Bees!
Posted by humboldt_honey on Mar 28, 2008 · Member since Feb 2007 · 12529 posts
I thought we recently had a discussion about the decline in the bee population, but I couldn't find it. Maybe it was in chat.
As a follow-up, here's a newscast story about bee-napping.
I'm allergic to their stings but bees fascinate me as people. You know what I mean. I think we discussed the old Celtic custom of "telling the bees" of important family events etc. And I know in Greek mythology they represented the soul. They are so interesting.
Ahh bees are the sh*t. I really wish to pet every fuzzy bee i see....but that would definitely just scare the little bee into stinging me and dying :( Seriously though bees are truly amazing and have complicated communication methods and social structures.
I know we discussed this topic too! They are so fasinating! I wonder if it was in a thread for something else that went off topic...hmmm...must search!
You can pet them when they're feeding. They won't sting then; they're all about the flower at that point. Just make sure the flower isn't right in front of their hive or anything - then the ladies are coming after you.
You can pet them when they're feeding. They won't sting then; they're all about the flower at that point.
Wow, how cool! Have you tried that HumboldtHoney?
I've thought about purchasing some bees and hives and just placing them randomly on our family's acreage and letting them live as bees. Thought it would be benfitial for the trees, flowers, crops etc around and help out a bit maybe since the bee population is declining. :-\ I need to research it more, though.
That's so crazy people are now stealing bees. They are such an important factor to our world (not just food supply)!
I heard on that a truck full of bees (for almond pollination) crashed, sending a swarm of bees onto the interstate in Cali.
Local bee farmers gather lost bees in cooperation with local enforcement.
http://www.examiner.com/a-1282740~Swarm_closes_Sacramento_highway_after_bee_truck_flips.html
I heard on that a truck full of bees (for almond pollination) crashed, sending a swarm of bees onto the interstate in Cali.
Can you imagine being in the line of traffic behind that?!? Wow. I wonder how long it'll be before the hives are usable again. You'd have to get different bees to accept and new hive and reintroduce a queen bee to each hive.
Wow, how cool! Have you tried that HumboldtHoney?
Yeah. When I was in college I almost did my senior project on bees, but it was unseasonably cool that spring and the bees weren't coming out. During the height of spring during the feeding frenzy they're pretty okay while on a flower. Of course, don't try this if you are absolutely set against getting stung. I've never been stung, but it could happen.
My thought about setting out bee hives is that the bees swell in rank and then half of them split to make another hive. You can't walk in front of the hive. It's like being a stranger and walking into the territory of a guard dog. They go beserk. If they swarm on a tree limb in a place you don't want them, you can cut down the tree limb and stick it in a box, or gently brush the bees into a box to start another hive. If you do that, make sure you get the queen bee, because the bees follow her, so they won't stay in the box if the queen is left on the limb.
Awful.
http://www.grist.org/article/food-2010-12-10-leaked-documents-show-epa-allowed-bee-toxic-pesticide-
The prior thread was http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=31986.0...
Bees are totally cool; I think everyone should host 'em! Once we (someday/ finally/ actually) sell our house & move, I'm seriously gonna try to set up a hive in my hedges or smthn'...
Sure seems like increased numbers of small-scale beekeepers (of various kinds of bees) along with a shift away from GMO/ heavily pesticided-up crops is the only/ best way to reduce the problem we've caused bees, of late...
I agree and hope to do the same when we have more land.
bees are awesome, I'm deathly allergic to them however so I tend not to mess with them. I will freely admit though that I (rarely) eat raw honey, which I don't find bad because its local and I know the keepers treat their bees nicely.