bees

[Dame]

Fair would be:  She came to you freely, of her own accord.  Round here your tending would make you the owner.  He does not know they are his, neither do you. 

If you want to be generous, and sympathetic have him bring a box with bottom and lid and give him instead a frame of bees and brood and tell him they will make their own queen for him if he puts it in the queenless hive.  Make sure the brood is very young, mabe even some eggs if you can see them down that long tunnel of a single cell.  Do not give him the queen.

He could perhaps see to it that they do not run out of space again; so they do not swarm.

[Beeherder]

Of that I gave some thought because I told him maybe if he stold some brood from one or more of his three over flowing hives that i keep telling him need more supers maybe if you know he let them they could find a way to make him some more workers for his toil there in his gardens but what do I know I'm just a bug lover who lets his worms run wild.

And now I'm remembering how he said something about not really wanting very much honey so maybe 4 liters? for his 40 frames and he does the schlepping and the cleanup.

Would you be willing to stand on either side of that deal?

no really would any of you non beekeepers and real beekeepers care to coment?

[Dame]

LOL:  Sound like he just does not like working alone.  And, efficiency for such tasks is exponential.  And, past a certain age these older bodies do not get gleeful about long stretches of repetative motion type work.  So, fair?? Ask your body and his.

[Beeherder]

He has one wandering eye, and his treasure so grand, brought their new son so near the gate, but not quite through it last fall, he may stumble under that load but not the weight of the golden treasure I'll ask him to bring on my 4 wheel cart from his truck only 20 frames in a trip to go spinning to my grand scheming searching for another way. Maybe I can just help him see it without my being in his gardens so grand by the small stream running year round accross his property there with her turtle farm so rare.

What say you my guides is 4 liters his prize and some jars I may find in another place to give him?

[Beeherder]

Thought you might like to hear how this is progressing. The beekeeper with the one wandering eye, put some frames with brood, into the hive with none, and we are waiting to see if the sisters want to figure it out on their own. This saturday is my veggie pickup day at the CSA, so afterward he will bring 8 frames from each of his 10 frame supers leaving the two least developed honey frames not close to each other with new empty frames to replace the 8 just stolen and come to my honey house (hobby kitchen) to extract the sweet harvest. No honey will be taken from the hive without evidence of a queen.

I think its too early to be counting any chickes or dividing any booty but i like where this is going.

[Dame]

Young bees, in the first 3 weeks after they emerge are the ones that make the wax. 

[Beeherder]

 
you should try and picture this. A few moments ago just before I had another ah ha moment. I thought I might have heard the beat of a predators wing come close by and I had this overwhelming urge to go sling some paints around to you know take some of the angularity out of the picture and add even more color. Have you ever tried to paint a random pattern on pillars of the unsaid color holding the 6 inch grided bull pen fence sections I cut to make the bear exclusion electrified fence. I purchased two 16 foot long sections of welded wire (quarter inch or larger round wire welded by machine in grided matrix 5 ft x 16 ft) heavy enough to hold the full weight of a bull or a bear. And since I did not have access to a trailer to carry anything that long I just borrowed the heavy bolt cutters they had there at the ranch supply house and made field cuts that I would later clean up with the 4.5 inch angle grinder back at the work farm. And while I was there I purchased a Polar Mac fence charger capable of driving 35 miles of stockman's fence from just that one little solar panel and the eclosed environmentally sealed battery (and I'm guessing some capcitors cuz that's way more than 6 volts and it jumps out at ya) So I'm covered in splotches of paint now and need to go enjoy a cool refreshing shower and then I have more to say about strong hard to see electrified fences that could be used to keep unwanted critters like bears, skunks and racoons out of the apiary. And I hope you'd hardly recognize the place since I made the improvements.

[Beeherder]

So I thought to share some more about the electrified fence around my apiary. While I was at the ranch supply store I got those corner posts of nonconductive material and the store manager volunteered that if they would be useful the broken pieces of non-saleable nonconductiver materials, that could be used under the outer corners of those posts, to support the big heavy welded wire strong enough to hold a bull or a bear. And keeping that elevated now connected strong heavy wire supported at the corners then hand twisted with the cheap "manufacturing" wire also available at the ranch supply store and wraped around the the interwoven matrix of the 6 inch wire mesh. Because by using the 4.5 inch angle grinder to leave one matrix closed and the other open at each corner the matrix itself not the wire holds it all together the wire just keeps it in place.

The second year of doing this the real Mr. Bear walks through my next door neighbors deer exclusion fence in two places in a direct straight line through the two knock downs in my deer exclusion fences toward the hives which I had just put entrance feeders (sugar water) on so they would get stronger going into autumn. You know when the bears are putting on all that weight and how the really like both larvae and honey in the autumn. Well not a bit of noticeable damage to anything in the apiary and the fences were easy to put back up. Two other local beekeepers were 100% wiped out by bears last year so strong electrified fences to protect your sweetness seems like a good idea to me. You know varmits and all.

[Beeherder]

And the other thing about electrified fences is that after you elevate the charged (or soon to be charged) matrix which is now elevated above the earth and therfore not grounded. Is that you need to create a good ground plane around the electrified heavy welded wire mesh matrix held together by its own strenght held above the ground and never a conductor like wood or weed can rest against the soon to be charged matrix. So by acquiring some regular 5 foot cooper ground rods like the ones used to ground your electric service demarcation and meter. Anyway get enough so that when you bury that #6 uninsulated copper wire available at any big box, just deep enough for your soil type and moisture content in a long circular path oh say about where a bear might stand if she was standing up to crush another flimsy deer exclusion fence on her way to some imagined sugary delight. And if you happen to angle drive those posts because you live on a big red rock but use the nearby raised garden beds to drive those rods way below dirt surface and then its where you are going to be irrigating so the ground plane will remain well connected to earth what with all those angle driven ground rods connected by the bare copper wire that you keep pouring all that water on to keep those flowers so nice for the bees, Well maybe then you will handle so much bare copper wire you will then know what copper tastes like in your mouth when you touch it with your bare hands. At least that's how i learned that little trick about CU.

