Just want to say hello to all and glad that the folks at beemaster has a sight like this where beekeepers can come together. I am a beekeeper and a paramedic. I am on the 911 list in two counties for bee emergencies which includes also, yellow jackets, hornets, and wasp. Have seen some pretty bad infestations too. Just a little rule if you ever get a call to remove anything other than honeybees, wear leather especially leather gloves when removing yellow jackets, wasp, and hornets. And with the latter, is a good idea to wear some type of safety glasses. The bee veil is good but hornets are bad about spraying venom.
And if you don't have a bee vacumn get one or make one. They are worth their weight in gold, when removing bees of anykind. And especially when the queen is hard to find in a hazardous house swarm that has been established for a few years.
Since April of this year I have removed over 400,000 bees from homes that were established hives of at least three years. And the bees are healthy.
Were dealing with some pretty hot weather presently and all the bees are clustering outside the hives now. I have found that if you wet around the ground of the super with a lite mist of water it does seem to give them some relief. But, natural instinct is going to run it's course here. Have began some harvesting of pomegranate honey
and averaging around 30 lbs per short super. It is great honey if you can find someone with a pomegranate tree to pollinate it. Pomegranite trees have shown to have an increase of production of nearly 69% when cross pollinated with honeybees. And the Honey is grade A and light gold in color. And a very mild taste. I can not keep it very long either. Folks love that pomegranate. Humming Birds are really drawn to the red blooms too. Just make sure you give your bees time to establish themselves around one. It might take a full season for this to happen. But the following year get ready for some of the best tasting honey. Is alot like orange blossom honey.
Well I hope everyone is having a great year with the honey harvest and your bees are good and healthy. I handle the African bees here too, and it seems that since the Africians are not effected by all the dieases and pest that our domestics are being lost to, then the hybrid African/domestic honeybee are going to be a God sent solution to the disappearing bees now. My Goal is to establish 7 Hybrid African hives just to see if this is perhaps the route to go. With the domestic hereditary gene, the African/Domestic will stay in one place too , which is a problem with full bred African bees . They will not stay put, and the swarms are usually small in comparrison. Honey production is not as much either. They actually lose alot of their aggressiveness in the off spring with the domestics too which is good. Cause those AFricans will kill anything that moves, they are a serious bee all the way around.
Anyone out there in the Southwest section of the USA, I would love to hear from you. Take care folks and write me when you can.........
PS. Has anyone out in Texas heard about this house out there where they say is a very old and established beeswarm living it ? They estimate nearly 10 million bees in it.
Lets see there are approx. 3500 bees per pound....hummm..thats alot of bees.
Buzza Shuck
Topic: Greetings to all fellow beekeepers (Read 1226 times)