Comments on: Honey Bee Swarm, Part 2

By: warren

warren — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 20:29:35 +0000

Sure thing…bee talk always makes my ears itch! It’s funny…plenty of people used to keep bees and still offer advice on how they used to do it. Of course, a lot of people lost a lot of bees too…and especially nowadays with mites and CCD and who knows what is next. Anyhow, what I am trying to say is that you def do need to learn a lot to really keep bees successfully. Of course, even as much as you learn, they sometimes just go on ahead and do whatever the heck the want. Anyhow, keep after it and it will all get easier in time.

Oh yeah, regarding smoke…it def does make the bees move…but I am not always sure that is a good thing. If I have a few that are really in my way, I just evenly and gently blow on them…they’ll move that way too…

Ok, enough rambling…have fun with your bees!

By: Rian

Rian — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 19:54:08 +0000

Hi Warren! I was hoping I’d lure you over with all this bee talk.

I tell you what, this swarm business has really inspired me to do some homework. It made it painfully obvious that one needs to know at least a little about what they’re doing if you actually want to productively keep a hive. I’ll never forget watching/hearing that cloud form outside the hive. Oops.

I’ve had mixed results with the smoke… half the time if seems to really help get them out of the way. The other half of the time, I’m not sure it does anything except stink up the joint. I really only use it when I’m doing a “major operation” like a full hive inspection or need to get them off the top bars for some reason.

Thanks for the comments.

By: warren

warren — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 19:13:04 +0000

I’d say that if you hadn’t split the hive, they most definitely would have swarmed again. They still might but you probably averted it and in a controlled manner.

You mention using smoke and that stirring up the bees…you might consider going smokeless. I haven’t used any smoke whatsoever in several years and I have been much happier for it. I don’t get stung much, I don’t stink up me or the neighborhood and my bees remain fairly calm and easy going. Just a thought. You mention in another post about honey excluders being a religious topic…smoke is also part of that old dogma that people buy into also…

By: THE SWARM! (Part 3) and Botrytis

THE SWARM! (Part 3) and Botrytis — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 07:07:08 +0000

[...] Honey Bee Swarm, Part 2 [...]

By: Darren

Darren — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 02:58:19 +0000

Who could not help but root for the old queen?
Seriously though, that was good bee drama..
..they’re landing on my face screen..
heh, downright Hitchcockian!

By: Farmer Jen

Farmer Jen — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 21:57:48 +0000

OMG! I still say that you are waaay braver than I am!