Actually I know there is one other for sure. Just checked some hives again last night, it's easy to find the queens now with the lower drone and worker population. Also plenty of pollen coming in.

Bryan

Yeah, mine are going bonkers trying to keep up with the flow which just hit these past few days!

I tried to service my one and only hive, but the buggers glued both brood supers together to the point that when I got them separated, all of the lower brood frames slid out with the tops! I cannot get the top frames separated for all of the propolis (sp?). I don't know what to do, so I put them back together and called it a day. I was intending on swapping the supers to move the bees to the bottom.

Saw a few small hive beetles, grrr. Considering the winter, I did NOT expect that.

For now, I am going to have to leave them alone to let them do their thing in this massive outburst of flowers.

Probably time to get a mentor.

Bryan
Looks like an Italian queen to me, her retinue seems very attendant

Hope to get a couple new hives going this year, need to get the bee yard cleared and ready soon or I'll have to wait until next year

Bees look good, didn't see any varoa on magnification of image, and good age distribution of the girls already

Love the full pollen sacs, bees really are amazing creatures.

I used to have about 20 colonies. Then I married a woman who is deathly allergic to stings. I can't recall ever getting stung from normal operations but couldn't take the chance with her.

I have been thinking about getting some bees next spring. Can you fellows point me to some good places to do research? Thanks!

Bushwacker....I've got plenty for you!

We discovered a huge, huge nest inside a very large tree.
They've hollowed out or taken advantage of a huge hollow inside an enormous tree.

There are two holes in the tree about the size of a
coffee can and it is like a busy airport with tons of bees in and out every second.

The local bee-keeper came out and said he thought there was between 500K and a million bees in that 12 foot trunk of the tree.

We were repairing some barb-wire fencing and had to clean out the area to get access to the old fence. The beekeeper said if the backhoe would have hit the tree hard or God-forbid tried to knock the tree down it could have meant death to the backhoe driver.

It's in sort of an isolated area so we may just leave it alone,
or the guy said we could try and seal the two holes during the winter, but he said the bees would probably still find a way in and out. I may try to get a picture this weekend.

Hey BeeKeepers, Any idea on what the swarm in this photo is? They come thru my area for about 1 to 2 days around late march every year and can be found like this in a tree in the morning. They always stay high so I can not get a good look. This photo was taken at 10:18 am April 1, 2012.

Only bee I know of that swarms is the honeybee, or the roughly equivalent killer bee. Someone local is a bee-keeper or there is a feral hive nearby.

I thought that the honeybee is what they are. Anyway there are no beekeepers within about 6 miles of me so it must be from a Feral hive. The local beekeepers want me too call them if they ever show up low enough to gather.

To dangerous to gather feral swarms here b/c of the risk of getting Africanized bees, especially Miami and south

You guys further north may not have that issue

Been doing some reading about bees.
Angry honey bees might chase you 150-300 yards if they swarm.
Angry Africanized bees might chase you a half mile.
If you jump in the pond to escape...
Africanized bees will many times hover over and wait.

40 people in US die from bee attacks per year,
out of a population of over 300 million people.

Good move Dave (I'm sure it was tough). A cousin of mine died from one bee sting... nobody knew she was allergic.

Just call your wife "HONEY", she's the queen bee .

A very interesting book ( to me b/c I'm a nerd) is Honeybee Democracy by Seeley. He talks about the amazing coordination and communication involved in a swarm

Nonafricanized swarms are usually very docile, and I have seen people stick their hands through them with no effect.

Bees are an amazing super organism, only focused on the good of the hive. For example, when a bee senses its about to die, it will fly off and leave the hive so that her fellow workers don't have to waste time and energy removing her body from the hive. THAT is commitment to your goals. The human race could learn a lot from bees.

I saw a story on Yahoo News this morning about the decline of the European honey bee in the US. It's getting serious.

Mark, those wild bees are about as rare as huge bucks and double digit bass. I wouldn't mess with them unless they become overly aggressive. Every beekeeper will wind up with some wild colonies around when they swarm.

H_L, I don't understand it. I never get stung by anything. But, every wasp and mosquito zooms in on her. One time, we were fishing a neighbors pond/lake and buffalo gnats got on her but didn't bother me. It looked like I had beaten the dickens out of her.

