Beez pleezz

[ducks4you]

@Trish Stretton
NOT sad to have removed the bees from DD's house!! They were a healthy hive and a BEEKEEPER took them to his place, so they weren't sprayed and killed. The bees had NO BUSINESS in a closet wall.
There was a story with pictures floating around on the INET about somebody finding a hive in their grill and under the cover. (Wonder how long it was since they had grilled?!?!?) The grill owner sprayed with Raid and demolished the entire hive. THAT was a tragedy. I am sure that SOME beekeeper would have replaced their grill with a new one and taken the "Bee Hive Grill" back home.
Good luck and don't get stung!

 

[so lucky]

@flowerbug speaking of honey bees in his yard; I don't think I have seen a single honeybee in the yard this year. (we have white clover mixed in with grass) I have seen two, maybe three bumble bees that died on my deck. Got me to wondering if the pots of flowers I have on the deck have been sprayed with some poison before I purchased them. Or if they have systemic insecticides in them. There are a few bee-type insects on them occasionally, but not as much as I expected.
I can't blame the farmer/neighbor this year (yet) as he hasn't done anything to the field behind our property. Still huge logs (about 4' diameter) invading the edge, so I guess he's waiting for word from my DH as to what to do with the logs. They are too big to cut with anyone's chain saw. May have to dynamite them. Not joking.
But I digress. The lack of honeybees is starting to alarm me. But I am easily alarmed these days, sadly.

 

[PhilaGardener]

It's not just honeybees but pollinators in particular and insects in general. Really quiet in the garden. The Spring bird migration has seemed very weak as well - perhaps not surprisingly since they rely on insects as food to refuel along the way.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/27/magazine/insect-apocalypse.html

 

[ducks4you]

@flowerbug, I have seen several honeybees and several of those huge honeybees, too. I wonder if the severe rains have anything to do with it?

 

[flowerbug]

@flowerbug, I have seen several honeybees and several of those huge honeybees, too. I wonder if the severe rains have anything to do with it?

lack of sunshine which means fewer flowers will have some impact on the bees and other pollinators too.

hummingbirds finally showed up here a few days ago.

i'm glad to see we had a large bumblebee around yesterday.

i've not seen any huge honey bees that i can ever recall.

 

[Trish Stretton]

I have heard about that Australian bee but dont know very much about it. As far as I know, they make small nests. Looks like a bit of fun, but I would not be allowed to import them.

 

[Trish Stretton]

Its been quite a warm winter so far and the bees are still have at least one drone in the hive that I could see through the window. I thought they would have kicked them all out but no, there was one happy chappy.

I'm still doing my Oxalic Acid Vapourising every other week and am still only getting a very low mite drop. Todays 24 hour count was ....4.
I was doing every week, but last week it rained when I was supposed to do the next one and I decided to see how things would go doing it fortnightly.

A company down the road from me has a large Camellia hedge that has been in flower for ages now and still going. I stand by the hive and see a steady stream to and from that direction all day. When I did a search on this plant, its said to be a good quality forage for bees.

I got tired of wax in my morning coffee so, this week bought a nifty de-capping tool that was on special and am on the look out for a hand cranked extractor that can handle both normal deep frames as well as the jumbo deep frames.
The next hive I start up next spring will have deeper frames. I might be out of luck with an extractor that will handle both, but you never know.

 

[Carol Dee]

Its been quite a warm winter so far and the bees are still have at least one drone in the hive that I could see through the window. I thought they would have kicked them all out but no, there was one happy chappy.

I'm still doing my Oxalic Acid Vapourising every other week and am still only getting a very low mite drop. Todays 24 hour count was ....4.
I was doing every week, but last week it rained when I was supposed to do the next one and I decided to see how things would go doing it fortnightly.

A company down the road from me has a large Camellia hedge that has been in flower for ages now and still going. I stand by the hive and see a steady stream to and from that direction all day. When I did a search on this plant, its said to be a good quality forage for bees.

I got tired of wax in my morning coffee so, this week bought a nifty de-capping tool that was on special and am on the look out for a hand cranked extractor that can handle both normal deep frames as well as the jumbo deep frames.
The next hive I start up next spring will have deeper frames. I might be out of luck with an extractor that will handle both, but you never know.

Good luck

 

[Carol Dee]

Here are the hives we have a sister's place so far. Each swarm he catches he has located there.

 

[Redd Tornado]

My Step father is starting bee keeping. What do you plant for your bees?
From gardening I have noticed the bees love my thyme, borage, organo and of course melissa.
I'd like to give him some herbs for his bees.