any bee keepers here

[JAMES G]

just seeing if any one has heard anything more on this collapsing hive disease.I have a few hives and the are still strong mild winter helped out

[TexasTimbers]

I know a knowledgable beekeeper James I'll ask him next time we talk. Welcome to the forum.

[DanG]

You about ready to bring a hive over, James?  We got flowers busting out all over the place over here.

[JAMES G]

most likely sat morning have coffie and biscuits ready and we will let linda get the honey fer us

[DanG]

Yeah, RIGHT!   She wouldn't get the honey for us if it was in the fridge!

I may not be here Sat. morn.  I promised to help John fire up the pottery kiln this weekend.

[Mooseherder]

DanG,
You gonna heat the entire village again with the Pottery furnace?

[TexasTimbers]

You keep honey in the fridge! Heckfire that's like puttin butter in the fridge that don't make no sense. 

[woodbowl]

Still got my honey slinger, hot knife, bee suit, vail and smoker ...... just no bees.    They seemed to take care of themselves just 20 years ago, but now every time I bring home a swarm they last a little while, then die or get wax worms. I've tried teramisan and other meds to try and save the hive, but no luck for me. I hear it's a whole new ball game for bee keepers these days.

[Dana]

I had 10 hives when I was still in high school. A few years back I bought a package of bees and had similar luck to woodbowl. The bees just can't seem to make it through the winter very well anymore. The Viroa mite is now a problem herre and this collapsing hive thing was on the local news a month ago.

With that said, I had a swarm go into an empty hive last summer and as of a few weeks ago they were out deficating in the snow.

I worked with a beekeeper from Florida named Carl Knorr one summer anyone near Orlando remember him?

[SwampDonkey]

Talked to one gentleman here last summer and he said it was hard to get bees without disease and parasites. So he gave up. My cousin also had bees for years. All I got now is bumbles and there are getting scarce.  It's hard for them since only the queen survives the winter.

A while ago I dug out an old children's book published in the 50's. 'The First Book of Bees' (hardcover). Written for kids 6-12. Surprising the information in that book. If anyone was a book collector this set of books would be high on the list. Unfortunately my mother did not prize them so well and gave them away years ago, except this one book.

[Ernie_Edwards]

S D,

Just looked thru my collection of 13 First Books Of.. and see that I don't have the one on bees. I have 13, so must have had a subscription for a year. It's amazing how much useful trivia I can still remember getting out of those books.

Kinda scary what is happening to the bees when you realize how important they are. Sure has a lot of the farmers up around here concerned.

[thecfarm]

Welcome to the forum JAMES_G.I don't know where you are from,but we have a mite problem up here in Maine too.I know of about 3 bee keepers and they are having a hard time.One of them talked about wanting to set up a hive on my land,I told him yes.Maybe he'll show up with them this year.I have low bush blueberries and would like to have them here.

[Paschale]

I just heard an interesting report on this collapsing hive disease, where they interviewed the guy who's in charge of apiaries in Florida.  He said what seems to be happening in this case is that the bees are having some genetic mutations that cause them to forget how to get back to the hive.  They're not finding hives with dead bees in there--the bees just stop coming back home, and die because of it.

The current suspicion is that it's related to a pesticide that is widely used on vegetables and fruit trees all across the country.  There is evidence that this pesticide could be the culprit, which is why it's illegal in Europe.

People don't understand how big a problem this is becoming.  It's really pretty scary, because it seems to be happening all over the country, and it's showing no signs of stopping.  Without honeybees, we're toast.

I'll try and dig up the radio broadcast link.

[Paschale]

Link to radio report.

Pretty sobering stuff.   

[Paschale]

Another radio broadcast about the demise of honey bees.

Apparently, 80-90% of all commercial bee hives have been decimated by this new disease.  It could have serious impact on fruits in the coming years.  Apparently, commercial apiaries with thousands of hives travel across the country each year to regions where plants are flowering.  Could be a big problem...

[JAMES G]

I was wondering how the small bee keepers were being effected by this problem. all the information I have heard about is with big operations who move from state to state. I  live in the fla panhandle and most farm land around here has been changed over to growing pine trees or growing sod for sale. one big farm next door to me has stopped growing a few hundred acres of tomatoes and is now growing sod for golfcourses. and yes mites are a problem for us down here as well I have started using a product called apiguard and it seems to work [for now] but  a lot of  wild beehives have been destroyed by mites.