Bushwacker
You probably have a local beekeepers club, most have monthly meetings and love newbs

Lots of books, but 2 good starters
-the beekeepers handbook by sammataro
-the backyard beekeeper by flottum

The second book is written by a southerner, this is helpful for you in Texas b/c northern beekeepers do some things differently b/c of climate, etc.

Dave - Have you considered keeping bees at someone else's place? We have a friend's bees at our place since they do us no harm, and we have a few wild hives anyway.

hey gallop.....just curious
we have that huge nest inside a huge tree.
what happens inside that tree like in Jan/Feb?
when even in Texas temps get down in the thirties?
I assume all the bees die?
or do a few make it/hibernate?

if they all die,
then how does the hive always
start back up inside the same tree?

our tree is a lot like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOW_Q_iibLw

Zep, That is one of the reasons why bees collect honey, they metabolize it to generate heat. They all pack together in cold weather, eat honey, and generate heat to stay alive. Example: It was well below zero a few days this winter, and my hive outdoors with a screen bottom survived just fine. I did feed them "bee candy" as they were running low on natural stores (honey + pollen), but otherwise honey bees are equipped to deal with cold.

-Mark

Thanks liquidsquid.

So do the bees keep reproducing right thru winter? I think the bee-keeper that came out said "bees only live 37 days" or something like that. So how do they make it thru winter?

If we want to get rid of the huge tree nest next winter due to potential safety issues of small children on ATV's ect near the tree nest....are the bees like in a "coma" when say it's 30 degrees outside? I guess what I'm getting at...is if we poured gas down the hole in Feb when it's 25 degrees outside would the bees swarm? I am not sure we are going to do something like this....but I am curious.

The winter bees live a lot longer, since for the most part they are in a kind of "stasis", so they are not wearing out. In the fall the queen stops laying eggs, and the drones are all kicked out of the hive since they are "dead weight". The queen won't start laying eggs again until early spring, before the flowers start opening. Then the hive goes into a mad frenzy!

I started off beekeeping pretty darned scared of the buggers, but now I have gotten used to them. I thought they would be a lot more touchy than they really are. Non-Africanized bees are tame to the point of the only time they will bother you is if you squish one, or reach your hand into the hive and start stealing honey. Otherwise they ignore you. Most bee-keepers around here work on the hives in shorts and t-shirts. They get stung occasionally, but not often.

I suit up like I am going to the moon. Still chicken.

So to answer your question: The bees will not give two craps about 4-wheelers, walking nearby, or even sticking your face down near the hole to take a look, unless you directly mess with them. No rock throwing or attempting to squish a few.

I say leave them alone, they are extremely beneficial!

If safety really is a concern, then call in bee-keepers. They would love to get their hands on naturalized bees that are pest tolerant and successful. They will do it for free! I cannot stress enough how valuable a wild colony can be if their genetics are tolerant to current pests which are wiping out other hives.

They will probably smoke them a little, cut the side of the tree open, spray them with sugar-water to keep them busy, vacuum them out, take some comb and bees and put them into hives. At that point it is time to get some honey! You will probably have enough to sell, share, etc and then some.

Do it the fun way, killing them with gas or poison removes your ability to harvest the honey. That stuff is liquid gold!

-Mark

Thanks so much liquidsquid. Some great info. They are quite amazing, and like you the bee-keeper that stopped by said they do an enormous amount of good. We will probably leave them "bee".....they are in a somewhat isolated part of the property, but the tree trunk nest is on one of the ATV trails....so I was concerned about the noise stirring them into a frenzy. The bee-keeper told me one of the reasons they get stirred up from noise is the queen sends out signals and if noise from a tractor or mower interferes with them being able to get the queen's signal they go into a frenzy.

If you think walking by or buzzing by the tree with ATV's is safe...then we may leave them alone....but sometimes I've got some precious cargo like the two rascals shown below with me and I just didnt want to take any chances.

As another aside, I have my 7yo (was 5, happens too fast!) give me a hand when I check out the bees. We both squat down and count the bees going in and out to see what they are bringing in. Of course my son has been stung once by a honey bee, and he is more or less immune to stings. I am much more bothered than he is.

Sometimes they land in your hair, and the temptation is to smack 'em but we leave them well enough alone!

