Bees, Bee Keeping, Feral Hives

[pa_friendly_guy]

I was not sure where to put this thread, either here or on my thread about life on the Hill. I figured it was big enough to have its own place. I was mowing up in the field a few years ago and got the call of nature . Well, its fairly private up there in the field so I just stopped the old Alis-Chalmers and got off to take care of things. There is a huge old Toby tree there where I stopped as well as a walnut tree that I had planted. As I stood there I heard this very strange noise. I would not discribe it as a hummmm, more of a Drone. Well I wondered if something was wrong with the tractor, but it was turned off and quiet, I started to look around and saw directly over my head up in the walnut tree a swarm of about 10,000 Honey Bees. I did not pull that number out of the air, the Bee Keeper who came to get the swarm told me that was about how many bees were in a swarm that large. I hurried to finish my business you might say, and got back on the tractor and took off. I called a friend of mine who had a swarm at her place and she gave me the name & number of a Bee Keeper who would come and get the swarm. I wanted a bee hive up in the upper field way away from the house, my wife hates bees and she is alergic to their stings, but I felt it would be a good thing to have around the place. He came the next night to get the bees. 2 of my grand kids were in visiting as well as a neighbors grandson. It was a community event you might say, we all went up to watch what this " Expert " was going to do. Well, we walked up into the field, he had nothing with him except a small wooden box. I showed him the swarm way up in the walnut tree, he looked around and said that there was most likely a hive some place close that these bees had come from. He looked around and found the wild hive in the Toby tree. He told me that having a wild hive was a good thing and we should leave it alone. He asked if I minded him cutting the branch off the walnut tree, I said it was OK, my neighbor went down and got his big ladder, and a saw, and some rope, the expert had not come very prepaired, lol. He climbed up into the walnut tree and tied a rope around the branch. we then tied it off down below so that it was secure. He then cut off the branch with the swarm of bees hanging from it. When it was cut through the limb dropped suddenly and because it was tied off below it jerked when it fell, this caused about 1/2 of the 10,000 bees to fall off the swarm and hit the ground. As you might imagine this was quite the surprise to everyone, including the " Expert " and we all started to run. The bees were pretty laid back though and did not chase us or the Grand Kids. He told me that those bees were all full of honey, they gorge themselves with honey befor the leave the old hive to swarm. He said all they want is a home, and I am going to give them one. He lowered the branch to the ground and with out any safety equipment of any kind he picked up the branch and shook it into his wooden box. He shook it several times to get all of the bees off the branch. The Queen bee was on the branch when he shook them into his box, that was more luck than good management. At that point the Queen is in the box and all of the bees started to walk toward that box, up the side of the box and go right in to protect the Queen. I am sure you have heard of a Bee Line, but I had never really seem one befor, it was amazing. When all of the bees were in his box he put on a tight lid and took them to his place. He told me that he would not give me a hive for the upper field because of the cost. He said if they swarm again he might consider giving me a hive, he would get all of the honey, I would get the pollination of my plants . The wild bee hive in the old toby tree is still there, I watch it every spring for another swarm but so far I have not seen one. It is pretty neat to watch the bees come and go out of the tree.


Here is the Toby Tree


Here is where the bees fly in to land, they use that small branch as a place to land and wait their turn to get into the hive inside the tree


Here is another picture of the Bees coming and going. I have never been stung when I go up there to look at the bees,

Does anyone in the group actually keep bees intentionally? They do so much good for the garden and the orchard. I am just happy to have these wild ones here on the hill to help me out.

[boo]

Bee's are pretty cool. I don't keep bees intentionally but every September when my oak tree gets "dangly bits" (that's a technical term by the way ) on it a really big bunch of bees turn up and buzz around my garden as well as doing their thing up in the oak tree. They usually stay for about three weeks and then they disappear. But my fruit trees usually benefit from their visit so I'm happy. I don't bother them while they do their thing and I've never been stung by them and neither have the dogs. I have to plead ignorance because I don't know if they are wild bees or if someone nearby has beehives. I'll try and get a photo when they arrive this year.

