For help, advice and discussion about stuff not related to aviation. Play nice: no religion, no politics and no axe grinding please.
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By Sir Morley Steven
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1870128
I mentioned on another thread that a local beekeeper had put a hive in the paddock attached to pour garden.

Happy to say we are now eating the honey and it has grown to three hives!

I never thought I would be so fascinated with the little critters. They are amazing!
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By townleyc
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1870159
Spooky wrote:Funny you should mention this. I passed my apiarist course this morning. They gave me a B
:oops: :oops:


That is bad!

:D :D

KE
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By Morten
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1870242
Starting with a single hive this spring, this was part of my reward a week or so ago:

As @Sir Morley Steven says, they are pretty amazing creatures - both individually and as a society.
Pretty good aviators as well, of course, although day VFR and preferably out of the rain. :thumright:
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By PeteSpencer
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1870245
How long before Extinction Rebellion come along and accuse you of cynically depriving the bees of their food, their homes and their livlihoods? :wink:
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By Morten
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1870259
PeteSpencer wrote:How long before Extinction Rebellion come along and accuse you of cynically depriving the bees of their food, their homes and their livelihoods? :wink:

(wink noted :))
A good beekeeper (which I aspire to become) only takes the surplus and leaves enough for the bees for the winter, and keeps an eye on them and feeds them if required. It's also another reason to harvest quite early so they have time to rebuild their stores before the winter. Their homes remain untouched; the frames you spin (extract honey from) are only used for storage, not for brood and their livelihood is certainly not impacted - I am certainly more than happy for them to get on with it :thumleft: .

There is a serious discussion about honey bees potentially being so popular these days in urban areas that they are replacing other pollinators. The focus should be on providing pollinator friendly gardens, not necessarily to add hives to places where their forage is already limited.
We are quite remote and started the pollinator friendly plants some time ago. I am pleased to see that, in addition to the honey bees, we also have a lot of bumble bees, butterflies, moths, dragon flies as well as (European) hornets and, of course, the odd wasp. This year we also seem to have rather more birds who no doubt are happy to pick up the odd aging bee...

My challenge now as an inexperienced beekeeper is to make them survive the winter...
For anyone thinking about getting some bees, get in touch with your local beekeeper's association (for some reason the term apiarist isn't used widely?) of which there are plenty.
Were I to start again I'd probably start with 2 or 3 hives - although it is more work it is actually easier to have a couple in case things go wrong - which they will. I lost a swarm but hope to increase my hives next year - as long as they do well over the winter.
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By Miscellaneous
#1870265
Sir Morley Steven wrote:I never thought I would be so fascinated with the little critters. They are amazing!

Chatting to the postman recently I discovered his wife has 3 hives. He echos your experience and has become fascinated. In fact his enthusiasm is such I was fascinated listening to him…until he explained that if a hive becomes crowded bees will leave. In his case (because it became his problem :wink: ) they left and set up a new home in a neighbour's roof just down the street from me. :shock:
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By Propwash
#1870274
We have a very bee-friendly garden with lots of pollen laden plantings and consequently always have lots of visitors during summer, which is great to see. This year though we have seen very few wasps, which is even better. Is that a general observation this summer or were we just lucky?

On a note about bees, a couple of years ago we came back from a holiday in November and noticed a largish bee clinging to the side of the patio table which had been covered while we were away (to prevent bird droppings). The patio is under a glass veranda and pretty sheltered so we left him be (see what I did there? :wink: ). He didn't move for a couple of days and we wondered if he was actually still alive. Out of curiosity we put a table spoon of water and sugar on the table just above where he was. Within a few minutes he started climbing up onto the top and starting drinking the solution. 10 minutes after that he flew off. I had heard that this was the thing to do with exhausted bees but never actually tried it before. It was strangely gratifying. :D

PW
Last edited by Propwash on Tue Sep 14, 2021 11:07 am, edited 1 time in total.
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By PeteSpencer
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1870276
‘Bee-pools’, as promulgated on kids TV progs and in kids magazines right now :

Small dish , a filled with a few smooth rounded pebbles or marbles, an inch of water with a tsp of sugar (optional) and kept topped up …….

Apparently bees drown easily .

Or so my granddaughter tells me …. :thumleft:
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By GrahamB
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1870284
My brother had hives.

They were a right B to get rid of.
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By Trent772
#1870656
Which would your rather bee or a wasp ?
By Bill McCarthy
#1870662
I was out on a night out with relatives in NZ and one of the guests there was a “big wheel” in commercial bee keeping. He said that he had some queen bees in his pocket, which raised some eyebrows. He produced about five of them for all to see, each one kept within a small plastic “cage” - ready for placement in the morning.
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By Sir Morley Steven
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1870773
PeteSpencer wrote:How long before Extinction Rebellion come along and accuse you of cynically depriving the bees of their food, their homes and their livlihoods? :wink:

Already happened but they shot themselves in the foot by simultaneously claiming 5G masts kill bees in their millions. I have 5G at home and my bees are doing well.
By TravellerBob
#1870777
Eny fule kno there were 3 BeeGees, not 5G Bees.