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Yes, unless you live someplace that doesn't have winter (like hawaii or whatever), it's too late to start a hive this year.
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Aug 2, 2010 01:10
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That sucks, dude. After all that work I was really rooting for you. 
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Aug 2, 2010 02:18
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TouchyMcFeely posted:That sucks, dude. After all that work I was really rooting for you. Me too.  
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Aug 2, 2010 03:30
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Sad story close to my home; very disheartening http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/07/bee-murder-at-hayes-valley-farm-unknown-attacker-sprays-hives-with-pesticide.php
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Aug 2, 2010 06:13
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I saw that on the news too. I hope they catch the rear end in a top hat.
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Aug 2, 2010 06:22
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Maximusi posted:I saw that on the news too. I hope they catch the rear end in a top hat. That's loving depressing What could they charge the perpetrator(s) with? Animal cruelty or just the loss of property?
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Aug 4, 2010 18:30
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It'd be hard to hit them with an animal cruelty charge when you consider that it's obviously not illegal to use bug spray to kill bugs. Destruction of property; depending on the exact value of the destroyed property, it'd be a misdemeanor (vandalism) or a minor felony.
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Aug 4, 2010 18:56
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Leperflesh posted:It'd be hard to hit them with an animal cruelty charge when you consider that it's obviously not illegal to use bug spray to kill bugs. This isn't always true and depends greatly on the local laws and regulations. Where I live you're not allowed to spray pesticides within 50 yards of a beehive. Get caught doing so and you get yourself a pretty nasty fine.
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Aug 4, 2010 19:22
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Oh I'm sure there's laws, and maybe specific ones about beehives, yeah. I'm just saying, specifically "animal cruelty" would be pretty hard case to make; if you won it, you'd basically be setting a legal precedent that it's unlawfully cruel to kill insects using bug spray.
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Aug 4, 2010 21:30
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Leperflesh posted:Oh I'm sure there's laws, and maybe specific ones about beehives, yeah. I'm just saying, specifically "animal cruelty" would be pretty hard case to make; if you won it, you'd basically be setting a legal precedent that it's unlawfully cruel to kill insects using bug spray. You could sue for loss of use/income or damages due to vandalism. It doesn't seem to be quite in the same vein, but it would be a legal recourse.
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Aug 4, 2010 21:37
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Leperflesh posted:Destruction of property; depending on the exact value of the destroyed property, it'd be a misdemeanor (vandalism) or a minor felony. Yeah.
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Aug 4, 2010 23:11
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I don't know about you guys but I just harvested a poo poo ton of honey. It tastes sorta fruity. Weird. I had kept on an extra brood box and they filled almost the entire thing. I have probably like 25 lbs of honey. How is everyone else?
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Aug 24, 2010 05:49
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Lots of bees, they still haven't completely filled out the deep. Probably won't get much honey this year, but I only put them in late in the Spring, so here's to next year.
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Aug 24, 2010 15:39
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I put on two short supers a month ago. They're pretty well full of honey but they haven't capped a full frame yet. Their attitude is night and day compared to the start of the year. I was able to inspect them in shorts without needing a veil or gloves. Now I need to be fully covered for an inspection and they've got me a few times just walking past. The worst was last week, one flew up my shorts while I was mowing the lawn. Luckily, she stung me in the calf on the way up.
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Aug 24, 2010 16:33
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We inspected a week and a half ago, and the bees had built and nearly-full honey on the topmost of three supers, with only a few cells around the edge of the center frames capped. We suspected that we'd be ready to harvest in a couple more weeks. My wife wants to leave them an entire super for the winter, but I think we could probably harvest all three and they'll have months to rebuild before then. This is California, we don't really start having "winter" (cool and rainy) until like late Novemberish, and there's not going to be more than a handful of below-freezing nights, period. Maximusi, still meaning to have you over - now you've got honey, we can compare flavors!
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Aug 24, 2010 19:50
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Thinking about getting into this next spring. How cold can bees be kept? Looking around for information and not finding too much with specific details about temperature. It gets down to -40 here without windchill. Does all the regular advice I see about keeping bees through a winter apply here, will I have to implement some special measures to keep them warm, or am I out of luck?
