Honey Bees

[lmalterna]

Bless you for not destroying the honey bees. I grew up raising them and we NEED them!!! A pox on yellow jackets though, they are not safe from me... dirty bastages!! Wasps usually act predictably and won't chase you if you back off.


2Door

 

[Old Mac Guy]

That is a HUGE oak tree!!! We never see 'em that big here in New Mexico.

It's good advice to cut the section with the honeybees in it and stand it up somewhere until next Spring. The bee colony will live through the Winter on the food they already have stored... and a local beekeeper can transfer 'em into a hive come Spring. As a beekeeper of 39 years, I value any feral swarm which has survived all the parasites and diseases which have plagued honeybees these past 10 years or so... The queen bee's genetics are worth saving for a knowledgable beekeeper to propogate and carry on into managed hives... Any swarm which can survive on its own today... without all the chemicals which most beekeepers are using nowadays to try to fight parasites and diseases... is valuable to save for breeding new colonies from...

The African Hybrid Bees (AHB), also known as "Killer Bees", survive year-round on the warm side of the 50-degree mean temperature line... In North America, that's around most of the coastal areas and mostly in southern states... But during warm-weather months, a swarm of AHB can hitch-hike on a train or an 18-wheeler into virtually anywhere in the continent. So, it's good advice to watch out when you encounter a bee swarm anywhere in North America during April-October. 200 stings taken within a minute or two will kill most people... and the AHB's will attack in multiple hundreds... the record (a fatality) was over 1000 stings. So be careful with bee swarms encountered in the woods, boys.

An AHB swarm which migrates north of the 50-degree mean temperature line will die out during the Winter. This has been true, so far, even in South America, where they were accidentally released by Dr. Kerr's careless research assistant in 1957, at a bee research station in Argentina. The Andes have proven to be an effective natural barrier and Chile has no AHB's. And they have never established in Patagonia... where European honeybees live year-round.

If you can save that wild swarm.... it's a good thing to do.

I wish we had oak trees like that in New Mexico...

 

[Octane]

I was cutn up this huge oak , that had fell into the field, and the bees were using a knot in the tree to build their hive.The knot was in the ground so they were trapped untill I cut right thru the middle of them! Wow, it was cool, once I got into the hive, they were comin out of the cut like mad! I cant believe I didnt get stung once, I just kept cutting.

You were lucky to not get stung. Usually the vibration of power equipment makes bees mad and makes them more likely to sting.

 

[Octane]

That is interesting not getting stung!

Seen my brother have a mad coon come out of a hollow oak that he dropped.

Good thing he left the Super XL auto running as he had to use it to defend himself. By the way the coon lost that fight.

LOL...Nice story. A similar thing happened to my brother a few years back.
He was cutting down a tree and all of the sudden there was blood all over the place. He checked himself thinking that may he had cut himself with the saw, but didnt find anything.
Then, he kicked the log and out came this big racoon that must have been in the tree and ended up getting cut by the chainsaw.
From what he told me, the racoon started to come after him, so he shut the saw off, put it down, picked up his axe and beat the racoon to death with the blunt end.
It was funny, he said to me, "you'd be surprised at how hard racoons are to kill. I had to hit that crazy thing at least 5 or 6 times before it died."

 

[alleyyooper]

I got my start keeping bees due to a colony of bees living in a ash free I cut up for fire wood.

Have removed a couple of colonies from fallen trees since then and I find they are fairly gentile.

Al

 

[Mike Cantolina]

Beekeepers, check out this thread:

http://www.arboristsite.com/showthread.php?t=66379&highlight=beekeepers

Mike

 

[Modifiedmark]

LOL...Nice story. A similar thing happened to my brother a few years back.
He was cutting down a tree and all of the sudden there was blood all over the place. He checked himself thinking that may he had cut himself with the saw, but didnt find anything.
Then, he kicked the log and out came this big racoon that must have been in the tree and ended up getting cut by the chainsaw.
From what he told me, the racoon started to come after him, so he shut the saw off, put it down, picked up his axe and beat the racoon to death with the blunt end.
It was funny, he said to me, "you'd be surprised at how hard racoons are to kill. I had to hit that crazy thing at least 5 or 6 times before it died."

My brother didn't have much chance to even think about it.

Tree hit the ground, an out came the coon, down went the blade on the SXL and sliced the coon about in half.....

 

[alleyyooper]

I do removals, which has picked up since CCD has made national news.
I have taken honey bees from three fallen trees/limbs.

The bees just don't seem to mind me as I stay calm. Of course I do wear some protection.

Al

 

[harrygrey382]

picked up his axe and beat the racoon to death with the blunt end.

why not the sharp end?