I won't work the hive with him outside though, they get kinda testy when you are yanking things apart.

One thing to have around at all times (whether you have bees or not) is an Epi-pen. When you are isolated from immediate care where it may take more than 1/2 hour for an ambulance to reach you, it will save a life.

The interesting thing with bee stings (any bee) is you could have been stung with no issues your whole life, and then suddenly one day you can have a life-threatening reaction. The next day... no problem again.

-Mark

Gallop - Thank you for the info. I will get that 2nd book.

Zep - Those are really cute kids you have there.

liquidsquid ....that's neat stuff thanks.
A lady at work said she has tons of extra epi-pens
and she will give me a few to keep out at the property.

Bushwacker....they are my best friend's kids.
Lots of fun to hang out with.
Of course I spoil them rotten!

Thanks I found where U of Florida stated the Africanized bees made it to Alabama as of 2012. I live in Southeast Alabama so the chance is there they could be Africanized.

The little one has not been stung yet, so I do not know if she is allergic.

John, she is a doll baby!

Way back in the spring of nineteen hundred and seventy six I set-up a beehive for my high school FFA project. I ordered the entire kit, including the bees, from the "Sears" catalog. I distinctly remember that the bees were advertised as high producing "African Honeybees."

The whole kit, including the bees were delivered via the US postal service. First, I received the hive kit and protective gear, and a couple of weeks later the lady postmaster at our small, rural post office called to tell me that my bees had arrived, and she insisted that I come and pick them up ASAP! The bees were crammed into a small, wood framed cage, (approx 6"x6"x10" long) which was wrapped with window screen. Suspended in the center of the cage was a much smaller cage containing the queen. At the time, that was the neatest thing I had ever received in the mail. Of course, since then, I've received some pretty neat stuff in the mail, some of it unmentionable.

Anyhow, after I got home, I reviewed the instructions, suited up, fired the smoker and introduced the bees into their new home. It went pretty well. I was stung a couple of times on my wrists where my skin was exposed, but no biggie. I think I was stung due to my nervousness. However, later on, when I got used to them, I could open the hive and inspect it without smoke or protective gear, and not be stung. Apparently, these weren't Killer Bees, although, I still wonder.

To make a long story shorter. The bees took to their new hive and did what bees do, up until the late summer, when they all disappeared. I don't know what happened to them. My dad speculated that they were poisoned when the power company sprayed defoliant around nearby power lines. God knows what they used back then. Probably Agent Orange or something just as nasty.

The bees never posed any problems the short time they were around. I wish the same could've been said about my sister's lamb project. Damn! that thing was annoying. Every time someone went outside, that lamb sounded off, and would not shut up. Baaah!...baaah!.....baaah! One day my dad jokingly threatened to duct tape it's mouth shut. I told him not to bother, because I had already tried that. Muuuh!...muuuh!...muuuh!

Thanks KenC, She gets it from her Mother. LOL

Tums...ya gotta get the little cutie one of these!



e-Bay

e-Bay #2

I don't know if it is the soap, shampoo or perfume (even deoderant) anyone is using. We used to keep a thing called an Eppy Pen. It was used for anyone allergic to insect bites (bees and wasps mainly). Thank god we never had to use them....but I'm going to get some more this week "just in case". I "HAVE" to be on the safe side. To many young family members running around here.

Thanks for reminding me....Appreciate it.

Epi Pen

Short for epinephrine

Please remember that the effect can be short lived and the individual still needs immediate medical attention

Also, it's able to pierce through jeans. Instructions are here for anyone interested

http://www.epipen.com/How-to-use-EpiPen

Cuties, cuties, cuties.


My littlest are three and five and I worry nonstop when they are out at the farm with me.


I am overrun with fire ants and have lots of snakes. Found an inside out rattlesnake skin Friday about four feet or so.


Never seen honeybees but usually have several large paper wasp nests around. Always a wonderful surprise cleaning out the deer stands to stir up a swarm of angry wasps fifteen feet up in the air.

Great info gallop.... Thanks!

