Be Excellent To Each Other

so, i'm suddenly doing a beekeeper training.. said yes with an impuls (and an inner driver to save biodiversity when bees are doing badly .. thanks to neonictoids http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neonicotinoid )... and thought it would be a few days, but suddenly it seems like a proper trianing, 7 evenings of theory, one day of carpenting, and 12 days of practice in reall ife..

how are your bees doing?

COVERED IN BEES

That's pretty cool. Is it expensive to do?

This is actually something I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to do, because it's so important and bees are so awesome, and honey is basically magic, and SAVE THE BEES!

I'm allergic to bees though, so I'm not sure it would be the most practical thing for me to try. But how awesome and interesting x

Just don't eat them.

Or breathe them in.

Or knit a jumper out of them and wear it.

You guys make those restrictions seem so easy. Obviously you've not been around bees enough to have been drawn into their power.

Beads?

Ho ho ho, Hee hee hee

Busy buzy bumble bees

The course costs me around 130 pounds..

actually beekeeping in time i'm not sure yet..

at the start you'll need some equipment (tools, protection hat/jack).. they have wildly different prices.. from 15 pound for a suit until 100s..
then of course you need a house for your bays.. these day you can get them from styropor for 100 pounds (http://imkershop.nl/110-segeberger-styropor-kasten styropor, is basically package white stuff pressed together), or from wood for around 180...

then you need to get bees... it seems to depend on when you buy them.. (and if you are more selective, you can buy special races like the carnica and the buckfast, bred on isles to keep them 'pure') .. if you buy a 'people' (or gimme as beekeepers call them), in april, giving you still honey in the summer, it sets you back around 80 pounds, but if you buy them later or just a queen it is far less..(or course it take longer to produce honey then)..

And of course you should be able to recoup some of that selling honey... but takes time and effort too....

I'm not sure yet i'm actually going to actually get my own hive, or just like this experience by itself.. getting to be a certified beekeeper, and knowing what's happening around there..

Well this was basically my feeling too.. hopefully i won't be getting allergic.. as one of the teachers told me yesterday she has become allergic after 30 years of beekeeping....

This feeling of it is important and it is some area you an actually start making a difference (other than trying to live sustainable and promote cycling where i can)

One of the more rational drivers for me is the study of their society.. always has been a major fascination for me how those colonies operate, and seeing that in my work a lot with groups i try to draw parallels..

the course already taught me a lot on how the queen is sometimes more than a prisoner of the workers and how she intimidates soon-to-be-born queens by squeeking.. (amazing sound)..

And i'm reading this amazing book http://minhateca.com.br/pauloduarte1985 ... +D.+Seeley Bee democracy (free download it seems) which shows how the worker bees among themselves make a decision on where to build there next hive... amazing read...

This sounds brilliant. Good luck with it.

Last year a friend's parents sent me some honey from their hive. To my shame, I've yet to try it.

My Dad used to keep them, every so often a new Queen is born and a whole load of the bee workers form a big ball of bees around her and leave the hive.

He had to get another hive to keep them in and move a huge ball of bees

Would love to keep them myself but wife not keen and its a disaster waiting to happen with a toddler!

Yes, no wait...I have been here before...

It does, but have you considered a straight swap?

Think how much fun you can have on Halloween coming out of the smoke in full bee gear.

Furry little cunts. Stay well away from them would be my advice.

I don't think it's the fuzzy buzzies that make the honey

I do like the cute little ones that look like stripy pompoms, though.

Yup, one of your main tasks is to regulate or stop this swarm.. no swarming means more bees in the hive, less building -> more honey..


Well were to keep them is kind of a challenge.. i have asked the collective neighbourhood garden e.g. ...
othe ridea is to keep them on my roof, but wonder if my neighbours will go for that..

There is a guy at work who has some hives, last year his bees went nuts and he had 4 times as much honey as normal so was selling it work

My wife complained it tasted funny and didn't like it, she can be such a peasant at times

Isn't everyone allergic to bees? Isn't that how bee stings work?

Some are more allergic than others.

Using that argument we are all allergic to everything, to much of anything* will kill us.



