Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum

BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. => Topic started by: Hopeful on November 14, 2007, 11:30:55 am

Title: What is this and what do I do,if anything?
Post by: Hopeful on November 14, 2007, 11:30:55 am
This morning, I went to check on my bees and found a cluster of bees on the outside of one the hives. The cluster is about 5"X3" and about 2" thick, and seems to be made up of several hundred bees. The weather here has been warm for the last two weeks, but this morning a cold front has come in, and even thought the temp is still about 60, the North wind has put a chill on it that feels more like 50 or so. The wind is blowing at about 18-25 MPH. These bees seem to be clustered up against the cover, wedged in between the cover and the top feeder almost the the eave of a house (the top is larger than the feeder creating a 1" lip). It is possible that there are more bees inside the top feeder.

Anyone here experienced this before/ What is going on? Are they robbers who got caught with their pants down, or is this a late fall swarm? or something else?
Title: Re: What is this and what do I do,if anything?
Post by: Jerrymac on November 14, 2007, 12:01:07 pm
I would have to wonder if something inside the hive has run them out. Perhaps a chemical smell such as paint, plastic. What is in the hive besides just wax and honey and bees? Done any treatments?
Title: Re: What is this and what do I do,if anything?
Post by: Hopeful on November 14, 2007, 12:40:52 pm
The only thing I have done was give them HBH and fundil about a week and a half ago. One thing that may be worth mentioning is that my neighbor has a few hives of his own about a quarter mile away. I am not sure if he actually takes care of them, and maybe uses them for pollinating only. Is it possible these are his bees and that they came to rob the hive and got caught in the chill? The last time I fed my bees there was a "feeding frenzy" that involved thousands of bees, yellowjackets and wasps when a cover blew off the top of one of the hives in a hard gust of wind (forgot the brick on that one!, oops!)

Any thoughts?
Title: Re: What is this and what do I do,if anything?
Post by: Michael Bush on November 14, 2007, 08:31:45 pm
A queen who tried to mate and can't get back in?  An old queen that was superseded but still had a following?  A late swarm that is trying to move in?  An AHB swarm that is trying to take over?
Title: Re: What is this and what do I do,if anything?
Post by: Hopeful on November 14, 2007, 11:08:27 pm
So, Michael have you experienced this before? What should I do, try to capture them tomorrow?  How? They were very tightly packed together and were very slow moving, if they moved at all, and appeared very calm. This just seems very wierd, even for someone with so little experience. I checked the neighbors hives,which are stenciled with the name of a local large beekeeper, and I saw no activity whatsoever around his hives. The are stacked two deeps and three supers, which seemed odd for this time of year. I wondered if they were even active hives.

Thoughts, Michael?
Title: Re: What is this and what do I do,if anything?
Post by: Hopeful on November 15, 2007, 12:37:52 pm
Well, it got down to about 38 this morning and when I went to check on the bees, the cluster was dead and falling off the hive in clumps. Too bad. I guess the point is moot now.
Title: Re: What is this and what do I do,if anything?
Post by: Jerrymac on November 15, 2007, 02:00:25 pm
Dead or just too cold to move? I've had individual bees stuck out in cold weather and then move in when the sun warmed them up.
Title: Re: What is this and what do I do,if anything?
Post by: Bill from NJ on November 15, 2007, 02:37:11 pm
Hopeful,

Jerrymac has a very valid point. The cold does seem to place the bees in a temoprary state of animation.
After the bee cluster gets warm... look out they become very active again!

Try and see if you can make a NUC or hive them and see what you can get going.

Good luck.

Regards,
Bill from NJ
Title: Re: What is this and what do I do,if anything?
Post by: Hopeful on November 15, 2007, 07:31:05 pm
Well, I returned to the hives this afternoon after it warmed up to about 55. The cluster was now down to about a few dozen bees, ad they were indeed tending to a queen! I had an empty nuc box and scraped what bees I could into the box, put a feeder in it with three frames of drawn comb. I am not holding out much hope, but I am trying to at least help where I can. Its up to God now. All these bees belong to him.
Title: Re: What is this and what do I do,if anything?
Post by: Cindi on November 16, 2007, 10:23:55 am
Are you sure they are god's bees?  Maybe not.  Cindi
Title: Re: What is this and what do I do,if anything?
Post by: Hopeful on November 16, 2007, 11:21:30 am
What do you mean? Can you expand on your thought?