Got our call, heading down to Georgia this coming Thursday to pick up 12-15 nucs of small cell bees. Only keeping 4 ourselves, the rest are for others in the local club who have an interest in giving small cell a try. Just had my first beekeeping article published in "The Kelley Newsletter", it involves having bees build comb honey in a jar, we top it off with liquid honey. Kind of a neat thing to try which sells good, although you need to really crowd the bees to get them to work in the jars. Link below, Issue 35, May 2013,

https://kelleybees.com/



Bushwacker,

Here's some online resources on beekeeping:

http://www.beesource.com/forums/forum.php

http://dixiebeesupply.com/Dixiebeesupply/Don_Kuchenmeister,_The_Fat_Bee_Man.html

Good luck.

Bryan

Bryan, enjoyed your article on having bees create combs in the jars. Some of it I didn't really understand.... Thanks for the reference locations. Those are filled with good information.

liquidsquid:


got mine today

Don't forget, Epi-pens are one of the few medicines that actually do expire. You have to replace them on a regular basis.

I need to get some myself, but my son's crazy doc will not let me >:-( I have to find another way as my GP won't either. I used to have my father-in-law who was a GP (retired) write me a prescription, but now my doc won't unless I have a proven allergy.

Me and him are going to have a frank discussion. Sure, let my son die first before letting me have one. Doesn't make any frigging sense.

+1 on that frank discussion. That's BS.

Gentlemen,

How much of the talk of massive honeybee die offs is true? Here's a link that says 1/3 of U.S. bees died last winter.

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/05/winter-honeybee-losses/

I say this because being privy to inside aquaculture stats etc. and seeing what the media prints can be far off the truth.

Not a bee keeper but this did pop up today on a brush pile I was getting ready to burn.. Any suggestions on what I could do..

More than likely they will leave in a day or so. That's not an acceptable nesting site. They need a cavity of some kind.

Cecil, I think it's mostly true. 20 years ago, I saw a lot of bees on my flowers. Now, they are rare.

As far as the swarm, you can spray them with some sugar-water to keep them busy, then brush them into a 5-gal bucket with some screen windows. Wear protective cloths if you have them, just in case they are Africanized.

Better yet, contact the local bee-keeping club (most have web groups and sites). They usually have a network of people to find and capture swarms, so it could be a matter of hours to get someone out there to get them.

From what I understand, those losses are true, but mostly commercial bee-keepers that move the bees from place to place. The assumption is that new classes of pesticides are accumulating in the hives to a critical threshold.

The Europeans have made these new pesticides illegal in an effort to help the bees, but us good old Americans are going to wait and see until they are all dead to do anything about it. Perhaps that is a good strategy if we see the European bees bounce back when the pesticides are gone, and the American bees severely struggle.

If it is killing the bees, it cannot be doing humans much better. Not entirely trusting our government to be regulating this stuff.

Cecil the bee-keeper that came out to our place was basically saying the same thing...he said the bee population has been decimated the last few years. If I remember correctly he mentioned something about a beetle or mite that invades the hive and does a lot of damage.

Honey bees regularly go through declines and recoveries. We rely mostly on wild native bees for the insect pollinated crops (vegetables) on our farm. Those European immigrants (honey bees) don't want to work a full day, and they expect too many goverment benefits

Zep----- varroa mite

Lots of misinformation and confusion out there, ( not you guys). Especially "colony collapse disorder"

Most of the experts agree that the varroa mite weakens the hive and serves as a vector for other diseases, especially viruses. It's these diseases that kill the bees, plus other things like pesticides, man etc.. Leading to colony collapse.

The bees would/will eventually breed increased resistance on their own, which they are, and man is trying to speed that along. The problem is of course man cannot financially wait for bees to do this on their own, so many are forced by their wallet to treat bees with chemicals to get rid of the mite. This of course breeds mite resistance to these chemicals, makes the problem worse, and hinders evolution of resistance strains of bees

There are many beekeepers however, and several large govt/ university projects that are breeding increasingly resistant bees

Long story short---- the bees will eventually evolve and be fine, our agriculture dependent on bees may take a hit in the meantime.


Oh and liquid you have a pm

Relying so heavily on honey bees is a risk. More research into alternative bee species would be nice! Glad that all our habitat enhancement provides us with lots of wild bees.

