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Author Topic: What are these bees doing?  (Read 15069 times)

Offline philinacoma

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Re: What are these bees doing?
« Reply #20 on: February 10, 2010, 08:41:39 am »
Hmm, winter maybe, but not enough of them include rain.  :'(

Offline Sparky

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Re: What are these bees doing?
« Reply #21 on: February 10, 2010, 10:16:20 am »
Has anyone in your area ever experimented with the tubing with mister nozzles to provide some cooling spray in the harsh, heat.

Offline SlickMick

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Re: What are these bees doing?
« Reply #22 on: February 10, 2010, 04:25:25 pm »
Hi Pete
  We had a swarm come to us, last November, and it's now 7 ideals high and going gang busters,just last week took about 40lbs of comb from them.   If I were you I'd add another super
 Col in Brandon Park

G'day Phil in Brandon Park. Good to have another Aussie on board even if he is a Mexican  :-D

Slicko

Offline SlickMick

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Re: What are these bees doing?
« Reply #23 on: February 10, 2010, 04:27:37 pm »
Meadlover and I are splitting those 3 bearding hives this arvo. Wall to wall bees 3 hives wide. Should be fun :-D

Slicko

Offline kedgel

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Re: What are these bees doing?
« Reply #24 on: February 10, 2010, 09:09:39 pm »
I've never been to Melbourne.  I spent 2 years in Q'land where it is HOT.  I live in SW Florida where the weather is just like Queensland.  My first mob of bees were ordered from KY.  They adjusted to the heat just fine.  Actually, I think they handle the heat better than cold.  I' ve never had a heat-wave kill a bunch of bees, but an extended cold snap is currently killing off my bees.  I see about a dozen or so dead around each hive every morning that it is cold.  I never saw that during the summer when it was bloody hot.  They bees line up across the entrance and fan their wings to create a draft through the hive when it is hot.  I opened one hive once while they were fanning.  I was surprised that I could feel the cooling breeze at the top of the frames.  I don't know that they have a similar ability to produce heat.  I know that there are some bees that use friction to produce heat sufficient to kill a particular marauding hornet that inhabits their area.  Japan, I think.  Any way, they swarm all over the intruder and cook it to death!  I've never heard of whether honey bees can heat their hive, though.
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Offline Lone

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Re: What are these bees doing?
« Reply #25 on: February 11, 2010, 06:16:34 am »
Kedgel,

I think I recall you were in SOUTH Queensland.  That is like the arctic compared with NORTH Queensland.  I would turn into a snowman if I had to go down there.  brrr.

Lone

Offline Pete

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Re: What are these bees doing?
« Reply #26 on: February 11, 2010, 09:24:34 am »
Yeah thats the combined heat and humidity, i find that hard to breath in, i cant imagine doing labourous work during it at all...but we get the dry searing heat in Melb. 48 at our place last year...46 a week or so later 40kmh winds...

Offline philinacoma

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Re: What are these bees doing?
« Reply #27 on: February 11, 2010, 09:34:51 am »
48, now that was a summer! :)

Offline kedgel

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Re: What are these bees doing?
« Reply #28 on: February 11, 2010, 11:37:05 pm »
Kedgel,

I think I recall you were in SOUTH Queensland.  That is like the arctic compared with NORTH Queensland.  I would turn into a snowman if I had to go down there.  brrr.

Lone
You're right.  I was around Brisbane, mostly.  It did get colder there than it does here in SW FL.  Our weather here is mostly like you get up around Bundy.  It rarely gets to freezing here.  We sometimes have to shut the windows at night!   8-)

Kelly
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Offline Lone

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Re: What are these bees doing?
« Reply #29 on: February 12, 2010, 06:07:12 am »
Right, Kedgel, we are further north than Bundy - that's like the Swiss Alps in Winter compared with here.   ;)

Lone

Offline Pete

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Re: What are these bees doing?
« Reply #30 on: February 13, 2010, 09:08:25 pm »
Ok, so we opened it up again today, lots and lots of capped honey.

Pulled out some of the full sized frames from the middle super below the excluder and 3rd frame we found the queen. Looks like brood, capped pollen then capped honey?

Also there is some weird comb near where the queen was...is this swarm cells, new queen cells? I had no where to put the frame with the queen on it, smoker went out, so i put it al back together.

Its such a mess in the middle super, lots of comb against the walls and lots of damage as you pull stuff out, not sure how much i should clean this or let them go for it.

One bee was attacking my face, i flicked my face mask and the bee landed on the dog and stung it - pretty darned funny actually :)

Big issue now is that the box i made to go on top is for 10 frames and mine are 8 (which everyone told me to get, but i thought i had 10 :( ) So now there is only 2 super for the whole hive until i get a new box tomorrow. Will they be ok for for 2 days like this?

INterested to hear what you think of the following pics.

