how about right above your head, like 5 feet away?
DD and I were outside last Friday when we discovered them. She was painting and I was working from home on my laptop. She said, "mommy, bees." I waved her off and said a couple of bees won't bother anyone if you don't bother them. She said, "NO mommy. BEES." I looked at her and saw she was pointing up at the hive, kind of shock. I told her to move slowly and carefully back inside while I cleared off the table. It has been a little fascinating and a little scary since then.
how long had it been there? Like, how long did it take them to build that hive?
I think 3 to 4 weeks. I was trimming the wisteria that climbs that post of the Pergola the first weekend in October. I did not see any signs of bees at that time. I just learned that the light yellow colored part of the honeycomb is the brood space. Most of the honeycomb was brood space because it had not been there long enough to get full of honey
She might have been in the beginning. Once you capture and move the queen, though, the bees become really docile.
she does not generally like to use the gloves. Watch her videos and you can see that her fingertips are almost always exposed. But remember we were sitting next to that hive for an hour and the bees never did anything to us. They have been a Docile bunch the whole time.
Post by sparrowsong on Oct 23, 2014 21:47:17 GMT -5
Wow! That is seriously one of the coolest things I've seen in awhile! And I'm amazed how much bigger things were than when you posted initially! I love seeing the layers of beeswax with the bees removed. Fascinating and beautiful what they make!
This is awesome! My great uncle was a bee wrangler and had dozens of hives that he relocated to his property in those little white hive boxes. I've never seen a hive in the wild though. It's so amazing how honey bees have their own little system from the queen down to the worker bees. Off to YouTube to check out bee videos!
Post by heliocentric on Oct 23, 2014 22:26:53 GMT -5
Thanks for posting. That's a beautiful hive and I'm happy someone captured them and will take good care of them. As a beekeeper it makes me happy to see such a robust, healthy looking colony.
This is amazing! I've been thinking of starting bee keeping, not because I want honey, just to help increase bee numbers. I did a report on Colony Collapse Disorder a few years ago in school, and it's kind of scary to think of 1) how close we are to losing a significant number of bees, and 2) what happens if we do lose all the bees. I do have an outdoor vegetable garden, and the plant the bees liked the most? Catnip! My cats couldn't care less for the fresh stuff, but the bees were all over it.
how long had it been there? Like, how long did it take them to build that hive?
I think 3 to 4 weeks. I was trimming the wisteria that climbs that post of the Pergola the first weekend in October. I did not see any signs of bees at that time. I just learned that the light yellow colored part of the honeycomb is the brood space. Most of the honeycomb was brood space because it had not been there long enough to get full of honey
So cool. Dh would love to keep bees. I can't wait to show him these photos.
We had a less fun ground wasp hive in our yard this summer, but our friendly neighborhood skunk cleaned it out for us (apparently they like to eat the hives & don't care about getting stung).
I love these photos so much. This is exactly how my father became an amateur beekeeper. We had a swarm infest our house when I was 12 or so. My dad hired a beekeeper to come and extract them from the house and help him set up a hive. He now has 4 hives and my parents have gotten hundreds (thousands?) of pounds of honey in the last 20 years. It's fascinating to watch.
DH wants me to tell you and everyone that suggested a wrangler instead of an exterminator, thank you. he got really passionate about bees when i showed him this last night. i never knew.
Bees are super important to our ecosystem and food chain.
We own hives. They're located at my sister's house on her prairie. A friend of H's does the actual beekeeping. The honey we get is amazeballs. Between that and the maple trees we tap I rarely use actual sugar anymore.