Posted: 7/8/2010 7:16:39 AM EDT
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OK, this is the month the bees get grumpy! Think about it....all the spring flowers are gone...it's HOT...there is an abundance of insect predators that prey in mid-flight on bees, and an army of ants that would love to raid the hive - plus other hives will sometimes resort to ROBBING this time of year when they realize how low their stores are!
This is kind of like when your married and the honey moon is over and your dear bride's claws come out! You get to see the true nature of your bees when you pop that lid. I always gently rap on the side of the hive with my knuckle and listen for their reaction. I think if I had a way to measure Hertz, the tone of their response would directly correllate to a state of mood. Pretty interesting stuff if you ask me! So back to stores - this is a time to evaluate your queens laying pattern, the agressiveness of your bees, do they "run" on the comb, do they get excited, and all the other "etcetera" things you look at when you are figuring out which genetics you like the best. This is the time when I will normally feed hives that are week, and order queens for those that I want re-queened. You can also make your own queen if you wish, but even with the best genetics in your yard it helps to add genetic diversity from time to time. Finally, this is a time of year when there's nothing better than a tall sweet tea on the porch while you watch your bees "beard" on their porch! It is relaxing to watch them come and go, and do their communication dances on the front face of the hive. They can do some other things as well like mass communication called "washboarding" that you can see from a distance. It relaxes old bones to watch. I don't have any old bones as i am young, handsome, and with a powerful handshake that could crush most men's hand, and I attribute all that to keeping bees and eating fresh honey! 
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Sure, you can have them all. One round at a time.
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We just had a swarm of bees move into a maple tree outside our house.
It has been about 4 weeks now and they are still there. Called a local beekeeper that was supposedly interested in coming out to get them but they were on vacation. 3 days after they got back I still hadn't heard from them so I called them again. They were going to come get them. Didn't say when. It has been 2 weeks and I haven't heard from them. 
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'Those who would sacrifice freedom for security deserve neither' -- Benjamin Franklin
When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty. -- Thomas Jefferson
When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty. -- Thomas Jefferson
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Originally Posted By pyro6988:
We just had a swarm of bees move into a maple tree outside our house. It has been about 4 weeks now and they are still there. Called a local beekeeper that was supposedly interested in coming out to get them but they were on vacation. 3 days after they got back I still hadn't heard from them so I called them again. They were going to come get them. Didn't say when. It has been 2 weeks and I haven't heard from them. Are they inside the tree? Or just hanging out on a branch? If they're inside the tree the beekeeper likely can't/won't do anything unless you want the tree cut open. The only option is to do a trap-out, or cut the tree. It is very unlikely that a swarm is just hanging outside the tree for 4 weeks, so I'm going to assume the former option. |
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Originally Posted By SigOwner_P229:
It is very unlikely that a swarm is just hanging outside the tree for 4 weeks, so I'm going to assume the former option. We had a swarm hanging out for weeks on the side of the house. Finally got a keeper over to get em. Turns out the queen had died. A few remained and were there a full month, til I trimmed back the bush they were hiding behind. |
| We spent part of sunday checking our hives.. getting into the later half of swarm season here but also looking at laying patterns,brood production and being honey bound. We have one hive that stores lots of honey in the brood supers so we had to spin some out (will feed it back to them in the fall) and replaced other frames with clean built out ones. Each of the hives is running 3-4 small and/or medium honey supers right now. We run 9 frames in the 10 frame supers to make cutting the cappings off easier as they build them out wider. Looks like it should be a good year for honey. |
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Originally Posted By SigOwner_P229:
Originally Posted By pyro6988:
We just had a swarm of bees move into a maple tree outside our house. It has been about 4 weeks now and they are still there. Called a local beekeeper that was supposedly interested in coming out to get them but they were on vacation. 3 days after they got back I still hadn't heard from them so I called them again. They were going to come get them. Didn't say when. It has been 2 weeks and I haven't heard from them. Are they inside the tree? Or just hanging out on a branch? If they're inside the tree the beekeeper likely can't/won't do anything unless you want the tree cut open. The only option is to do a trap-out, or cut the tree. It is very unlikely that a swarm is just hanging outside the tree for 4 weeks, so I'm going to assume the former option. They are actually inside the tree which is still 90% alive. I do know that they had some type of vacuum system which sucks the bees out without hurting them. |
'Those who would sacrifice freedom for security deserve neither' -- Benjamin Franklin
When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty. -- Thomas Jefferson
When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty. -- Thomas Jefferson
| I have a barn in a pasture that honeybees have found a hole in the siding and are brooding? inside the wall. I don't want to kill them, what's the best way to get rid of them. It's getting to where I can barely sneak into the barn to check the fencer. They seem to get pissier during the summer. Can I wait until winter and remove the hive? shop vac them up and turn them loose somewhere else? |
If I should lose my life, to what better purpose could I give it?
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Originally Posted By pyro6988:
They are actually inside the tree which is still 90% alive. I do know that they had some type of vacuum system which sucks the bees out without hurting them. There is a beevac, but it's typically use for when doing a cutout. It allows you to vac up all the bees while you're removing the combs etc. In most cases there is no way to save the tree and the entire colony. A beekeeper may be interested in doing a trapout which is where they trap all the field bees from getting back into the tree. The population inside will diminish and the queen will die, but the field bees will be saved, and can then be requeened, or added to a week hive (if done properly). Trapouts take time (the trap has to remain there until the population inside the hive diminishes enough that the queen dies... otherwise they'll just build back up and come back. Originally Posted By stutzcattle:
I have a barn in a pasture that honeybees have found a hole in the siding and are brooding? inside the wall. I don't want to kill them, what's the best way to get rid of them. It's getting to where I can barely sneak into the barn to check the fencer. They seem to get pissier during the summer. Can I wait until winter and remove the hive? shop vac them up and turn them loose somewhere else? Not during the winter, they'll die within hours ... the only real option if you want them to survive is to cut the wall open and put them in a hive. This should be left to a beekeeper IMHO. It's better done in the spring-time when they don't have as much honey stored up. |
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Originally Posted By FordGuy:
bump to evade archives As long as we are talking about bees... How do they take to shooting 100 yards or less from the hive? |
"If ever there was a holy war, it was that which saved our liberties and gave us independence." --Thomas Jefferson
