Bee Keeping

[Ian S CParticipant @iansc]

Speakers.

Ian S C

[OuBallieParticipant @ouballie]

Clive,

Your bees have been correct in their winter weather prediction!

Snow for the first time I can remember this time of the year here in South Norfolk.

Geoff – Work on the Austin Seven delayed.

[MuzzerParticipant @muzzer]

Often wondered how you capture a swarm. Interesting video here showing how to use technology to manage it. And none of that poncy clothing.

Clive – how do you capture yours? You seem to do this before breakfast most days although I've never even set eyes on a swarm myself.

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Posted by Muzzer on 16/07/2016 21:50:47:

Often wondered how you capture a swarm. Interesting video here showing how to use technology to manage it. And none of that poncy clothing.

.

That looks like a game for suckers.

MichaelG.

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Oh dear. This means that vacuuming wasps and spiders up probably doesn't do them in

[V8EngParticipant @v8eng]

I usually catch Spiders using a small plastic tub and piece of thin cardboard, then put it (the spider) out into the garden.

Individual Wasps seem to go out of an opened window of their own accord anyway.

Edited By V8Eng on 16/07/2016 23:38:51

[Speedy Builder5Participant @speedybuilder5]

The bee video was interesting, nice calm brown bees. My black bees would have taken revenge on that bee keeper long before they had swarmed – vicious little girls.
BobH

[Clive HartlandParticipant @clivehartland94829]

My bees usually swarm close to the hives and get into a Holly tree where I just cut the branch off and take it to my catching box and then take the whole lot to the Nuc. box. and walk them in onto 5 combs of foundation I have pics. that I will resize later. Other times they get right into the Brambles and it takes me a while to cut through to them, but the same procedure each time as I cut stems and place in the box.

Sometimes I am lucky and get a free hanging swarm on a branch of a fruit tree and just bang them down into the box. Pics. of a good one later when I load into my .album.

Clive

[MWParticipant @mw27036]

Posted by Neil Wyatt on 16/07/2016 23:08:48:

Oh dear. This means that vacuuming wasps and spiders up probably doesn't do them in

Thats why it's good to use a bagged vacuum, you can always pummel it a few times just to make sure and deal them a goodly thrashing before discarding of it. It can get a bit dusty though.

Michael W

Edited By Michael Walters on 17/07/2016 07:55:48

[MikeParticipant @mike89748]

Anyone know anything about bumble bees? I always thought they were solitary, but from the numbers coming and going through a ventilator in one of my garages there must be a nest somewhere among the junk. They seem quite friendly and they're quite welcome to stay, but will they die off in the winter?

[bodgeParticipant @bodge]

Hi Mike,

Type bumble bees in the search bar on youtube, watched it couple weeks ago , very interesting …..b

the video i saw was about 30 min running time.

Edited By bodge on 17/07/2016 08:27:52

[Clive HartlandParticipant @clivehartland94829]

Mike, just leave the Bumble bees to get on with it as they will die out about end Sept. The nest will have about 25 to 40 bees in it and in general quite harmless. They may make a loud buzz and if threatened have a defence pose where they lift one foreleg up.

In general they are beneficial as they pollinate a lot better than honey bees. You cannot re-locate them as any loss of members drags the colony down.

In Sept. the new Queens vacate the nest and mate and then hibernate until Jan or so depending on the temperature. I have seen them working on Xmas day on a little white flower in my garden.

They are protected under the Wildlife act and we should never kill them. They are in decline due to suffering all the same problems as honey bees.

I have one locally that has colonised a face figure on a wall and they use the mouth to access the nest.

Clive Any questions welcome.

[Clive HartlandParticipant @clivehartland94829]

I have now put 3 photos in my album of swarms.

Clive

[MWParticipant @mw27036]

Just to clarify, I was joking in my earlier post, i don't enjoy beating bees. Quite the opposite, i love them and hope they continue to prosper and i always think of them as the engineering/maker insect family, i had a family of bumbles live in an area of sod (cut turf) they made holes in there and left a strange whitish substance behind along with their cocooned babies.

We didn't touch them as we welcomed their presence and didn't clear it until they left and moved on. You can actually stroke them if you're gentle/weird like me. They're attracted and mesmerized to these purple flowers.  

Michael W

Edited By Michael Walters on 17/07/2016 10:51:26

[Ian S CParticipant @iansc]

With wasps, I catch them in a jar that has a little bit of Carberil(?spelling) powder in it, shake the wasp around until covered in powder, then let it go, it heads off home and poisons the nest. Hint from a local bee keeper.

Ian S C

[Ady1Participant @ady1]

Insects have declined hugely since the 1980s.

My drive up to Aviemore and back in summer always involved stopping halfway on each leg to scrub off the windscreen and refill the empty scoosher bottle

Did the same sort of trip last week on a sunny day and didn't even need to use the scoosher once, up and back and barely a splat

So think carefully before you squish a bug, there aint that many left anymore

This lack of bugs would certainly help to explain why wild bird populations have crashed over the same period

[MikeParticipant @mike89748]

Thanks, Bodge and Clive. I wouldn't kill a bumblebee, and the only bugs I do kill are wasps – and then only if they present a sting hazard to the local kids. I just wonder where the bees in my garage find flowers. Within about 60 yards of the sea on the Moray Firth there only seems to be a little clover and, being an old fishing community, there are very few gardens. They must be quite wide-ranging in their hunt. Ady is right: I can't remember the last time I had to wash squashed bugs off the windscreen, and these days we get hardly any flies in the house. It's also ages since I last saw a butterfly. Sad, really.

