bees

[HL B123]

I have a lot of honeybees that swarm around my humming bird feeders ,
My question is if it is possible to start a hive using these feeders as
bait perhaps inside a box of some sort .I have heard that all workers
are female and that if the queen should die one of them will convert to
a queen ? Not planing on this .just wondering thanks hlb

[PhoenixWench]

A bee that has 'hatched' as a worker will not become a queen - a queen
is fed a specialized diet while still larval. I am not a bee keeper
myself - I came here originally to inquire about a similar question. Are
they really swarming - as in huge numbers all at once - or simply
joining the other critters enjoying a free taste? If they really are
swarming you would do well to contact a beekeeper - perhaps through your
local Cornell Cooperative, as I did.

This close to winter (assuming you are also in the Northern Hemisphere)
a voluntary swarming with a queen is unlikely. They might be a wild
swarm who have had their hive destroyed by a bear or some similar
disaster - this is what I suspect happened to my group. The master
beekeeper I got in contact with suggested feeding them a separate mix
from the hummer feed. Google HoneybeeLives for a PDF of the recipe.

The mix is much heavier than hummer food so they don't have to spend
precious time and energy dehydrating it - it effectively replaces their
missing honey and helps them set up a new home in a hurry, hopefully in
time for winter.

Since I didn't have a proper honeybee feeder, as recommended in the
article, I simply picked the feeder they seemed to find easiest to use
and filled it with the 'bee tea' and just kept refilling it until the
weather turned nasty and they stopped coming. They really figured out
quickly that I was trying to help and would wait patiently as I refilled
it - sometimes 4 times a day, sometimes landing on my hands face and
neck in their desire to stay close - and I never got stung even once.
Good thing, since the allergy to bee venom runs in my family, though
I've been lucky so far.

If it is a real swarm, with the queen there as well as the workers a
beekeeper might be called in to help corral them into a proper hive -
not a task I would recommend for the untrained - I know I wouldn't want
to try - hence the phone call for advice ;-)

Good luck - let me know how you make out! There has been precious little
activity here over the past year so I hope my amateur experience gives
you a little help ;-)

--

PhoenixWench

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Both are despotisms: the one assumes to itself the right of withholding
liberty of conscience, the other of granting it.
-- Thomas Paine, The Rights of Man
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lunatic asylum is purely coincidental and doubtlessly not the intention
of the author of us all.
- Molly Ivins, 1944 - 2007
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[danfan46]

To start a new hive you need several thousand bees.
A swarm is really impressing. When it moves it sounds like an engine.
The swarm always brings the queen along.
To bring up a new queen, the hive need fresh eggs.
If you have other hives you can take a frame with fresh eggs and add
it to the queenless hive, and they will bring up a new queen.
/dg

[Nick Cramer]

Thanks for an excellent post, PhoenixWench.

--
Nick, KI6VAV. Support severely wounded and disabled Veterans and their
families: https://semperfifund.org https://www.woundedwarriorproject.org/
http://www.specialops.org/ http://www.helpforheroes.org.uk/ ~Semper Fi~
http://www.woundedwarriors.ca/ http://www.legacy.com.au/ ~Semper Fi~

[PhoenixWench]

On 10/11/2012 3:13 AM, Nick Cramer wrote:

>
> Thanks for an excellent post, PhoenixWench.
>

Thanks - when I didn't see anyone answering I just gave it my best shot.
Along with my personal experience - which is what brought me to this
group two years ago - I just watched an amazing video by way of Netflix;
Nova - Tales from the Hive - so I figured any decent info was better
than nothing

[Nick Cramer]

PhoenixWench <slyw...@hvc.rr.com> wrote:
> On 10/11/2012 3:13 AM, Nick Cramer wrote:

> > Thanks for an excellent post, PhoenixWench.

> Thanks - when I didn't see anyone answering I just gave it my best shot.
> Along with my personal experience - which is what brought me to this
> group two years ago - I just watched an amazing video by way of Netflix;
> Nova - Tales from the Hive - so I figured any decent info was better
> than nothing

When I was a kid, we had three beehives. Smoked 'em and took their honey in
the fall, fed 'em sugar water in the spring, benefitted from their efforts
on our fruits and vegetables. Real docile critters. The only serious stings
I ever got were from red wasps and yellow-jackets.

[PhoenixWench]

On 10/12/2012 2:22 AM, Nick Cramer wrote:
> PhoenixWench <slyw...@hvc.rr.com> wrote:
>> On 10/11/2012 3:13 AM, Nick Cramer wrote:
>
>> > Thanks for an excellent post, PhoenixWench.
>
>> Thanks - when I didn't see anyone answering I just gave it my best shot.
>> Along with my personal experience - which is what brought me to this
>> group two years ago - I just watched an amazing video by way of Netflix;
>> Nova - Tales from the Hive - so I figured any decent info was better
>> than nothing
>
> When I was a kid, we had three beehives. Smoked 'em and took their honey in
> the fall, fed 'em sugar water in the spring, benefitted from their efforts
> on our fruits and vegetables. Real docile critters. The only serious stings
> I ever got were from red wasps and yellow-jackets.
>

My lot were certainly very gentle. I've always loved and respected
Nature, and living in the country these past few years has been widening
my horizons almost daily, in many ways, delightful and otherwise.The
whole experience, with the bees themselves and the research I wound up
doing, gave me a whole new understanding of and delight in Nature, above
and beyond where I had been until then. So we all benefited ;-)

[Nick Cramer]

PhoenixWench <slyw...@hvc.rr.com> wrote:
> On 10/12/2012 2:22 AM, Nick Cramer wrote:
> > PhoenixWench <slyw...@hvc.rr.com> wrote:
> >> On 10/11/2012 3:13 AM, Nick Cramer wrote:

I read somewhere that we owe plant life to honey bees and earth worms!

Wife and I are going to Thailand for a few months. Still gotta get visas,
tickets and $$$. Maybe get bees for our mountain home.

[PhoenixWench]

On 10/14/2012 12:15 AM, Nick Cramer wrote:
> PhoenixWench <slyw...@hvc.rr.com> wrote:
>> On 10/12/2012 2:22 AM, Nick Cramer wrote:
>>> PhoenixWench <slyw...@hvc.rr.com> wrote:
>>>> On 10/11/2012 3:13 AM, Nick Cramer wrote:
>
> I read somewhere that we owe plant life to honey bees and earth worms!
>
> Wife and I are going to Thailand for a few months. Still gotta get visas,
> tickets and $$$. Maybe get bees for our mountain home.
>

Nice! Beautiful country - Enjoy and good luck ;-)

[Nick Cramer]

PhoenixWench <slyw...@hvc.rr.com> wrote:
> On 10/14/2012 12:15 AM, Nick Cramer wrote:
> > PhoenixWench <slyw...@hvc.rr.com> wrote:
> >> On 10/12/2012 2:22 AM, Nick Cramer wrote:
> >>> PhoenixWench <slyw...@hvc.rr.com> wrote:
> >>>> On 10/11/2012 3:13 AM, Nick Cramer wrote:
> >
> > I read somewhere that we owe plant life to honey bees and earth worms!
> >
> > Wife and I are going to Thailand for a few months. Still gotta get
> > visas, tickets and $$$. Maybe get bees for our mountain home.
> >
> Nice! Beautiful country - Enjoy and good luck ;-)

Thanks, PW. First went there in '91 to get my stepdaughters. I've been
there several times since. I especially love the remote upcountry places.