THE Bees Thread (merged)

[coyote]

We've got them around here and they can be a bit agressive at times - I got chased to my car by a small swarm of them recently. It's just another little sad thing, out of many, that they are supplanting the gentler strains of honeybees in North America now; but they're bees, and they pollinate, and they make honey, so they're friends (even if they don't think so).

[wisconsin_cur]

As I understand it, the introduction of Russian Honeybees into the US should be fixing the problem of CCD. The following article suggests that ribsome effecting viruses are the cause of CCD. Varoa Mites carry these diseases. Russian honey bees exhibit high levels of hygenic behavior. They basically "clean" varoa mites.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20 ... 151256.htm


Or maybe I am just drinking the koolaid.

It should help (I am raising Russians) but it is not a silver bullet. The honey industry as a whole needs to undertake some important changes. Those changes are starting to be made.

[Cid_Yama]

Cur, are Russians heat tolerant?

[wisconsin_cur]

Cur, are Russians heat tolerant?

All honey bees stop working ~90 F. This is not really a loss since most nectar producing flowers stop producing @ that temp. They then work more to keep themselves and the hive cool than anything else. As far as what I have read and can tell there is no difference between the russian and the more common italian (same species just different "races" with different habits re:hygiene, swarming, propolis production etc).

The Russians were first kept @ a USDA facility in Lousiana and there are some breeders in TN and other southern states. If there were a problem with heat I am guessing that it would have made its way to the lit.

The only big complaint I have heard is that they swarm (divide the hive into two hives, thus taking ~.5 of the bees someplace else) easier than the Italians, which have been the traditional bees used in the United States. That is a bigger problem for the industrial sized keeper than the hobbiest or even the serious small scale keeper.

[hardtootell-2]

Cur, are Russians heat tolerant?

I know this question was not addressed to me but I'd like to add something.

Bees in temperate climes don't forage heavily until it is warm enough. When it gets hotter, they can start earlier, break when it is hot and go later as it cools. They can have a potentially longer season.

Most beekeepers try to locate their hives near a source of water and provide at least partial shade. This can help with overheating

just my 2 cents

[Tanada]

In my study on this vastly complicated subject I learned something completely new. Mayan's as a culture were bee keepers and the tropical breeds they apiacultured still exist in central America. They do not produce as much honey as European or African honey bees, but they are extremely tolerant and are called 'stingless' though most of them do retain a vestigial stinger.

In the last decade or so they have been declining because bee keepers in that region have been substituting Africanized bees due to their much higher honey production.

[frankthetank]

I've been a bee fan for some time, but this year i finally took some action and put in a lot more flowers for them to feed on. My sunflowers the past month have been keeping all of them very active. I've got a large population of bumbles, honey bees (i'm sure many types since some don't look the same) and a lot of very tiny bees i see around the clover in my yard. Next year i plan on stepping it up a notch and putting in even more flowers. I would like to have something blooming all summer so i plan to do a wide variety of plants.

I need a list of plants that flower at different times from spring through late fall that the bees love and will keep them happy.

I hate those German wasps. Very annoying little things. I also hate that people confuse bees with wasps and think all of them are bad. I've actually petted a bumble bee that was working on a blossom. Very hairy little big guy.

[wisconsin_cur]

Frank,

Golden Rod

Other than that maybe some late sunflowers or if you had some alfalfa that you let bloom about one week and then mowed and then repeat through out the summer. Other than that there are a number of things that you can get that will help on a smaller scale.

[Tanada]

I've been a bee fan for some time, but this year i finally took some action and put in a lot more flowers for them to feed on. My sunflowers the past month have been keeping all of them very active. I've got a large population of bumbles, honey bees (i'm sure many types since some don't look the same) and a lot of very tiny bees i see around the clover in my yard. Next year i plan on stepping it up a notch and putting in even more flowers. I would like to have something blooming all summer so i plan to do a wide variety of plants.

I need a list of plants that flower at different times from spring through late fall that the bees love and will keep them happy.

