come take them for $250.  It was either that or kill them so I hired him.  He estimated that there were 25-30,000 in that group.

[Johnsfolly]

I have run hundreds of honey bee studies in our labs over the last 30 yrs. Always liked dealing with the bees and never have been stung. Started working with them in Florida back in the 90s when I was tasked with developing the testing procedures that had never been performed at our lab. I had about $250 in budget to build cages. I made the cages out of plywood using a 4 inch hole saw (a big part of my budget), window screen, and a silicone stopper. I made a holding cage out of a rubber made tub with lid and created a tube with a sliding divider that we would use to allow the bees to go from the holding cage into the individual testing cages. Once they were loaded with the right number of bees, we would close off the tube opening and repeat with other cages. The next large expense was a small CO2 tank. I got a regulator from the lab. We would knock out the bees with CO2 for the studies where we would apply a 1 uL drop of a test solution containing the test material, ususally an insecticide or herbicide. That was always a race against time since the beees would wake up within a couple of minutes. The other study was an oral dosing where the test material would be added to a 50% sucrose solution and fed to the bees. We monitored lethality as well as any abnormal behaviors during a 48 hour study. since those times they have developed much more sophisticated tests with longer term exposures and larval exposures to determine if any newly developed chemicals are going to be deterimental to bees in the environment. As many might know bees have been in a state of decline for several years and thus more concern is being paid to their response to new chemicals.

[Quillback]

In Washington there were several outfits that would had beehives they would move around to pollinate the fruit orchards.  Used to go over to that part of the state to trout fish in the spring, you'd be driving down the highway and they would be everywhere smacking into the windshield.  Never had a desire to raise them myself.  

I like a honey and peanut butter sandwich.

[BilletHead]

2 hours ago, Johnsfolly said:

I have run hundreds of honey bee studies in our labs over the last 30 yrs. Always liked dealing with the bees and never have been stung. Started working with them in Florida back in the 90s when I was tasked with developing the testing procedures that had never been performed at our lab. I had about $250 in budget to build cages. I made the cages out of plywood using a 4 inch hole saw (a big part of my budget), window screen, and a silicone stopper. I made a holding cage out of a rubber made tub with lid and created a tube with a sliding divider that we would use to allow the bees to go from the holding cage into the individual testing cages. Once they were loaded with the right number of bees, we would close off the tube opening and repeat with other cages. The next large expense was a small CO2 tank. I got a regulator from the lab. We would knock out the bees with CO2 for the studies where we would apply a 1 uL drop of a test solution containing the test material, ususally an insecticide or herbicide. That was always a race against time since the beees would wake up within a couple of minutes. The other study was an oral dosing where the test material would be added to a 50% sucrose solution and fed to the bees. We monitored lethality as well as any abnormal behaviors during a 48 hour study. since those times they have developed much more sophisticated tests with longer term exposures and larval exposures to determine if any newly developed chemicals are going to be deterimental to bees in the environment. As many might know bees have been in a state of decline for several years and thus more concern is being paid to their response to new chemicals.

            Really interesting John,

    I had a hard time watching the crop-duster flying the milo field south of our yard late last Summer and early fall. I cringed and stood in the middle of my apiary as he did fly over with each pass. This farmer in particular is not too careful. I then contacted another farmer friend who calmed me down. He said honeybees are pretty tough. Same farmer told me to register my hives on a place called bee check. I did that when I first put them in.  It is a place where pesticide applicators should be checking before spraying. It goes with field check and drift watch.