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Post by James on Nov 30, 2015 18:22:07 GMT -5
You get about 2 pounds of bees and a queen in the little cages. They then have to be put in the hives.
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Post by Mumsey on Nov 30, 2015 19:01:12 GMT -5
Not a job for me! Allergic to bees! Though I would love to have hives. Maybe I can talk Dad into doing it.
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Post by lisaann on Nov 30, 2015 19:27:16 GMT -5
Now wait a minute here.................. I see weeds and not a tilled garden. James. Is this today? What is the fenced in part? It ain't tilled. Don't be messing with us without a disclosure!
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Post by Mumsey on Dec 1, 2015 17:35:37 GMT -5
It looks like they are a ways from the gardens, beyond a pasture area? I would keep them a distance away also. They will find the gardens easily enough!
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Post by Tomato Z on Dec 2, 2015 16:21:11 GMT -5
Beautiful mountains!
My dad was a beekeeper with 2 hives, each with at least 4 supers. He kept them 100 ft. away from the vegetable garden and fruit trees. I'm guessing it was because he didn't want us stung! Fat chance - been stung so many times I should be immune.
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Post by James on Dec 27, 2015 10:22:24 GMT -5
OK lisaann, I live on a 2 acre lot. My tilled garden only takes up about half acre of that. This bee yard is right on the very corner of my lot. The fence is my property line to the North. No fence on the East, but you can see the neighbors alfalfa field and beyond. Ya, its country livin, not much out there to the East but fields and mountains. Good bee pasture.
"Is this today?"
NO! Today it is minus 5 degrees and snow on the ground. Package bees come in the Springtime. Beekeepers who take their bees to California for the almond bloom must move them after the bloom because there are endless acres of almonds, but nothing for the bees after the almond bloom, so they bring the bees to Utah to await the alfalfa bloom for the honey, but they are built up strong and will swarm if not divided. So the beekeepers shake off packages of bees and sell the packages. A box is then placed on the parent colony to collect honey. The owner of the orchard actually pays the beekeeper to set hives on the ground for the bloom, so the beekeeper gets paid for the effort.
I am a small hobby beekeeper and just keep 6 to ten hives so I don't go mobile with them. Keeping them alive through our cold winters is a challenge, hence the need for replacement bees in the spring.
This year my son brought 24 colonies that had been in California and set them on my lot. They made him some honey and I thought he would come move them for winter, but they are still sitting there, so we will see how they winter?
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Post by lisaann on Dec 27, 2015 10:30:28 GMT -5
James, Took ya long enough! HoverBee hahahahha How are those onions seeds doing that you already planted?
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Post by James on Dec 27, 2015 10:41:28 GMT -5
OK, made an edit............. I am gettin rather slow these days...........
Onion seeds? At this point, I am thinking they would like some full sunshine. Not doing much.
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Post by James on Dec 28, 2015 12:49:21 GMT -5
Mumsey, I too am allergic to bees. That is why we have bee suits. When you are going to work the bees, cover up! I carry two Benadryl tabs in a lil plastic bag in my bee suit pocket and if I get stung I gulp those pills immediately. This seems to be enough to keep me from breaking out in hives and swelling up badly. At times when I have a lot of bee work to do and figure I will likely get stung, I will take the Pills before going to work. I prefer to not take the pills though as they have the effect of putting you on a cheap drunk.
Generally honey bees are not aggressive unless you are messing around by their hive or in the flight path to the hive. They do get quite testy when in defense of their home. Then if you happen to accidently step on a bee (barefoot) sitting on a dandelion, you are going to get nailed. (smile)
No bees flying today! 6 degrees and partly cloudy. Snow on the ground.
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Post by SpringRain🕊️ on Dec 28, 2015 14:16:36 GMT -5
James, I've been wondering how you protect your hives during the winter. Do you bring them inside a barn? Build some kind of protective enclosure outside? If you're already at a -5 degree F temperature, that must be quite a challenge to keep them from freezing. Or does their activity inside the hive generate enough heat to keep them alive over the winter?
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Post by brownrexx on Dec 29, 2015 9:54:15 GMT -5
I am sure that James will answer but I place a couple of bales of straw beside my hives to make a wind/snow break.
In the fall the bees let the useless drones die and they quit raising young. The rest of the bees cluster into a ball in the center of the hive and they keep themselves warm at a balmy temperature of 93 degrees while the winter winds blow outside of their hive.
The bees circulate in the ball so that the ones on the outside of the ball move to the inside to get warmed up when they need to and warm bees take their place on the outside. The queen is always protected and kept warm of course and in the Spring she is ready to lay eggs and make more bees.
Aren't they interesting?
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Post by SpringRain🕊️ on Dec 29, 2015 10:32:11 GMT -5
Rexx, thanks for the answer. What are the useless drones? Have they expended their energy and at the end of their life cycle? It's amazing that the bees could generate enough heat to reach 93 degrees in the winter. Perhaps there's something we could learn from them!
They are fascinating. I believe the penguins have a similar method of keeping warm, alternating those who stay on the outside and then moving in to get warmer.
I'm glad I can live in a house with a furnace though. But bees don't have to deal with furnace and house maintenance, building regulations, electricity, and the IRS.
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Post by davidjp on Dec 29, 2015 11:14:23 GMT -5
The drones get pushed out of the hive in the fall to die. They don't want any useless males around over the winter, its the females who are in charge. Girls rule. The males (drones) don't actually do anything beyond being flying sperm deliverers, so they don't contribute to the hive and just consume the hives resources. Since they are linked to the reproduction of the hive having them around in winter would be a waste of time as there would be no chance for the hive to reproduce in winter. There aren't the resources in pollen and nectar during the winter for a new hive to survive and establish itself. So in order to preserve resources for winter the drones are evicted and left to die. Easy to raise new drones next year in time for the spring flowering and swarm season.
Here I don't think they really stop rearing brood. Now we've got California pepper(originally from Brazil) and eucalyptus trees blooming and lots of pollen coming in. Both these trees come from the southern hemisphere so I presume they think its mid summer.
This was from last week, from bottom left, capped honey, stored pollen and capped brood ready to hatch soon. There are lots of commercial hives that have come down here to build up so they can pass the inspections for almond pollination and get there $150/hive, got to have 8 frames full of bees though by Feb. A couple of weeks there and then back down here for Orange blossom and avocado in March.
See if you can spot the queen, marked with a blue dot, top left. Far right middle cells with what looks like water is fresh nectar coming in. Lots of capped brood, middle section bees have hatched out so you get concentric rings of emerging brood. Some cells in middle have been filled with pollen as they are starting to run out of space for pollen, should be used for eggs for next generation of brood.
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Post by brownrexx on Dec 29, 2015 11:38:48 GMT -5
Many commercial beekeepers here ship their bees south for the winter. Many of them are in Florida right now to pollinate the orange trees.
My bees will not come outside unless the temperature gets above 50 degrees. Then they will come out for brief flights.
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Post by James on Jan 8, 2016 15:32:27 GMT -5
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