BEES n SHIT

[Rodinus]

Greetings folks.

As promised yesterday I will start my thread today concerning a lifelong thingummyjig that has been "Bugging" me for nigh on a wicked time.

BEE Keeping :

4 years ago my son Rod Jr decided to put in santas sack a bee hive.... Thank buggery it was not full!... The Sack under the chimney... Fnarrrr fnarrrrr....

Since then we have moved house from the countryside (The Stix (for you uneducated yanks so to speak... HUMOUR)) into a quaint French country side village in the Val de Loire which has a distance of about 10 minutes to the nearest hospital if needed).... Me getting old...

We have finally got the boxes emptied and most of the crappy stuff done apart from finishing of my clinic (I'm a hypnotherapist)...

I managed to have a rummage around in those boxes that were marked "Open One Day When You Are Old or bored".

I did it... found the 5 boxes of bee hive components...

"Bugger me" I thought... Hoping that no-one was in the vicinity to even THINK about Buggering me (Luckily the Mali is around in moments of great contemplation) AND will protect me (Just in case some of your sickos were thinking that I wish for our Mali to perform some kind off Canine Buggery act...)

Anyway : Unpacked everything and scratched my head thinking about how I was going to go about all of this BEE KEEPING stuff.

So after doing much internet research and also discussing with my new neighbour who is a master bee keeper, I present to you my new thread...

HOW TO GET STUNG TO FUCKING DEATH BY A NEWBIE BEE KEEPER...

As from tomorrow I will post pics and update when possible.

This is where I want to place the hive : The wall is situated with protection from North eastern winds and rain and also provides enough sunlight in the afternoon without the bees becoming too hot (which can have a negative impact on them as they need to cool the hive down and takes up much of their time.)



I will also probably put up a shelter (tiny brick roof above as sometimes here in summer we can go up to 40°c)

Anyways... As I endevour in my quest to not get my arse stung to death, I will update when I can...

Enjoy folks and here are a couple of useful links I use at the moment :

https://www.beekeeping-101.com/how-to-ma...beekeeper/

https://www.beekeeping-for-beginners.com...eping.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hf9BckG9nXs

Hugs n stuff

Rodf

[VioletDove]

This bee thread makes me so happy! 

I wouldn’t have thought about placement of the hive. When I was thinking about getting bees I thought the back corner of my property would be good but that probably wouldn’t be such a good area because there isn’t enough shade.

It’s great that your neighbor keeps bees as well. That’s another thing that held me back, I don’t know anyone nearby that does that. I also don’t know how far from the hive bees travel and I’m afraid some of the folks out this way are kill the bees types of people.

I’m looking forward to seeing how this progresses for you, although it may inspire me to stand in front of the beekeeping kits at the farm store again and actually leave with one.

[OmegaLogos]

Explanation: Well done! Great thread!




Personal Disclosure: Hey Honey, This Tastes Funny! Bee Carefull And Watch What You Eat Ok!


Ok so I am having a conversation with my parents about diabe(e)tes and sugar and honey consumption and my dad pipes up that honey can be toxic ...

Toxic Honey [wiki]

Honey produced from flowers of rhododendrons, mountain laurels, sheep laurel, and azaleas may cause honey intoxication. Symptoms include dizziness, weakness, excessive perspiration, nausea, and vomiting. Less commonly, low blood pressure, shock, heart rhythm irregularities, and convulsions may occur, with rare cases resulting in death. Honey intoxication is more likely when using "natural" unprocessed honey and honey from farmers who may have a small number of hives. Commercial processing, with pooling of honey from numerous sources, is thought to dilute any toxins.

Toxic honey may also result when bees are proximate to tutu bushes (Coriaria arborea) and the vine hopper insect (Scolypopa australis). Both are found throughout New Zealand. Bees gather honeydew produced by the vine hopper insects feeding on the tutu plant. This introduces the poison tutin into honey. Only a few areas in New Zealand (Coromandel Peninsula, Eastern Bay of Plenty and the Marlborough Sound) frequently produce toxic honey. Symptoms of tutin poisoning include vomiting, delirium, giddiness, increased excitability, stupor, coma, and violent convulsions. To reduce the risk of tutin poisoning, humans should not eat honey taken from feral hives in the risk areas of New Zealand. Since December 2001, New Zealand beekeepers have been required to reduce the risk of producing toxic honey by closely monitoring tutu, vine hopper, and foraging conditions within 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) of their apiary.