[Clive HartlandParticipant @clivehartland94829]

For wasps get a lemonade bottle cut the top off just below the curve of the neck, put the top inside the body and staple together. Then mix up a watery jam mixture and place in the device which will attract wasps and flies that cannot then get out and will drown.

Never feed honey to bees from any source as it can contain bugs from elsewhere in the world. Things like Nosema and fungal bugs. Also amoebic dysentry, none of this is harmful to humans but devastating to bees and the beekeeper.

We have enough problems from varroa as it is a vector for virus that affect bees.

Clive, PS, my lavender is in full bloom but I see only one Bumble bee on it, usually 20 to 40 at a time.

[Bob Brown 1Participant @bobbrown1]

I wonder what bees make of this flower

[MWParticipant @mw27036]

Maybe i'm just alone in thinking this but people have come to have an unnatural aversion to wasps, and even panic the sight of them. They aren't out to get you! They don't go looking for fights if they don't need to, most of the time they are foraging for food and have no interest in harming you. I have been stung before but only once and i don't let this incident deter me.

Michael W

[not done it yetParticipant @notdoneityet]

I have kept bees for about 15 years. Although some seem to have continual problems with the art/craft, beekeeping is quite simple, even though some seem to think otherwise.

 

With regard to wasps – they are a beneficial insects, and nests should not be destroyed unless they are a nuisance or pose a health risk. Wasps consume large quantities of unwanted pests, grubs, etc, are good scavengers and generally help to balance the environment at bug level.

 

Bumbles are one of many bee species. They are, like wasps, are 'eusocial', which means they live communally but the colony dies out at the end of their active season. Mated queens overwinter buried in north facing banks, etc (so they don't wake up too early in the spring due to unseasonal sunny days warming them up). Hibernating queen wasps will survive atlery low temperatures – think here freezer temps!

 

Bumbles will not normally use the same nesting for a few years, so once used any bumble nests put out for th

em should be thoroughly cleaned, preferably left as a mouse home, before using in another position in the garden.

 

There are loads of solitary bees and wasps out there which are useful polinators (a

s well as flies, etc). An earlier poster was spot on re reduced insect populations. Of late, particularly down to the temporarily banned neonicotinoid systemic insecticides. They kill any species, not just the real 'target' pests. I remember, as a child (and later as a motorcyclist) that on warm summer nights it was like snow flurry, with moths and other insects illuminated by the vehicle lighting. It has worsened much more in latter years due to these new ''improved'' insecticides. IMO, they should be banned permanently, particularly as we do not know if they are truthfully safe, even to humans.

 

 

Questions?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited By not done it yet on 17/07/2016 13:54:18

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Posted by Michael Walters on 17/07/2016 12:58:10:

Maybe i'm just alone in thinking this but people have come to have an unnatural aversion to wasps, and even panic the sight of them. They aren't out to get you! They don't go looking for fights if they don't need to, most of the time they are foraging for food and have no interest in harming you. I have been stung before but only once and i don't let this incident deter me.

Michael W

.

Michael,

I can assure you that my aversion is entirely reasonable … I was chased and stung by a bunch of very angry wasps when I accidentally broke a nest in half.

The chase was like something out of a cartoon, but the Doctor stayed with me all evening; monitoring me and periodically administering Adrenalin.

That was nearly 30 years ago, and I still panic when I hear one buzzing.

MichaelG.

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 17/07/2016 13:58:06

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Posted by Clive Hartland on 17/07/2016 07:51:09:

Sometimes I am lucky and get a free hanging swarm on a branch of a fruit tree and just bang them down into the box. Pics. of a good one later when I load into my .album.

Clive

I'm sure I remember Windy Miller catching a swarm from tree in the heart of Camberwick Green.

Happy days!

Neil

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Posted by Ady1 on 17/07/2016 12:05:04:

Insects have declined hugely since the 1980s.

My drive up to Aviemore and back in summer always involved stopping halfway on each leg to scrub off the windscreen and refill the empty scoosher bottle

Did the same sort of trip last week on a sunny day and didn't even need to use the scoosher once, up and back and barely a splat

So think carefully before you squish a bug, there aint that many left anymore

This lack of bugs would certainly help to explain why wild bird populations have crashed over the same period

I've wondered about this. Bug splats were common back when i was a kid, I haven't had one for years.

Either insects have massively declined or cars are more aerodynamic and insects get swept over the top. I suspect the latter as windscreens are angle back more these days as well.

Mind you insects are in all sorts of trouble – Ivermectins in farm stock droppings has hugely reduced the diversity of insects on pasture.

On a rlated topic – where did all the white clhalky dog poo go?

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Posted by Michael Walters on 17/07/2016 12:58:10:

Maybe i'm just alone in thinking this but people have come to have an unnatural aversion to wasps, and even panic the sight of them. They aren't out to get you!

I don't panic, but I have been stung many, many times. Once I was holding a fnecpost when someone hammered it into a buried nest – the whole swarm went after me, not him! Another time I stood on a nest and had the horrible loop-fabric type socks on. About twenty got tangled in them and my ankle swelled up bigger than the times I broke it. I was four miles out in the sticks too so it was a long, painful walk home.

Many minor was stings, but the nastiest was the one that flew down my shirt when cycling. My mate was gobsmacked as I literally jumped off a moving bicycle then tor my shirt off! Multiple stings on my nipple were VERY painful.

Wasps seem to sting me with minimal provocation, yet I have never been stung by a hornet or bee – I think it must be a pheremone thing – I smell evil to wasps (OK my wife says I just smell evil).

Neil

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