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Aug 24, 2010 21:49
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That's pretty severely cold, but bees do survive winter in all sorts of cold climates. I know there are beehives in places like scandinavia, russia, etc. There are breeds of bees that are better adapted to cold climates, as well. When it is cold out, the bees cluster together into a ball at the center of the hive, generating their own heat to keep themselves and the brood chamber at something like 92 degrees F. They can do this basically indefinitely, as long as every bee is able to leave the ball and eat regularly (so of course there must also be adequate supplies of honey or, failing that, syrup). In order to do that, and not freeze to death in the process, there must be periodic warming - that is, it's OK if it gets well below freezing, as long as it doesn't stay super cold for days and days and days. I am not familiar with all the techniques but I know that there are methods for insulating hives to help them stay warm. An important factor is that the bees must also have ventilation; they produce water vapor and will saturate the hive with moisture if it is totally sealed, killing them. The best thing for you to do if you're really interested is to contact your local beekeeper association (trust me, there is one). The locals will have the most knowledge and experience with beekeeping requirements in your area.
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Aug 24, 2010 22:35
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Leperflesh posted:That's pretty severely cold, but bees do survive winter in all sorts of cold climates. I know there are beehives in places like scandinavia, russia, etc. Leperflesh posted:The best thing for you to do if you're really interested is to contact your local beekeeper association (trust me, there is one). The locals will have the most knowledge and experience with beekeeping requirements in your area. edit: VVV - Cool, thanks. I figured they might be doing something down in Hay River or Fort Smith. I wonder if anyone's still doing it. odiv fucked around with this message at 23:39 on Aug 24, 2010 |
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Aug 24, 2010 23:24
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http://www.farmnwt.com/history.pdf says you should be good.
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Aug 24, 2010 23:33
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There is a Finnish beekeeper's association. I can't read that page but it should help you get set up with supplies and probably you can also find other local beekeepers. If there is any agriculture in your area that involves flowering plants, then there are probably beekeepers.
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Aug 24, 2010 23:48
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Leperflesh, yeah I've sent you an email saying the same thing haha. I got stung for the first time two days ago and my finger swelled into a sausage. It's still a little swollen today. Is that normal?
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Aug 25, 2010 00:52
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I think I'm a little more sensitive than average. Being stung in the shoulder and calf swelled up my bicep and calf for 3 days. The one time I got it in the finger, it was swollen around 5 days.
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Aug 25, 2010 00:55
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Yep, I've been stung once as an adult (not by my bees) on the foot, and it was swollen for three days. My wife's been stung once on the back of her neck (a bee got tangled in her hair) and she had a lump for over a week.
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Aug 25, 2010 01:33
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Double-postin' like a sumbitch; Tomorrow we'll be harvesting three medium supers (8 frames each), so today I just drove to Beekind and rented an extractor. We'll be sure to take lots of pictures! MaxiMusi, haven't heard back yet whether you can make it over; hope you can, you're welcome to come and help us spin honey or just hang out, whatever your preference.
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Sep 4, 2010 04:08
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Has anyone had any experience with making mead from their honey? I loving love mead, it's by far my favourite alcoholic drink but it's really hard to get hold of and quite expensive so if I can produce it from scratch myself I would be well up for that.
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Sep 4, 2010 06:44
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Not yet, but I intend to give it a shot. Beekind has a (quite expensive) Mead making book that I was eyeballing last time I was there... I figured I'd just check out free Internet instructions first, see if I like making mead, before I spring for a $40 book. In most stores the only mead I can find is Chaucer's, which is pretty terrible; I suspect it's basically novelty mead for people who want to try out mead because they heard of it, and have no idea what mead should taste like.
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Sep 4, 2010 06:53
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I still can't believe how much honey you guys harvested. Your honey tastes so much better than mine! How full did that plastic bin get?
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Sep 5, 2010 06:42
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There's... a lot. It got up to like 6 inches or so. We're going to run out of quart jars very quickly. We picked up 12 more pint-sized jars at Target, and we have the box of 8-oz jars as well. It might be enough. And remember, we left about four frames in the hive because they weren't fully capped, so this is just from 20 frames. I think it will be around 40 pounds of honey, maybe 45. Thanks again for coming by! And I don't think our honey is better than yours, just very different... we really like the light flavor of your stuff too.
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Sep 5, 2010 08:19
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The Saurus posted:Has anyone had any experience with making mead from their honey? I loving love mead, it's by far my favourite alcoholic drink but it's really hard to get hold of and quite expensive so if I can produce it from scratch myself I would be well up for that. Check out the mead making thread
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Sep 5, 2010 13:48
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I just got interviewed by a local urban farming blogger! http://www.farmtina.com/2010/08/a-beekeeper-in-brooklyn.html Now that it's legal in the city (NYC), I've set up a few hives and gotten to work. I'm also thinking of starting a blog of my own, covering beekeeping, and urban beekeeping specifically. If anyone is interested in helping out, or just wants to ask questions, let me know!
