Bee type

[bassman1977]

I've been meaning to ask...I saw some bees working in the yard that were definately not mine.  They were honey bees of some sort except they were not yellow and black, but black and gray.  There size were relatively smaller than any of my bees.  With their size, I would probably correctly assume they are wild, but I was wondering if anyone has seen or knows of a bee of this color?

[thegolfpsycho]

A long time ago, there was what was called a grey mountain bee around here.  They were supposedly near impossible to keep.  Small colonys, swarmed incessantly, and although calm while foraging, were very defensive of the hive.  I have never seen a colony of them in anyones yard, and I never see them around soda cans like I used to.  I thought they were long gone.  Maybe you have something like that in the east?

[Horns Pure Honey]

buckfast?

[Michael Bush]

We have some kind of bee that looks like a minituare honey bee.  Grey and off white striped.  Has honey baskets and the whole shebang.  Don't know for sure what it's called but it pollenates my pear tree every year and is all over the russian sage from summer to fall.

[Daddy-T]

I have both Buckfest, and NWC. The NWC are mostly gun medal gray and black.  They are very dark colored. They do very some and they are a smaller honeybee. The Buckfest look like what I would call traditional Honeybees (rust or orange with tiger stripes)

Tim

[bassman1977]

What does the NWC stand for?

[thegolfpsycho]

New World Carniolan.  I think it is a project of Sue Colby at Ohio State.  You can look them up on the web.  They claim fast buildup, frugal use of stores, and cold weather hardiness.  I have never tried them, but am thinking of giving them a shot in the fall.

[Jerrymac]

I just saw a bee on a sunflower. Had to look close to see it was not a honey bee.

[Daddy-T]

I have 2 Buckfest hives (Because my Uncle/ Mentor said he would only work with Buckfest) I worked them for one year and did well.
    I did not get any honey my first year from them. That being my first year and not knowing too much. This year I decided to go with NWCs. I installed 10 new hives the first of May. We made packages up from Italians from White Star Farms here in Ohio; I purchased 10-2lb. packages for $10. Per pound!!!!!!!!!!!  This was from Joe Blair (Bchillicothe@aol.com). What I ended up with is probably 4lb. + packages. He was GREAT!!!!!!!!!!! I purchased my NWC Queens from Strachan Apiaries http://www.strachanbees.com/ . They to were GREAT too. I did lose one Queen and had to order another one, But all is fine now……  I did do a split this spring on my Buckfest hive and I tried to introduce a NWC Queen but they refused her, but raised their own Buckfest Queen and is doing well.

Now what have I learned? Well Buckfest Glue EVERYTHING very well. They also Burr comb a lot. They will get temperamental. And they built up well this past spring (2nd year). I did start feeding them the Spring Meds in rock candy about the end of Dec. That turned out wonderful. I will probably do that again with all my hives this next spring. I had purchased 60 Gal. of corn syrup this spring to feed with. I have had no problem with it so far. I am still feeding it to them all. I have all new plastic foundation and drawing out comb has been slow 26 Deeps and 28 Small Honey supers. I keep the frame feeders in the top Brood box and fill it every 3-4 days. They are drawing out the comb with it well…….. I have pulled a couple of frames of honey already this year for a Cub Scout troop that stopped by to watch my son and I work the bees. We cut the comb honey off the frames for them and they had a ball chewing it…. But the honey that was stored had good color and was tasty.. We are doing our first harvest this Sat 7-9-05. and we will see what the honey is like. I know we have about 8 Small honey supers to extract. I have 4 honey supers on the Buckfest hives and they are FULL!!!!! And we have 2 hives of the NWC from this year that are kicking butt…. They have each filled 2 honey supers.  
   I have noticed that the NWC do not glue everything as bad as the Buckfest, and seem to have less burr comb. They are very gentle. And manage the hive I think better then the Buckfest. But I will wait till the end of next year to make a decision on that.
   I am just getting to the point that I am looking for different things to do in the hives. I am reading all the post here and other sites. I am reading all the books I can get my hands on and talking bees in my sleep….LOL  I am reading about how to manipulate a hive and all that stuff. Yes I do beleave in pushing the bees along. I love to read all the post about what is on the edge. I have been working on more woodwear for next spring. We are adding another 13 hives to our bee yard and Yes I am going to the Med Supers for everything. I also am using Plastic foundation in everything on the hives I have now and plan to use one piece plastic frams/foundations in all the new supers. I am experimenting with all the Ventelation, 2nd Entrances, SBB, Hive Top Feeders, and more…… The equipment I have now is all used and we have Deep supers for brood, and Small honey supers. I have been rotating out the frames to get all of them onto Plastic foundations. We will see how that works. But I have found no difference in how my bees work the different foundations……

That’s my story and I am sticking to it………

 I keep a log of what we are doing, and hope to have it typed up to post on a web page soon.

Tim

[fuzzybeekeeper]

Daddy T;

Please correct me if I read your post incorrectly, but I understand that you are still feeding corn syrup to your hives now?  I know that doing so will help them to build comb, but then they are also storing the corn syrup as honey.

If your hives are still taking syrup and making "honey", then what you have is not real honey.  You are simply converting syrup to an adulterated form of honey.

Please correct me if I am wrong on what you are doing or if my understanding of this is incorrect.

Fuzzybeekeeper

[Barny]

I have noticed a native bee around my area too.  It seems like a beefier, harrier version of a European honey bee.  It acts the same on flowers and is about the same size and shape.  It is dark black, grey and brown and does not seem aggressive in the field.

[Daddy-T]

Fuzzybeekeeper,

Yes and Sorry,
         I am still feeding 8 of the hives using them to build comb. I have all new Plastic Foundations this year and I am feeding them to draw out the comb.
         I have 4 hives that I am not feeding 2 Buckfest & 2 NWC's. The honey from them, I will be harvesting for us. The Honey from the rest, I will harvest separately and be feeding back to them this fall/winter/spring.    
        I am working on getting everything ready for the goldenrod flow; it is a major flow around here this fall. I hope to have all the honey supers ready for them to fill at least 2 supers of goldenrod this fall.  We will see.........

Tim