[pa_friendly_guy]

Bees do alot for us, I have heard estimates that 30% of our food supply is the direct result of the Bees work. If there were 30% less food to go around I think we would all starve. Honey is the only perfect food, it never spoils. They have found honey in the eygtian tombs and when it was heated it returned to its natural honey state. Unbelievable,,,,,,,,,,,,Bees are truely amazing. I am not sure but I have heard that scientists have proven in their labs, using their charts, that it is impossible for a Honey Bee to fly, Their bodys are too large and their wings to small,,,,,,,,,,,,,,I guess no one told the Bees,

[matt walker]

That is a great tale Guy. Very cool that you have such a hive on your property. I would love to keep bees one day, but it's down the list for me. I don't think I have any close honey bee hives, as I rarely see them here. Not exactly true, I do see them, but they are far outnumbered by the many, many different varieties of pollinators I have here.

[Lollykoko]

I'm hoping to set up a hive or two at the farm. I've been talking with someone who has a couple of hives but isn't harvesting honey right now. She is real happy with the top bar hives and recommends them to others.

During early summer I was walking through the bottom ground one day and realized the humming I was hearing wasn't my tinnitus. I was walking through a huge patch of (I think) wild parsnip ~ or something that is a larger cousin to Queen Anne's Lace. Anyway, the flower heads were filled with busy workers. I know that you can buy plans for a top bar hive from the originator for about $100. Or at least you could two years ago. It would make a nice winter project for me, assuming I clean out the garage at least enough to make workspace for cutting some dimensional lumber to length and drilling holes. Or, I could talk my friend into driving her pick-up truck to PA next month so we could haul home all the goodies I know we will be wanting.

[GrahamB]

I would love a bee hive. We have a friend in NW Arkansas that has a wild colony in the porch pillars of her house. They swarm every year and then move off. I could easily trap a swarm, and it's only twenty miles away, but illegal to move them over the state line. If they were a domestic hive, I could get a health certificate for them from the USDA, but wild colonies can't be inspected. If I can get a little cash together for it, then next year I will buy a package of bees.

[pa_friendly_guy]

I looked up those Top Bar Hives on the net. I had never seen them befor. All of the local Bee Hives I have seen are the stacking Box type. The horizontal design looks like it is very easy to get at the honey with out lifting alot of extra weight. I like the design. Thanks for sharing the information Lolly. Here is a link to one company that makes them and sells them, there is also alot of other imformation about the history of these hives and other useful info about bee keeping and bee keeping supplies. I am sure that there are hundreds of other companys doing this, I did not check prices, but this is the 1st site that I came upon. http://www.beethinking.com/store/top-ba ... p-bar-hive

[pa_friendly_guy]

I think if you really want to keep Bees your best bet is to find a Bee Keeper in your local area and go to them and ask questions. Find out the best places to buy equipment, local suppliers that are honest est. where can you rent a centrifuge to extract your honey, what problems effect their hives and how do they deal with them, how do they market their honey etc. I have known several people who have kept bees , maybe 20 hives or more each, and all of them were very friendly, very helpfull, very willing to answer questions, very happy to have another Bee Keeper in the area to talk with about problems etc. They really did not think of you as a competitor, more like a kindred spirit. Bee Keepers seem to be a seporate breed, most people stay away from Bees, they are afraid of them because they don't know anything about Bees, and they are afraid of being stung because it hurts. When you talk with Bee Keepers you will find that ALL of them have been stung, and on several occations they have been stung repeatedly. They really think nothing of being stung, they know how to remove the stinger with out getting the poison into their systems, and they believe it helps avoid arthritis in humans. Because I have the Feral hive here on the place I have not been as Hot to buy a hive myself. Partly the cost, partly my wifes fear of bees, partly the work. I do not use all that much honey, maybe if I grew it here on the place I would use it more for sweetening. I know that we have members here who actually keep Bees, it would be good to hear from someone with more knowledge that I have about keeping bees.

[matt walker]

I got stung on my adam's apple yesterday. That sucked.

[boo]

OUCH! Matt I hope you haven't had any allergic reactions to the sting