buzzzzzzzzzz new adventure

[addy1]

Sorry to hear about the sting @addy1 and hope hubby stops smacking ya

lol one thing he would never do...........he is a sweety. Yeah it hurt, a very tender area, made my eye blur this am. Swelling going away fast now.

 

[Lisak1]

I was trimming the magnolia yesterday which is how I got stung in July - that one got me right in the bridge of the nose and swelled both of my eyes. Same thing - very tender, blurry vision. So annoying! So yesterday I was working very carefully around that area, and I kept seeing wasps flying in and out of the bush. Took a peek inside the bush and saw this -

Basketball sized wasp nest. Needless to say I was done for the day at that point. I'm not sure what kind of wasp/hornet this is - we'll be watching it carefully. They don't seem terribly aggressive; I was working around the bush for almost an hour without them bothering me. If they're beneficial I'd like to leave them alone but I don't really want to worry about getting stung again!

 

[addy1]

My last two molds, playing with colors.

A floating candle

and a bee on honey comb

 

[addy1]

Took a peek inside the bush and saw this -

WOW! From what I have heard, never experienced, just don't smack that nest!

 

[addy1]

If you can leave the area alone they will eventually leave the nest. Then you can remove.

Size

: Up to 2 inches in size
Type
: Social Wasp
Population
: Have up to 700 members per nest.
Region
: Hornets are most popular in the US north east region, and in Canada.
Hornets or bald faced hornets may look similar to yellow jackets in color, but hornets are perhaps twice as long and thicker. Hornets are slightly less aggressive than yellow jackets and like most wasps, hornets can sting multiple times with a very strong painful sting. Hornets build warped ball shaped nests ranging in size from football to basket ball. They can be found in attics, walls, and on the side of buildings, and on bushes, tree branches or hallows. It’s generally considered unwise to try to remove a hornets’ nest without experience. While many hornet species are yellow and black, there are also white and black hornets. Like wasps, hornets also abondon the nest in late autumn; the queens overwinter and may return to the same or a nearby location the following spring to build a new nest. Like most wasps, hornets are considered a natural organic form of pest control to gardens and crops.

 

[Lisak1]

That's kind of my plan - leave it alone until the season is over. As long as they mind their own business, I'll do the same!

 

[addy1]

I have two paper wasps nests (the ones hanging from the skinny stem), didn't notice them as I drove my tractor in and out. Just saw them one at head level to one side, one at the end. So far they ignore me, don't even fly from their nest. but I am on guard and ready to bale!

 

[Lisak1]

I'm not sure how to tell the difference. I can't get a close look at the actual wasps - they are fast! - and the nest could be a few things... the only thing that really gives me pause is a wasp/hornet. (And what's the difference?!)

 

[addy1]

here you go

https://entomology.ca.uky.edu/ef620

 

[Lisak1]

Based on that, we have hornets. I'm gonna play the wait and see game. WISH ME LUCK! haha! I hate getting stung!

 

[addy1]

Just stay away from them.

 

[addy1]

Neat write up on bees

The Buzz about Bees: Part 2
Dianne L Stallings, Ruidoso News Published 10:47 a.m. MT Aug. 28, 2017 | Updated 12:48 p.m. MT Aug. 28, 2017
This is the second half of a two-part story on beekeeping in the Ruidoso area.

(Photo: Dianne Stallings/Ruidoso News)

Story Highlights

• Local honey may offer benefits to some allergy sufferers

Bees communicate through the motion of their wings and the swaying of their bodies. They can convey the location of a food source in seconds. Their ability to dance a message was one of the first feats that fascinated Ray McClure.

“I had a friend and (beekeeping) was his hobby,” McClure said. “He started telling me about their abilities. They’d do a little dance. If they find an apple tree blooming, the first bee goes there and gets nectar, then returns to dance in the dark hive. The other bees can watch and find the tree in a matter of moments.”

Every decade, beekeepers and experts studying bees find more of their abilities to do things that are unexplainable from a human standpoint, McClure said.

“This time of year, the worker bee only lives six weeks. How good would you be if had only a six-week career,” he said. “Honeybees work inside the hive for a week at one job and then the second week, another. Everybody is a specialist.”

