Pics of a Bee Swarm

[bj taylor]

amazing! I would love to watch your wife work. I might enjoy watching you run screaming like a girl too.
we had a swarm spend an afternoon in our backyard several years ago.

 

[JimWWhite]

How often does Teresa get stung?

Really, maybe only 5 or 6 times in the past three years since we've been doing beekeeping. I've only been stung twice and both times I was cutting grass on my mower and got too close to the hives. We did have one really nasty colony we'd caught that came from somewhere else. Keep in mind that more than 99% of the bees in the colony are female worker bees. We called that hive the Carolina B#$%@es because they were so mean. She couldn't even suit up and go in to check on the hive without getting stung. Somehow one would find it's way into her suit and get her. Well, late last fall after the colony shrunk down to its winter size of about 10-12,000 bees she went in and found the queen and destroyed her. Then she put in a new queen that we special ordered from a fellow in the next county over who raises queens. Now that is one of our best hives. It takes about 6 to 8 weeks after the queen start laying again in the early spring for a large portion of the worker bees to turn over an be replaced. Worker bees probably only live about 45 days during the spring, summer and fall. Those that winter over live longer of course but they'll die out soon after the first nectar flow starts. Worker bees are just worked to death. Queens can live to be 3 or more years and be productive but the colony will replace her when her pheromones start to weaken or she starts laying too many drone (males). Drones live until the end of the summer when the worker bees escort them to the front door and throw them out to starve to death. They'll make more.

But what I've seen is that bees only sting you if you're messing with their hive and you don't smoke them first. Then they can be aggressive. They'll sting you if you crush one if it lands on you or gets up under your shirt or pants. But they really don't want to sting you because that means Sayounara Baby, they're dead. Fini.

 

[JimWWhite]

Jim, you know so much about bees that I'm totally impressed! Wished I had half your knowledge. I imagine Teresa knows as much if not more.

Mary

I only know what Teresa tells me. She's pretty knowledgeable for a novice. We belong to a beekeeping association run by the local ag extension office and we have monthly meetings and get to learn new stuff all the time. I go because the members bring some pretty good food to each meeting. Almost every county has an ag extension and they encourage beekeeping as you can imagine. They even have free or near free classes that run for 6 to 8 weeks to teach newbies the craft. Amazing stuff, I think. But then Teresa says I'm easily amused...

 

[JimWWhite]

Good for you and Teresa. DH is just starting with the bees. So far so good He would love to find someone close to visit there operation and ick their brains. He bought all teh gear, suit, hat, gloves and smoker and has yet to use them. No stings. They came in onSaturday and by the time he peeked into the box on Monday eve they had built LOTS of comb. they are fascinating.

Carol, see my response above about going to the local beekeeping association meetings. Lots of fun and great info. And good food too.

 

[secuono]

But won't too many bees end up with no food? Wouldn't they have to fly even farther and that, over time, may draw too much energy and kill them off?

 

[JimWWhite]

But won't too many bees end up with no food? Wouldn't they have to fly even farther and that, over time, may draw too much energy and kill them off?

A fully populated colony in mid-spring like right now until early summer probably has about 80,000 bees in it. Many of those are foragers but quite a number of them are not of the age yet to be a forager. These work the hive. They guard it, clean it, tend the queen, make wax, make honey, etc. until they move down and out and become foragers. All this goes on in less than 45 to 50 days from the time a worker emerges from her cell until she collapses and dies of exhaustion and worn out wings. What I understand is that a forager returns with only a minute amount of nectar and/or pollen when they are out. I saw a figure recently and I couldn't believe how small an amount a single bee contributes to the honey supply in the hive during her short life. I wish I could find that or recall it but it was really, really a small amount. But out where we live there's hundreds and hundreds of acres of potential food for them to collect from within their 2 to 3 mile foraging radius from the hive. Most people don't realize it but there's many types of trees with very high nectar content. We have a tree here called a Tulip Poplar that you'd never realize there are very large flowers up in the tops of them that are enormous reservoirs of nectar the bees collect from. There's also Sourwood trees that are covered in the tops of their canopies with small flowers that have high nectar content. Some people claim these make the best tasting honey. Did you know that within a mile of Central Park in NYC that beekeepers have put thousands of hives up on the roofs of many of the buildings and their only significant source of food is the park. Bees can also make honey from pollen. They eat it, regurgitate it, mix it with water and store it in honey cells to dry out enough to be honey.

But to answer your question, there's plenty for them to survive, even when we beekeepers take a significant amount of their stores each year. Bees make way more honey than they can possibly use and that's the beauty of beekeeping. And without bees there'd be a lot less of us because there'd be a lot less food to eat.

 

[Smiles Jr.]

To add a little to what Jim has already said - the flavor and color of the honey changes as the summer season progresses. My bees are making lots of Dandelion, fruit tree, Tulip Poplar, and Henbit honey right now. In a week or two the primary pollen and nectar flow will be from the Honey Locust trees. Our springtime honey is light in color and a mild flavor.

After the mid-summer dearth (last year the dearth was horrible) the bees will start to collect pollen and nectar from late season plants like Goldenrod and several different kinds of Asters. This honey is darker and has a more full-bodied flavor.

The lifecycle and habits of the honey bee is a miraculous thing. Many of us beekeepers think of our bee colonies as one unit or being instead of many small creatures. They communicate on a level that humans could never achieve.

 

[bj taylor]

I could listen to you beekeepers go on and on. it's fascinating and amazing. one of the things that amazes me is y'all can spot the queen among thousands of bees.

 

[hoodat]

I kept bees when I was a boy on the farm. After you get stung a few times you get an immunity. The sting will still burn but will not swell or itch as it heals. When that happened to me I thought it was great till a doctor told me that immunity was the first step toward an allergy that can be deadly.

 

[so lucky]

Well, there are a few people who intentionally sting themselves with honeybees to ease arthritis pain, and for some other disease---MS maybe? I wonder if those people are living on the edge without intending to?

There is a lady living in a neighboring town who has a little "business" of stinging people. They come to her house. Strange.