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Sep 5, 2010 21:55
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ShotgunWillie posted:I just got interviewed by a local urban farming blogger! That's awesome! I would imagine that beekeeping in a location as urban as NYC would add some pretty interesting hurdles and problems that you wouldn't run into with a bit more space like most of us have. Glad to hear NYC finally decided to pull its head out of its rear end and allow beekeepers to come out of hiding.
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Sep 6, 2010 02:05
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TouchyMcFeely posted:That's awesome! I would imagine that beekeeping in a location as urban as NYC would add some pretty interesting hurdles and problems that you wouldn't run into with a bit more space like most of us have. Yeah, it was really exciting. My downstairs neighbor and I, who is also a beekeeper, ran out to get bees the instant it was legalized. Anyways, the blog is up, so check it out and email me (timsbrooklynbees at gmail dot com) questions you'd like me to answer or topics you'd like me to address. https://boroughbees.blogspot.com Also, let me know if you see anything that needs to be worked on. I've never done a blog before, so I don't know what I'm doing with templates and such. I can use all the help I can get.
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Sep 6, 2010 02:44
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So yesterday a bee got up my pants leg and stung me. Today, my left calf and knee are swollen. Enough to worry my wife... so if it's still bad tomorrow, we're gonna go get it checked out. I've been stung before, but I've not had such a reaction before. I hope I'm not becoming allergic!
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Sep 6, 2010 05:44
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Leperflesh posted:So yesterday a bee got up my pants leg and stung me. It's good that you're going to get it checked out. While it's rare, severe allergies CAN develop over time as you become more sensitive. Then again, it might just be that your body was already irritated about something and just over reacted to the stings be but its better safe than sorry. Have you taken any antihistamines to help you with stings before?
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Sep 6, 2010 13:57
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Well I have an appointment for later today. I'm not having any of the usual allergy-type reactions: no problem breathing, no swelling around the mouth, no rapid heartrate, no fever, etc. The advice nurse said they wanted to take a look to make sure it's not infected. ShotgunWillie: I took benadryl yesterday afternoon, and in the evening I put benadryl cream directly on the swelling, but neither seemed to have much effect. I've never had a serious reaction to a sting or bite before, although occasionally a mosquito bite will cause moderate swelling for a day. I think that's pretty normal though.
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Sep 6, 2010 20:46
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My neighbor, who is a doctor, saw my bee sting and basically told me that I was allergic. It's not normal to swell that much, apparently. After that, I took 2 benadryl a day just to get the swelling and itchiness down. I posted this pic on goon doctor as well and they told me the same thing. :/
Maximusi fucked around with this message at 00:17 on Sep 7, 2010 |
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Sep 7, 2010 00:14
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OK back from the doctor. The good news: I am (still) not allergic to bee stings. The bad news: cellulitus (basically, I'm infected). I got antibiotic injections, a prescription for antibiotics, and she drew a line around the red areas (my entire calf, most of my ankle, parts of my knee now) and said if the red spread past that I had to go back to the hospital right away. Also it's not necessarily the bee's fault, it could have gotten infected just from environmental bacteria, whatever was on my skin, etc.
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Sep 7, 2010 00:20
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Leperflesh posted:OK back from the doctor. Very prescient username, forums goer 'Leperflesh'.
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Sep 7, 2010 00:25
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Haha yeah! Somehow I anticipated this day, way back in 1991!
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Sep 7, 2010 00:30
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Leperflesh posted:Haha yeah! Somehow I anticipated this day, way back in 1991! Glad to hear you're not allergic to the bees. But I'm sorry to hear that you're going to die from flesh eating bacteria .And in news from my backyard - my hive is going to make me schizophrenic. I thought for certain that the colony was in its last death throes earlier this summer. Yesterday I was out working in the garden and saw a fair amount of activity. So today I popped the top and what do I find but a happy and healthy hive. No honey to harvest, again, but at least I won't have to replace the colony next year. This must be what it's like dealing with a teenage child. Everything is great and you're so excited. Then they don't do what you expect and you're disappointed. Then they make to leave and you're sad. Then they don't leave and all your plans for their space get blown out of the water. But you're also kind of excited because they're back. Then the disappoint you again. God drat lazy kids these days.
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Sep 7, 2010 03:12
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