1. mmmm capped honey


2. Cells?


3. Cells? (middle/brood super.)


4. Cells? (middle/brood super.)


5. Black Honey? (middle/brood super.)


6. Under the lid of the honey super

Offline kedgel

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Re: What are these bees doing?
« Reply #31 on: February 14, 2010, 01:05:45 am »
Yassuh,  that honey is looking good! :-P  If you work your hives more regularly, you can stay ahead of the burr comb.  I scrape off the burr comb and cut down the bridging comb so it doesn't make a mess of the capped honey when I pull out the frames.  Also the comb built on top of the frames is a sure sign they need more room.  I'd scrape that off before they start to fill it.  You are losing supers of honey by not giving them another super to build in.  If you are short on supers, I'd rob them and replace it with empty frames.  This may discourage them from building on top of the frames until you can give them another super.  I couldn't really tell from the pic, but it looks like supercedure cells on that frame.  There were also lots of drone cells too.  Swarm cells typically hang off the bottom of the frames, but not always.  Drone cells are bigger than worker cells but aren't as big as queen cells.  They also are in rows while queen cells are individually placed around the frames.  As for the question about brood/pollen, etc.  In the absence of a queen excluder, the bees usually ring the brood with honey and bee bread (pollen).  They don't cap pollen. 

Kelly
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Offline Lone

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Re: What are these bees doing?
« Reply #32 on: February 14, 2010, 02:09:59 am »
Drone comb, Pete, usually the sign of a healthy hive (what I don't have a lot of)

Lone

Offline Pete

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Re: What are these bees doing?
« Reply #33 on: February 14, 2010, 06:41:12 pm »
Thanks for the info.

Any idea what the black/dark honey is? Just the different type of honey depending the necter they were harvesting at the time?

We got 8 ideal frames extracted yesterday. First ever home operation...blew out 3 frames in the extractor going too fast on th first side - good lesson to learn :)

In the end we got 6-7kg or so of honey. Of the 16 sides (8 frames) only 13 were 100% capped...but because it was so full in the hive we decided to extract them anyway.

The honey is easily the nicest, sweetest honey i have ever tasted (of your own produce always is). :)

I noticed going back into the hive the following day to put the frame back i had extracted that the bees were a LOT more aggressive. Half a dozen trying to sting me through the face mask. Is this normal, will they return to being docile and friendly? We really did disrupt them and accidentally killed quite a few :(

I made my own extractor, see thread here http://forum.beemaster.com/index.php/topic,26611.0.html
« Last Edit: February 15, 2010, 09:14:46 am by Pete »

Offline col c

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Re: What are these bees doing?
« Reply #34 on: February 22, 2010, 06:04:40 am »
'Eavning All
 Since watching this thread, I've been taking a little more notice of the"Outsiders", and I notice they are out most day's, more so on the hotter days.  But today was only about 24 I think, and quite windy, and sure enough, there were plenty of outsiders.
 So, I wandered around the back of the hive, and had a good view of the ones on the side of the hive, and I found that they were doing a little dance, rocking backwards and forwards, almost like their feet were stuck, but then they would walk a few steps and start again.
 This was about 6pm.... 2hrs before sun set

 I'm guessing they are new chums, out exploring for the first time....... but i'm only guessing. Any idea's
 Col

Offline annette

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Re: What are these bees doing?
« Reply #35 on: February 22, 2010, 07:24:53 pm »
It doesn't look like you have any ventilation on the top. Is that true. Can you pop the top open a bit and let some of that heat out??

Offline OzBuzz

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Re: What are these bees doing?
« Reply #36 on: March 09, 2010, 05:33:53 pm »
Hey Peter,

I noticed this image in your hive photos aren't they queen cells on the side of the frame?

Offline Kathyp

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Re: What are these bees doing?
« Reply #37 on: March 09, 2010, 06:42:16 pm »
the angle is bad, but i see a couple that could be queen cells.  they look pretty crowed if that's all the laying room there is.  how much of your season is left?
Someone really ought to tell them that the world of Ayn Rand?s novel was not meant to be aspirational.

Offline ziffabeek

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Re: What are these bees doing?
« Reply #38 on: March 10, 2010, 10:33:06 am »
Hi,

I'm trying to learn the difference between worker-drone and queen cells.  I'm a little confused by the answers here.  In the image of the bubbly cells (3) are those drone cells with some that may be queen cells? Or are they all supercedure cells (I read supercedure cells to mean pre-queen cells.)

Thanks for posting such great pictures Pete!  Your honey looks beautiful!  How did the split go?

Thanks for any help!

love,
ziffa

Offline Kathyp

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Re: What are these bees doing?
« Reply #39 on: March 10, 2010, 11:16:33 am »
http://forum.beemaster.com/index.php/topic,23183.0.html

quick search found this.  if you do a search, i'm sure you can find more pics of queen cells and drone comb. 
Someone really ought to tell them that the world of Ayn Rand?s novel was not meant to be aspirational.