Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum
BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. => Topic started by: sean on December 29, 2006, 03:31:33 pm
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Hi, quick question. Is there for want of a better word "ideal" time of day to inspect your hives. i usually do mine in the mornings about 8am. is that a good time or would later be better. I hav paid dearly especially going down into the brood chambers to remove some frames and replace with empty frames.
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A bit later in the afternoon is usually better, because that is when most of the foragers are out in the field. Then you are dealing with fewer bees at the hive site.
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when the most bees are out and about foraging. Not at night. I looked inside one night, never again.
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when it's warm and later in the day! as i read your post, i was scraping stingers out of my jeans. i just broke every rule of checking a hive.....1. no smoker 2. cold weather 3. ripped off hat and veil because of bees inside 4. did not run fast enough 5. long hair not tucked under veil 6. Garnier Fructis leave in hair conditioner.
on the bright side, i now know what to use to attract bees into a new hive!
with all of that, i did not get stung. i lost track of how many stingers i pulled out of my clothes :-)
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when the most bees are out and about foraging. Not at night. I looked inside one night, never again.
bees are red blind. Did you use a flash light with red glass :-)
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ok i will try later in the day. On a side note has anyone tried using driving gloves or gloves with the fingers cut off. I ask this because most of the stings i have rec'd have been on the back of my hand not on the fingers, and i was thinking of cutting the fingers off a pair of garden gloves that i have, so i would have more dexterity than with full gloves
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I will check mine in the morning provided it has warmed up enough for the bees to start leaving and go foraging.
The problem for me in the afternoon is when all the new bees are doing their orientation flight. So I will wait until that is done usually about 20 minuets.
Sincerely,
Brendhan
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when it's warm and later in the day! as i read your post, i was scraping stingers out of my jeans. i just broke every rule of checking a hive.....1. no smoker 2. cold weather 3. ripped off hat and veil because of bees inside 4. did not run fast enough 5. long hair not tucked under veil 6. Garnier Fructis leave in hair conditioner.
on the bright side, i now know what to use to attract bees into a new hive!
with all of that, i did not get stung. i lost track of how many stingers i pulled out of my clothes :-)
you are quite lucky. i may needto take you with me when i am going back in
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The more the bees are flying the better time it is to inspect.
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when the most bees are out and about foraging. Not at night. I looked inside one night, never again.
bees are red blind. Did you use a flash light with red glass :-)
Ha, Jorn, next time I go into the hive at night I will put on the red cover. LOL. Why would someone go into a hive at night? All the bees are home, you are asking for trouble, the bees see well when it is dark. If they saw a white flashlight beam coming into their home in the middle of their night, I bet they would be upset, probably would be blinding. Great day. Cindi
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I have always moved bees at night. Of with cover, moving hardware on. Red orientation light. Quick work no problems. You saw my smily.
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Bees don't see well at night and they cling and crawl and sting a lot when it's dark. I have found myself finding queens in nucs in the dark on occasion but they do crawl a lot.
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Bees don't see well at night and they cling and crawl and sting a lot when it's dark. I have found myself finding queens in nucs in the dark on occasion but they do crawl a lot.
True they crawl and sting a lot, and have no or little orientation. But clear flashlight they go for, and because we need orientation, a red light is the answer. The bees does not recognise this area of the light spectrum. The stinging bees in daylight are the guard and field bees. But the other bees in hive are also able to sting. Even the queen can sting.
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>But clear flashlight they go for
From my observation, you are correct.
> and because we need orientation, a red light is the answer. The bees does not recognise this area of the light spectrum.
Correct.
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A bit later in the afternoon is usually better, because that is when most of the foragers are out in the field. Then you are dealing with fewer bees at the hive site.
Ok. went in later and had no problems with stings. Found out that i had a wax moth problem in 1 colony. Have reduced it to 1 box and imported 2 frames from other hives. will watch it for another 2 weeks. Have i not done anything?
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I was taught to go into the hives during the "heat of the day" when those bees that can are more apt to be out of the hive. Foragers, orientations, drones, etc. The less bees in the hive during manipulation the easier it is to assess the condition of the hive without having to move the bees by hand or smoker.
I like to go in between 1 and 3 pm.