 

[teacherman]

I hear ya, one stings me and the whole colony DIES.

Yup!:agree2: I hate bumblebees the worst.

 

[jg1]

Good topic. I felled a tree a couple of weeks ago that contained bees. There was no indication they were there, but it was a cool morning. I did not realize it was hollow at the time. During the felling process the tree split from base to 7' high. When it fell the base of the tree was up in the air 7' resting on top of 7' section still attached at the base (due to the split). Less than 20% of the tree diameter was left connected to the base. I know this is probably hard to visualize by my description. Anyway there were bees everywhere and some comb fell out. I drove home (2miles away) and break out the thick winter gear, duct tape and frantically search for a wwii era gas mask somebody gave me 10 or so years ago (that I hoped was somewhere in the attic). So I have my makeshift bee suit. I have my wife drive me back out (I wasn’t going to be driving in my getup). I finish cutting the tree from 7’ from the base. So I have this 7’ “stump” that is split with less than 20% of the original diameter connected to the base and it is full of bees. I “reassemble the 7’ stump leaving it all there. It is a sight to behold. I put a trashcan on top to “seal” the top from wetness, a ratchet strap is holding the split tree together, and I used spray foam to seal the bottom where I made my cut. I inspected the comb that fell to the ground and there wasn’t a lot of honey, some but not a lot. Most of the comb containing honey stayed in the tree. My goal in all of this is to harvest the bees in the spring assuming I didn’t kill the queen and they survive the winter. Oh yeah and I didn’t get stung once.

I would like to know where in central KS the African bees where found.

 

[teacherman]

Hmmm.. I thought killer bees couldn't hack our cold Kansas winters......

Here is more.....
http://images.google.com/imgres?img...s=org.mozilla:en-US:official&sa=G&safe=active

 

[Woodie]

I got my start keeping bees due to a colony of bees living in a ash free I cut up for fire wood.

Have removed a couple of colonies from fallen trees since then and I find they are fairly gentile.

Al

No Jewish bees up your way, eh?



.

 

[mechanickeven]

dont mind bees but bees dont like me

i am sevearly allergic to em so the docs say, been stung a few tiems at work on m lawncrew. i have never yet seen bees in a tree, god forbid the day i do.lol

 

[mechanickeven]

No Jewish bees up your way, eh?



.

good bible joke woody.lol

 

[alleyyooper]

90% of the bees up our way are panthiest like me.

Since your doc says you are sevearly allergic you now carry an Epi Pen right?

We carry 2 each at all times when we are working the bees as you never know when that one sting sends you into shock.

Al

 

[adamc]

Hi all,

A neighbor brought me a catalpa tree full of honey comb. Most of it was old and abandoned, but some was new and full of honey. I cut up the tree for firewood and rendered the honey from the comb. Got about a half gallon. Yummy!

The catalpa is lousy firewood, except for the fact that it was free and was dropped at the end of my driveway. That said... the pieces that still have some wax on them make great kindling!

Adam

 

[lawnmowertech37]

which bees is it that live under ground yellow jacket or honey bees ?
they look the same in a way but are there characteristics different ?

 

[Austin1]

which bees is it that live under ground yellow jacket or honey bees ?
they look the same in a way but are there characteristics different ?

Bees are kinda shapeless wasps have a have a wasp waste a sexy shape to them. Yellow jackets nest both above ground and under ground I have only seen bee nests above ground and have never seen a paper bee nest. Hornets the bald faced Hornets are much more worse than Yellow Jackets they are the same size but seem faster and more aggressive.We do get really big Bumble bee's not honey bees they nest under ground as well and they can pack a wallop if they sting you but they will only sting if you hurt them, my brother crushed one with his hand on a ladder and he swelled up bad from it. They have a huge stinger on them.
I am no bug expert just going on my personal observations Bees don't build paper nests?Wasp Hornets build paper nests. Bumble bees live were they can find shelter.

 

[Lakeside53]

How to catch a swarm

1. Wait for them to settle... These aren't. The Queen is in the middle pumping pheromones to the world. 40,000 bees like the smell. These have just swarmed from my hive, but before they did they ate all the honey they could carry, and are very docile. Nice blend into the cedar cones - coincidence?

2. Get a STIHL 880 box, friend to hold it, a 15 foot orchard ladder, a second ladder, and a long pole pruner. Why couldn't they just find a nice low branch...???

3. Snip into box. I'm the guy on the left with only a hood and jacket. This is not the time for a plumbers' crack to appear.

4. Done....

I put them into a temporary hive for a week, then merged them back into the main hive. It was way too late in the season for them to form a new hive - they would never made it though the winter.