Oh yeah then connect the ground plug on your fence charger to the earth ground plane you just created, and the positive post to the wire matrix. Now you can enjoy watching your neighbors dog learn what happens when his does that near the bees like I asked his owner not to let him do, on my property that way.
 

[Dame]

   bzzzzz

[Beeherder]

and I hear your bzzzz in some other places too,
sounds soooooo sweeeeet
mmmmm strawberries mmmmmm

[Beeherder]

Ok, i ask your help making this better. It is not even a first draft yet. Its long, don't start unless you have some time.


Abstract:

   Premise 1: Most USA suburbs were once prime farmland

   Premise 2: Even excluding houses and roads there is significant farmable land in those suburbs.

   Premise 3: Each typical suburban environment presents an unnaturally diverse potentially bee friendly neighborhood.

   Premise 4: Everybody wants to be part of the solution in some unique way



Working Group Outlines

Hive Design Group - at least 1 beekeeper with over 30 years experience, only active beekeepers and their actively supportive landlords. Sorry no newbies here, lots of other places lots and lots. Design to be based on the work of Abbe Warre' adapted for modern issues.

Hive Manufacturing Group - at least one active beekeeper with more than 30 years experience building wood cabinets and whatever associates they select from the membership.

Apiary Developement Group - at least 1 active beekeeper with background in proposal writing, at least 1 active beekeeper interested in developing a local neighborhood support and work group of active and potential new beekeepers or bee hive owners who are not keepers yet.

Documentation Group - at least 1 person interested in beekeeping willing to give their timew and product freely with no intent to own or control, Anybody else willing to acquire and appropriately wear protective equipment and willing to LISTEN. (this is the natural entry point for newbies im thinkin)

Meeting and Manufacturing Support Group - at least 1 suportive beekeeper willing to volunteer free use of some small space where folks could talk and share. At least 1 active &/or supportive member willing to volunteer use of some indoor covered lighted and electrified space for gathering materials out of the weather and creating a temporary and temperature controled manufacturing facility, to be used for at least 1 season work and more if it is convenient and desireable.

Apiary Setup Group - Help new supportive or actual beekeepers asemble, populate and manage their new hives.

Harvest Group - Communicates with setup group re: locations in need of harvest. Visits on-location hive owners to make arrangements for appropriate harvest as desired by hive owner. Fetches boxes clearly labeled for identification and any special processing needs to the Honey House.

Honey House Group - Design multiple harvest streams for local beekeeping group requirements. Works with the Manufacturing Group to identify needs for equipment design modifications or regular or irregular equipment maintenance. Works with hive owners to process the harvest according to the hive owners choices. Collects all hive products not desired by the hive owners and passes themalong to other hive owners or to the manufacturing group or the Not Honey Harvest Group.

Not Honey Harvest Group -  looks for ways to use the other hive products and helps members develp and share methods of making things like: candles, cosmetics, apothecary, glue, wildlife studies and teaching about bees and other bugs. Ideally this group would include a librarian.

Admin Group - The buck stops here and it won't buy nuthin. Somebody has to do the paper work, keep records, report to the membership, try to keep group X from open warfare against group Y. And most important of all schedule the hall, figure out how to pay for it, and throw one big sweeeet party. Just to say high to each other in the Coop.

Concept Development Group - At least 1 active beekeeper willing to talk to his/her neighbors, friends and other breekeepers and supportive landlords about a local coop.

Message Group -Opsec here please - at least 1 person wiling to help facilitate communication between the groups and especialy supportive of the documentation group. 

[Dame]

Yes, wonderful.  If you see any way for me to make some small contribution from afar please ask. Particulars by PM.

[Beeherder]

i plan to report my progress here and ask for guidance. This is starting to go viral already. I want to give it some structure before it runs wild on its own. Where are the weakneses in organization? what specializations have i neglected? which group is most likely to need the most time for least return. One of the potential members is a software geek who design websites and database interface software for tracking freight and equipment so this could be abailable on the net soon. Help it happen, and i mean not just beekeepers i need help sorting the really important parts from the get somebody else to do it parts.

your guidance please ...

[Beeherder]

 
Pulled another 12 frames of honey today, 6 from each of two hives. The honey flow here this year is so far and above anything i have ever experienced in the 5 years i am doing this now, that it is almost overwhelming. That brings my total to 30 frames from 3 hives SO FAR. There are at least that many more out there now that i just have not gotten to yet. And all those extracted frames have gone back on the hives and they just keep filling them up. WOW

The weather here has been exceptional in that no one can recall a summer this wet in the past 30+ years. My gardens are a similar testiment to what happens when the hydrologic cycle is working to your advantage. Instead of watching the storms go into the drainages north or south like all the other years we have had moisture and relatively cool temps. The high desert is a much nicer place to live when the annual precipitation exceeds 20 inches.

Given what i understand about the sun spot cycle i am expecting a cloudy wet long cold winter. That means i will leave an additional super of honey on each hive going into winter this year relative to all other winters doing this. Hey, if I'm wrong about the weather/climate forecast that just means they will have plenty to eat going into spring next year. So this is a win/win plan.