One bee flies out and loads up with pollen and nectar, but when he returns, it is up to other bees to unload them, “because they know what’s going on in hive and what’s needed,” McClure said. “The nectar is the future honey. The pollen is pure protein, so they store that in different locations in the hive. Some go get water, others seek out sap to fill in small holes to keep waxworms out of the hives. I had a hive with too big an entrance and within three days, they built barriers so only a bee could get in through that circle. The four essentials for a hive are water, sap, nectar and pollen.”

Finding a new home

A bee swarm usually will not stay in a tree long.

“They have 10 to 30 scouts our searching and they will be on the move the next day,” he said. “Rarely, would they spend more than just one day in the tree after swarming. The scouts come back and communicate with 30,000 bees about finding a neat place, big enough and with a nice entrance. A few minutes later, they all are at your house. The scouts still out looking that return to find the hive gone, will follow the pheromones (the other bees) put out. The complexity is absolutely amazing. There is no boss in hive. It is one large organism. The queen doesn’t direct the action, all she does is lay eggs.”

When buying bees, they come in one package with the box, usually for about $350, McClure said. A hobby beekeeper might see 30 pints of honey a year. It is not a lavish business.

Plant close to hive

To prolong their lives of their bees, keepers like to position the boxes for a short haul to a food source, he said. After six weeks, their wings fray.

“For anyone interested in keeping bees, there are quite a few things that can be grown locally in our own yards, so that the bees don’t have to fly so far,” McClure said. “Their life span is based on number of hours they fly. The wings split and they are unable to get back to the hive. I’ve seen them walking trying to get back.”

“You can plant fruit trees, because all of the fruit trees provide nectar and pollen. Red hot pokers are good, as is spirea, a shrub that puts off a brilliant purple bloom this time of year. One bush will keep 100 bees busy for six weeks. Russian sage is another. It provides a lot of nectar. The more you have in your yard, the less your bees have to fly to get the nectar.”

The bees don’t seal the honey until the moisture content is low.

“It is amazing,” he said. “They know when to seal it. The honey will ferment if is is not cured out – again, the complexity.”

Preparing honey

“When you take out the combs, you judge not to take too much (because it is a food source for the hive), and you can supplement with sugar water during the winter,” he said. “We don’t extract too much honey until after a frost. The day after a frost, you need 100 pounds including the weight of the box for them to survive the winter. I have sugar water and feeders for every hive. They can convert it into honey.”

Agriculturalists bring in bees to pollinate crops. To accommodate that demand, McClure bought a trailer that he outfitted with a top and higher sides to bear-proof. He keeps three hives at the garden at the Smokey Ranger District Office in Ruidoso, and per hive, they produced more honey that his boxes in other areas of town, he said.

McClure doesn’t sell through stores, only directly to maintain the benefits of the product. Companies selling large quantities tend to boil the honey to prevent it from turning into granules. But heating to 160 degrees removes the enzymes, which are a natural aid to digestion, he said.

“Raw unprocessed really does make a difference” in honey selection, he advised.

Buying local honey can be good for those with juniper allergies, because the honey contains small doses of pollen from that tree and some people can build up a tolerance. Junipers are most prolific pollen producers in spring and fall.

 

[addy1]

My new job, making sugar blocks for the bees winter feed.

Each hive gets around 10 lbs of sugar blocks, a mix of sugar, vinegar, electrolytes, citric acid and some protein powder (bee protein not ours)

I used to make them, then put the blocks in the sun to harden up, took 3-4 days, so bought a dehydrator to help out. In the picture is 20 lbs of bee blocks, 180 lbs to go!
We put the on the hives starting in November, if we have a warm winter we have to restock the blocks in January.

Currently we are feeding them sugar water, mixed with vinegar, essential oils and a bit of lemon juice.

 

[j.w]

Looks like a heck of a lot of work but you have it down pat so well that it is prolly simple now for you. The keeping of bees is for someone who is really dedicated. I'm afraid that would not be me but I sure admire you guys for doing the job. If not for people like you we would not have as many bees as we do now and they seem to becoming endangered as it is.

 

[addy1]

It is farming, animal husbandry, we are just farming bees instead of plants or critters. You need to stay on their schedule or you lose them.