HiveHeads: Honey Bees Matter.
Discussion
To save the veg plot thread getting totally swamped with bee talk, and with the encouragement of dickymint, here be the PistonHeads bee thread for all those considering a hive or two.
Some background to start, the honey bee is threatened by an unknown disease that is decimating swarms and leaving hives empty. A very good programme is on this Friday on BBC2 at 7pm, which was previously shown on BBC 4, Who Killed the Honey Bee?. Much research is being done on the honey bee at the moment, including close at home (for me) at Sussex Uni. Quite fascinating to look at a double glazed window unit with an active colony inside!
My involvement has been instigated by a mate of mine who has got 2 hives that we built from kits. We are currently awaiting our swarm from a local keeper, but apparently his swarm has gone all Republican and started laying Queen pods so slight delay.
Some good links for more info;
British Beekeeper's Association
National Hive
Beeginners Info
I'd also recommend finding your local group (links through the BBA website) and popping along. They're not all chunky jumper, twigs in beer sorts. Joining your local group also gives you access to insurance for your hives.
They're a fascinating subject and not much is actually known of their activities or detailed behaviour. Some of the figures associated with a hive are quite breathtaking.
So, I'll detail our progress here, hopefully with some pictures of our hives over the weekend, I look forward to seeing your progress too. They may not be the most cuddly of creatures but they are very important to the food chain.
Some background to start, the honey bee is threatened by an unknown disease that is decimating swarms and leaving hives empty. A very good programme is on this Friday on BBC2 at 7pm, which was previously shown on BBC 4, Who Killed the Honey Bee?. Much research is being done on the honey bee at the moment, including close at home (for me) at Sussex Uni. Quite fascinating to look at a double glazed window unit with an active colony inside!
My involvement has been instigated by a mate of mine who has got 2 hives that we built from kits. We are currently awaiting our swarm from a local keeper, but apparently his swarm has gone all Republican and started laying Queen pods so slight delay.
Some good links for more info;
British Beekeeper's Association
National Hive
Beeginners Info
I'd also recommend finding your local group (links through the BBA website) and popping along. They're not all chunky jumper, twigs in beer sorts. Joining your local group also gives you access to insurance for your hives.
They're a fascinating subject and not much is actually known of their activities or detailed behaviour. Some of the figures associated with a hive are quite breathtaking.
So, I'll detail our progress here, hopefully with some pictures of our hives over the weekend, I look forward to seeing your progress too. They may not be the most cuddly of creatures but they are very important to the food chain.
Simpo Two said:
Red Firecracker said:
the honey bee is threatened by an unknown disease that is decimating swarms and leaving hives empty.
Not Veroa mite then?Edited by Red Firecracker on Thursday 14th May 09:50
I saw that programme on BBC4 and it was interesting - apart from the annoying presenter off Women's Hour. The scary thing was that there seems to be no one cause to Colony Collapse Disorder as each single factor highlighted on its own isn't enough to cause the collapse in population numbers. The programme didn't give a definitive answer (no one knows) but suggested it is the combination together that has pushed the hives over some tipping point and caused problems.
I'm as sceptical as anyone else on this forum about all the eco bull the BBC and others trot out but if all these disparate factors are coming together and wiping out the bees then we should be worried - could this happen in other eco systems? Definitely food for thought.
I'm as sceptical as anyone else on this forum about all the eco bull the BBC and others trot out but if all these disparate factors are coming together and wiping out the bees then we should be worried - could this happen in other eco systems? Definitely food for thought.
lonny said:
I'm as sceptical as anyone else on this forum about all the eco bull the BBC and others trot out but if all these disparate factors are coming together and wiping out the bees then we should be worried - could this happen in other eco systems? Definitely food for thought.
We seem to import all our food amyway!But if there was a global extinction of bees, then any species that depended on plants pollinated only by bees would become extinct also. It's always seemed very shaky to me that pandas only eat bamboo shoots - no bamboo shoots, bye bye pandas.
dickymint said:
I've read that some bees are getting lazy! ie. workers are supposed to "clean up" the hive and eject disseased/dieing bees but aren't. Australian keepers are now attempting to breed "cleaner bees".
Australia has the clean bees. There are no cases of disease or CCD in Australia so they are breeding bees especially for export, which is why the prices of bees is so high and getting them is quite hard. The strange thing about CCD is that the hives are empty, there are no dead bees in there, they just disappear leaving a healthy queen and some workers.
An update on our republican bees: Next bit of fine weather and they will be moving in. The decision has been made to sort out any problems once they are in place.
Useless bee fact: The most number of stings endured (with survival) was over 2400. Bugger.
FlossyThePig said:
mechsympathy said:
After seeing something similar on a River Cottage programme I'm considering putting a hive on my garage roof. Just a bit wary of what the neighbours might think.
I would love to keep bees, but I have been told that I only have about 3 minutes to use my epipen if I get stung.
Epipen at the ready, Stifler!
This morning was move in day for the bees.
Here are the hives, imaginatively named 'A' and 'B' at the moment.
Here are the occupants of 'A' being moved in, with a littler persuasion.
Here's one of the combs from 'B', with tenants.
And here's what they've got to work with, lovely Sussex downland.
Only problem so far is we've realised that the bottom section of 'A' (with the door) is back to front. That'll be sorted when they've calmed down a bit.
Very strange experience being amongst them. After the initial 'flurry' they really don't take any notice of you as long as you're not doing a Benny Hill dance all over the place. Fascinating things to watch and extreme;y docile.
This morning was move in day for the bees.
Here are the hives, imaginatively named 'A' and 'B' at the moment.
