Y'all really like bees, huh?
And like clockwork, another Easter comes, and another swarm lands!
It’s a small one, but it’s my first one since the poisoning so I’ll take it.
foxthebeekeeper reblogged
HONEY & BEES (ya' like jazz?)
Bees update!
Back down to just the super hive after the late swarm absconded. The super hive is doing very well and has filled out the rest of their frames. No sign of disease or further poisoning in the absconded hive, so I guess they just wanted to chill somewhere else. (They were already pretty unusual when I caught them, hanging outside the hive and all.)
I guess one hive is better than none. Going to be fun scraping the moth-covered wax out of the old hives and starting over in the spring. I might leave a few frames of nasty comb just to use as alignment for any swarms I catch next year, though if it gets too nasty I’ll have no choice but to burn it with the rest.
This year definitely hasn’t been great as far as bees go, but I’m not giving up yet! When it gets further in to winter I’m going to do a full clean-out of the old hives and give them a good scrubbing to make sure there’s no more of that nasty mosquito poison in them. I left them out long enough that I doubt there is, but you can never be too sure. Going to hit them with some bleach too just in case.
If any other beeks out there have experienced similar losses and have a good way to clean up, let me know!
The new swarm is still here and still going strong! They have a ton of brood. Still not quite filled their first deep so I didn’t put another under them like planned, but maybe in a couple weeks they’ll be filled out better.
Anonymous asked:
hi there! Is it possible to remove a bee with its sting gently from the place where you were stung so it doesn't die? One surprised me today in my sleeve and I wished I had four more arms and tweezers because it just sat there on my arm with its sting buried in my skins and I felt so bad for trying to remove it because the sting stayed in my skin and I pulled out the bees intestines (?) doing that and now the bee will die soon!
It’s possible but you basically have to have tweezers, or a lot of patience so she can remove the stinger herself. If you grab the stinger (very gently) as close to your skin as possible, and pull straight up it should come out without damaging the bee. However the bee will still probably be a little freaked out and come in for another sting attempt, so be careful.
I had one sting my forearm a few weeks ago and let her twist herself free. As soon as she was free, she flew up a few feet then came right back down at me and stung my side lol. Unfortunately she was caught in my shirt this time so she wasn’t able to get free on the 2nd round.
foxthebeekeeper reblogged
Well we have some bad news…
A neighbor got their property sprayed for mosquitoes and a good 90% of my bees were killed off. (This is old news to the company who sprayed; we’ve already been through the paces with them and are working towards an agreement. Just wanted to post here so everyone knows what’s up on the bee yard.)
I had to go back through some of the dead out hives to clean them up because hive beetles started growing in them. I’ve already burnt most of the affected comb and set the rest out on the ground for the ants to clear out before I clean and store the boxes. There were LOTS of hive beetle larvae, but they ultimately helped prove the time-frame for when the colonies died.
There are still a couple of hives that survived, albeit with serious casualties. They appear healthy but I’ll definitely be keeping an eye on them. I also have that new swarm, who has settled in nicely to their new home. Hopefully a home devoid of pesticides or other harmful chemicals.
They even took out the carpenter bee living in the bottom board…
Well we have some bad news…
A neighbor got their property sprayed for mosquitoes and a good 90% of my bees were killed off. (This is old news to the company who sprayed; we’ve already been through the paces with them and are working towards an agreement. Just wanted to post here so everyone knows what’s up on the bee yard.)
I had to go back through some of the dead out hives to clean them up because hive beetles started growing in them. I’ve already burnt most of the affected comb and set the rest out on the ground for the ants to clear out before I clean and store the boxes. There were LOTS of hive beetle larvae, but they ultimately helped prove the time-frame for when the colonies died.
There are still a couple of hives that survived, albeit with serious casualties. They appear healthy but I’ll definitely be keeping an eye on them. I also have that new swarm, who has settled in nicely to their new home. Hopefully a home devoid of pesticides or other harmful chemicals.
Moved the new gals in to a bigger box that was abandoned this spring. Doubled their comb for a good head start. They had already built out about half of the nuc so they’re definitely fast builders!
The new swarm had built quite a lot of comb under the table while they were grouped up!
It’s very unusual for a swarm to do this, and the fact that they were balled up under a perfectly good hive for so long means that they were probably 100% prepared to just keep building right there, on the outside.
It looks like the queen is rather productive as well, so hopefully they’ll have a population boom before it starts to cool off again!
I opened up the plain wood nuc to find hardly any bees inside! It looks like the landing party got confused on the way in and decided to regroup before making any decisions, so I put a properly prepared and baited nuc next to them and tossed a few handfuls of bees at it. They seem to have gotten the message because they’re coming and going quite rapidly now.