Title: Re: What is this and what do I do,if anything?
Post by: annette on November 16, 2007, 03:02:46 pm
Time to start a new topic!!!!!!
Title: Re: What is this and what do I do,if anything?
Post by: Hopeful on November 16, 2007, 04:02:01 pm
Annette,
 Even though I live in Oklahoma, I grew up on the West coast in the Portland area. Passive and open hostility against all things Christian is as normal as the Northwest rain. It does not bother me. I am a well -educated man and know statements that are meant to pick a fight when I see them. Too bad I would have to start a new topic over this. I have captured a very small swarm and would be interested in knowing what their chances are. But I guess that maybe will have to wait for a more tolerant time.

I apologize if I have offended anyone.  :)
Title: Re: What is this and what do I do,if anything?
Post by: annette on November 16, 2007, 05:32:34 pm
Did not mean to offend!!! It just seemed like the topic was going in a different direction so I said that. I am the most tolerant person you will ever meet. I also am accepting of all faiths and religions as long as they teach peace and kindness.

Sorry for the misunderstanding and I should not have put my nose in the discussion. Will you forgive??

Annette
Title: Re: What is this and what do I do,if anything?
Post by: Hopeful on November 16, 2007, 08:02:17 pm
Oh no, Annette, you did not offend me in the least. I am not either offended by Cindi's comment. It was her comment I was alluding to in my last post, not yours. I appreciate that you want to keep things positive. I too, am very tolerant and accepting of all people, and like you wish for peace and kindness between people of all faiths and backgrounds.

You wrote<
>>>>"I am the most tolerant person you will ever meet. I also am accepting of all faiths and religions as long as they teach peace and kindness."<<<<

Agreed, I am not sure everyone here is the same, however. I need to try to remember that this is not a Christian forum, and that some people are offended by references to God and Christ. But I yam what I yam. And it does indeed shine through from time to time. (I wish it was more with my life than my words, though :)).

If being a Christian is not okay on this forum, the someone authoritative please tell me so, and I can go somewhere else and leave you all in peace.

God bless
Title: Re: What is this and what do I do,if anything?
Post by: annette on November 16, 2007, 09:39:01 pm
Please do not go anywhere and by all means be yourself.

Sincerely
Annette
Title: Re: What is this and what do I do,if anything?
Post by: reinbeau on November 16, 2007, 10:31:04 pm
Being a Christian in this forum is just fine.  Some of the tolerance needs to sway back towards people who do believe - I am a Pantheist but think everyone finds their own path.
Title: Re: What is this and what do I do,if anything?
Post by: Hopeful on November 16, 2007, 11:16:18 pm
Thanks for the reassurance. Being the kind of Christian I am, I kind of get it from both sides, since I am niether a right-wing fundamentalist nor a liberal. This helps me be more tolerant of others and appreciate that we each have a mind and a life experience that nobody else has. That and God loves everyone, not just Christians. As such, I try to do the same.

Blessings.
Title: Re: What is this and what do I do,if anything?
Post by: Brian D. Bray on November 16, 2007, 11:45:24 pm
Thanks for the reassurance. Being the kind of Christian I am, I kind of get it from both sides, since I am niether a right-wing fundamentalist nor a liberal. This helps me be more tolerant of others and appreciate that we each have a mind and a life experience that nobody else has. That and God loves everyone, not just Christians. As such, I try to do the same.

Blessings.

Every organized religion in the world keeps getting hung up on one point:  God is the creator, he loves us all.  He doesn't love Mary any more/less for being Catholic than he loves Mitt more/less for being Mormon.  "God likes me best" is as rediculous with religion as it was with children accusing each other of their parents liking a sibling best.
I'm a Mormon myself, but I don't believe that God has limited a person's entry into heaven just because of their religionous beliefs.  I hope I make it.  I do know that those who do make it are going to be terribly surprized by those they find who did/didn't make it. 
The key to the kingdom is made up of love and service. 
If you're not giving love and service to others you're note living by the basic tenets of God--regardless of the religion.
Title: Re: What is this and what do I do,if anything?
Post by: Cindi on November 17, 2007, 01:29:01 pm
Hopeful, oh, oh.....you took something that I said in the wrong vein.  I did not mean to cause any offence by my statement about "God's bees" and I apologize from the bottom of my heart, I should not have said those words.  Apology sent to you and I need you to accept this.  What I meant was, that not all of us are Christian, some do not believe in the God, as Christian know it.  I am for one, I believe in something that is of a higher plain, we won't go into that.

Don't leave this forum because you may feel that there is some prejudice, that was never intended from anyone here, especially myself in this thought.  Every human being in this world is entitiled to their free choice of belief, and no one should ever sway these choices. Sorry.

