interesting find at work yesterday.....

[myronman3]

i thought they were going to be extinct by this time already?  and the world was going to be a desolate wasteland, and we were all going to starve.        

[beerbelly]

Seems awfully late in the year for a swarm. I doubt they will be able to put up enough honey to survive the winter.

[powderman]

I hope they live. I saw a small swarm in the spring but honey bees are few and far between around here anymore, plenty of bumblebees though.  POWDERMAN. 

[blind ear]

Rag weed season is comeing up, I have heard that is what bee keepers leave in the hive for winter honey. The past 2 or 3 years I have watched for bees in the spring Dutch clover and hardly see over one or two on a yard at a time. I know it was different in the past, more bees.

I live in an area where there is a lot of BT cotton and corn.

eddie

[MGMorden]

I know it was different in the past, more bees.

It's getting to be a problem more and more.  Can't really figure out what's causing it.  Most links point to what they're calling "Colony Collapse Disorder".  For some reason the bees go out and are unable to find their way back to the hive like they normally would.  The colony ends up separating and lone bees don't really do much - just wait to die.

It's not something that's happening overnight - there are still bees around, but their numbers are slowly diminishing. 

There was actually a place is southeast Asia called Sichuan that had it's bee population decimated in the early 80's by overzealous use of pesticides.  They have actually had to turn to hand pollination of their apple and pear orchards.  They basically take the pollen with a duster and start dusting each blossom on the trees.

It works, and they get the job done, but it's kinda depressing that all that work and energy was once done for free by the bees.

[FourBee]

Posted by: beerbelly   Seems awfully late in the year for a swarm. I doubt they will be able to put up enough honey to survive the winter.

Sure does beerbelly.   I used to keep bees, and only saw them swarm in the spring.

[blind ear]

The countries in Europe that don't allow BT genetics report that they arn't having the colony death syndrome. Cotton and corn has a lot of pull in congress here.

Most of europe doesn't allow aspertame either. Aspertame causes my vision to distort to the point that I can't read road signs and I lose my balance. Death due to aspertame seizure is documented. eddie

Oh, I left out, the pull is from the chemical and seed breader companies, not the farmers. eddie

[Spanky]

My grandfather used to keep honey bees. When he spun the combs us kids would chew on 'em like bubblegum. It was good.



Spanky

[blind ear]

Just don't swallow the comb, it is worse than hogg lard. eddie

[Dee]

Weren't honey bees imported from Europe? Their not native here are they?

[myronman3]

seeing as how they call them european honey bees,  i would say you are correct, dee.   
   i never did worry much about the bee extinction.....after all, flies, moths, bumble bees, hornets, hummingbirds, and how many other creatures pollenate?   the european honey bee was a transplant.
   it was still neat to see.  i figured something destroyed their hive and they are setting up there.  i will check when i get time to see if they are still there.  it was in a tree that the wind blew down, so i wonder if the nest was in that tree? 

[The Hermit]

Neat picture, myronman3. Nature is always fun to watch. Maybe a bee keeper can tell if this really works. An old timer told me once that he got swarms to come down by spreading a white sheet on the ground and banging on pots with a metal spoon. He said they would lite on the sheet and he could put em in a hive with a little smoke. Don't know if that works or not. Thanks for sharing the photo.

   The Hermit

[Dand]

I don't much about bees or agriculture.  What is meant by BT?

[blind ear]

What TM7 said.

It is a gene transplanted from other plants to corn and cotton. The gene makes the plant produce toxins that kill plant feeding worms. The toxin is in the pollen also and it kills many insect pollinators.

The gene is also exported to wild plant populations around the GM fields.

eddie

[Scibaer]

i do not believe that swarm is real ... stick you finger into it and root around some, until those "bees" begin to buzz around, then take a few action pics..  

[myronman3]

come on up, and you can try that. 

[Cornbelt]

Just to be a Good Samaritan, you ought to put them in a cardboard box with a few holes in it at least, or a whiskey barrel, or the wall of your garage. Then feed them all the sugar syrup they'll drink.
  They will almost never sting when they are clustered in a swarm like that.
  But if they die, they're good chocolate covered.

[LONGTOM]

I had to scroll down away from the pic.

I have no use for bees.
Love their honey, just don't like them.
An old tale says that bees can sense a persons heartbeat.
I am afraid of bees, they seem to seek me out so I quit looking at them in fear that they might home in on me and come after me!   