[SwampDonkey]

Grandfather used to find wild hives of honey bees in his young days. They might turn up in an old dead elm long hollowed out. Obviously they were European bees that swarmed away from the parent hive. Haven't seen that in decades, although I do get them at the garden and there is no one close by with bees, so maybe.

[thecfarm]

Lining bees it was called.Would see a bee,fellow it as far as you could see it,wait for another one and do it until you find the nest.Most bees will use the same "road" all the time.My father would do this and my Grandfather too.A fellow did this when I was about 10.Came to my Father and wanted to cut a big limb off an old rotting rock maple that grew at one of the old homesteads around here.We went and looked at it and my father let him do it,for some of the honey.

[Paschale]

Lining bees it was called.Would see a bee,fellow it as far as you could see it,wait for another one and do it until you find the nest.Most bees will use the same "road" all the time.My father would do this and my Grandfather too.

That's fascinating!  I think I'll try this this summer sometime. 

[metalspinner]

How far will a bee travel to and from a hive?

Two years ago, I pulled over to talk to a tree service about a large red oak they were taking down.  After reaching the "deal" (free) I stood back to watch the rest of the dropping.  From high in the bucket, the fella started to cut the last large branch off the top of the tree when a black cloud came swarming out of the branch.   That was quite a sight.  I didn't know a bucket could come down so fast.   They called in a bee keeper, the tree guy put on the suit and cut off the branch with the hive and lowered it down to the keeper.

[SwampDonkey]

Yeah, this old children's book is pretty neat. Says the path the bee takes to the flower may be wandering, but the path back to the hive is a straight line, that's why a straight line is often called a "bee line". 

[johncinquo]

I heard you catch a bee, tie a small piece of cotton or yarn to it, and let it go.  Then you can see it while it is flying. 

I'm just not sure what kinda knot to use. 


I have a hollow oak out in the woods that has bees in it for a few years now.  I thought about calling in a bee guy to see if he wants them and seeing if I could get a lil honey out of the deal, but so far they havent bothered me so I'll let it go.  I havent seen many wild beehives in the last few years.  I've got a blowtorch reserved for any wasps nests though! 

[Chris Burchfield]

Up to seven miles to collect pollin. Lost two hives this winter. Being a mile winter and feeding troupht didn't make good sense to loose them. Oh well, nature knows better than me. Self and friends to enjoy, goes nice on a hot buttered cathead made from scratch.

[SwampDonkey]

I use it on cereal and sometimes a peanut butter sandwich. I have 2 KG in the cupboard now. 

[limbrat]

I bought some blown down erc from the National Forest in Aug It was 12 trees for 6 bucks it looked like a old home place and the burns or something killed the trees and Rita pushed them down.
They had some burns on the butts but perfect for split rail frencing. Any way i limbed this one tree and went to cut the splintered butt off when i seen a bunch of bees craweling out of the butt. That log is still sitting there they can have it  i dont wont it and if the work center calls me for not collecting all the wood, i will have to explain that i aint equiped for it. 

[Tom]

Those are probably carpenter bees.  They are a bumble bee looking bee that drills a 1/2" hole and a bunch crawl in there to over-winter.  They may reproduce in there too.  They aren't Honey Bees.  They can certainly decimate a barn or the eaves of a house though.

[Corley5]

We brought back two qts of orange blossom honey from Fl.  That'll last til next year.  Palmetto honey is good too but I didn't see any of it this year

[SwampDonkey]

I get a nest of bumble bees in the wall of my shed, the last 2 years. They are in between the studding and insulation I believe. I don't think they are harmful to a structure they just build a nest in the insulation. They don't bother me and I don't bother them. It's interesting though when you open and close the shed door and here that hum. 

[farmerdoug]

I currently have ten hives, if half of them make it through the winter I am happy.  I usually triple my hives each year with splits and swarms.  You definitly need them for pollinating vegetables crops.  Once I started with bees again our production of flowering vegetables tripled.  Bumble bees will pollinate at alot lower temps than bees will so in cold springs the fruit trees around here may have bumbe bees only.

Farmerdoug

[SwampDonkey]

Yeah bumble bees are amazing. The more I study up on them, the more respect I have for them. We get them on fall asters here in mid October. In the morning they look frozen in time clinging to them flowers.  Bumble bees are way more interesting than spruce budworm moths. 