And my mum piped up that she remembers that toxic honey was a much darker color in the honey comb and was usually identified and cut out by the beekeeper!



Lets enjoy some Mead [wiki]

Mead (/ˈmiːd/; archaic and dialectal "medd"; from Old English "meodu") is an alcoholic beverage created by fermenting honey with water, sometimes with various fruits, spices, grains, or hops. (Hops act as a preservative and produce a bitter, beer-like flavor.) The alcoholic content of mead may range from about 8% ABV to more than 20%. The defining characteristic of mead is that the majority of the beverage's fermentable sugar is derived from honey. It may be still, carbonated, or naturally sparkling; and it may be dry, semi-sweet, or sweet.

Mead is known from many sources of ancient history throughout Europe, Africa and Asia. "It can be regarded as the ancestor of all fermented drinks," Maguelonne Toussaint-Samat has speculated, "antedating the cultivation of the soil." Hornsey considers archaeological evidence of it ambiguous; however, McGovern and other archaeological chemists consider the presence of beeswax markers and gluconic acid, in the presence of other substances known to ferment, to be reasonably conclusive evidence of the use of honey in ancient fermented beverages.

Claude Lévi-Strauss makes a case for the invention of mead as a marker of the passage "from nature to culture." Mead has played an important role in the beliefs and mythology of some peoples. One such example is the Mead of Poetry, a mead of Norse mythology crafted from the blood of the wise being Kvasir which turns the drinker into a poet or scholar.

The terms "mead" and "honey-wine" are often used synonymously.[13][14] Honey-wine is differentiated from mead in some cultures. Hungarians hold that while mead is made of honey, water and beer-yeast (barm), honey-wine is watered honey fermented by recrement of grapes (or other fruits).

[F2d5thCav]

Good on you.  We need more honeybees.

Our yard gets a lot of bumblebees in the summer, and a tree in the back is a favorite of honeybees.  The tree literally "hums" in warm weather.  I notice lavender is a favorite of the bees and the butterflies.

Cheers

[ABNARTY]

I look forward to the thread 

I have always wanted to do bee hives but have never gotten there.

We have three acres of meadow/field/whatever with a lot of native wildflowers. The pollinators seem to do well. I am wondering how a bee hive would fit into the mix.

[Ninurta]

I'm looking forward to following your adventures in bee-keeping.

As @"Omegalogos" mentioned, mead is one of the finer products of honey. It's pretty much just a quart of honey, 3 quarts of water, some yeast, and time for the little devils to work their way out of it, but can be additionally flavored with just about anything under the sun. My son sent me several bottles of it that were flavored with Carolina Reaper peppers. That was some rough stuff!

Additionally, locally produced honey is antibiotic. I learned that from the local vet when my dog had a disagreement with a bear. I've heard the old timers around here claim that a bear can "blow" the hide off a dog like a skin balloon, but I always chalked that up to tall tales. However, when Blackie came dragging back in from the ruckus, he had a gash on his left shoulder, and the hide beneath it had gotten detached from the underlying tissues and hung there hollow like a shirt pocket. So, I don't know if it was evidence to support the tall tales, or some other cause.

Anyhow, we took him to the vet, and the vet prescribed locally produced honey as a wound dressing after she stitched him back together. She even showed me some scientific papers about it to convince me. She did stress that it had to be LOCALLY produced honey, however - something about how each hive produces antibodies tailored to the local microfauna in their own area.

I was sort of dubious, but followed the doctors orders. We had to put one of those cones on his neck to prevent him from licking it off, so that the honey would stay in place. He hated that! Anyhow, I slathered that wound up two or three times a day with locally produced honey, and sure enough, it never festered, not even a little bit, and he was healed up in about 3 weeks.

Here's to honey - it's not just a sweetener any more!

.

[senona]

That is fantastic!!

Wish I lived somewhere that I could have bee hives.
Although my sister did try, they have 10 acres of land out in the country. 
But she just could not get over the constant "buzzzzzzzzz" sound all around her, even tho she was in a bee suit. Margie pretty much would freak out  
(((she is afraid of spiders, just saying...   )))




There is however, a lady at my dentist's office that has bee hives due to her allergies. 
Their honey helps relieve her allergy symptoms.

I go by there and buy honey from her, good local bee honey! Yummmmm..... 



Best of luck to you 

[Rodinus]

Greetings fellow Rogues.

WOW... I wasn't expecting so many replies with so much information and great tips! A sincere thank you to you all.

I apologise in advance as I cannot answer everyone at the moment as otherwise I would be sat down here in front of my computer all day and won't get anything done.