But using the definition of Allergy - An allergy is a hypersensitivity disorder of the immune system, then no we arn't all allergic to bees

I have been stung by a bee once, I have been airlifted once, and the two occurrences were in the same afternoon.

I was in a pretty remote location to be fair. I think I was six. I do not remember the ride

As alluded to above, allergy is a far stronger reaction, than just the normal reaction.. And it can develop over time..

As a tiny upside thing to do mimi, watch the beautiful documentary more than hont.. Shocking in parts, but so many beautiful shots..

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2263058/

I shall get Russell to search this out to watch this weekend. Thanks Rick x

I've added it to the Netflix queue.

It's important that I mention this here rather than turn my head and tell you in person, because more people here need to know how awesome a husband I am.

Although that might be true, I do wonder if pointing at an Internet forum containing that notion during a marital fight will prove to be a succesful tactic...

(sorry for the typo. 'more than honey')

I'd never even thought of keeping bees until I read this thread. Now I want a hive!

Hate to say I told you so.

That's the hive mind getting to you.

Sorry. I've resisted for the past couple of days, but it's too much.

I'm impressed by your willpower, I'd have been unable to sit on that one for more than five minutes.

I read that over and over for five minutes looking for the pun.

Woohoo i passed my test at the dutch beekeepers association. 69 questions about bee behaviour, bee anatonimy and your interventions as a beekeeper.

Currently beekeeping one hive with a friend of mine at the neighbourhood garden. We had our first harvest of 8 pots of honey out of one of those hives (the second was a swarm so we didn't harvest that one)

That's amazing!

Brilliant!

Awesome.

Do you ever get stung?

The suits are pretty pricey.

Superb stuff.

Go on, test us on some of the questions.

Well done, Rick! What a great achievement! Xx

Ok, some are a bit difficult to translate (most beekeeping term are really specific dutch words, i guess because all countries have been beekeeping for thousands of years), but i'll try

- How much liquid should honey have?
A less than 21&
B less than 20%
C depends on the type of honey

- winter bees need pollen because of
a. They need the protein
b. They sit in a bunch
c.Like mimi they have to care for the babies

- if you don't see many Varroa-mites (bee's biggest enemy) in the summer it means
a. you've been combatting Varroa well
b. there aren't many drones at the time
c. the mites have creeped into the breed.

in a bee-imme (one bee-nation)
a. all workers are sisters
b. all drones are brothers
c. the queen is genetic the same as the workers

If you see Swarming cells develop in a bee hive you should
A. Do nothing.
b. Remove the queen and some bees and put them in a sub hive, and break the cells
c. Give the bees extra space.

An pre-swarm is
A. A swarm with the first young queen
B. swarm that goes before new queens have been born
C.. A small swarm of reconnaissance bees looking for a new home,,

If you just checking up and working slowly you won't get stung easily.. we got trained using bare hands to get comfortable with bees walking on your hands... took some time... but now i'm quite okay with it, even though i bought some special gloves for when they don't feel good, like e.g. when they fill there will be a thunderstorm..

At one occasion i did get stung a lot.. After a swarm had left our hive, we managed to cath is.. (is easier than it sounds), but the people they left, didn't manage to breed a new queen, and got very aggressive... finally we managed to merged it with a "Nuc-people" (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuc ) to save it and be a strong nation again.. but one we approached that aggressive nation... they just came towards me.. not one of my best days

Thanks for these. Some really interesting things here - I can certainly understand why people find beekeeping fascinating.

My efforts, with no research, are below:

- How much liquid should honey have?
C depends on the type of honey

- winter bees need pollen because of
a. They need the protein

- if you don't see many Varroa-mites (bee's biggest enemy) in the summer it means
a. you've been combatting Varroa well

in a bee-imme (one bee-nation)
c. the queen is genetic the same as the workers

If you see Swarming cells develop in a bee hive you should
b. Remove the queen and some bees and put them in a sub hive, and break the cells

An pre-swarm is
C.. A small swarm of reconnaissance bees looking for a new home

Bring the honey to cottage!

Well you got 2/6 I'll wait for tomorrow (maybe somebody else want to give it a try) and then give answers in spoiler tags..

I'm probably going to spend the rest of the day reading about bees now.