BEES!!! If you love them and want to give them a home, please check in.

[bvar22]

31. Good point.

If we listen to The Bees, they will tell us when NOT to mess with their hive.
We aren't certain what causes this, perhaps an earlier alert that put the defensive pheromones in the air. When they sound angry, and the guard bees start buzzing us when we approach the hives,
we postpone any hive work for a day, and leave them alone.

We have discovered that if WE stay calm, the Bees usually stay calm.
In the early days, when it was a scary experience opening the hives,
they seemed to be able to sense OUR fear, and reacted accordingly.
As time passed, and servicing the hives and experiencing the occasional sting became routine,
we stayed calmer, and so have the Bees.

I can't recall a single occasion over the last 5 years when either of us has been stung outside of messing with the hives. We even mow and use weed eaters and chain saws near the hives, and have not had a problem so far.
We usually put on a bonnet and gloves when we do so.
I don't mind getting stung a few times,
but don't want to get stung 500 times.


You may be interested in this.
It is a low cost DIY Honey Extractor (centrifuge) made from food grade plastic buckets that we put together a couple of weeks ago.
We used it last week, and it worked great.
It worked better than our expectations.

This will spin out two super frames at a time,
and is perfect for the small scale BeeKeeper.

We can't take credit for the concept,
but we did make significant improvements to the ones on the Internet.
I will be posting the plans and a pictorial guide in the Rural/Farm Group,
and the DIY Group.