Especially at the moment as Spring Time is rearing its beautiful head and there is a shitload of things to do before I become overwhelmed by the garden, the bees and the wife...

Today is the YELLOW day : All the shrubs and flowers are starting to bloom the colour yellow : Forsythia, Yellow Iris, Hyacinth, Daffodils etc...

I will be planting Mimosa next month as well as a Chinese Whuflu Wisteria.

The reason I also say YELLOW is that over the past two days we have recieived a copius amount of fine sand from the Sahara which has covered almost everything including our cars. So most of my morning will be spent having a fun time with the Karcher spraying everything down.

One of our cars :




Once I have finished I will get down to the Nitty Gritty of the garden, preparing for my BABEES...

This includes cordoning off certain parts of our flower plantations with a small electric fence as our cute bastard Labrador digs up everything in vicinity and if I want our bees to have lots to chomp on then this needs to be done. Otherwise its the 12 bore to the Labs head...




Buwhahahahaha

I apologise in advance for not being too quick with my replies and info but for me the art off bee keeping is also the art of patience.

Hopefully tomorrow if possible I will repost... If not, dont forget GRASSHOPPER : If ones bottom is falling out of ones world... Drink Guinness...

And the world will fall out of ones bottom...

HAPPY ST PATRICKS DAY EVERYONE.

Hugs

Rod

[Rodinus]

Ewwweee my Furrrrking gooorrddddd....

Things were going to plan whilst cleaning the car with the Karcher and then the karcher decided to take a mind of its own and do the whole patio...

Got to one of the palm trees we planted last year and found this  :




A Morel Mushroom... All 12 cm of the big bugger....

Bollocks to that.... Time to prepare an omlette and wait for his/her/gender neutral or whatever champignon brothers and sister spores to do their stuff...

Me likes big time Mycology, fungi n stuff... I have many years experience

The BEES and garden can wait a day.

Dribbly hugs

Rod

[VioletDove]

Ewwweee my Furrrrking gooorrddddd....

Things were going to plan whilst cleaning the car with the Karcher and then the karcher decided to take a mind of its own and do the whole patio...

Got to one of the palm trees we planted last year and found this  :




A Morel Mushroom... All 12 cm of the big bugger....

Bollocks to that.... Time to prepare an omlette and wait for his/her/gender neutral or whatever champignon brothers and sister spores to do their stuff...

Me likes big time Mycology, fungi n stuff... I have many years experience

The BEES and garden can wait a day.

Dribbly hugs

Rod

That’s a good looking mushroom you found. 

A lot of people around here go out and gather as many of those as they can find. I’ve looked several times close to where I live but sadly I always come back empty handed. I just keep waiting for the day when I find one of those tasty morsels for myself. I hope you enjoy that omelette.

[Rodinus]

Ewwweee my Furrrrking gooorrddddd....

Things were going to plan whilst cleaning the car with the Karcher and then the karcher decided to take a mind of its own and do the whole patio...

Got to one of the palm trees we planted last year and found this  :




A Morel Mushroom... All 12 cm of the big bugger....

Bollocks to that.... Time to prepare an omlette and wait for his/her/gender neutral or whatever champignon brothers and sister spores to do their stuff...

Me likes big time Mycology, fungi n stuff... I have many years experience

The BEES and garden can wait a day.

Dribbly hugs

Rod

That’s a good looking mushroom you found. 

A lot of people around here go out and gather as many of those as they can find. I’ve looked several times close to where I live but sadly I always come back empty handed. I just keep waiting for the day when I find one of those tasty morsels for myself. I hope you enjoy that omelette.

It just happened.

I love the word PATIENCE

[Snarl]

But she just could not get over the constant "buzzzzzzzzz" sound all around her

Bees are funny.  The moment you start to try and understand what they are communicating to you, your learning curve shoots straight skyward.  They have a hive hum when they're content, when they're alert, when they're alarmed, when they're in attic mode.  You can hear all the differences ... if you listen.

Best thing is to make yourself their friend.  Give them sugar water without wearing a bee hood ... and they'll all remember your face ... and won't suicide themselves by stinging someone who is not a threat.

[F2d5thCav]

Saw my first honeybee of the year in the yard today.  Good sign.

Cheers

[Rodinus]

Saw my first honeybee of the year in the yard today.  Good sign.

Cheers

Same thing here, we also have our mason bees flying around at the moment looking for holes to fill.