LONGTOM

[williamlayton]

Very interesting read.
Blessings

[myronman3]

longtom.... i am not really fond of anything that can sting, but honeybees dont scare me.   
  99% of the times i was stung it was from paper wasps (if you want to talk about HATE, i HATE those) and now and then i have some kind of stingy thing fly up my sleeve when i ride.    honey bees and bumbles have never bothered me.  truth be told, i have never had a problem with hornets either, but i will kill them if i find them.   
   i have no beef with the honeybee.   in fact, i did slowly walk right up to that swarm and took the picture.  i was only 4 feet away when i took it.  they didnt mind me one bit.  the bees didnt even check me out. 

[myronman3]

they say that it is too cold here for africanized honeybees.   

[boondocker]

Eddiejr

My grandfather use to  keep bees on the farm before my time which was 53 yrs ago. I remember checking out the hives
upstairs in the wagon shed. They are long gone now as is the productive farm. Do you need a lot of farming around or groves to
successfully raise bees. I have a few fruit trees and the neighbor raises around 3 acres of sweet corn. I would like to dabble in
 keeping some bees. I see some bee keeping gear for sale time to time.  Thanks Steve
 

[blind ear]

Boondocker,

I don't know anything about raising bees except what I have read about the Genetically Modified BT plant protection.

The only person that I knew that raised bees would feed them sugar in the winter but I don't know why. I live where 82 highway crosses Mississippi. Latitude makes a difference.

You can look at a garden catalogue temperature zone and get an idea of what you eill need to do with the help of beekeeping books and the internet.

Good Luck

eddie

[guzzijohn]

They will almost never sting when they are clustered in a swarm like that.

When swarming bees will rarely sting because they do not have a home to protect. This is when you can have a "bee beard" and not get stung unless you accidently crush one or something like that. Just think with a bee beard you could probably walk through the worst part of any city and not have to worry about being mugged! In my college days I use to truck bees between Minot ND and the Rio Grande Valley in TX. It was kind of fun because when you have a semi with around 400 hives you do not have to worry about weight stations, south TX checkpoints, being pulled over for a traffic violation, etc. However all gas stations were self-serve regardless of what the sign said. My cousin that owned the bees once stopped at a gas station in TX that was run by an elderly black gentleman. He looked at the truck and asked if those bees could sting. When told yes he said, "Lordy, Lordy , what I white man won't do for a dollar."
GuzziJohn

[myronman3]

years ago i met an old couple that ran an 80 acre hobby farm.  they had some damn cool stuff there, and i spent 2 hours there just yapping with them.  i could have spent much more time with them.   they had bees, and showed me their operation.   it was pretty dang cool. 

[MGMorden]

'cept I don't eat much sugary stuff.

I don't either, but I make an exception for honey.  Plus, it's a great storage food, since it never spoils.  Honey can literally last for centuries.

If any of you like an occasional drink they actually came out with some good Honey-infused bourbons recently.  Wild Turkey American Honey and Evan Williams Honey Reserve.  I've tried both and both are quite good.  Seagrams also came out with a Seagrams 7 Dark Honey recently too, but I haven't given it a shot.  They're all "inspired" by a much older (and more expensive) Scottish drink called Drambuie, but having tried that, I actually prefer the newer concoctions to the original.  Original Drambuie has honey but also a hint of liquorice which is a flavor that makes my stomach turn  .

[FourBee]

 

by eddiegjr: Do you need a lot of farming around or groves to
successfully raise bees.

I know out west in Arizona and Southern California where the alfalfa fields may cover a thousand acres or more, they transport beehives to the fields by the Semi-Truck loads.  Quite an operation.

[Cornbelt]

If there are any hay fields that are allowed to blossom before cutting, that's an excellent source of bee food. Some plants are poisinous, but bees will go to the flowers anyhow. (Rhodadendron, lilac, westeria.) Sweet clover is one of ther best, and it seems to grow everywhere, especially along roadsided or in the median, and it blooms all summer.
  For beekeeping supplies, there is Walter T. Kelly in Kentucky, and Brushy Mountain Bee Farm in North Carolina.
  -I once chocolate dipped some honey bees in chocolate. They came out looking like chocolate bees. People were asking, "Where did you find a mold for these; they look just like honey bees."   
 

[blind ear]

HOW DID THEY TASTE?  eddie

[Cornbelt]

Extra sweet without too much grit. Much better than ants, catapillars and grasshoppers.