Have a wonderful and beautiful day, please stay and enjoy our forum friends together.  Cindi
Title: Re: What is this and what do I do,if anything?
Post by: Hopeful on November 17, 2007, 05:15:28 pm
No problem, Cindy.

Consider this in answer to your question about "God's bees". Yes, I am absolutely certain that these bees belong to God. Here's why, and it has nothng to do with theology.

If I paid for these bees and took "ownership" of these bees,  and then transferred ownership to someone else, then these bees belong to that person, even if it is a fictional person or simply a name on a piece of paper.

 But beyond that. The bees belong to the earth as free living creatures, I am just renting them convenient living space in exchange for their honey.  The Bible says, "The earth is the Lord's and all its fulness". Now of course someone who thinks the Bible is fiction does not take this seriously, and I would not expect them to. However, I do believe the Bible (as originally written) and so I believe none of us really owns anything. We use things and then they are either destroyed by time and circumstance or we die, whichever comes first. Thinking I can really "own" bees is as absurd as thinking I  can really "own" the land I live on. I can only pay to occupy it, but the land cannot be moved or really "owned" by anyone. That is why native Americans, while fighting over hunting territory, were greatly conused with the European concept of "ownership" of land. They thought to themselves, "How can someone mortal "own" something more permanent than themselves?" I think that is a reasonable question.

BUt hey, no offense taken, Cindi. I know people think dfferently and that is what makes life interesting. Even though I believe that my beliefs are true and that anyone who shared them would be greatly blessed.



Title: Re: What is this and what do I do,if anything?
Post by: Cindi on November 18, 2007, 11:40:57 am
Hopeful, your words in your response were beautifully written, and you said some great and wonderful things.  I great world would be a very dull place if we were all the same and believed in the same things, eh?  Have a wonderful and beautiful day, I am glad you are staying to become a very important friend in our forum, every little bit each of us contributes makes it a little beauty of a place in this space we share on this earth.  Cindi (with an "i"), hee, hee  :) :) :)
Title: Re: What is this and what do I do,if anything?
Post by: tig on November 20, 2007, 02:45:00 am
with regards what you did for the small cluster...maybe you can help them further by giving them a couple of frames of emerging bees to add to their number.
Title: Re: What is this and what do I do,if anything?
Post by: qa33010 on November 21, 2007, 04:34:37 am
   What tig said, if the weather permits and you have any brood to spare.  We're supposed to get cold again this week and a possibility of flurries.  If you have any frames with honey/pollen that can be spared you can try it or use some protein patties.  If they make it you would have a chance to see and learn, IMHO.  Looks like we're both going to get a little weather, so I would definitely keep close tabs on them.  I know I'm stating the obvious, but it's how my mind works.

Title: Re: What is this and what do I do,if anything?
Post by: james on November 22, 2007, 08:44:22 am
in continuing the thread re god, i couldn't help but mention the heading at the top of the page of the forum recenlty "News: Happy Thanksgiving! and God Bless America!" just happened notice it before i read through this topic

don't get me wrong i've nothing against anyone who believe in god or god blessing america, nor that i'd want to deny any one or thing a blessing, but why not god bless all bees, or god bless the earth.....

blessed be!
Title: Re: What is this and what do I do,if anything?
Post by: JP on November 22, 2007, 11:27:53 am
My .02. God is love. I believe that, and I believe in actions not words. I have an uncle that says "I don't believe anything I hear and half of what I see." How true is that. There were and still are those that say why did Christ mingle with the sinners. There are churches that form "clicks" where they are higher and mightier than thou and these so called christians will not go outside of their protected boxes to spread the word, because it is safe to fellowship with those who are saved. I have always believed that a true Christian is one who goes out into the world to make a difference, spreading God's love by Example.

As far as Cindi's statement, I have read her posts, Ramblins as she calls them :-D, and I see her works, so I know she walks in love. (I hope I'm not embarrassing you Cindi) In fact, everyone on here is pretty harmless or so it seems, and hey don't forget the moderators will only let us push the envelope so far. Hopeles, in my opinion you have been a breath of fresh air to the forums so please know that you do have a place here. Now as my wife and Michael Myers would say, I am ferklempt!

Happy Turkey Day, and may God bless you and the devil never catch you! :-D
Title: Re: What is this and what do I do,if anything?
Post by: Kirk-o on November 22, 2007, 12:09:43 pm
It was probably a late swarm that couldn't get going.If they are small they probably won't make through winter up there.Maybe you can join them with another hive
kirko
Title: Re: What is this and what do I do,if anything?
Post by: Cindi on November 22, 2007, 10:41:23 pm
JP, hee, hee, haa, haa, a'ramblin' we shall go.  C