Cute little buggers that dont sting but love buzzing our ears.

More to come Monday.

[Rodinus]

Greetings folks.
 
As promised here I am again with an update as to what has been carried out this weekend for the accomodation of our future colony of stingy little bastards.

Just a quick response to Ninurta concerning Mead : Unfortunately I cannot make mead straight away as I will not be able to harvest any honey, the colony will still be growing and will need honey for the winter to feed themselves.

Some hives need 3 years before honey can be harvested.

Anyways : This weekend was spend painting the first tier of the hive with a special weather resistant paint which is non toxic for the bees. Only the outside of the hive is painted so as to leave the natural wood inside the hive as non toxic as possible for the bees.




The hive I am using is called in French a « Dadant » hive or in English a top-bar hive where the bees' frames are arranged horizontally, not vertically. The bees make comb without foundation in this system. Each bar, containing comb and honey and is pulled up out of the hive from the top.

https://www.thespruce.com/beekeeping-for...ep-3016540

For the moment I am only using the bottom tier, (the heart of the colony where the queen bee will lay her eggs and honey can be stocked) so that the colony can concentrate on making honey for themselves during the first season.

Once (probably next year) they have gorged themselves stupid on honey, I will add the second tier (The reserve) which I will then use for the harvest of surplus honey.

I have just ordered 10 wax sheets which will need to be soldered so to speak to the frames that will be installed into the hive so that the bees can create the combs. This is a tedious processus and no doubt I will fuck up big time the first time… So let me change that order to 20 wax sheets !

Inside of hive without frames :




I will also need to order a long plastic or wooden frame with small holes cut out for the entrance of the hive so that only the bees can enter and not those bastard murderous Asian hornets... Actually I might make it myself (I will show pics of my bloody mangled hands after handling the jigsaw and drill sometime next week)

We also spent much of this weekend planting more new blossoms so that the fat bastards can gorge themselves silly and also cleaned up the koi pond and banged up the filter etc… Bees need to drink too !

More to come…

Kindest respects

Rod

[Rodinus]

Just for info :

Here is a pic taken about 10 minutes ago of our Mason bee nests that we transferred last year during our house move :




I love these furry orange little fuckers that fly around and trust us as they brick up their house.

I and them have a great understanding.

Hatching has started and new bees are looking for holes to fill... "Fnarr Fnarr"




Kindest respects n Stuff

Rodinus

[Bally002]

Just for info :

Here is a pic taken about 10 minutes ago of our Mason bee nests that we transferred last year during our house move :




I love these furry orange little fuckers that fly around and trust us as they brick up their house.

I and them have a great understanding.

Hatching has started and new bees are looking for holes to fill... "Fnarr Fnarr"




Kindest respects n Stuff

Rodinus

Hi Rod.  Here is some pics of our bees wax haul from the hive plant where we work occasionally. @OmegaLogos.







If you read the message on the white box it's a hello to you.  The mob we work for has about 3.000 hives and basically supplies honey to 'Capilano' A Honey company.  The wax is melted down and cast into bricks and later sold for any number of needs, candles, cosmetics and of course board wax.  Worth a quid.

Keep your wax after you clean the hive.  Reduce it and can be later used.  I like Bees Wax candles.  They burn clean.

Need to know any tips let us know.  

Bally and True Love.
:)

[Rodinus]

Just for info :

Here is a pic taken about 10 minutes ago of our Mason bee nests that we transferred last year during our house move :




I love these furry orange little fuckers that fly around and trust us as they brick up their house.

I and them have a great understanding.

Hatching has started and new bees are looking for holes to fill... "Fnarr Fnarr"




Kindest respects n Stuff

Rodinus

Hi Rod.  Here is some pics of our bees wax haul from the hive plant where we work occasionally. @OmegaLogos.







If you read the message on the white box it's a hello to you.  The mob we work for has about 3.000 hives and basically supplies honey to 'Capilano' A Honey company.  The wax is melted down and cast into bricks and later sold for any number of needs, candles, cosmetics and of course board wax.  Worth a quid.

Keep your wax after you clean the hive.  Reduce it and can be later used.  I like Bees Wax candles.  They burn clean.

Need to know any tips let us know.  

Bally and True Love.
:)

Wow mate, you just brought a tear to this big fat buggers face...

I am touched... Thank you.

[Janny]

That. Is. Awesome.
Looking forward to tracking your posts. I have always wanted to keep bees.
No bandwidth. 

I have a ton of bees that show up in my garden every year. But nothing like keeping them :)