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.

[ghak99]

Originally Posted by Buehler445

Guineas make me laugh. Somehow they always hang out on the highways and roads and don't get ****ed up. The people that have them say they have them to eat snakes.

You just look at those things and you can see in their eyes they give no ****s.

Back in the day the city of independence informed my uncle he had to get rid of all his stripper girlfriend's zoo animals because they were disturbing the neighbors... so we inherited half a dozen of them and some other weird shit.

We were raising rabbits, broilers, and eggs at the time so they were kind of cool at first because they acted like a guard dog and would scream and yell when any predator got near. Our snake problem under the layer house went away after we got them, but they didn't seem to keep the mice or rats at bay once the snakes were gone. The whole yard was completely void of bugs as long as they were around and we lived right across the road from a tick infested timber.

They weren't as bad as turkeys can be, but they were mean as hell in their own way. You had to be damn good to get one with the 4 wheeler without crashing. I shot one of the screaming bastards off the peak of the roof of the house one time and the damn thing didn't even die when it bounced into the front yard. He never stood up there and screamed above my bedroom window again though.

[ptlyon]

Originally Posted by ghak99

I shot one of the screaming bastards off the peak of the roof of the house one time and the damn thing didn't even die when it bounced into the front yard. He never stood up there and screamed above my bedroom window again though.

[Pennywise]

I heard this on the radio this am. The butterflies are also disappearing.

Butterfly populations declining rapidly in U.S. with 22% disappearing in 2 decades, study finds


Butterfly populations declining rapidly in U.S. with 22% disappearing in 2 decades, study finds
By Sarah Metz

Updated on: March 6, 2025 / 8:35 PM EST / CBS News

Butterflies, known for their beauty and vital role in pollination, are vanishing from U.S. landscapes at an alarming rate. A comprehensive study, published Thursday in the journal Science, found that 22% of butterflies in the United States disappeared between 2000 and 2020.

The new research offers a stark warning about the potential future of these cherished insects.

"Losing one out of every five butterflies over 20 years should be a big wake-up call to people," said Dr. Eliza Grames, an assistant professor of biological sciences at Binghamton University and co-author of the study. "These declines are not stopping."

While butterflies are the most extensively monitored insect group in the U.S., most past studies have been limited by geography or focused on specific species, a news release on the study said. The researchers behind the Science study used data from more than 12.6 million butterflies spanning 342 individual species, drawing from 76,000 surveys across 35 nationwide monitoring programs.


https://www.cbsnews.com/news/butterf...science-study/

[Mr. Wizard]

I think I am done. Between minus 30 wind chills and all of the ag chemicals and the diseases and mites and every damn thin else they don't stand a chance.

[Iowanian]

Bee keeping is not for the weak. It’s very humbling.

But….guys like you wizard are helping keep them going.

I’m not going to quit,…I’m just frustrated.

[Buehler445]

Originally Posted by Mr. Wizard

I think I am done. Between minus 30 wind chills and all of the ag chemicals and the diseases and mites and every damn thin else they don't stand a chance.

Do you even have any flowers around down there?

[Mr. Wizard]

Originally Posted by Buehler445

Do you even have any flowers around down there?

Lots of alfalfa. Unfortunately it is constantly sprayed with insecticide and roundup which slowly eliminates breeding. Pollinators a slowly dying out. Not sure where it will all end up

[Mr. Wizard]

I have decided that I am going rouge. Going to move all my empty hives to various spots away from farming. Gonna make 30 gallon waterers an out 2 in each secret place. Visit once a month and see if the bees naturally find them. Sick of buying them and watching them die.