========================================================================= Date: Thu, 21 May 1998 20:46:00 -0700 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: Andy Nachbaur Subject: Re: Upper Entrance In-Reply-To: <7FC9CC3C83DFD111AA6200005A4249A003AC36@bo00sxp4.bc.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" At 05:22 PM 5/21/98 -0600, you wrote: >I would like to experiment with the 'upper entrance' notion with my hives. >Has anyone out there used this type of setup? I would be interested in >hearing about the pros and cons of this. some questions I have are: Upper entrances may be nice in the winter but can cause your honey yields to take a dramatic drop and are not necessary even in the hottest and wettest locations but having said that they are fun and interesting. If you want to do something to increase production increase the distance between the bottom board and combs by using 3/4 or larger spacing on the edges of the bottom that the hive body rests on. This gives the bees clustering space and they ventilate the hive more efficiently, actually reduces the temperature inside the hive and reduces swarming. It also keeps more of the guard bees inside the hive and reduces the aggressive behavior. Some put slated lath in the space to reduce brace comb to the hive floor but that just reduces the clustering space and these brace combs are seldom a big problem. Entrance reducers and guards may be necessary in the fall and winter. Its fun time in the bee yard and bees can be trained to use upper entrances such as with "top" pollen traps. I had a hive one time that I trained to land between two hive bodies and march single file to a entrance in the back of the hive to the amazement of all visiting beekeepers and friends. They did well with an entrance that would only admit one or two bees at a time. Because the bees place pollen as close to the entrance as they can, with upper entrances even with excluders to keep the queen down, the bees will store much pollen in the upper hive body or super. But the rub seems to come with the nectar which they also like to store in the super above the entrance and then work UP with it as the space is filled. With upper entrances they seem to give it up and do not take the nectar down so you can have nectar and even honey in the top box and the brood starving in the bottom boxes, of course without excludes the upper entrance will insure that the queen soon abandons the bottom boxes and moves to the top. For years I used upper entrances in supers that had a small, one or two inch of clear plastic tubing that allowed the bees one at a time to leave but did not allow them to come back. This worked good without any negative effects. In some areas such as the California Wild Buckwheat flow that produces very nice pollen it is possible to close up the bottom entrance and force the bees to use an upper entrance and they will store combs half full of pollen with a layer of sealed honey over it which I have always thought would make a interesting comb or cut comb pack for the Health Food Trade but know of no one who has taken advantage of this. I am sure there other flows that could be used to do the same thing. Restricting or redirecting bees to a upper entrance can cause the bees to try to make a new entrance and any place that is thin or allows a small amount of light in the hive will become thinner and in time the bees will eat their way out. In any case they will depreciate that expensive wooden box to nothing in a season or two. They do this by actually wetting the wood and chewing it down. In old style bee boxes with deep hand holds it does not take much more then a season for the bees to make a new entrance. Another interesting thing to do is to paint part of your bottom entrance white and another part black. The bees will leave via the white and come back in via the black. You can even do stripes so that the bees come and go from several areas of the bottom entrance. You can have fun with bees by painting an landing X or O spot above the entrance and the bees will land on the X or O like good little pilots and follow the black painted landing lanes to the entrance ramp. You can get them coming in by landing on the front or side of the hive and leaving by the white painted entrance lanes. This Bee Traffic Control is bound to increase production by avoiding those frequent bee collisions and traffic jams resulting in a 5% to 10% increase in production at very little cost. No tricks to any of this except you should have well established hives and a fair flow to get it working in a reasonable amount of time. There is also some difference in how yellow bees and back bees respond to all this. The yellow ones seem to drift to other hives when confused while the blacks can find their own hole no matter what you do. I have always suspected these black bees were used for so long in bee houses that they developed better homing senses or maybe they just were late in coming out of the bee trees to the bee hive. >1. What do they use for a landing board? Bees don't require any special landing board, but if you want to paint some dark color around the upper entrance they will find it faster. >2. What is the best way to create the upper entrance? Bore a hole in the super or top, or several? >3. Are you suppose to close the bottom entrance if using the upper entrance? If you want them to use only the upper entrance you got to close it. I am sure none of this helped, but if it makes beekeeping more fun for someone then its worth the effort. ttul, the OLd Drone He hangs out @ http://beenet.com (c)Permission is given to copy this document in any form, or to print for any use. (w)OPINIONS are not necessarily facts. USE AT OWN RISK! ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 22 May 1998 00:44:44 EDT Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: GImasterBK Subject: Re: Upper Entrance Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit Wow, you are talking my language when you mention UPPER ENTRANCE. I think every colony in the world should have an upper entrance 365 days of the year. I am in my 65 year of beekeeping, spending much of the last 20 years teaching beekeeping all over the world FREE OF CHARGE; and still do it in the U> S> in spite of being disabled by strokes. I hate and despise drilling holes in my supers for upper entrances as a lot of people have done. I cut a piece of wood out of the front edge of the inner cover that leaves a hole 5/16" high x 1 1/2" long into the top body, be it a super or brood body. Someone might say there is a shallow and a thick side to an inner cover and the shallow side should always be down. That is baloney! I put the thick side down so there is about 3/8" of space between the inner cover surface and the tops of frames. Bees will only build burr comb there if they are short on super space - no other reason. So they stay in that position 365 days of the year. What are the advantages: Primarily TWO, and both quite simple. Talk about summertime first. Why make FORAGING bees enter the front door, CLIMB UP through the CONGESTED BROOD nest to put nectar in the supers. A FORAGING BEE only work is nectar gathering - it does nothing else! When it has an upper entrance (particularly if you are not using Imirie Shims between supers), the FORAGER learns to LEAVE and RETURN through that upper entrance and NOT ADD FURTHER CONGESTION TO THE BROOD NEST. This results in more flights per day per bee and certainly tends to reduce the MAIN CAUSE OF SWARMING - congestion of the brood nest! How would you react on a cold winter night if someone poured freezing water on your bare back? When air is breathed into the lungs and than discharged out, one of the products is water vapor (clean your eye glasses by blowing your breath on them). This warm vapor goes UP (everybody knows heat rises), and in the winter this warm vapor rises and contacts the cold inner cover where it liquifies into a drop of cold water. In time more drops of cold water accumulate and finally it RAINS of the cluster of warm bees below, and many freeze to death. If there is an upper entrance in place, that warm rising vapor from the bees breathing has a way to escape from the hive by going out of the entrance to outside. Lastly, sometimes (but not very often) the front entrance of a colony is covered by snow or sleet and the weather suddenly warms to flight weather for an hour or so. But the bees are penned inside by several inches of snow and sleet which hasn't melted yet. If there was an upper entrance, the bees can fly on a cleansing flight. I have used Upper entrances on my 100+ colonies for at least 50 years, and just think everybody would be wiser if they used upper entrances too. George Imirie ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 22 May 1998 10:02:09 GMT+0200 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: Garth Organization: Rhodes University South Africa Subject: Peroxide - AFB Hi All Just to clarify - peroxide destroys bacteria because it forms free radicals (highly acitve oxygen atoms that want to bond to something, and whatever they bond to is changed chemically). Wood is composed of many many difficult to degrade chemical structures linked together. It can 'absorb' the active concentration of huge amounts of peroxide. Fungi use some or other enzyme that basically creates similar radicals to break down the ring structures in wood so they can use them as food. (super oxide dismutase??) In short - I suspect that no matter how much peroxide one added, the long term damage to the structure of the hive body will always be greater that damage to the very chemically resistant spores. One would probably have better luck spraying bleach and leving in the sun - UV activates the release of chlorine radicals from bleach (I think that is not chemically sound, but try putting bleach onto cloths in sunlight as opposed to indoors) Keep well Garth Garth Cambray Camdini Apiaries Grahamstown Apis mellifera capensis Eastern Cape Prov. South Africa Time = Honey ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 22 May 1998 06:45:56 EDT Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: Beekeeperc Subject: Re: Upper Entrance Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit I have upper entrances on my 20 hives. I bore a hole the size of a wine cork that can be closed over the winter. I bore it under the hand hole on the deep. The bees have no problem entering this area, and, I leave the bottom entrance alone, they use all the entrances. In fact I have a hole bored in all my deeps. Norm ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 21 May 1998 20:30:45 -0400 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: Bill Bartlett Subject: Advertisment in USNWR MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit The US News and World Report has an advertisment for Delta Air Lines. It shows a honeybee carrying a suitcase flying to the comb of a wasp! I am sure that Delta Air Lines does not know about bees, nor does the advertising agency that put it together for them. Do I think it is a big deal? NO! Should we do anything about it? NO! Most people who see the add won't know the difference anyway. It did bother me some when I see Winnie The Pooh eating honey and the Bald Faced Hornet's nest is right above hanging from a tree limb. On second look maybe that is Apis Mellifera comb. Can I get a second opinion? billy bee ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 22 May 1998 08:09:18 -0400 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: Joel Govostes Subject: Re: Advertisment in USNWR In-Reply-To: <199805220025.UAA13671@eaglenet.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" For some reason, children's books and programs often show a skep hanging from a tree branch, a la Winnie the Pooh. Go figure. Like the bees weave their own skep...? ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 22 May 1998 09:32:46 -0600 Reply-To: allend@internode.net Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Comments: Authenticated sender is From: Allen Dick Subject: Re: Upper Entrance In-Reply-To: <199805220347.UAA25086@pop.thegrid.net> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT > Upper entrances may be nice in the winter but can cause your honey yields > to take a dramatic drop and are not necessary even in the hottest and > wettest locations... Now there is an interesting statement. Not that I disagree, but I would like to know more of Andy's thinking on this. I've said similar things and gotten quite a bit of flack. Here's are some of my thoughts: Comb building will suffer in a hive which does not conserve heat due to being too large or too draughty. I'm curious about the 'dramatic drop' Andy mentions being caused by top entrances, how this can be proven -- and how he has arrived at this conclusion (one with which I tend to agree -- without much proof though). Generally hives which lose their lids do not produce honey very well around here -- even if there is no rain. A 'no lid' condition is is definitely too much ventillation in our area. I wonder if Andy's comments refer to the ventillation aspect of upper entrances or some other factor such as loss of contact between workers and queen? The entry of light may be a factor here too? Drifting? Hives which have upper entrances in a yard where other hives do not have them may pick up bees from those other hives over time, particularly if the yard is disturbed, say by removing and adding supers. Comparing two hives, one with and one without upper entrance holes may be difficult due to this effect. If ventilation is the problem which causes the 'dramatic drop', an interesting point is that the designer and promoter of the DE hive claims increased and better ventillation --and also much improved production. (Hmmmm. I've wanted to say something critical about that design ever since he wrote me -- out of the blue -- threatening to sue me if I attacked his baby. I find it hard to resist such a challenge, but have never seen a DE hive and don't have much to say other than that I personally wonder if it measures up to all the designer's claims. I suppose if I see one sometime I'll have something to say). My experience over the years has been that there is a correct level of ventillation and that the bees can manage the air flow in enclosures with many different configurations of holes and shapes during periods when they are not forced by cold to cluster. However there is a cost to this work and, moreover, some configurations -- particularly those with excess uncontrollable air flow -- can cause work to stop prematurely due to temperature drop in the hive. Allen -- Buy, sell, trade, get a job, hire help, announce a meeting, advertise a business or publication... For free *beekeeping related* classified ads, visit http://www.internode.net/HoneyBee/BeeAds/ often. These ads work fast! ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 22 May 1998 12:21:02 -0400 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: Joel Govostes Subject: Re: Upper Entrance In-Reply-To: <7FC9CC3C83DFD111AA6200005A4249A003AC36@bo00sxp4.bc.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" One method that works well, and which I generally practice, is to shift the first honey-super back a fraction of an inch, to leave a ~1/4" opening across the front of the hive. An opening is thereby provided at the upper edge of the brood-chamber. This was recommended to me by an old-timer who swore it would do much to prevent swarming. I'm not sure, but it couldn't hurt. This opening helps to get the hot stale air out of the brood chamber, aids in evaporating down the nectar, and the bees will use this space as an upper entrance as well. I should add, this is only done on strong colonies. I have never bothered to shelter the gap from the weather, but the bees haven't appeared to suffer any. No landing board required, and leave the regular bottom entrance wide open. On warm evenings during a nectar flow, the bees will line right up along this upper entrance, fanning away. >I would like to experiment with the 'upper entrance' notion with my hives. >Has anyone out there used this type of setup? I would be interested in >hearing about the pros and cons of this. some questions I have are: > >1. What do they use for a landing board? >2. What is the best way to create the upper entrance? >3. Are you suppose to close the bottom entrance if using the upper entrance? ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 22 May 1998 12:33:48 EDT Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: BeeCrofter Subject: Re: Upper Entrance Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit I drill holes in the super and the hive bodies- if I end up with a swiss cheese stack due to poor pre planning a piece of masking tape is all that is needed. In the field I sometimes make a triangular notch with a hand saw again if I need to close it a piece of masking tape will suffice. In winter I try to have an upper entrance on all the hives- this wont clog with dead bees and keeps moisture down. Some hives propolize this down to one bee size- they know more about what they want than I do. ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 22 May 1998 12:48:31 EDT Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: Aaron Morris Subject: When posting to BEE-L, please remember... MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7BIT Since BEE-L has been a moderated list it has become aparant that there are 6 catagories of inappropriate postings which result in the submission being returned to the sender. Those catagories are listed below, followed by the short rejection notice that may be returned to sender. Please keep these items in mind when corresponding to the list. 1. Excessive Quoting: Your post to BEE-L is being returned beacuse it contains an entire quote of a previous submission. Excessive quoting clutters up the BEE-L archives and is considered bad nettiquite. Please edit the quoted material so that it only includes that which is pertinent to the point you are making and resubmit your article. Thank you for helping to make BEE-L a better list. 2. Article submitted as an HTML document. Your submission to BEE-L was rejected because it was sent as an HTML document. Please if you will, resend your post as "text only" Thank you for your continued participation on BEE-L. 3. Personal response sent to the entire list Your recent submission to BEE-L is being returned to you as it is a personal response to a previous post. Your response should be sent to the author of the previously posted material. Thank you for your continued participation on BEE-L. 4. File Attachments not allowed Your submission to BEE-L was rejected because it contains a file attachment of unknown type that: a. may not be readable by all mailers b. adds nothing to the content of your post. Please if you will, resubmit your post without the attachment. Thanks you for your continued participation on BEE-L. 5. Service request sent to the list rather than the server Your submission to BEE-L is being returned to you because it is a request for service which should be sent to the server (LISTSERV@cnsibm.albany.edu), not the list (BEE-L@cnsibm.albany.edu). 6. Off Topic Your submission to BEE-L has been rejected because it is not related to the 'Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology'. Aaron Morris - thinking vacation until June 8 is a good idea! ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 22 May 1998 14:43:20 PDT Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: Ernest Gregoire MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII OK ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 22 May 1998 12:35:55 -0700 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Comments: RFC822 error: MESSAGE-ID field duplicated. Last occurrence was retained. From: Andy Nachbaur Subject: Re: Upper Entrance Comments: To: allend@internode.net In-Reply-To: <15380505206151@internode.net> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" At 09:32 AM 5/22/98 -0600, Allen Dick wrote: Hi Allen, and Bee Friends, >> Upper entrances may be nice in the winter but can cause your honey yields >> to take a dramatic drop and are not necessary even in the hottest and >> wettest locations... >Comb building will suffer in a hive which does not conserve heat due to >being too large or too draughty. I'm curious about the 'dramatic drop' Andy >mentions being caused by top entrances, how this can be proven -- and how >he has arrived at this conclusion (one with which I tend to agree -- >without much proof though). I am not saying that just a simple flight hole in the upper supers would do all this, but if that hole becomes the principal entrance to the bee hive things begin to change fast and honey production is the first to suffer. >Generally hives which lose their lids do not produce honey very well >around here -- even if there is no rain. Every area has its little differences. Here in Central California because the bees do not cluster as they do in the north and east if a hives lid is blown off in the winter and the hive is in every other way healthy you can expect that hive or hives to maybe look terrible at the time, exposed to the elements, and the cluster so tight most beekeepers here would take them for dead and in fact I have brought them in only to have them revive in the warmth of the honey barn. These hives in my experience always come out better in the spring and I am sure it is from the winter chilling or maybe the complete lack of queen activity. Here the queens never stop laying even when there is little or no pollen and the worker bees can not feed any eggs that hatch. I am sure the bees eat several pounds of brood each year on the average because they can't feed it. >The entry of light may be a factor here too? Bees fly to the light, so when light is intense enough they will leave the hive, sometimes even at night or in the rain if its warm enough and there a real stinky flow on. The bees if left alone will do their best to control the light that gets in the hive if they can't do it by nest or hive selection they will glue it up with plant rosins when available. Some areas don't have any so road tar, grafting wax, any product with lin seed oil such as paints or sealers and even beeswax from exposed combs or foundations will do in a pinch. The back side is when not having enough entrance light or total light in the hive the bees will enlarge the entrance or make a new one between the supers or any place the wooden hive parts lets in a little light. >Hives which have upper entrances in a yard where other hives do not >have them may pick up bees from those other hives over time, particularly >if the yard is disturbed, say by removing and adding supers. Comparing >two hives, one with and one without upper entrance holes may be difficult >due to this effect. Drifting and communication between hives is what has become the number one vector for the spread of disease, pests, and predator's in commercial and hobby beekeeping. This was predicted long before any problems resulted because of the numbers of hives being placed many times for pollination in any one area. Some hives do not drift, but unfortunately most of us do not have these bees and ours drift even under the best conditions. The bigger the bee hive populations in each hive and each yard the more they communicate but sadly they do not use jungle drums to do this but the exchange of bees from hive to hive which has caused the spread of Vampire mites, and also to a lesser extent it can and does spread the mite chemicals from one apiary or hive to another and any other chemicals bad or good. Opps there goes my USA Orgasmic Honey certificate. Yep its not only the dusty's that bring chemicals into the hive, but your neighboring beekeepers may be helping you out and you won't even know it unless someone finds an over load of chemicals in a honey sample. This is one area that causes, at least to me, when I read of so called controlled field tests using bee hives, to look with a jaundice eye, maybe because over the years I have learned how to control drifting in my hives but NO one to my knowledge has learned how to prevent drifting from hive to hive or apiary to apiary and that includes feral hives. Field tests that allow free flight should not be relied on for the last word especially so with any substance put into the hive as bees live or die by the stinky signals they receive in their environment and most anything added to their hive can interfere with these leading up to full collapse down the road at some later date with no visual cause. When I say control or controlled drifting that means that the hives even themselves out in place of ending up at one end or both ends of the yard as is still common in many bee yards. This is done by not placing the hives in nice neat rows and in my case having used both placement and multi colored pastel paints on my wooden goodies not just because these paints were at one time cheaper. I know of some beekeepers in large pollination projects that have been able to use this knowledge of drifting to catch the drift from their neighbors bees and make tremendous crops of honey while their neighbors hardly make enough to winter. When you go into these pollination projects you should make yourself aware of such details as prevailing wind directions and speeds and get on the down wind side or is it the up wind, anyway you want the bees that come in over loaded to land in your hives no matter who's they left from. I can't tell all or I would not have anything to say later. >increased and better ventillation --and also much improved production. I always tell everyone who asks why I do this or that mostly everyday things that "I do it because I glean 10% more for my labors". I mean what else are you going to tell people, they would think you are some kind of nut if you said you do things with your bees because you make more money keeping bees then you can spend on fast trucks, greasy food, and worn out waitress. In fact this is not the case, most of what we do is forced on us by experience as doing it some other way did not work out.. for us as individual beekeepers. I try to never talk down to what some else is doing because it may be the thing that works for him in his space, I just let em know what I have done and if it worked or not for me. If everything we did resulted in increases of 10% in production we would be extracting honey year around and selling it for ten cents a pound. All is fair in Politics and Selling, and that includes mis spoken facts and taking things out of context. But don't be disappointed if sales are not that great because beekeepers as a group are/have always been a hard sell with anything new or different. Must have started when they found out that swarms really don't come from dead bullocks as reported in the early days. >(Hmmmm. I've wanted to say something critical about that design ever >since he wrote me -- out of the blue -- threatening to sue me if I >attacked his baby. Most of these things, bee hive improvements, and there have been many over the years from instruments to pick up the sounds of bees getting ready to swarm or to sniff out the odors of disease to very to very complicated solar powered burglar alarms for beehives, in the end they all have failed because of the high initial costs and not because they did not work, ...that's saying enough about some of what I have seen lately being sold to beekeepers. >work and, moreover, some configurations -- particularly those with excess >uncontrollable air flow -- can cause work to stop prematurely due to >temperature drop in the hive. Here in California we have seen our 1998 spring and early summer crops greatly reduced by below normal outside temperatures. What a difference 10 to 15 degrees departure from normal makes. Last year in May we had normal temperatures and received 29 days of 80 degrees or above, mostly above...this year we have had one day when it made it to 80 and most days its struggled to make it to 70 degrees f... We still have a long season ahead of us and hopes for better honey conditions as the days get longer. Sorry to bee such a rambler but its a long weekend and the list police may take off and forget to turn the list lose so I have combined several subjects and posts thus saving all bandwidth. ttul, the OLd Drone Los Banos, California http://beenet.com Visitors are always Welcome! Use the ICQ program to real time page the OLd Drone when you are on the page, who knows you might get lucky and catch me. (c)Permission is given to copy this document in any form, or to print for any use. (w)OPINIONS are not necessarily facts. USE AT OWN RISK! ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 22 May 1998 16:14:26 EDT Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: JRmintin Subject: Re: Upper Entrance Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit i like your 65 years of beekeeping now you can help a beekeeper of 2 years with my problem. last week i had a 6ooo bee shipment with an italian queen delivered to Richfield Wisconsin all were dead on arriveal. i called York bee in Georgia and they told me the bees were overheated and was the fault of the post office. they said if i pay the shipping they will send out another box and queen. i said fine today they came same deal all dead. now precious time has gone by. who in your estimation is to blame. the weather here is in the sixties now does the fault go to the driver the post office or the shipper (York Bee) its a dirty shame these wonderfull bees perish because of improper care. what do i do now??? jerry from Wisconsin ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 22 May 1998 00:38:03 BST Reply-To: BEE-L@CNSIBM.ALBANY.EDU Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: DGraham Organization: Royal Society of Wheeltappers, Shunters, Ballarenas and Software Writers Subject: Re: Grease patties. What IS Crisco? Does it have a Scottish equivalent? I live in Scotland and I have niether seen Crisco nor heard of it until I joined this group? What is it? Does it have a Scottish equivalent? Regards, David Graham. ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 23 May 1998 13:47:22 +0200 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: Jon Subject: Can I feed bees with fermented honey? MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit I have a lot of jars of fermented honey from last year and I have recently bought young colonies. My question is: can I feed these colonies with fermented honey? I have read in any books that I can do it but I am not sure. Thanks in advance Jon ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 22 May 1998 17:36:13 -0700 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: Andy Nachbaur Subject: Bees DOA, again?? In-Reply-To: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" At 04:14 PM 5/22/98 -0400, you wrote: >delivered to Richfield Wisconsin all were dead on arriveal. i called York bee Sorry to read that, what a bummer, all this good advice and still not prize... BTW you are getting bees from one of the oldest and best suppliers in the South so I would rule out anything wrong on that end. I assume that the PO no longer will allow the bees to be insured or guarantee live delivery. If so you are out of luck unless you can find an alternative shipper. I had a problem once like this, not that the bees were dead but they were being held up in the PO one extra day because the Agricultural Department would not inspect them until then. We were getting one day shipments of queens out of Northern California only to have them help up a day was just too much for me to bare. I had a long sit down heart to heart talk with the Post Master pointing out to him his own responsibilities and how the postal service broke their buns to make everything happen only to have some minor local bureaucrat who refused to change his schedule to accommodate the bees coming in from the north which were one hour later then his normal agricultural postal inspection routine which all was a crock of bad honey. Anyway after that I never had another shipment held up and in fact bees shipped from within California to California address were never again inspected as they had been inspected at the point of shipment anyway and in fact there is or was at the time nothing to inspect but 10 bees and a queen in a cage. All this is not going to help you and I just wrote it because I am waiting for my dinner to be served but if there is a lesson in it at all it is to take your complaints to the highest authority in the Post Office and work down the chain. Many times the postmaster will be as interested in finding out who the heck is causing the loss or damage so he can demonstrate his own authority over others that is if he is not working in an area that has recently experienced a shooting by a postal worker over work rules. Good Luck and I would look for another beekeeper close enough to your area that you could go in on getting your bees shipped like so many do via a common carrier or poor beekeeper who like to drive a load of package bees half way across the country. There still are a few of them left. Look to your closest Dadant & Son's store they usually have deals going on to get package bees to their customers. Well I hear the call so I am ending it all right here and now. ttul, the OLd Drone Los Banos, California ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 22 May 1998 20:38:48 -0400 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: Conrad Sigona Subject: Re: Grease patties. What IS Crisco? Does it have a Scottish equivalent? In-Reply-To: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII > I live in Scotland and I have niether seen Crisco nor heard of it until I > joined this group? What is it? Does it have a Scottish equivalent? It's a saturated vegetable oil with the consistency of lard. It's often used for deep-frying. In Scotland, it's called MacCrisco. Conrad Sigona conrad@ntcnet.com ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 22 May 1998 20:54:51 -0400 Reply-To: vcoppola@froggernet.com Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: Vince Coppola Subject: Re: Grease patties. What IS Crisco? Does it have a Scottish equivalent? MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit DGraham wrote: I live in Scotland and I have niether seen Crisco nor heard of it until I joined this group? What is it? Does it have a Scottish equivalent? Do not know what its called elswhere, it is vegetable shortning, a solid, lard like form of vegetable oil. ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 22 May 1998 20:53:37 -0400 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: Conrad Sigona Subject: Dead Bees (was Upper Entrance) In-Reply-To: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII > ................ last week i had a 6ooo bee shipment with an italian queen > delivered to Richfield Wisconsin all were dead on arriveal. i called York bee > in Georgia and they told me the bees were overheated and was the fault of the > post office. they said if i pay the shipping they will send out another box > and queen. i said fine today they came same deal all dead. now precious time > has gone by. who in your estimation > is to blame. the weather here is in the sixties now does the fault go to the > driver the post office or the shipper (York Bee) its a dirty shame these > wonderfull bees perish because of improper care. what do i do now??? jerry > from Wisconsin York has a good reputation so I don't believe it's their fault, but I had exactly the same problem. Three years running, I lost most (sometimes all) of the bees being shipped by York. One time, not only the initial shipment arrived dead, but the re-shipment and the re-re-shipment! I suspected something was wrong somewhere along the way (for instance, a postal worker with a spray can), so I decided to change routes and ordered from California. I'm in New York State, so package bee shipments from California take a long time. Luckily, all packages arrived happy and healthy. Their syrup was getting very low, but everything was fine. Despite the story above (I guess I've been reading too much of Andy's postings), the best thing to do is speak to beekeepers in your local area. They'll know who to order from; there might even be a local nuc supplier. Conrad Sigona conrad@ntcnet.com ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 22 May 1998 22:21:18 -0400 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: Michael J Potoczak Subject: VANCOUVER BEEKEEPERS MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII We are planning a ski trip to Blackcomb in the end of July, yes this is not a typo, we are really going to ski in the end of July and beginning of August. We would really enjoy a visit to the closest beekeeper in that area. Does anyone know a beekeeper thereabouts that would enjoy a visit from a Western New York beekeeper? Please respond to BEE-L or potoczak@acsu.buffalo.edu Thank you, skiersal potoczak ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 22 May 1998 22:58:41 EDT Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: GImasterBK Subject: Re: Grease patties. What IS Crisco? Does it have a Scottish Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit I am a 100% Scot, and very proud of it. Crisco is a vegetable cooking grease. I don't know of any brands in the U.K., but either a vegetable cooking grease or oil like you use in a deep fat frying machine to make doughnuts or crullers, or french fried potatoes. The grease works better than the oil. Hopes this helps. George Imirie ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 21 May 1998 19:13:54 -0700 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: Robert E Butcher Subject: propolis Hello keeper of the bees, Can someone tell me what time of year would be a good time to put a propolis trap on A hive? God Bless You Robert&Teresa Butcher bobbees@juno.com _____________________________________________________________________ You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail. Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com Or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866] ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 22 May 1998 23:50:10 EDT Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: HarrisonRW Subject: Re: Grease patties. What IS Crisco? Does it have a Scottish Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit This is what CRISCO lists as it's ingredients. I hope this helps you. Partially hydrogenated soybean and cottonseed oils, mono-and diglycerides. ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 22 May 1998 18:07:19 -0700 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: Patrick Connell Subject: Fw: Varroa jacobsonii, resistance to miticides and Dr.CYS Peng MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit ---------- From: Patrick Connell To: BEE-L@cnsibm.albany.edu Subject: Fw: Varroa jacobsonii, resistance to miticides and Dr.CYS Peng Date: May 22, 1998 3:52 PM Mites are notorious for building resistance to chemicals. Therefore all beekeepers must observe directions on the labels of the chemicals we use. If we sample & find mites we must treat or we will loose increasing numbers of colonies yearly. My losses have swung between 15 to 30% annually. Others may be able to achieve better results with assiduous attention to management. I am suspicious of the current recomndations for Apistan. The original recomendation was one strip for each five frames of bees to a total of four strips for a two brood chamber colony, for 42 days. I believe that any less than this original recom- mendation may contribute to resistance. We have heard of resistance to fluvalinate in Italy and now in parts of the SE US. I understand that Apistan strips cost little to manufacture, yet the cost to beekeepers is $2, the treatment per colony is $8 plus the cost oftwo visits to the yard and labour. It is essential to vary our miticides using Formic Acid in the spring and Apistan strips in the fall, this will prolong the efficacy of both miticides. James Bach informed the members of the BCHPA in October 1997, that another synthetic miticide in strip form was in preperation. Just in time with resistance appearing. I hope this company challenges the makers of Apistan by pricing their strips at a fairer price. I believe the best hope for the survival of Apis mellifera and com- mercial beekeeping and pollination services lies in the behavioural biochemical studies being conducted on the interaction between Apis cerana workers and Varroa by Dr.CYS Peng at U of California at Davis. Dr. Peng told those who attended the CAPA & Canadian Honey Council meeting in Kelowna, BC in January, 1992 that Apis cerana workers are able to groom a fellow worker bee in one minute (60 times faster than Apis mellifera workers can) and within two days Apis cerana workers can kill most mites in their colony by the second day. Female mites can lay two extra female offspring in drone brood over worker brood. So Apis cerana expell their drone brothers after new queens are fertilised on their spring pollen flow, so there were no drones found in Apis cerana colonies she looked at in June in China. Apis mellifera expel drones at the end of summer. Dr.Peng is currently doing further work on these interactions. Perhaps the editor of the List will invite Dr. Peng to bring us up to date. I know she deserves the support of all N.American bee- keepers and the agricultural sector who depend on honeybees for pollination. Patrick Connell North Okanagan, British Columbia. ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 23 May 1998 09:58:49 -0400 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: Joel Govostes Subject: Re: Can I feed bees with fermented honey? In-Reply-To: <001701bd8640$bf8d9d80$a6d739c3@jon> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" >I have a lot of jars of fermented honey from last year and I have >recently bought young colonies. > >My question is: can I feed these colonies with fermented honey? >I have read in any books that I can do it but I am not sure. > >Thanks in advance >Jon You might need to heat it first(?) -- heating fermented honey to 160 degrees or so will often make it OK even for bottling, but it will tend to taste "flat" (to quote Richard Taylor). That is the best way to describe it. It should still be good to the bees anyway. The success of this depends on how far the fermentation has gone. If the honey has granulated, the worst fermented portion will still be in a liquid layer on top. If you decide to try this, first skim off the watery upper layer of the honey where it is sour and frothy, before you heat it. Then once warmed, mix the honey up well, to blend in the thicker honey from the bottom of the pail. GL ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 23 May 1998 18:06:01 +0100 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: Alan Riach Subject: Top entrances and water vapor ventilation MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Top entrances should help get rid of the water vapor during a honey flow. Water vapor is lighter than air-this is a bit counter-intuitive since water is such heavy stuff,but it be so.It therefore always wants to rise of its own accord. Opening up an area further up the hive should therefore be easier for the bees than having to waft the vapor down (against its natural flow) and out through the lower entrance. It's also why top ventilation holes in the cover board and roof are so important for proper winter ventilation when there is no bee fanning to keep the vapor moving. Here in Scotland-not famed for dry winters- I've seen many of the old beekeepers place part of a matchstick under each of the four corners of the cover board to aid winter ventilation. Happy honey hunting, Alan Riach, West Lothian,Scotland ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 23 May 1998 13:51:51 -0400 Reply-To: john.kriz@snet.net Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: "John J. Kriz" Subject: Re: shipment of bees all dead MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit My first package, a 3# one from York, arrived in good shape this year. Foolishly I neglected to alert the PO it was coming. However, Fortune smiled on me and I was not travelling when they arrived. The package was placed safely in the back under the deck, with a note in my mailbox and a message on my answering machine. A few dead one's (not a surprise) but others were fine. Put them in my basement, and installed them two days later. I live in a leafy suburb, and I bet that the bee shipment was the talk of the PO that week. They did a good job. ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 23 May 1998 14:04:55 -0400 Reply-To: john.kriz@snet.net Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: "John J. Kriz" Subject: Re: Grease patties MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit It would seem that the grease patties need to be thin to fit between frames and inner cover. Should Terra be mixed in? If so, how much and when? ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 23 May 1998 08:28:10 +0000 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: Alan Montgomery Subject: Re: Swarming and remoing bees from wall of house? MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit I was wondering if you had any advice on how to deall with a couple of hives making queen cells. One has the old and a new queen working in it . Lots of new nectar and pollen choking up the brood chAmbers. Little brood. The other lots of brood but nowhere for the queen to go. I placed a medium super on each above top brood chamber. The problem is they d'ont seem very interested in drawing out on this plastic foundation. Is this the inclination to stash nectar into the open cells in the brood chamber? How can I encourage them to more quickly draw out this plastic foundation? What measures should I take to prevent immediate swarming? My other problem is that all my deep frames are currently filled with stores from winter. Should I extract this so I have empties for the brood area? How should I feed this back to them once extracted? many thanks, Alan M. Also, How do you most easily remove a colony from inside wall space in a house? I need specifics and the most conservative measures. ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 23 May 1998 14:02:58 -0600 Reply-To: Charles Harper Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: Charles Harper Subject: Is there a chat room for this list? Comments: To: "BEE-L@LISTS.CNSIBM.ALBANY.EDU" MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Is there an IRC chat room for people on this list? If so, how do I access it? If there isn't, would you like one set up somewhere? Charles Harper Harper's Honey farm Carencro LA. 900+ Hives ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 23 May 1998 18:25:55 -1000 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: Michael Moriarty Subject: Re: BEE-L Digest - 22 May 1998 to 23 May 1998 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" There is a beekeepers chat room on the New Zealand Beekeepers site (http://www.beekeeping.co.nz/). I have never seen anyone logged on to it though. If you want to use it you should make arrangements with some of the people online here and go for it... Aloha, mike moriarty \\\|/// \\~~ ~~// (/ @ @ /) +--oOOO----------(_)--------------+ | Michael Moriarty | | P.O. Box 1102 | | Kapaau, Hawaii 96755 | | 808-889-5809 | +--------------------------oOOO---+ |___|___| | | | | oooO Oooo ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 24 May 1998 08:27:45 -0400 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: rmedders Subject: Beekeeping Chat Room There is also a Beekeeping Chat Room at The Mining Co. - Beekeeping site. (http://beekeeping.miningco.com/mpchat.htm) It is open 24/7, to meet with your friends and fellow beekeepers. Sherry Medders beekeeping.guide@miningco.com http://beekeeping.miningco.com ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 24 May 1998 22:38:49 +0000 Reply-To: aweinert@tpgi.com.au Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Comments: Authenticated sender is From: aweinert Subject: Bees in tea plantations MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Does anyone have experience with bees in tea plantations I have been looking at collecting pollen in local tea plantation but have not had too much success so far as the bees have appreciated the weeds more than the delicate tea flowers Any advice or experience will be appreciated. Andrew Weinert When standing at the edge of a cliff a step back can be said to be a step in the right direction ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 24 May 1998 22:49:52 +0000 Reply-To: aweinert@tpgi.com.au Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Comments: Authenticated sender is From: aweinert Subject: main enterane above brood box ? MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Hi, I have been listening to the discussion about entrances etc with interest. Here in Tropical North Queensland , Australia any upper entrance is immediatly propolised up. In fact one of the locals here uses flat boards only on top, no upper air space for bur comb etc. With the discussion about upper entrances etc has anyone tried the main entrance above the brood box at the base of the supers? From the comments so far it appears that the bees go down to the brood as required and go up to store honey. An entrance above the brood chamber will stop cold drafts an allow for some temperature regulation, perhaps better regulation. If this is so then is there a need for a lower entrance for the removal of dropped bits etc by the bees? Also what is the Australian experience with this? I have not heard much about upper entrances in Australia. Thanks Andrew Weinert When standing at the edge of a cliff a step back can be said to be a step in the right direction ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 24 May 1998 12:15:28 -0400 Reply-To: john.kriz@snet.net Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: "John J. Kriz" Subject: New Hobbyist Needs Help MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit I have several questions. Can anyone help me? 1) I installed a 3# Starline package a month ago. Seems to be doing well, but I spotted a queen cell forming a fortnight ago, and this afternoon is the first time I'll be able to go into the hive. Lots of activity...bees going in and out. Why is this cell forming? Esp. so soon? What should I do? 2) A fortnight ago I put two Apistan strips in the single brood chamber. I know when to take them off, but want to know when I should super the hive (plan on cut comb). Put Apistan in a week after installing the bees. 3) Put Terra onto the tops of the frames of the brood chamber a fortnight ago, and will put more on today (I know this is not as frequent as it should be...wet weather and travel). Could I put the Terra into the sugar syrup I'm using? Is this an OK way to apply Terra? 4) Should I put a second brood chamber on my hive? When? 5) For cut comb, do I cut the combs out of the wooden frames and then replace with new foundation? Taking these frmaes apart seems more trouble than it's worth. Should I build new frames, or try plastic frames, which seem to be easy to put new foundation into? What's best? 6) Any practical info on how to best cut honey out of frames? Have read all the books. Thanks, all. ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 24 May 1998 11:12:21 EDT Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: JRmintin Subject: Re: Bees DOA, again?? Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit thank you kindly for your interesting and helpfull advice. everything i hear about York bee is positive so i am sure like you and many others the postal people are to blame. my postmaster told me the bees were to be shipped directly to Wisconsin instead they were routed thru Chicago. i will take your advice and deal with a dadant dealer 50 miles from my home. the reason i bought from york was i heard there bees were calm healthy and productive which they were last year. as i put the containers of dead bees in the burning container i felt very bad what a shame because someone just dont care. thanks again Jerry from Wisconsin ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 24 May 1998 12:55:01 EDT Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: Beedaz Subject: Honeyhouse burned! Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit Hello Bee-l'ers, I just got word that Chris Werner from Wisconsin just lost his whole honeyhouse with all supers, extracting equipment, trucks, etc. to a fire. He and his wife Becky returned from the field to witness the fire department try to put it out to no avail. The good news is that their children and babysitter escaped alive, as they *just* finished building their new home above the honeyhouse and were residing there. The bad news is Chris did not have enough insurance coverage to cover a total loss. He built in fire breaks that did not stop or slow the intense fire. Chris and Becky's family need medium supers ASAP to attempt to put their lives back in order. I hope that some of us out here in the beekeeping community can assist them in some fashion insofar as leads on equipment for sale. We personally will send some money to help the family. I will be posting his address soon. His phone number at Indian Summer Honey Farms is (414)242-6569. I understand it is out of commision(only temporary) due to the fire and Chris and Becky can be reached at Becky's mom's house at (414)675-6065. I will post his address soon. Sharon and I met Chris and Becky down in Florida two years ago and have found them to be very gracious and hospitable people willing to help most anyone with their bees and hope that the beekeeping community can come to their aid in some fashion. If for some reason someone can't contact them, I can be reached via or Thanks, Kirk and Sharon Jones ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 24 May 1998 09:45:00 -0700 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: Andy Nachbaur Subject: Re: Bees in tea plantations Comments: To: aweinert@tpgi.com.au In-Reply-To: <199805241257.WAA18231@buffy.tpgi.com.au> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" At 10:38 PM 5/24/98 +0000, aweinert wrote: >Does anyone have experience with bees in tea plantations >I have been looking at collecting pollen in local tea plantation >but have not had too much success so far as the bees have >appreciated the weeds more than the delicate tea flowers Hi Andrew & Bee Friends, I don't know much about TEA, for a fact having not had the experience of working with TEA other then drinking it and using it on the cancer on the end of my noise, but I would suspect that it may not produce large amounts of pollen or nectar both can be what attracts honey bees to pollen. I would also say that many plants like the Almond produce pollen in the early and late part of the day and thats when the bees do collect the pollen. If there are other plants attractive to bees blooming at the same time then the bees will work these during the time of day the Almonds are not producing pollen. With Almonds when pollen is available from its blooms the bees will leave the other pollen plants for the almond pollen. Why, I am sure there is a super attractant in the Almond pollen that brings them back and this all may be because the honeybee and almonds evolved in the same area of the world so the bees have in their on board computer a build in list of plants to work. Some write of this using hard to spell words describing it as genitics but the OLd Drone ain't too good at spelling so he keeps it simple as it was before others complicated it with science. There is information on Tea in the Pollination Bible on the AI Root web page, try this address: http://airoot.com/beeculture/book/chap9/tea.html ttul, the OLd Drone http://beenet.com Los Banos, Calif. (c)Permission is given to copy this document in any form, or to print for any use. (w)OPINIONS are not necessarily facts. USE AT OWN RISK! ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 24 May 1998 16:01:50 GMT Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: JOHN TAYLOR Subject: Re: Upper Entrance In-Reply-To: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable On Fri, 22 May 1998 12:21:02 -0400, you wrote: >One method that works well, and which I generally practice, is to shift = the >first honey-super back a fraction of an inch, to leave a ~1/4" opening >across the front of the hive. An opening is thereby provided at the = upper >edge of the brood-chamber I've read about doing this elsewhere. Doing so would also result in another 1/4" opening facing down on the back side of the hive . . . Do the bees use both? Is there any problem with the bees ability to guard these openings or other bees trying to rob, now that there are three "largish" opening in the hive? -- John Taylor -- Wild Rose Creek Apiary Southeast Missouri When in danger, or in doubt, run in circles, scream and shout! ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 24 May 1998 21:32:00 +0100 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: Computer Software Solutions Ltd Subject: Aggressiveness Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Hi All It would appear, that the aggressiveness displayed by a colony is significantly determined by the number of guard bees deployed (all other things being equal). If stratagems can be used to reduce the number of guard bees, then it would seem that the aggressiveness displayed by the colony can be reduced. One method I have heard of is to reduce the size of the hive entrance. Are there other 'modifications' that can be made to the hive structure to achieve this end?. I seem to remember something about increasing the distance between the bottom ends of the combs and the floorboard. Any input appreciated as always. Sincerely Tom Barrett 49 South Park Foxrock Dublin 18 Ireland e mail cssl@iol.ie Tel + 353 1 289 5269 Fax + 353 1 289 9940 ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 25 May 1998 13:10:53 +1200 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: Barry Donovan Subject: Top entrances and water vapor ventilation -Reply Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain Several years ago one cool still morning I thought my hive in my back yard had caught fire. What appeared to be thin white smoke was pouring upwards and outwards from just above the bottom entrance - but of course it was water vapour. Moisture-laden air was issuing from the entire length of the bottom entrance (the only entrance) although a small patch of bees was fanning on one side only of the landing board. The plume rose to just above the top of the 4-storey (full-depth boxes) hive before dissipating, by which point it was about a metre across. Judging from the apparently very large volume of air being moved. it seemed to me that the bees would have no difficulty in rapidly evaporating large volumes of moisture from their hive. In the 28 years that I've had the hive in that spot I've only seen this phenomenon the once - and never from numerous other hives both here and in other countries. Regards, Barry Donovan Christchurch, South Island, New Zealand. ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 24 May 1998 19:48:07 EDT Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: BeeCrofter Subject: Requeening Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit After Requeening it is pretty common to see supercedeure cells. 1 are the bees hedging their bet or in most cases is the new queen a dud? 2 do you pinch the supercedure cells until the new queen has had a few weeks laying? I have been requeening by making a nuc and combining with newspaper and still see supercedure cells and wonder what is proper practice. Here in SE CT the honey flow is strong - top supers are nearly capped next super down is full and not runny next 2 supers down are being filled or drawn out as I mix new foundation with partly filled comb above the brood nest. no sign of varroa in any of the drone brood that develops in odd bee spaces. Tom ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 24 May 1998 22:01:45 +0300 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: Carlos Aparicio Subject: Re: Upper Entrance Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable I usually shift the last honey-super front an inch, to leave an opening across the front of the hive. Of course remains an opening across the rear of the hive of 1 inch, I close it for avoids water entrance when rains with a table. When rear upper entrace is open, bees use both upper entrances. I have 20 hives. All them have upper entrances and bottom entrances sometimes wide. Near half of my hives have no floor at all. Bees use different entrances according traditions of colonies. Some of them use 80% upper entrace, other 20%. The percent is relatively stable for each colony. So far, all fine. We are near winter and the weather is benign. CARLOS APARICIO SANTA ANA BEACH CANELONES - URUGUAY =20 35=BA SOUTH =20 ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 24 May 1998 21:43:29 -5000 Reply-To: beeworks@muskoka.net Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: David Eyre Organization: The Bee Works Subject: Early Spring. In-Reply-To: <199805241308.XAA19516@buffy.tpgi.com.au> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT It never ceases to amaze me, how quickly the long knives and snide remarks come, once the moderator leaves for a few days. Well, they do say, 'while the cats away, the MICE do play'. Hurry back Aaron, you're sorely missed. Joel, recently asked if anyone else has such a strange spring. We do. In all the years keeping bees I've never seen anything like it. Hives literally bulging with bees, lots started making moves to swarm, nectar almost dripping out the front entrance. In fact I could start extracting. Most hives have 4-5 capped frames already. Bees so gentle you could pat them. With all the good news, there has to be some bad. Yesterday my wife and I went to make up some nucs, both 3 frame and babys. The difference in the bees was startling. In just two days they've turned real mean, and I mean, 'mean'. From hives worked without smoke and hardly any protection, to so many stings we lost count. When the smoke cleared, and we pulled the last stinger, we realized that there is a major dearth. Nothing, only a few Hawthorn bushes, and I suspect that with our dryness even they're not producing. It is the most incredible thing to see, not a wild flower or bush, tree, producing any nectar. Watching the hive entrances there are only one or two bees moving around. If I didn't know better I would suspect that every hive had swarmed and gone. Perhaps it might be better to leave that honey on, unless we get some rain soon they might need it. So, the old saying 'never judge a hive's temper on one visit' really comes to mind, as yesterday I would have set to and re-queened everything. Anyone know the rain dance?? ***************************************** David Eyre,Owner. The Bee Works, 9 Progress Drive, Unit 2, Orillia. ON. L3V 6H1. Canada. Agents for E.H.Thorne & B.J.Sherriff. http://www.muskoka.net/~beeworks e-mail Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: MZifchock Subject: swarm help Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit Hi list members I've been keeping bees for a year. Tonight upon arriving home there is a swarm in a low branch near my house. I shook them into super with 10 frames and foundation. For the most part they took to it, but darkness has fallen and there are still many bees on the box--both the top and sides. My question is, "what do I do to get them into the hive so I can put the top cover on and move them out from where they are?" Should I brush them off now and put the cover on tonight? Wait until morning? Thanks for your help. Mike Z in RI. ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 25 May 1998 07:59:13 -0500 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: "Thomas D. Harker" Subject: Re: Bees All Dead In-Reply-To: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" At 04:14 PM 5/22/98 EDT, you wrote: >last week i had a 6ooo bee shipment with an italian queen >delivered to Richfield Wisconsin all were dead on arriveal. i called York bee >in Georgia and they told me the bees were overheated and was the fault of the >post office. they said if i pay the shipping they will send out another box >and queen. i said fine today they came same deal all dead. now precious time >has gone by. who in your estimation >is to blame. the weather here is in the sixties now does the fault go to the >driver the post office or the shipper (York Bee) its a dirty shame these >wonderfull bees perish because of improper care. what do i do now??? jerry >from Wisconsin > Jerry, I have only a few years of bee knowledge but I do live in the same part of the country as you. If your intent is to get a package ASAP, then find an area bee supplier and drive there to pick them up. Herb & Judy Lapp in Reeseville, WI have been good suppliers. 800-321-1960 or 414-927-3848. I have also received excellent packages from Rossman's in Moultrie, GA (800-333-7677) but had a friend driving North pick them up for me. My advice, pick them up yourself and don't count on the USPS unless there is no alternative. Tom - 3 hives - Rockford, IL ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 25 May 1998 09:11:10 -0400 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: Joel Govostes Subject: Re: Upper Entrance In-Reply-To: <356943bb.2402191@mail.ldd.net> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" <... Doing so would also result in >another 1/4" opening facing down on the back side of the hive . . . Do >the bees use both? Is there any problem with the bees ability to >guard these openings or other bees trying to rob, now that there are >three "largish" opening in the hive? > > >-- John Taylor -- >Wild Rose Creek Apiary >Southeast Missouri Shifting one of the supers back about 3/4" leaves a 1/4 - 3/8" opening along the front, at the top of the underlying super. There is no opening created at the rear of the hive, due to the thickness of the super walls. (The rabbet at the upper edge of a super makes a thinner edge, allowing for the opening at the front of the hive... ? ...well, try it and you'll see what I can't seem to describe.) Never had any robbing with this arrangement. It is used during the height of the season, when the colonies are populous and forage is plenty. In some regions where robbing is a problem it might require some caution, but strong colonies such as these are not apt to be robbed anyway, and certainly not during a honey flow. This is sometimes referred to as "staggering the supers." ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 24 May 1998 18:35:35 EDT Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: DuctManJRV Subject: IS THERE ANY BENEFIT TO HAVING CARPENTER BEES AROUND?? Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit IS THERE ANY BENEFIT TO HAVING CARPENTER BEES AROUND other than having the house perferated?? JOHN CT ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 25 May 1998 09:35:00 EDT Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: JRmintin Subject: Re: Honeyhouse burned! Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit i live only a few miles away from them and it has been on the local news and papers and that the church has come forward to help which is great thank god the bees were ok. Jerry ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 25 May 1998 09:17:15 -0500 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: Musashi Subject: Re: IS THERE ANY BENEFIT TO HAVING CARPENTER BEES AROUND?? This is nothing but my personal opinion, but I can see several benefits to having carpenter bees around. It's fascinating to watch the males guard the nesting sites, flying in place in the air like a hummingbird and driving off other carpenter bees and even birds and people when they get too close. They are also good pollinators, I think, because of having long tongues so they can forage from flowers with deeper throats than can honeybees. They add spice to life and make the world a more interesting place to live in. They can cause a few minor problems in homes at times, but you can take care of those, and I'm sure they can find natural nesting sites in dead trees and other places. But if there were no more carpenter bees at all, we would all be the poorer for it in my opinion. I like seeing them around (especially in other people's yards.) They are some of the best aerial acrobats I know of. Layne Westover College Station, Texas ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 25 May 1998 10:19:32 EDT Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: BeeCrofter Subject: Re: Bees All Dead Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit I just got some very live and fat queens in the mail about 1-1/2 hours ago from York's (this is memorial day) Yorks asked If I would be home on the holiday wknd. They used a 2lb priority mail pack for 3 bucks extra. My postal guys are pretty good about calling me when queens come in-It pays off in spades to hang around a bit and answer bee questions with the letter carriers and loading dock guys-most are very curious. Todays questions the postal guys asked- Honey and allergies -How come the queens on TV programs look bigger compared to the workers than the ones in the queen cages. Why are those other bees in with the queens. What to do for a bee sting. Where do you sell your honey. How come you don't raise your own queens. All in all the 10 minutes at the post office back door will pay off on this end of the bees journey. Tom ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 25 May 1998 10:24:06 -0400 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: Jeff May Subject: Re: IS THERE ANY BENEFIT TO HAVING CARPENTER BEES AROUND?? MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit If there is, I haven't figured it out. I do bee removal on the side and the carpenter bee is a big part of my business. I use a piece of board that was removed from the peak of a church roof to show my customers just how destructive they can bee :) I split the board the entire length so that they can see all the tunneling they do and how they make the chambers for each egg to form into the new bees. -----Original Message----- From: DuctManJRV To: BEE-L@CNSIBM.ALBANY.EDU Date: Monday, May 25, 1998 9:55 AM Subject: IS THERE ANY BENEFIT TO HAVING CARPENTER BEES AROUND?? >IS THERE ANY BENEFIT TO HAVING CARPENTER BEES AROUND other than having the >house perferated?? >JOHN > CT > ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 25 May 1998 10:15:56 -0500 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: Musashi Subject: Re: bees on face of hive I want to thank all who responded to my questions with advice and let you know what I did and the result. I provided another super and some top ventilation and although there is still a certain amount of "hanging out" on the landing board and face of the hive, it is much decreased, and there is no sign of swarming problems. It's my most populous hive and seems to be doing well. I also removed about 3 frames for a split recently. With all that, it still has some bees spilling out of the entrance--they just don't cover the whole face of the hive an inch or two deep like they were doing before. Any way, the situation is improved and things are going well and I'm relaxed and not worried--letting the bees do their thing. I may not have mentioned: they are Carniolans. Layne Westover College Station, Texas ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 25 May 1998 13:39:22 EDT Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: Beedaz Subject: Re: Honeyhouse burned! Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit I talked with Chris and Becky Werner and got their e-mail address. Because their new house was built on the end of the honeyhouse, they even lost all their clothes. The fire was on two news stations and it burned out of control. The firestops that Chris had built inside to protect the building from fire spreading throughout the building failed. Chris told me that the drywall held up, but the fasteners got so hot that they caught the framing on fire behind it. Chris had some insurance, but not near enough to cover everything they owned under on roof. His e-mail is . I asked him for his address and he gave me: Chris and Becky Werner 12930 Highland Rd. Germantown, WI 53022 They are very sweet folks and have been helpful to many beekeepers and other folks in Florida and Wisconsin. I wish them a speedy recovery, but a loss of this magnitude takes years to come back from. As mentioned on a previous post, Chris is looking for medium supers to buy to catch the crop and would appreciate any leads or help in this department. Please contact him ASAP if you can help out. Kirk and Sharon Jones Sleeping Bear Apiaries Beulah, Mi 49617 honeybee@benzie.com ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 25 May 1998 13:27:05 -0700 Reply-To: gclewis@penn.com Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: "Gary C. Lewis" Subject: Help Please. MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Hello Bee Folks, I was away for about a week. Got back and checked my bees, they are fine. I feed with one gallon pails above the brood chamber, while I was gone the bees built comb using the feed pails as a brace. I removed the pails but now have no idea how to correct the problem I have. The brood chamber still has foundation open and not drawn out but the bees have built a fine maze of comb in the upper empty super. There is brood and honey in this comb. What can I do to save the brood. There is space yet for about 7 frames with foundation. Should I place those frames in there now? Then remove the comb as it is emptied of brood? Why didn't the bees use the frames below first? I figured I had time before needing to place frames in the upper super. Guess the bees had other ideas. What do I do? Destroy the comb and brood and put in the frames? Or is there a way to use this comb from the two hives to start a nuc? I seem to continue to make mistakes. One day I will have it right. Thanks for your time... Gary C. Lewis Duke Center, Pa. ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 25 May 1998 13:06:10 EDT Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: BeeCrofter Subject: Hive ventillation Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit I am starting to store my entrance reducers under the telescope covers on hives that have them. The 3/4" stick raises the cover about 3/8 above the inner cover. I place them against the rim of the inner cover at the back and put the telescope cover on top. I hear some guys that use queen excluders store them under the lid also. For what it is worth you get improved ventillation and no sunlight coming in. Tom ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 25 May 1998 09:39:49 -0500 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: Musashi Subject: Re: swarm help Regarding whether to leave the cover off the hive or not because part of the bees in the swarm are on the top and sides of the box and haven't gone inside, here is what I would do if it were me: I would use my bee brush and slowly and carefully brush and "herd" as many bees as I could into the box (at the top) then very slowly and carefully lower the lid onto the hive box so as not to crush bees on the top but to let them get out of the way and go down into the box. I would leave the front entrance open (unblocked) so the bees on the outside of the box could find the entrance and go inside on their own. As soon as they were settled, I would put in an entrance feeder and restrict the entrance down (after moving the hive to the location where I wanted to keep it). I would keep feeding them until they got good and established with lots of brood going, then let them continue to forage on their own after that. That is my opinion...someone else may have different advice. Good luck. Layne Westover College Station, Texas ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 25 May 1998 10:42:18 -0500 Reply-To: beeworks@muskoka.net Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Comments: Authenticated sender is From: David Eyre Organization: The Bee Works Subject: Re: Top entrances and water vapor ventilation In-Reply-To: <356701F9.17C3@which.net> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT On 23 May 98 at 18:06, Alan Riach wrote: > Opening up an area further up the hive should therefore be easier > for the bees than having to waft the vapor down (against its natural > flow) and out through the lower entrance. > > It's also why top ventilation holes in the cover board and roof are > so important for proper winter ventilation when there is no bee > fanning to keep the vapor moving. I have been advocating the above for many years. It would appear that upwards ventilation is a European idea. Why it is frowned on in North America, I for one fail to understand! I remember reading in one of the older bee keeping manuals (I believe A.I. Roots) ventilation being discussed and at the time it was considered necessary. How come it's fallen out of favour? ******************************************* The Bee Works, 9 Progress Dr, Unit 2, Orillia, Ontario, L3V 6H1 Phone/fax 705-326-7171 David Eyre, Owner. http://www.muskoka.net/~beeworks e-mail ******************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 25 May 1998 10:42:18 -0500 Reply-To: beeworks@muskoka.net Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Comments: Authenticated sender is From: David Eyre Organization: The Bee Works Subject: Re: Upper Entrance In-Reply-To: <356943bb.2402191@mail.ldd.net> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT On 24 May 98 at 16:01, JOHN TAYLOR wrote: > >One method that works well, and which I generally practice, is to > >shift the first honey-super back a fraction of an inch, to leave a > >~1/4" opening across the front of the hive. An opening is thereby > >provided at the upper edge of the brood-chamber > > I've read about doing this elsewhere. Doing so would also result in > another 1/4" opening facing down on the back side of the hive . . . > Do the bees use both? Is there any problem with the bees ability to > guard these openings or other bees trying to rob, now that there are > three "largish" opening in the hive? A major problem, rarely, if ever considered, extra openings for wax moths. If it should get cold and the bees retire down into a tighter cluster, then wax moths have an easy method of entering the upper areas of the hive to lay eggs. My policy, no extraneous upper entrances during the summer. ******************************************* The Bee Works, 9 Progress Dr, Unit 2, Orillia, Ontario, L3V 6H1 Phone/fax 705-326-7171 David Eyre, Owner. http://www.muskoka.net/~beeworks e-mail ******************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 25 May 1998 09:08:49 -0700 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: Scott Fairing Subject: Re: Early Spring. On Sun, 24 May 1998 21:43:29 -5000 David Eyre writes: Joel, recently asked if anyone else has such a strange spring. We do. In all the years keeping bees I've never seen anything like it. Anyone know the rain dance?? I think that I know the rain dance to well!! 1 May installed 2 packages of bees. Sunny day high 62 F. 2 May released queens. Partly cloudy day high 60 F. 7 May checked hives, everything looking good. Partly sunny high 59 F. 19May checked hives, everything looking good. Partly sunny high 60 F. Have not had day with sunshine for more than 20 minutes except for those listed above. 5+ inches of rain so far in month of May. Forecast, cloudy with rain every day through Friday, highest daytime temp. 62 F. Bees are out flying in rain for some part of the days average 5 days a week and not out at all two days. Great year to start keeping bees. Want to trade a little? In HIS Service Robert (Scott) Fairing 490 NW 4th Ave Canby, OR 97013 1-888-736-5322 (Fridays only please) _____________________________________________________________________ You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail. Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com Or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866] ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 25 May 1998 14:51:12 -0400 Reply-To: gmaloney@gis.net Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: gmaloney Subject: Charles Orosz MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit I would like to let those of you from Eastern Massachusetts no that a good friend and bee enthusiast for many years, Charles Orosz, passed away on the 23 of May. He will surely be missed by his wife Marguerite, his children and his many friends. There will be a memorial service at St. Bonaventure's Church in Plymouth (Manomet) on saturday the 30th of May at 10:00 AM. ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 25 May 1998 09:48:47 -0500 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: Musashi Subject: Re: IS THERE ANY BENEFIT TO HAVING CARPENTER BEES AROUND?? There's another benefit to having carpenter bees around that I hadn't thought of: it helps put food on the table for bee removal guys trying to feed their families. They give us another way to earn money. Layne Westover College Station, Texas (they challenge us and make us more resourceful) ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 25 May 1998 22:29:11 +0300 Reply-To: jtemp@xs4all.nl Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: Jan Tempelman Organization: Home Subject: Re: Upper Entrance MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-2 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Carlos Aparicio wrote: > Near half of my hives have no floor at all. can you explane this??? greetings, jan btw. In The Netherlands we have 80 % of the floor wire netting/gauze of 3 mm = 1/8" open all times, except in sept to controle the "mite drop" ------------------------------------------------- home of the drone frame method. de darreraat methode ------------------------------------------------- http://www.xs4all.nl/~jtemp/index3.html Jan Tempelman / Ineke Drabbe | mailto:jtemp@xs4all.nl Sterremos 16 3069 AS Rotterdam, The Netherlands Tel/Fax (SOMETIMES) XX 31 (0)10-4569412 ------------------------------------------------- ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 25 May 1998 21:40:11 +0300 Reply-To: jtemp@xs4all.nl Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: Jan Tempelman Organization: Home Subject: Re: IS THERE ANY BENEFIT TO HAVING CARPENTER BEES AROUND?? MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-2 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Jeff May wrote: > I split the board the entire length so that they can see all the tunneling > they do and how they make the chambers for each egg to form into the new > bees. can we have a picture of it?? a url jpeg or gif?? good bees , are dead bees???? or good carpenter bees, are dead carpenter bees?????? -- ------------------------------------------------- home of the drone frame method. de darreraat methode ------------------------------------------------- http://www.xs4all.nl/~jtemp/index3.html Jan Tempelman / Ineke Drabbe | mailto:jtemp@xs4all.nl Sterremos 16 3069 AS Rotterdam, The Netherlands Tel/Fax (SOMETIMES) XX 31 (0)10-4569412 ------------------------------------------------- ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 25 May 1998 15:35:19 -0700 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: "Andy Nachbaur (by way of Andy Nachbaur )" Subject: Pollination Bible ON-Line Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" At 02:18 PM 5/22/98 -0400, you wrote: NEWS FLASH MAIL >Have you seen that we have put up McGregor's Handbook of Pollination on our page? > Is this something you would like to add to your collection? >Kim Flottum, Editor Kim Fottum, and The "Bee Culture Page" for sure earns my highest "4 bee" rating for adding Sam McGregor's "Handbook of Pollination" and have earned the time beekeepers and the public spend in checking out this book and the respect of all beekeepers as well as my own envy for not doing it first. This is the "bible" on honeybee pollination....check it out: http://www.airoot.com/beeculture/book/index.html Check it out and use it...you would never guess what revisions to this book were made because of my suggestions and I will never tell. But I got a bound signed copy of the original book for my efforts. Some of the information is dated, mostly that of the exotic fruits and nuts which Sam knew from personal experience were visited by honeybees and other insects but was not sure of the benefits from these visits and since then some new information has been developed. I know of no errors in this book but then I had the pleasure with a few others of the pre-publication reading of it to look for errors. I know that Sam is smiling big up there in the great bee pasture in the sky and he would be amazed at what we beekeepers have done with the Internet in such a short time since he left us and would be proud to be part of it in this way. I really believe that this book on line will bring much public traffic to it and am going to ask Kim if I can connect to it from my own web pages and encourage other bee webmasters to do the same as it could be the most worthy public beekeeping document on the Internet as far as the future of beekeeping and the public support for it. And I hate the pollination side of beekeeping but know well its value to agriculture and the public perception of it. Opps, enough said... You can tell I miss Sam as he was a totally honest bee scientist who started out as a dusty entomologist killing insects in the old days by covering the plants and trees and then gassing them until WWII when someone came up with a dam stupid idea al la the "Groper" of melting up all the bee hives in the USA for the war effort and his early work on the value of honeybees because of pollination was in a no small part what saved the bee industry from "Waxing the Wings of Victory" which many individual beekeepers did by taking up arms. Today when so few are left from WWII we should all reflect on a time when it was honorable to serve your country in the service when called. So many did and so little time is left to thank those who are still here and remember those who did not make it home or have passed on. What a poor place the USA would have been without their sacrifices and what a better world we live in because of them. Have a Good Memorial Day Weekend! ttul, Andy- ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 25 May 1998 23:11:40 +0300 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: Carlos Aparicio Subject: Re: Upper Entrance Comments: To: jtemp@xs4all.nl Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable At 10:29 PM 25/05/1998 +0300, Jan Tempelman wrote: >Carlos Aparicio wrote: >> Near half of my hives have no floor at all. > >can you explane