The bee keeper diaries

[Iowanian]

It's a great time to buy stock in eppy pens.

This thread is a repository for bee keepers or those interested.

A couple of years ago, a couple of friends an my brother started puttering with honey bees. I didn't buy off because, well, I've never been a big fan of bees or getting stung by them. Last summer I tagged along a couple of times to check their hives and to remove honey bees from a house, public building and an old garage.

I realized at the end of the summer when I was helping them process some, that it's actually pretty interesting, and fits into my expanding "grow my own" logic. I'm not full blown hippy but I see a lot of logic in the self sustaining food thing and I'm doing some of that too.

That said, this thread is about bees, honey bees, bee keeping and bee fighting war stories.

I'm taking the leap and plan to get 2-3 hives this spring and maybe build some bee swarm traps to make it cheaper or to make a few bucks.

Join me and I'll share the real life lessons of an ameture bee keeper. I'm sure I'm going to learn some things the hard way.

[displacedinMN]

This will piss you off.

About 5 million honeybees bound for Alaska last weekend got waylaid when Delta Air Lines routed them through Atlanta, where most of the bees died after being left for hours in crates on the ground during hot weather.

The bees were the first of two shipments ordered by Alaska beekeeper Sarah McElrea from a distributor in California. The bees were to be used to pollinate apple orchards and nurseries in Alaska, where they are not native.

But the bees were bumped from their original route to Anchorage, Alaska, and instead put on a flight to Atlanta, where they were to be transferred to an Anchorage-bound plane, according to published reports.

McElrea said she worried when the 800-pound shipment didn't arrive in Atlanta in time to make the connecting flight. The next day, she said, Delta told her some bees had escaped, so airline workers put the crates holding the bees outside a Delta cargo bay.

In a panic, McElrea reached a beekeeper in Atlanta, who rushed to the airport and discovered that many of the bees had died from heat and starvation, according to The New York Times.

Delta called it an "unfortunate situation."

In an emailed statement, Delta spokeswoman Catherine Morrow told The Associated Press on Friday that that the airline "was made aware of the shipment situation ... and quickly engaged the appropriate internal teams to assess the situation. We have taken immediate action to implement new measures to ensure events of this nature do not occur in the future."

Morrow said Delta apologized to McElrea. The airline declined to make anyone available for an interview.

The beekeeper in Atlanta, Edward Morgan, called more than a dozen people to go to the airport and try to save any bees that were still alive.

"It's devastating to see that many dead," Georgia beekeeper Julia Mahood told Atlanta broadcaster WABE. "Just clumps of dead bees that had no chance because they were left outside with no food and basically got lost in Delta's machinery."

McElrea, who runs a business called Sarah's Alaska Honey, said that she had received previous shipments of honeybees on Delta from Sacramento, California, to Anchorage via Seattle many times. The airline told her that last weekend's shipment didn't fit on the plane, so they were rerouted through Atlanta.

McElrea said her supplier in California will replace the shipment, which was worth about $48,000. She said she is hoping Delta provides some help, although she acknowledged that shipping live animals carries risk.

[Iowanian]

Divide $48,000 by about $170 and that will tell you how many hives of bees those idiots killed. I’m sure the responsible people didn’t understand, but damn.

[lewdog]

I save EVERY honey bee that falls into our pool when I'm out there.

I can't imagine the loss of bee life in my pool though.

They just don't understand that they can't swim!!!

[ghak99]

Originally Posted by lewdog

I save EVERY honey bee that falls into our pool when I'm out there.

I can't imagine the loss of bee life in my pool though.

They just don't understand that they can't swim!!!

We leave a chunk of floating wood in all of our tanks. There are certain times of the year you'd find dozens of dead bees a day without them floating in there. They also keep you from finding the occasional dead bird and squirrel. They're dumber than bees when is comes to water.

I honestly don't know what you could put in your pool, but I bet there's a product available made to mimic the floating chunk of wood. If there isn't, some bee keeper needs to jump on that marketing campaign with some bleeding bee heart mantra for a low low price of $29.99.

[ghak99]

Originally Posted by Iowanian

Divide $48,000 by about $170 and that will tell you how many hives of bees those idiots killed. I’m sure the responsible people didn’t understand, but damn.

Dumb ****s for sure.

Curiosity got me and google disappointed me. It appears bees are often a planned annual crop in Alaska. That's kind of ****ed up as well. I guess I assumed they collected hives and stored for winter.

[PastorMikH]

Interesting thread! My grandfather was into beekeeping big time back when I was a kid. I’ve pretty much done it all with him. Even had a couple of my own hives. Between him and his partner they had right at 500 hives in around Columbia Missouri. Good times.

[PastorMikH]

Out here in western Ok where it’s dry and plants to pollinate are spread out bee keepers have hives on trailers so they can be moved closer to plants periodically through the season. I found that interesting. Thought maybe some here would too.

[lewdog]

Originally Posted by ghak99

We leave a chunk of floating wood in all of our tanks. There are certain times of the year you'd find dozens of dead bees a day without them floating in there. They also keep you from finding the occasional dead bird and squirrel. They're dumber than bees when is comes to water.

I honestly don't know what you could put in your pool, but I bet there's a product available made to mimic the floating chunk of wood. If there isn't, some bee keeper needs to jump on that marketing campaign with some bleeding bee heart mantra for a low low price of $29.99.

Dead bees and geckos in the pool. First years in this house and never a dead gecko. Past few years I'm finding a handful of dead geckos each year too. Makes me sad.

I'd do anything to save the bees too.

[Hog's Gone Fishin]

Originally Posted by lewdog

I save EVERY honey bee that falls into our pool when I'm out there.

I can't imagine the loss of bee life in my pool though.

They just don't understand that they can't swim!!!

Originally Posted by lewdog

Dead bees and geckos in the pool. First years in this house and never a dead gecko. Past few years I'm finding a handful of dead geckos each year too. Makes me sad.

I'd do anything to save the bees too.

Easy solution.

Fill your pool in with concrete.

But if you do, I'd remove the diving board just for safety purposes.

[Iowanian]

There are enough in a colony that you shouldn’t feel too bad about a few drowned bees. I have them drown in the buckets I leave out to clean up the honey after I bottle, and it buckets outside that have water in them.

The floating wood or 2x4 chunk in the tank or the pool is a good idea.

[Stewie]

My neighbor owns a horse farm and is a beekeeper. Bees everywhere on my property. Very cool.

[displacedinMN]

Originally Posted by Iowanian

There are enough in a colony that you shouldn’t feel too bad about a few drowned bees. I have them drown in the buckets I leave out to clean up the honey after I bottle, and it buckets outside that have water in them.

The floating wood or 2x4 chunk in the tank or the pool is a good idea.

amazed that a bee would land on wood instead of water. Not doubting you, but amazed.

[Iowanian]

I'm going to try something new. My kid did some time-lapse videos of different processes over the weekend and I made a rumble to try to share some. It might take a bit to figure out how it works to embed, but if you want, I'll share some bee videos.

If someone knows how to embed from rumble I could use a pointer.

https://rumble.com/v144hlk-working-on-swarm-traps.html

https://rumble.com/v144ht5-hanging-a-swarm-trap.html

https://rumble.com/v144ig7-looking-t...ve-splits.html

[ptlyon]

BTW Iowa did check that out. Cool stuff!

[Iowanian]

If you guys like it, I'll get some videos when I'm catching swarms and doing other things that might be of interest. I'd have done it before but I didn't want to do youtube to host the vids.