Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Around the Campfire => Topic started by: crooketarrow on May 27, 2012, 10:08:16 am
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I was wadeing doing a little fly fishing for smallmouth. IT'S WHAT I DO AFTER GOBBLER SEASON UNTILL AUG.WHEN I START GLASSING BUCKS. Theres a spring comeing out of the cliff I uselly stop at and get a drink and a break at. When I did I right away could here the humming.
A swarm or honey bees were in the fork of a tree. Not 5 feet off the ground. It got me to thinking about my granddad would have snatched thenm up in a heart beat.. He always kept about 20 or so boxs. Just for the honey for our family. He was old school and grew up where you had to did everything you could to keep food on the table. Nothing like now when you can just ride down to wallmart.
When ever he'd finded a swarm like that split form another smarm or there hives been destoryed and their moveing. He'd take a bee box and if he could place it higher than the swarm he would. And theyed take it over right away. Go back at night when they've all returner plug up the box take it and put it where he wanted. Thats weird because just last week we talked about bee's on another site.
Just broth back memorys.
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Right now with all the problems people are having with bees swarming, it would be nice to have someone take them and save them. Too many people are freaking out and having them exterminated instead of salvaged. It worries me when you think about the food we eat. Bees are responsible for a lot of what we eat and grow....without them we will be in a hurt. I will get off of my soapbox... :-[ What a great memory to have of your grandpa!
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Keeping bees has been one of those things on "my list". You ever see how people have made plexi-glass hives for them inside of their living room?
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I keep bees. I'm on the county swarm call list too. I've had many calls this spring so far. I try to talk the folks who already have bees into collecting their own swarms. You can't just have bees anymore, it's a lot of work nowadays. I usually use a cardboard box to collect swarms, keep them in the shade and you've got a couple of days to get them in a super. Bees have been written about more than anything but religion. There is cave art of bee hunters too. dpg
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I, too, am a hobby beekeeper. Two years ago I started with one hive, and it was a doozy! The queen was calm and easy going. I often worked the hive without smoking or using a bee suit. Sadly, the hive got bumped some time in the winter and the hive froze to death. The good news was that I was able to harvest almost 60 lbs of honey.
Last year I doubled down with two hives, but we got bad bees and crappy queens. Both hives died out in a matter of weeks, even though I re-queened both.
This year I doubled down again and went to 4 hives. I got four great packages of bees, in a matter of days the queen was laying eggs like mad, the workers were storing honey and more importantly loads of pollen. With any luck at all I will be swimming in honey this fall!!!
I hope to build a few more hive boxes this winter so I can go pick up some wild swarms, too. It's cool to know that when they swarm they have no hive to protect....you have to damage a bunch of bees before they consider stinging. You can literally pick up the swarm in your hands and carry them off! Don't try that with a bunch of bees with a hive to protect, though. Best of all, up here we have no Africanized bees, wild swarms tend to be pretty good producers that are calm and gentle to work.
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We kept about 20 hives when I was a kid. We had a big pear tree in our back yard that seemed to attract the swarms and my dad would collect them. I wouldn't dare collect swarms here in the southwest any more. It just isn't worth it with the possibility of getting Africanized bees. Your better off to buy a queen that you know is European. I want to get a couple of small hives but I haven't done it yet.
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I might have seen africanized bees for the first time (maybe) last weekend. Small and very dark,kinda hairy. Didn't look like the wild types I have seen. ' Frank
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I found out last year that a guy has been researching wild bees in the Black Hills has been going on for some time. The guy has identified 180 different species of wild bees here! Some of them are small enough to pass for mosquitos!
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I might have seen africanized bees for the first time (maybe) last weekend. Small and very dark,kinda hairy. Didn't look like the wild types I have seen. ' Frank
They look almost exactly like a European honey bee. In fact they can only be positively distinguished in the lab.
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I might have seen africanized bees for the first time (maybe) last weekend. Small and very dark,kinda hairy. Didn't look like the wild types I have seen. ' Frank
They look almost exactly like a European honey bee. In fact they can only be positively distinguished in the lab.
Yup. I've read that there is a difference in the pattern in the wing veins. That's how they tell. An "Africanized" be is a cross breed that is evolving to take the cooler climate. True "African" bees build their combs in the open on limbs and travel a lot. The "Africanized" bee is a european bee w/ an attitude.
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I m a home brewer and therefore have a special live of honey and the bees that make it would like to have a few one day. But I'm in a apartment now and I think that would be frowned upon. Saw some africanized bees when I was fishing in Mexico, or at least was told that's what they were
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We had some Africanized bees living in the wall of our shed about 5 years ago. I waited until the weather got to 32 degrees and attacked the hive and stole the honey...about 4 lbs worth and very tangy and sweet. Those buggers have a nasty temper and I was jittery the whole time...even though they were not able to fly.
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In southern ca nearly all the bees are africanized now. I had a huge hive take up residence in my Jacuzzi. I pissed them off and all hell broke loos for close to an hour I was barricaded in the house. They were swarming and flying outside my window with a buzz that sounded like an airplane engine. I had to kill them off with sevin dust so ruined the honey.
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Never waste a good swarm of bees. A loose swarm is worth it's weight in gold. And best of all, it's free.
I have two hives that produce all the honey that my wife and I, and our neighbors can use. And I have never payed for a single bee. I also tap the local Red Maple trees here for sap to make syrup. Never turn down free food.
It saddens me that nowadays we waste so many resources. Carp are prime example. They are delicious, plentiful, everywhere, and usually have no limit. Most DNRs would love for everybody to keep all the carp they can. Yet, I see people leave them on the bank, or bury them in their garden all the time.
If you find a free swarm, take advantage of it.
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All this talk of keeping bees makes me wonder how everyone else harvests their honey? At this time, I have to suck up to a (unprintable) in order to use his extractor.
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gigmaster, it just isn't practical or responsible to keep swarms in areas with Africanized bees. They are just to dangerous to keep around.
Badger, most of the wild bees in the southwest are african. The bee keepers I know re-queen their hives every two years to keep the gad blood out. They purchase queens that were bred and fertilized in controlled conditions so they know there is no african bee in them. The local guys haul all of their bees down to California every year to pollinate the trees. It was a really good thing they re-queen the hives too. One of the semi trucks rolled in the middle of town here a couple months ago. Can you immagine the carnage if they were African bees.
JW, we never extracted the honey. We cut the wax open and set them in a tub in the warm weather. After most of it was drained we at the comb with the remaining honey in it. Just like CANDY!