this??? > The floor of the beehive is a place of varroa infection and other diseases. To the have not floor there is no reinfection. Many wild beehives remain exempt to the varroa, and many persons thought that the lack of floor of the feral beehive can be the explanation of the greater resistance against the varroa. In a mail of today I transcribe a Langstroth cite that decided me definitely to remove the floor from the beehives. Nevertheless, it must realize: a.) In Uruguay the absolute minimal temperature rarely arrives in winter to the - 5=AA c=BA b.) My beehives are located in high lands, about sea and extremely protected by the vegetation. c.) The beehives have good reserves and flowering all year round (zone of ++Eucalyptus ++Globulus) what causes that up until now may not have been problems of robbing d.) Is the first winter, that happen without floor. The experience can indicate something else . Regards CARLOS APARICIO PLAYA SANTA ANA CANELONES URUGUAY 35=BA SOUTH LATTITUDE ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 25 May 1998 23:10:38 +0300 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: Carlos Aparicio Subject: Re: Top entrances and water vapor ventilation Comments: To: beeworks@muskoka.net Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" At 10:42 AM 25/05/1998 -0500, David Eyre wrote: > >I have been advocating the above for many years. It would appear that >upwards ventilation is a European idea. Why it is frowned on in North >America, I for one fail to understand! > I remember reading in one of the older bee keeping manuals (I >believe A.I. Roots) ventilation being discussed and at the time it >was considered necessary. How come it's fallen out of favour? > > >******************************************* >The Bee Works, 9 Progress Dr, Unit 2, >Orillia, Ontario, L3V 6H1 >Phone/fax 705-326-7171 >David Eyre, Owner. >http://www.muskoka.net/~beeworks >e-mail >******************************************** Bees ventilation. Langstroth, L.L. (1859): "To practical treatise on the hive and honey bee". ++Ed. 3 p. 341. New York. In the winter of 1855-56 I had 20 colonies in a string, each one of those which was considered in very good been about to the wintering, with the not too beehives closed down neither too opened up. One of the colonies was in a beehive discontinued to 10 inches of the soil and without the floor, so that was thoroughly opened by down. The chamber with the excessive honey supers was opened northward and had 8 holes of an inch all open. Me was of house about 12 of February, with a time very cold and all the beehives cover of snow. I returned at the end from the month and I proceed to examine the beehives string; I found that in 19 of they had been melted the snow, but they were excessively wet and in a lamentable state. If the might have been able to carry to the house, it would be of the scope of the thread until they were you dried, probably they would have been saved the colonies. Before the tomorrow following changed the time and was making a terrible cold, having succumbed immediately 19 colonies. While the remainder, that it did not had the fund and was filled with holes, that is to say, in an evident carelessness state, resulted very vigorous and heals. Before adopting ventilation up above as I made it with this beehive, had lost my better colonies in the form that I have @@descripto, so much that had arrived to desanimarme. Cited By Root. The A B C of the Apiculture, page. 334. - For my also it is a mystery as the modern beehives were converted in a kind of Turkish bath for the bees. CARLOS APARICIO SANTA ANA BEACH CANELONES URUGUAY ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 26 May 1998 00:01:51 EDT Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: Jon C Peacock Subject: Re: swarm help Mike Z in RI. Tonight brush bees off, put on lid, leave hive where it is, you may not have gotten the queen. Good luck, Jon C _____________________________________________________________________ You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail. Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com Or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866] ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 26 May 1998 07:56:11 -0400 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: Joel Govostes Subject: Re: Top entrances and water vapor ventilation Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" David Eyre wrote: >I have been advocating the above for many years. It would appear that >upwards ventilation is a European idea. Why it is frowned on in North >America, I for one fail to understand! > I remember reading in one of the older bee keeping manuals (I >believe A.I. Roots) ventilation being discussed and at the time it >was considered necessary. How come it's fallen out of favour? I wonder. Actually, Langstroth's orig. hive had an upper vent/entrance. He must have considered it important from the get-go. Some of the factory inner covers have had a tiny port in the rim, but this is not very substantial. During winter all our outer covers are raised about 3/8" above the inner cover rim with wooden risers (sort-of like the matchstick idea) a la Manley and this keeps everything nice and dry -- no moldy brood combs or soggy bees. I think it is helpful in summer, too, for the air flow. As far as wax moths go, even if they get in through an upper entrance, say, on a cold night, still, any colony strong enough to need the extra entrance will be able to deal with any intruding moths. On a really weak colony it would be a concern, though. ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 26 May 1998 21:32:49 +0900 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: j h & e mcadam Subject: Re: propolis MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" >Can someone tell me what time of year would be a good time to put a >propolis trap on A hive? We use the propolis trap manufactured by the J. & D. Manufacturing of Romeo, U.S.A. which we find to be an effective collector provided the bees are working directly beneath the mats. The hives produce honey for 10 months of the year (honey flows and seasonal variations permitting) and propolis is deposited from October (which is the second month of spring) until April (2nd month of autumn). The mats remain on the hives over winter and the bees commence depositing propolis when conditions warm and the activities extend to the super. Where we have only a brood box (for queen breeders) and the mat remains directly in contact with the bees the propolis season is extended but honey production is of course sacrificed. Betty McAdam HOG BAY APIARY Penneshaw, Kangaroo Island J.H. & E. McAdam Comments: Authenticated sender is From: Allen Dick Subject: sci.agriculture.beekeeping MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT There is quite a bit of activity these days on sci.agriculture.beekeeping For those who have had trouble getting to sci.agriculture.beekeeping, I've put up a page with links that describes a number of ways to get access to the group using web browsers as well as the usual methods. Visit http://www.internode.net/HoneyBee/Bee/sci.htm Please write me if you have any problems or suggestion for improvement. Allen ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 26 May 1998 03:01:51 -0400 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: Apiservices Subject: Beekeeping Chat Room MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Yet an other in the Virtual Beekeeping Gallery at: http://www.beekeeping.com and a host of other things... ;-) Gilles Ratia Email: gilles.ratia@apiservices.com Web: http://www.beekeeping.com and http://www.beekeeping.org and http://www.apiculture.com and http://www.apiservices.com ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 26 May 1998 09:14:41 -0400 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: Marc Sevigny Subject: Honey in brood boxes. MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit I opened my hives this week and noticed a couple of strange things. My strongest hive is working on filling the brood chambers (2) with honey, even though there is a completely empty honey super right above it. I have a filled medium on top, the empty super (with only foundation) below that, a queen excluder, then the two deeps below. The top two honey supers had no bees in them at all, not crossing the queen excluder, it seems, even though there is honey above (I thought that would attract the bees). Should my tactic be to remove the excluder to get them to work the foundation in the empty super? Will they eventually "move" the honey from the brood chambers up into the honey supers? Or will the honey remain, causing congestion and a tendency to swarm? Marc ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Marc Sevigny Email: marcs@qualix.com Qualix Group, Inc www.qualix.com Mass Dev Center Phone/Fax: (508) 393-0098 100 Bearfoot Road Northborough, MA 01532 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 26 May 1998 12:20:22 EDT Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: CUhlman Subject: Beekeepers in Tuscany? Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit Can anyone help me connect with an Italian beekeeper? I will be on holiday in the Florence/Tuscany and Venice areas of Italy for 2 weeks in June and would very much like to visit an Italian apairy. Please reply directly to me rather than to the list. Thank You, Carl Uhlman Seattle, Washington USA (in my 2nd year with 1 hive) ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 26 May 1998 09:59:03 -0500 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: "Vangundy, Doug" Subject: Recall: Varroa jacobsonii, resistance to miticides and Dr.CYS Pen g MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain Vangundy, Doug would like to recall the message, "Varroa jacobsonii, resistance to miticides and Dr.CYS Peng". ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 26 May 1998 15:09:50 -0500 Reply-To: mrussel1@ix.netcom.com Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: Doug Russell Subject: FS: 100 year old American Bee Journals; Also: Hobbyist Returns to the Yard. MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Hi, ABJ - Just a quick notice if anyone is interested. I bought several issues from 1895 and 1898 at a recent auction. I'm selling them for $8 each and I'll pay the postage. Interesting beekeeping history. Please E-mail off-list for details if interested. Thanks. Hobbyist Returns - I lost my 15 hives several years ago due to the Varroa mites when they first hit, in spite of the Apistan strips (could have been my workload prevented me from monitoring the hives like they required). I've been lurking off and on for a couple of years and have decided to start up again. I know it is the wrong time of year here in Louisiana, near the end of the Spring flow, but I just plan on building slow this year in preparation for next year. How do the Buckfast bees do in the Southern US with the heat and humidity, compared to the Italians? Thanks again, Doug ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 26 May 1998 18:43:59 EDT Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: CSlade777 Subject: set honey and Belgium Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit Honey crystallises most rapidly at around 57 degrees F. The further you get away from this temperature (within common sense limits) the longer crystallisation will be delayed. It is sometimes recommended to keep comb honey in a refridgerator until ready for sale. The disadvantage of keeping honey cold is that it increases viscosity so it will not flow as well. Changing the subject I have just returned from a few days in Belgium where I walked for 100 kilometers along the roads, lanes and footpaths in the Ypres area. Although the fields and gardens were weed free there were plenty of garden flowers (eg Limnanthes) and trees especially sycamore and there were plenty of flowers in the verges including a few early examples of the famous poppies. I didn't see a single honey bee. Are there no beekeepers in that area? Chris Slade Chris Slade ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 27 May 1998 00:57:08 GMT+0200 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: Garth Organization: Rhodes University South Africa Subject: Light and varroa Hi All I had a recent interesting observation - a common problem in my area is the bee louse, Braulo coeca (or something like that). Basically, one sees one or two sitting on the backs of bees, but always at least three per queen. I had an observation hive set up and noticed that the bees after a few days seemed to learn to clean the queen of mites, as well as preening themselve. I then noticed that If I covered the hive for a few days, lo and behold the queen was rebrauloed. Removing the blanket and they preened her clean. So my question is - how would it be to have a window at the back of a beehive to allow some light in and then every now and then open it to let the bees preen themselves. (obviously only for small scale honey production and/or that imaginary organic concept) Just a thought Keep well Garth Garth Cambray Camdini Apiaries Grahamstown Apis mellifera capensis Eastern Cape Prov. South Africa Time = Honey ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 26 May 1998 23:45:48 -0400 Reply-To: beekeepr@bellsouth.net Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: Frank Humphrey Subject: Re: Honey in brood boxes. In-Reply-To: <01BD8886.B787AFC0@EVEREST> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit > > Should my tactic be to remove the excluder to get them to work the > foundation in the empty super? Will they eventually "move" the honey > from the brood chambers up into the honey supers? Or will the honey > remain, causing congestion and a tendency to swarm? > > Marc > > Remove the excluder and they will move up, then you can replace it. They will more than likely move the honey from the brood box to the super if the queen is laying well. I usually put foundation on top of drawn comb or partially filled supers and move it down when they start drawing the foundation. Frank Humphrey beekeepr@bellsouth.net ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 26 May 1998 23:19:53 -0700 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: Stan Umlauft Subject: Sterilization of Pierco frames MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Hi all Is there a safe way to clean American Foulbrood disease from Pierco frames? Yesterday while leading an apiary field trip into a club members Apiary, I Discovered AFB in the largest strongest colony in the apiary(it always seems to hit the strongest hives). The other hives show no symptoms. The normal procedure to eradicate this disease is: kill bees, and burn every thing in a pit, then cover the ashes. The only exception has been for the hive bodies, tops and bottom boards to be scraped clean and flame scorched. However in the case of plastic Pierco frames can they be safely salvaged? Best wishes Stan ______________________________________________________ - Stan Umlauft dba " ` A & Bee Honey Farms /) " ` P.O. Box 5155 -8|||}- _- -_`-_|'\ /` Bay Point, CA USA \) _/ / / -' `~()() 94565-0655 North 37 West 121 \_\ _ /\-._/\/ (925)458-3900, fax (925)458-5560 / | | email: stanu@honeybee.com '` ^ ^ web site: www.honeybee.com/ ~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~* ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 27 May 1998 08:36:20 EDT Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: tomas mozer Subject: Re: Dancing Bees! Comments: cc: rbillett@sctcorp.com one possible explanation for "washboarding" behavior could be the scraping of resins, natural or synthetic, from surfaces such as painted hive surfaces for use in propolizing other parts of the hive...the only evidence for this interpretation i have seen is anecdotal, such as a.nachbaur's coincidental observation in a recent post (re:upward ventilation): "... they will glue it up with plant rosins when available. Some areas don't have any so road tar, grafting wax, any product with lin seed oil such as paints or sealers and even beeswax from exposed combs or foundations will do in a pinch." the other behavior you describe sounds like some form of scent release from the nasonov (top abdominal tip) gland usually associated with orientation functions, such as nest entrance marking. _____________________________________________________________________ You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail. Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com Or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866] ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 27 May 1998 22:47:48 PDT Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: T & M Weatherhead Subject: Re: queens piping MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="ISO-8859-1"; X-MAPIextension=".TXT" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable There were several posts in recent times about queen piping. I posted = how I had heard the piping from a frame which did not contain the queen. The other day I was catching queens and heard the piping noise from a fra= me that I had just removed. I looked for the queen and could not find = her. I found her on the next frame and caught and caged her. I picked up the first frame again and I heard the piping sound again. = I looked very carefully at the frame and then saw a worker, with pollen = on her legs, flattening herself on the frame and emitting the piping nois= e. I saw her do this flattening action and piping several times. I remember a post where the queen was described as doing this flattening = action and piping Not being able to analyse the sound I am not sure if it is the same pipin= g noise the queen makes but it is very similar. Trevor Weatherhead AUSTRALIA ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 27 May 1998 18:47:15 -0700 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: Andy Nachbaur Subject: FREE LUNCH? Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" *Pure unabashed commercial use of the Internet & the Bee-List* Just so you will not have to write me about it as I admit it up front. ANNOUNCING THE FIRST ADDITION BOOK "THE GOLDEN HARVEST" *Nothing to do with selling satellites technology to China* But it is "My NOTES on Collecting Pollen" At a exceptionally low cost to beekeepers and friends of only your time. For the first time you can read a "How To" Beekeeping book on the Internet. Sixteen years in the making, (I did it in 1980), not available in print, (I never published it) and it has been said by early reviewers "to be worth its cost". (What better recommendation could I make, its FREE!) As time and energy permits I am adding my long awaited book to the Internet at my site: http://beenet.com Some of it can be seen now and I should have the whole works on line by the 1st of June or sooner. NO FREE LUNCH! Note...the book "THE GOLDEN HARVEST" is free for your own personal use. You are welcome to print it out, about 50 pages more or less, but it remains the copyrighted work of myself and no commercial use must be made of it without prior permission and reasonable compensation will be expected such as $1.00 per copy. Sorry the photos and drawings are not included in this edition but I will in the future be able to ship in the USA a reconditioned working pollen trap for $20.plus the UP charges to US addresses only because of laws. (For testing and use as a model to construct your own traps, a good project for next winter.) ttul, the OLd Drone (c)Permission is given to copy this document in any form, or to print for any use. (w)OPINIONS are not necessarily facts. USE AT OWN RISK! ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 27 May 1998 21:32:35 -0400 Reply-To: beekeepr@bellsouth.net Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: Frank Humphrey Subject: Re: swarm help In-Reply-To: <790e5690.3568d0d4@aol.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit > For the most part they took to it, but darkness > has fallen > and there are still many bees on the box--both the top and sides. > My question > is, "what do I do to get them into the hive so I can put the top > cover on and > move them out from where they are?" > Should I brush them off now and put the cover on tonight? Wait until > morning? Thanks for your help. Mike Z in RI. > I use a 5 frame swarm box to capture swarms and see this problem often. I put a white sheet on the ground under the cluster and put the box on this. I take out 2 frames and shake the bees into the box. I allow them to scent on the sides and top of the box for a few minutes then brush most of the bees from the sides and back into the hive and put the frames back in. Then I put the top on using a sawing motion so the bees can move. If the queen is in the hive the bees will rush to get in the front entrance. If she is on the sheet she will found amongst an ball of bees. once she is in then they will line up to get in. Last week I caught a swarm that was to large for the box and when I picked them up that night, there was about 1/2 pound hanging just below the cover in front above the entrance hole. I just picked the hive up without closing it and put it in the back of my pickup. When I arrived home, they were still hanging on for dear life and gave me no problems as I carried them the back yard and set them on a stand. Frank Humphrey beekeepr@bellsouth.net ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 27 May 1998 21:07:52 EDT Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: Nick The Beeman Subject: KC Beekeepers Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit Do any of you Live in Kc? I will be down there for a Few days And would Like to call a local Beekeeper to learn about the honey flows and stuff! I leave Fri. morn! ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 27 May 1998 21:13:24 -0400 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: petty Subject: Fw: Bees in tea plantations MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit "Toxicity of Nectar of Tea (Camellia Thea L.) to Honeybees" Journal of Apicultural Research 25:2 106-108 1986 ---------- > From: aweinert > > Does anyone have experience with bees in tea plantations > > I have been looking at collecting pollen in local tea plantation > but have not had too much success so far as the bees have > appreciated the weeds more than the delicate tea flowers > > ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 28 May 1998 00:07:05 -0400 Reply-To: vcoppola@froggernet.com Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: Vince Coppola Subject: Re: Honey in brood boxes. MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Marc Sevigny wrote: > > I opened my hives this week and noticed a couple of strange > things. > > My strongest hive is working on filling the brood chambers (2) > with honey, even though there is a completely empty honey > super right above it.... > Should my tactic be to remove the excluder to get them to work the > foundation in the empty super? Yes, remove the excluder. What you observed, the honey in the brood box, is a sign of swarming preparation. When you have a super filled with honey you no longer need an excluder unless the flow is erratic. Long dearths may cause the queen to move up into the honey. I think that what led to the situation is putting the foundation over an excluder. I prefer to place foundation right over the brood chamber without an excluder during a good flow. Watch for signs of swarming, you may have to take measures. ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 28 May 1998 21:15:24 +0900 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: j h & e mcadam Subject: Re: swarm help MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" ... there is a swarm in a low branch near my house. I shook them into super with 10 frames and foundation. For the most part they took to it, but darkness has fallen >and there are still many bees on the box--both the top and sides. My question >is, "what do I do to get them into the hive so I can put the top cover on and >move them out from where they are?" When hiving swarms the beekeeper works with the bees instinctive behaviour to seek a new home and then summon all other bees in the swarm to the chosen location. Usually this signalling is triggered by shaking the majority of the swarm into a box. In most cases the queen will be with the cluster shaken in and the bees quickly begin fanning the queen scent from the entrance so that returning scout bees also home in on the hive box. However when swarm catching after the bees normal close down of activity for the day, there is either no signalling or the loose bees will not take to the air. The behaviour pattern is for the bees to stay put until daylight then reform their swarm. Provided the queen did get shaken into the box the bees sitting outside will rejoin her in the morning and commence orientation flights. However there will be no scent fanning and there will be a cluster of lost bees. If it is possible to prune the branch the swarm settled on and lay it at the hive entrance many bees will be attracted to this and will then walk into the hive. I do find when catching swarms which must be moved from the location immediately there will be a forlorn cluster left for several days which gradually fall by the wayside. I think a streak of ruthlessness is required here. You must put the hive box in its permanent position and consider the lost bees as unavoidable casualties. Betty McAdam HOG BAY APIARY Penneshaw, Kangaroo Island J.H. & E. McAdam Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: Computer Software Solutions Ltd Subject: Finding Queen Cells Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Hi All This is my first real year at beekeeping. I have a question on checking for Queen cells. In order to find the Queen cells, I have been advised to shake off all of the bees in case a Queen cell is missed. I read elsewhere that if you shake a frame with a Queen Cell on it, the larva is liable to be dislodged from the bed of larva. So how can you be sure if you are keeping only one queen cell in a split that the larva is not damaged?. If on the other hand you save more than one queen cell as an insurance against damage, are you not facing the possibility of casts? Sincerely Tom Barrett 49 South Park Foxrock Dublin 18 Ireland e mail cssl@iol.ie Tel + 353 1 289 5269 Fax + 353 1 289 9940 ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 28 May 1998 10:07:13 -0400 Reply-To: beekeepr@bellsouth.net Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: Frank Humphrey Subject: Re: Finding Queen Cells In-Reply-To: <199805281145.MAA25769@mail.iol.ie> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit > Queen cells. > > In order to find the Queen cells, I have been advised to shake off all of > the bees in case a Queen cell is missed. > > I read elsewhere that if you shake a frame with a Queen Cell on it, the > larva is liable to be dislodged from the bed of larva. > > Tom Barrett > Shaking the frames can damage worker larvae as well as queen larvae. Queen cells are rather large and protrude from the frame either from the middle of the frame(supercedure cells) or from the bottom(swarm cells). They seem to be hidden sometimes but are apparent on close inspection. What happens often is that the beekeeper finds 5 or 6 large cells and misses the runts which end up hatching and producing inferior queens. Frank Humphrey beekeepr@bellsouth.net ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 28 May 1998 08:15:26 -0500 Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: Richard Barnes Subject: Queen left with swarms Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain It's too late now, but I have had two hives that swarmed. Both hives had at least 15 queen cells. Both queens left 4-5 frames covered on both sides with 90% coverage in brood. I didn't think I could control these hives from swarming. With this number of queen cells I didn't think even splits would help. Here comes the confusing part, both hives are queenless now. Both hives have a strong bee population but no brood and I can't find a queen in either of the hives. I have ordered new queens and will put them in as soon as they come in. I guess that a hive can be strong enough to put too many swarms together and all the queens will leave. Any one with similar experiences? Richard L. Barnes richard.barnes1@halliburton.com ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 28 May 1998 19:09:58 -0400 Reply-To: rossybee@entelchile.net Sender: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology From: Rossy Castillo Subject: I need some help MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Hi everybody! I've been reading about some insects and other pests of bees and I couldn't find in the dictionary(English-Spanish) the meaning or the Spanish name for : booklice o barklice(Psocoptera) lacewings(Neuroptera) twisted-winged ( Strepsiptera) ratels Thanks a lot beforehand Rossy rossybee@entelchile.net