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Hmmm. A comment was made that bees do not see well at night. How can that make sense? They have the 3 ocelli on the head. I was under the impression that these ocelli were their "night vision" eyes in their hive, in addition to their "day vision" larger eyes, so they can see night or day within their home?
I need clarification on this as it has become confusing. Great new year 2007, Cindi
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If you really want to clear out what hives are angry, go to hives near sunset and you get the answer.
Bees cannot se in dim light where human eye is still able to se.
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No, not getting it. How can they see in the dark in their hive if they cannot see in "dim" light?????
Great day. Cindi
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How can they see in the dark in their hive
They don't se. They act according their sense of smell, with antennas and legs. Queen measures with legs, is it worker cell, then she put antennas inside and sniffs is the cell free to lay. If quen have lost her one antenna and front leg is violated, egg laying will not manage.
In the battle queen may get poison in her antenna or leg and they will be rigid.
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Finsky, Wow, awesome, that has finally 100% answered my question about the bee's view in the dark. It is by touch and other senses. Right on!!!! Thank you, that made my day!!!! Great day indeed and 2007. Cindi
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"I frequently amputated the four wings of queens and not only did they continue laying, but the same consideration of them was testified by the workers as before, Therefore, Swammerdam has no foundation for asserting, that mutilated queens cease to lay. Indeed, from his ignorance of fecundation taking place without the hive, it is possible he cut the wings off virgin queens and they, becoming incapable of flight, remained sterile from inability to seek the mates in the air. Thus, amputation of the wings does not produce sterility in queens.
"I have frequently cut off one antenna, to recognize a queen the more easily and it was not prejudicial to her either in fecundity or instinct, nor did it affect the attention paid to her by the bees. It is true, that as one still remained, the mutilation was imperfect and the experiment decided nothing. But amputation of both antennae produced most singular effects. On the fifth of September, I cut both off a queen that laid the eggs of males only and put her into the hive immediately after the operation. From this moment there was a great alteration in her conduct. She traversed the combs with extraordinary vivacity. Scarcely had the workers time to separate and recede before her, she dropped her eggs, without attempting to deposit them in any cell. The hive not being very populous, part was without comb. Hither, she seemed particularly earnest to repair and long remained motionless. She appeared to avoid the bees however, several workers followed her into this solitude and treated her with the most evident respect. She seldom required honey from them, but when that occurred, directed her trunk with an uncertain kind of feeling, sometimes on the head and sometimes on the limbs of the workers and if it did reach their mouths, it was by chance. At other times she returned upon the combs, then quitted them to traverse the glass sides of the hive and always dropped eggs during her various motions. Sometimes She appeared tormented with the desire of leaving her habitation. She rushed towards the opening and entered the glass tube adapted there, but the external orifice being too small, after fruitless exertion, she returned. Notwithstanding these symptoms of delirium, the bees did not cease to render her the same attention as they ever pay to their queens. but this one received it with indifference. All that I describe appeared to me the consequence of amputating the antennae. However, her organization having already suffered from retarded fecundation and as I had observed her instinct in some degree impaired, both causes might possibly concur in producing the same effect. To distinguish properly what belonged to the privation of the antennae. A repetition of the experiment was necessary in a queen otherwise well organized and capable of laying both kinds of eggs.
"This I did on the sixth of September. I amputated both the antennae of a female which had been several months the subject of observation and being of great fecundity had already laid a considerable number of workers eggs amid those of males. I put her into the same hive where the queen of the preceding experiment still remained and she exhibited precisely the same marks of delirium and agitation, which I think it needless to repeat. I shall only add, that to judge better of the effect produced by privation of the antennas, on the industry and instinct of bees, I attentively considered the manner in which these two mutilated queens treated each other. You cannot have forgot, Sir, the animosity with which queens, possessing all their organs combat, on which account it became extremely interesting to learn whether they would experience the same reciprocal aversion after losing their antennae. We studied these queens a long time. They met several times in their courses and without exhibiting the smallest resentment. This last instance is, in my opinion, the most complete evidence of a change operated in their instinct."
François Huber 12 September 1791
http://www.bushfarms.com/huber.htm#letter12
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If queen have lost her one antenna and front leg is violated, egg laying will not manage.
Here I mean that queen lays a cople of frames eggs, it may put two or more eggs in one cell. But what is important, it is not "productive" queen.
When brood area is small, I check first if there some violation in queen. They are usual.