[Tom]

Carpenter Bees will eventually destroy the integrity of a building by creating 1/2" tunnels in the wood that are varying lengths.  Sometimes a tunnel will be several inches, sometimes several feet.  The perfectly round hole will shortly be sealed by industrious mud daubers, Gods Masons.  They fix most any hole they find, whether it be in a board or a carburetor.

[Sprucegum]

Out west here, or up North to some, wherever I am    lots of farmers use "leafcutter bees" for pollination. They do a good job on the crops with less labor for the beekeeper but NO HONEY   

I don't know if they are having the same health problems or not.

[Jeff]

Not that this has anything to do with keeping bees, other then I took this picture at Tom's today and I think its a keeper.

[DanG]

The perfectly round hole will shortly be sealed by industrious mud daubers, Gods Masons.  They fix most any hole they find, whether it be in a board or a carburetor.

They p'tickly like the air inlets of pneumatic tools.  I have found that those little plastic caps that come on your tire valve stems fit the air tools perfectly.  My life is so much easier now.

[leweee]

Dang Jeff dat BEE Puurr T.  What's dem dar blossoms dat BEE be perched on 

[Jeff]

That picture we caught the bumblebee on a huckleberry blossom. I took a few more photos of bumblebees among the Azalias and noticed something odd. The bees were going to the back of the flowers, never to the front and inside.  Its only a guess, but we summized that the bumblebees were cutting thier way in from the outside base to gather the nectar from deep within the funnel shaped bossoms.

[beenthere]

Great pics of da bee.
If they are going to the back of the flower, are they missing the fertilization process, gettin into da pollen, and not pollenating the stigma.
In short, they may not be doin their job right.

[SwampDonkey]

Huckleberry blossoms look just nice blueberry blossoms. I know one keeper that kept honey bees for his blueberry crops.

I found out by reading a bit, that each flower is scent marked by the bumble bee, don't matter the species of bumble bee, and no other bumble bee will visit that one flower again. Also, odd behaving bees may be a sign of nematode parasites and often never return to the nest. Some even try to bury themselves before eaten alive. 

[Dave Shepard]

Back when I used to do property maintenance I pulled into one of my clients houses to find him up on an extension ladder with a tennis racquet and a dropper full of alcohol. He would squirt it into the bee holes and when they would come out he would start swinging at them and about fall off the ladder. That's the price of a log house I guess.

I have been interested in bees for a while, but am leary of making the investment only to have them all die off. They sure would be handy around an orchard or vegatable garden. I use beeswax for my blacksmithing, but I'll just buy it for now.

Dave

[treebucker]

We always had a dozen or more hives when I was a kid. I hated mowing around them but loved the honey. Another beekeeper approached us and ask to put 30 hives next to our alfalfa field and in exchange he would tend our hives. His hives were 4' high or more. His bees would each make two of ours. I watched him tend his bees without protective equipment and a short-sleeve shirt. He told us it had been years since he had been stung, however, he would suffer a severe allergic reaction if he did. He said he carried a syringe and had to give himself a shot immediately after being stung.

After hearing all this and seeing how tame his bees were I warned him he would get stung if he attempted to handle our bees without a protective suit. He did it anyway. Last I saw of him that day was his pickup tearing around the corner on the far hill about 200 yards away. There was a cloud of bees chasing him.    The next time he handeled our bees he suited up properly.

I'm wondering if the large-scale transportation of hives has led to the increase of bee diseases in recent decades?

In the absence of honey bees I've been noticing a tremendous number of bees that look almost identical to honey bees. The differences are they are slightly smaller and darker in color. I've noticed them concentrating around the ground on a nearby slope. I could not distinguish any hive opening. I've seen them feeding in orchards and watermelon patches in large numbers. I read somewhere that there is a native honey bee that doesn't make honey. I'm wondering if these are what I'm seeing.

I heard you catch a bee, tie a small piece of cotton or yarn to it, and let it go.  Then you can see it while it is flying. 

I'm just not sure what kinda knot to use.  

When I was younger and ornerier a classmate told me about sticking a dry piece of straw about 10" long up a horsefly's abdomen and watching it fly around with it. It didn't seem possible but sounded so hiliarious I just had to try it.   So the next time I caught a big fat horsefly I did - it worked! I thought it was funny at the time. I wonder if you could try this on a honey bee?

[SwampDonkey]

Some more info on wild bees that pollinate blue berries.

http://www.gnb.ca/0171/10/0171100025-e.asp

They seem to be important for raspberries as well and I get quite a buzz of bees when my raspberry patch is in bloom.