I hate those German wasps. Very annoying little things. I also hate that people confuse bees with wasps and think all of them are bad. I've actually petted a bumble bee that was working on a blossom. Very hairy little big guy.

Roses, if you wait a couple of weeks after the blooms fall off you will see nodule's (rose hips) forming behind where the blossom was. If you pull or cut them off the bush will break forth in a second and even a third set of blossoms. Even better you can crush the hips and boil them to make rose tea, an herbal remedy for vitamin C deficiency, among other things. Tastes pretty good too, to me at least.

[frankthetank]

Interesting... When i drive around looking at these buffons with their huge manicured lawns and think how much MORE diversity i have even in a small section of my flower beds...... it sucks..

The bees have really been hitting my raspberries. Even early this morning when it was very cold i saw them buzzing around. So that is pretty cool. I think they like me.

I found this on WIKI...looks pretty good.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_n ... honey_bees

Don't even get me started on monoculture wind pollinated grains such as dent corn ... Feed the freaken cows grass like they were meant to eat!

[wisconsin_cur]

Roses are great sources for pollen but to not produce much nectar. Most years pollen is not a limiting force but nectar is.

[Jellric]

I need a list of plants that flower at different times from spring through late fall that the bees love and will keep them happy.

Here is a list of such plants together with their months of blooming:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pollen_source

[wisconsin_cur]

1. Thanks for the wiki link.

2. But again, nectar is usually a bigger problem than pollen and since frank is in the northern 1/3 of the country

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Nectar_Sources_for_Honey_Bees

[wisconsin_cur]

I have been making my own screened bottom boards and top entrances for some hives I recently purchased. I made two different kinds of tops.

The first is a modified telescoping cover. I cut out the lip off of one side and then glued/nailed a shim onto it to lift it just enough off the hive.



In the other experiment I took some plywood cut to the exact size of the hive and attached the same shims to the ends. Then I attached galvanised flashing on top of it. I used vice grips to hold the flashing on while I bent it around the sides and then nailed it from the bottom. Sometimes the nail did come through the flashing on top (note to self, get smaller nails or thicker plywood next time). Where that did happen I just dabbed some silicon on it which should more than do the job for many a year.

[hardtootell-2]

I am sad to report that my first year beekeeping was something of a failure. I did not get more than a taste of honey. On two separate occasions I found a pile of dead bees outside the hive. I suspect that someone was spraying within 5 miles of the hives. Once I thought about that, I realized how widespread spraying was and how few places can guarantee that there will be no spraying w/in a 5 mile radius. I will move the hives next year.

[Pretorian]

I once bought a supposedly nice and fluffy honey and it never crystallized. I thought all honey crystallizes eventually?

[wisconsin_cur]

I once bought a supposedly nice and fluffy honey and it never crystallized. I thought all honey crystallizes eventually?

Eventually being the operative term. Some crystalizes in as little as a few days from being extracted, some will not for years. Of course I suppose to disprove this bit of popular wisdom you would have to hang on to the honey for a very long time and I , at least, would rather eat it.

[Pretorian]

14 months? I thought only the honey collected from some sort off the backs of special larvae doesn't crystallize. The honey i'm talking about was bought on farmers market with all those assurances of raw and unheated thiings and all that and produced in TN

[Cabrone]

Bees in more trouble than ever after bad winter

MERCED, Calif. — The mysterious 4-year-old crisis of disappearing honeybees is deepening. A quick federal survey indicates a heavy bee die-off this winter, while a new study shows honeybees' pollen and hives laden with pesticides.
Two federal agencies along with regulators in California and Canada are scrambling to figure out what is behind this relatively recent threat, ordering new research on pesticides used in fields and orchards. Federal courts are even weighing in this month, ruling that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency overlooked a requirement when allowing a pesticide on the market.

And on Thursday, chemists at a scientific conference in San Francisco will tackle the issue of chemicals and dwindling bees in response to the new study.

USA Today

Not good atall.

[mos6507]

I'm starting a hive this year. Will cross my fingers.