Hello from East TN

[G3farms]

Hello,
I live just west of Knoxville on the family farm, currently have three hives and looking for more swarms to collect. I'm 45 and have been fooling with bees on and off since I was eight. When I got started a neighbor gave me five hives, veil and gloves, and it was "ON". I don't think I will ever loose the love of keeping bees, although putting up honey is a lot of work and I don't much care for it. I love to put up swarms and just watch the ladies pull comb and cap new honey. It doesn't get any better than chewing on a piece of new burr comb full of capped honey.

I'm not the smartest beek and don't claim to know it all either.

This looks like a really good site so far, hope to be a part of it.

Anybody else in this area send a shout out.

Thanks

G3..........................George

[Irwin]

Good to see you here G3 there is a great bunch here at Beemasters. Hope to hear you in ventrilo.

[SgtMaj]

Hey George... this wouldn't happen to be the same George I gave that swarm in the beevac to would it?   :-D  If it is... what a small world (and I remembered the name of the road I got that swarm from on my way home... it was from winmont turn:Link to Map)

Welcome to the site either way, glad to have another local beek on here!  I almost never get the opportunity to meet or chat with local beeks because I have to work the same nights as the KCBA meetings are held. 

[G3farms]

Yep thats me. Thanks again for the swarm, that was a very nice thing you did and to come all that way for a complete stranger. Just shout if you ever need anything.

Hope your house removal job goes good for you, let us know, and take some pics if you can.

I saw Corryton on your name and thought that might be you.

G3

[SgtMaj]

Ha!  What a small world!  Cool to have you on here.  I learned almost everything I know about beekeeping from the good folks on this site (half of which are sick of hearing me ask questions by now).   :-D

The removal should get interresting because there's also a bumble-bee nest in the same wall, and I might not have any choice but to open both up at the same time.  I'm hoping I can avoid that though and open the bumble-bee nest up first.  My plan is to suck the bumble bees into the regular shop vac, then screen off the shop vac so they can't get out and connect it to the beevac to do the honey bees with. 

I almost didn't have any place for these bees either, but I've been building more boxes and thankfully Walter T. Kelly Co. came through for getting frames in time.

[G3farms]

Sounds like you have a plan.

Dad had a rental house years ago that that had a well house behind it. The tenenthad taken a couple of bales of hay and threw in there for insulation and then the pump went bad. We went to repair the pump to find there was a huge nest of bumbles in there. Dad had on my bee veil and would knock them down with a short stip of plywood (like a baseball bat) until they were all gone. Most people have never seen a bumbles nest.

Good luck and don't get stung too many times.

G3

[1reb]

Hello and Welcome G3
There is alot of great information on the forum !!
The members here are willing help and answer your questions, all you need to do is to ask
Johnny

[SgtMaj]

When I was young a bumble bee next set up shop under a pine tree in the pine needles that had accumulated on the ground... at that time both me and my brother barely felt it when we got stung by bees (we used to run around catching them in our hands while they were visiting the flowers.  Anyway, one afternoon my parents found me playing in the bumble bee nest with those fuzz balls that bounce around.  I don't remember getting stung at all, but I might have and not known it.  Unfortuneately as I've gotten older stings hurt a lot more than they did back then, but still they're not that bad.

I'm more concerned that the bumble bees will be robbing the honey bees as I'm cutting them out and get the honey bees more riled up than they need to be, get mixed in with the honey bees in the hive and just generally make a mess of things than I am concerned about them stinging me.  I'll have on a couple layers of clothes anyway, beneith a tyvek suit so I don't think they'll even be able to penetrate all the clothing if they try it (I'm going to layer up good because I'm probably not even going to smoke them... considering that I don't even own a smoker).