Here are the occupants of 'A' being moved in, with a littler persuasion.
Here's one of the combs from 'B', with tenants.
And here's what they've got to work with, lovely Sussex downland.
Only problem so far is we've realised that the bottom section of 'A' (with the door) is back to front. That'll be sorted when they've calmed down a bit.
Very strange experience being amongst them. After the initial 'flurry' they really don't take any notice of you as long as you're not doing a Benny Hill dance all over the place. Fascinating things to watch and extreme;y docile.
Edited by Red Firecracker on Saturday 16th May 13:08
stifler said:
FlossyThePig said:
mechsympathy said:
After seeing something similar on a River Cottage programme I'm considering putting a hive on my garage roof. Just a bit wary of what the neighbours might think.
I would love to keep bees, but I have been told that I only have about 3 minutes to use my epipen if I get stung.
How much does a full hive weigh?Red Firecracker said:
Epipen at the ready, Stifler!
This morning was move in day for the bees.
Here are the hives, imaginatively named 'A' and 'B' at the moment.
Here are the occupants of 'A' being moved in, with a littler persuasion.
Here's one of the combs from 'B', with tenants.
And here's what they've got to work with, lovely Sussex downland.
Only problem so far is we've realised that the bottom section of 'A' (with the door) is back to front. That'll be sorted when they've calmed down a bit.
Very strange experience being amongst them. After the initial 'flurry' they really don't take any notice of you as long as you're not doing a Benny Hill dance all over the place. Fascinating things to watch and extreme;y docile.
Makes me shudder thinking about it.This morning was move in day for the bees.
Here are the hives, imaginatively named 'A' and 'B' at the moment.
Here are the occupants of 'A' being moved in, with a littler persuasion.
Here's one of the combs from 'B', with tenants.
And here's what they've got to work with, lovely Sussex downland.
Only problem so far is we've realised that the bottom section of 'A' (with the door) is back to front. That'll be sorted when they've calmed down a bit.
Very strange experience being amongst them. After the initial 'flurry' they really don't take any notice of you as long as you're not doing a Benny Hill dance all over the place. Fascinating things to watch and extreme;y docile.
Edited by Red Firecracker on Saturday 16th May 13:08
Fair play though.
You have been very unimaginative the names of the hives. Although with some twisting of words you could have A Hive and Bee Hive.
stifler said:
Red Firecracker said:
snipped ...
Makes me shudder thinking about it.Fair play though.
You have been very unimaginative the names of the hives. Although with some twisting of words you could have A Hive and Bee Hive.
How about an automotive theme ... like "M" and "G", "Silverstone" and "Donington", or even "Piston" and "Head"!
... or just call them "Laurel" and "Hardy" ...
steve_amv8 said:
stifler said:
Red Firecracker said:
snipped ...
Makes me shudder thinking about it.Fair play though.
You have been very unimaginative the names of the hives. Although with some twisting of words you could have A Hive and Bee Hive.
How about an automotive theme ... like "M" and "G", "Silverstone" and "Donington", or even "Piston" and "Head"!
... or just call them "Laurel" and "Hardy" ...
Stings house and ...
Pie and Piston
That's the limit of my imagination.
A while since the last update, but anyhow.
The hives (yes, still A & B) were slow to start off, mainly as we think the queens either weren't in there to start with or just sodded off. 2 new queens were introduced and the results have been rather polar. One colony swarmed, the other has gone from strength to strength, in actual fact a little too quickly.
Here is the queenless hive;
as you can see, not much activity. Bit better on one of the combs though;
They're building queen cells and laying drones so we are hopeful that B will recover soon.
Onto the biggy. A has been a touch rampant.
This comb is a bit better populated than the one in B;
The brood box in A is nearly full (our mistake, we got the spacing of the frames wrong so the bees filled in the spaces) so we've had to put 2 supers on top as a temporary measure to prevent swarming whilst we get another brood box to put on top.
If you look closely, here's a shot of some bee tongues!;
Rough estimate is that B is home to 4 - 6000 bees and A has about 25,000 inhabitants. Growing strongly as there are lots of brood cells.
Sting count so far, 1.
The hives (yes, still A & B) were slow to start off, mainly as we think the queens either weren't in there to start with or just sodded off. 2 new queens were introduced and the results have been rather polar. One colony swarmed, the other has gone from strength to strength, in actual fact a little too quickly.
Here is the queenless hive;
as you can see, not much activity. Bit better on one of the combs though;
They're building queen cells and laying drones so we are hopeful that B will recover soon.
Onto the biggy. A has been a touch rampant.
This comb is a bit better populated than the one in B;
The brood box in A is nearly full (our mistake, we got the spacing of the frames wrong so the bees filled in the spaces) so we've had to put 2 supers on top as a temporary measure to prevent swarming whilst we get another brood box to put on top.
If you look closely, here's a shot of some bee tongues!;
Rough estimate is that B is home to 4 - 6000 bees and A has about 25,000 inhabitants. Growing strongly as there are lots of brood cells.
Sting count so far, 1.
Bit of an odd question...
Just popped out to the shops and noticed what I thought was a load of wasps. On closer inspection, it's a swarm of honey bees. They are in the middle of the road, nowehere near any flowers. Loads of them are lying dead in the road, and the rest of the swarm are hovering above/picking at their dead. They look a bit lost...is there anything I can do to help them?
Just popped out to the shops and noticed what I thought was a load of wasps. On closer inspection, it's a swarm of honey bees. They are in the middle of the road, nowehere near any flowers. Loads of them are lying dead in the road, and the rest of the swarm are hovering above/picking at their dead. They look a bit lost...is there anything I can do to help them?
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