I have a small orchard, a few thousand feet of assorted berries, and a 5 acre garden. Therefore,I depend heavily on bees. I also noticed my hive swarmed yesterday. Many people are bringing in mason bees or bumblebees to help with pollination. Actually, both are better at pollinating certain crops like blueberries. I also grow a lot of gourds, and they bloom at night and are pollinated by moths. Those nasty tomato hornworms become beautiful hummingbird moths.

isn't a swarm many times the result of when a new young queen is "kicked out" of the hive and takes some bees with her looking for a spot to build a new hive?

Ok, I just took my tin foil hat off for a minute. I read somewhere, probably on the Internet that the cell phone signals, pesticides, and GMO crops are killing the bees. It said the new faster cell phone signals are confusing the bees and they can't find their way back to hive. On the GMO side the bee lands on plant to pollinate and the poison in it kills beneficial organisms inside bee. Pesticide I believe is self explanatory. Now putting my tin foil hat back on.

If the hat fits......

check out this guy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jliuw-OWxSQ

That's some crazy stuff right there.

Maybe he lives under a cell-phone tower?

Lol!

I'm guessing that guy has probably done that before. I know one thing. If I came out to the parking lot after work and found my vehicle housing a bee swarm, they had better be able to withstand a 70 mph wind.

Maybe hurricane force winds in the auto car wash.

To follow up, bee losses from some folks in our local club (dead hives in spring vs total going into winter):

20/24
19/20
35/60
1/5
1/13
500/600

I would agree that varroa is the main culprit, it may not kill directly but weakens them to the point of being susceptable to many other diseases.

A swarm is actually the old queen leaving with a group of bees to start a new hive, a hive may swarm many times and subsequent swarms often have a virgin queen or queens with them. Usually things are going well for a hive to swarm.

The guy I picked some nucs up from in Georgia last Friday just had some hives poisoned before we arrived. Thanks.

Bryan


Poisoned Bees Story

http://www.11alive.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=291945

Wow, I wonder what our club's losses are? I know that the small hive beetle has not been helping matters much either around here.

At least I lost 0/1 so that is something, though my hive does not appear to be particularly strong. One thing of home I see very little if any evidence of the mite in my hive. I have yet to spot one.

The local queen breeders have been selecting and rearing queens from the most robust hives, and letting nature take its course on the weak ones. It is small-scale, but it seems to be working for local genetic strength.

LOL! I don't think I would go that far. I probably wouldn't even drive off with the swarm on the car. Of course, that depends on what kind of day I had at work. But, I do wonder what would happen if you were to simply drive off with a swarm of bees on your car. Perhaps, you could just drive around the block a few times and persuade them to leave.

Over the years I've seen several news stories where a beekeeper is called to remove a swarm from a car. But, I've never heard of anyone simply driving off. Surely it's been done.

Not sure you can just drive off. Beekeepers haul their hives long ways without significant bee loss. Of course, with the varoa mite invasion, a lot of them are no longer able to migrate their colonies from South Texas to South Dakota.

Big difference in 70 MPH while sealed inside a hive, and 70 MPH on a fender.

If I found that on my car, I would have run like a screaming schoolgirl.

You and Todd have something in common

RAH, I think you're right but I'm not sure.

Where is that boy? I had a nice sized snake by the pier when I was mowing the grass and I immediately thought of him.

I just inoculated the holes produced by carpenter bees on my log home with an insecticide powder. I hate to do it as they are important pollinators too but they can do a lot of damage. I'm researching installing devices that they will take to vs. my logs that will make killing them unnessary.

Good luck with trying that. If that fails, I can let you borrow a .22 pistol or rifle. I've got a number of .22 shells that have teeny tiny lead shot in them. They're hard to hit!!

I use a badminton racket.

I use a fly swatter.If I can locate a tennis racquet I will try that.

Now that I'veinocculated the holes activity has slowed considerably.

Can't hit the side of a barn so that would be a waste of time for me!

Checked our bees in the blueberries this weekend, they look very good. Lots of nectar coming in, can't hardly keep up putting supers on. All the hives have multiple frames of brood as in the picture. Hopefully I can keep them from getting the urge to swarm until their duties there are done.

Bryan

I have had an ant attack today. They were stealing brood from the hive!!! Had to put grease rings around the base to keep the ants out. Grrr!!!!!

Annoying type of ant that raids other ant nests too.

Cecil,
what insecticide did you use?