Recent Posts

11

HUMOR IS A FUNNY THING / Re: Old Man Jokes

« Last post by Salvo on April 22, 2024, 08:34:01 pm »

An old man goes back to bed ...And asks his wife " does the light in our bathroom turn on and off automatically ", she replies with "No why?", the old man sighs and says "well.... I'm going to buy a new fridge tomorrow"



I asked an old man, "Even after 60 years of being married, how can you still call your wife 'Honey', 'Darling' and 'Sweetheart'?"He replied, "Well I forgot her name 10 years ago and I'm scared to ask her!"




Why did the old man hate living next to the tennis courts?
He couldn't stand all the racket!

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HUMOR IS A FUNNY THING / Re: 30 years

« Last post by Salvo on April 22, 2024, 08:29:26 pm »

.

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GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. / Re: What did you do in your Apiary/Bee yard today?

« Last post by FatherMichael on April 22, 2024, 08:21:14 pm »

Installed a nuc this morning from The Bee Place near San Antonio.

The proprietor there, Gary Rankin, told me that he was up to 1000 Italian queen imports to "cool down" the Africanized bee invasion that has been so hard on Texas beekeepers.

His business has exploded because Texas allows agricultural exemptions for keeping bees on personal property.  The Hill Country and South Texas are  retirement destinations.  Localities make up for no income tax with property taxes, which are high on the "ranches" that lucrative people buy there.  You'd have to see the growth of Dallas-Fort Worth, Austin, San Antonio, and Houston to understand.  I am in constant awe as I travel to these places.

Gary had a couple dozen in his Beekeeping 101 class for new customers, and was selling dozens of nucs and complete set ups on this his first weekend.

The potential for honey production in this country is phenomenal.  Even here in West Texas there is an untold wealth of sticky sweetness.

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GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. / Re: What did you do in your Apiary/Bee yard today?

« Last post by FatherMichael on April 22, 2024, 05:00:14 pm »

This afternoon, i built more Layens frames. Build, build, build.
Yesterday, a fellow beek had a nice sized, wild swarm move into a spare nuc box behind his shed. I quickly dumped them into a Layens swarm trap with a bit of old comb on one frame and moved it the 4 miles to my house. It looks like they are staying in the box. Whoo-hoo! Free bees!

Awesome!

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EQUIPMENT USAGE, EXPERIMENTATION, HIVE PLANS, CONSTRUCTION TIPS AND TOOLS / Re: Frame width

« Last post by FatherMichael on April 22, 2024, 04:58:50 pm »

What do you do for spacing, Michael?

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GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. / Re: How are your Bees?

« Last post by Caashenb on April 22, 2024, 04:22:46 pm »

The flow is on here also and the five hives I over wintered are doing well and putting up nectar.

I have caught four swarms this spring and have 3 more in traps to transfer so I am still feeding this years catch to increase population and build up comb.

All of my colonies are feral so I am looking to start re=queening them soon to make my life a little calmer when I work them.

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GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. / How are your Bees?

« Last post by Ben Framed on April 22, 2024, 02:53:26 pm »

The Spring Flow is flowing in my area. Bees are doing well. I?m doing nothing special at this time .

After coming off of Winter, how are your bees? What?s going on in your beeyard?  Are you making splits? Are you raising queens?  Finding SHB?  Other?
Are they at a point that you are pleased with at this time?

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GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. / Re: Swarm Trap deadout/abscond

« Last post by Ben Framed on April 22, 2024, 11:35:15 am »

They built no comb. Just that tiny bit?
Usually, if there is any real, decent sized swarm, they build comb immediately. They completely fill up my swarm traps with comb in less than two weeks.

And why I ask for more information and pictures. Wondering if The Wax Moths might have eaten up the new comb as well, and this pictured is all of the new comb that was left?

I can only speak from my own personal experience. I have never collected a swarm which was not 'fast to build comb, no matter the size of the swarm, even a late season swarm. Even an occasional odd swarm, collected in a time of summer with little natural resources available, that did not build comb and fast. I always suposed they filled up on enough honey for a quick and needed comb building supply before leaving inorder to begin 'setting up housekeeping' ASAP

Those described which I have personally collected during such a time built comb fast. But: to aid them I also fed ASAP, since the Spring Flow had passed. Each swarm survived just fine. But in fairness, without my aid of feed, they might have very well starved (maybe 100 percent of them?), without the needed natural resources coming in... A late season swarm also needs pollen or a pollen substitute in the development of bees...

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GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. / Re: Swarm Trap deadout/abscond

« Last post by beesnweeds on April 22, 2024, 11:14:24 am »

That was something that shocked me as well, they're comb building machines at that stage. That part doesn't make sense since they're been around for over a week.

The ideal age for comb production workers is 12 to 18 days.  Most of those perfect age bees probably left with the primary swarm.  Smaller secondary swarms don't always have enough right age bees and resources.  Less than 10% of swarms survive, not all swarms are comb building machines.

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WEB VIDEOS / Sergeant First Class Ronald E. Rosser, U.S. Army

« Last post by Ben Framed on April 22, 2024, 12:34:20 am »

Sergeant First Class Ronald E. Rosser, U.S. Army, was awarded the Medal of Honor for leading an assault on a fortified hill near Ponggilli during the Korean War.  Rosser had served in the Army at the end of World War II and prior to Korea.  He re-enlisted upon the death of his brother in Korea, requesting front-line duty.  An American original, Ron Rosser passed away on August 26, 2020, one of the great heroes of the Korean War.


https://youtu.be/FvqjI00BeY4?si=dk2f9AJAdQO_Wk1H