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 Some bees here. Got plenty more where that came from. Matoi Ryuko wanted an AMA about bees, so that's what's up. Ask me questions about bees. Maybe some other bee-having goons will show up to answer your questions better than I can. I'm a first year beekeeper in southern New England; in addition to actually shoving my hands in boxes full of bees, I study about bees, belong to a local beekeepers' club, and take apiarist courses in my spare time. I have one hive and I plan on starting the next season with two, and maybe ending with three. Since it's winter now and it's cold as poo poo up here, the bees aren't out and about so they can't hear me talk poo poo about them.  This is my first beehive. I think the color scheme fits BYOB pretty well. 
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Dec 18, 2014 21:31
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| # ? Apr 26, 2024 02:24 |
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There's a big white fence! Do you have neighbors living nearby?
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Dec 18, 2014 21:32
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Matoi Ryuko posted:There's a big white fence! Do you have neighbors living nearby? these are my neighbees |
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Dec 18, 2014 21:34
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how often do you get stung?
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Dec 18, 2014 21:34
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i like your purple bee box 
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Dec 18, 2014 21:34
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Wow. Yes. |
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Dec 18, 2014 21:34
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Matoi Ryuko posted:There's a big white fence! Do you have neighbors living nearby? I do!  Their yard on that side is actually significantly lower than mine. You can't see the retaining wall. So on the rare occasion the bees cross that way, they're about three - four feet overhead. That way no one gets stung in the head. Bees aim for the eyes.
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Dec 18, 2014 21:34
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What percentage of honey productions comes from small operations like this versus more "industrial" means (if such a thing exists. I'm imagining huge bee farms here). Do you sell the honey or keep it for yourself? |
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Dec 18, 2014 21:34
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Bull Runner posted:how often do you get stung? I have never been stung. Just in case I am, I keep an epi-pen on me when I am around the hive. I don't know if I'm allergic.  Awesome! posted:i like your purple bee box Thanks 
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Dec 18, 2014 21:35
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i had a fatass bee land right on the tip of my nose once and sting me 
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Dec 18, 2014 21:35
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RedTonic posted:I have never been stung. Just in case I am, I keep an epi-pen on me when I am around the hive. I don't know if I'm allergic. What if you set up hoops for the bees to fly through, and then filmed it with slow motion cameras?
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Dec 18, 2014 21:37
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can i have some honey |
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Dec 18, 2014 21:37
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How many of these bees would have to sting me in order for me to die?
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Dec 18, 2014 21:37
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The Green Calx posted:How many of these bees would have to sting me in order for me to die? lets find out |
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Dec 18, 2014 21:37
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How much money to buy 6000 live bees and send them in a box labeled "live ladybugs" to i am he?
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Dec 18, 2014 21:38
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The Green Calx posted:How much money to buy 6000 live bees and send them in a box labeled "live ladybugs" to i am he? lol |
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Dec 18, 2014 21:39
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what can i, a humble layperson, do to help bees |
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Dec 18, 2014 21:39
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DrSanchez posted:What percentage of honey productions comes from small operations like this versus more "industrial" means (if such a thing exists. I'm imagining huge bee farms here). Do you sell the honey or keep it for yourself? I couldn't give you an actual percentage, though I can check with my club. I know that the vast majority comes from commercial beekeepers, many of whom truck their hives around the continent to pollinate industrial farms. My state has some small to medium commercial beekeepers who generally keep bees around our orchards and cranberry bogs. My hive isn't productive enough to make honey for sale, so this first year I only got a little bit of honeycomb for myself. It was pretty nice, though! In the future, I might make a little business out of it. Awesome! posted:i had a fatass bee land right on the tip of my nose once and sting me Bees are jerks.
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Dec 18, 2014 21:40
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Is it true that the bees are disappearing?
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Dec 18, 2014 21:40
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RedTonic posted:Bees are jerks. i appreciate that there are people like you out there who put these psychopaths in their place |
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Dec 18, 2014 21:43
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RedTonic posted:I couldn't give you an actual percentage, though I can check with my club. I know that the vast majority comes from commercial beekeepers, many of whom truck their hives around the continent to pollinate industrial farms. My state has some small to medium commercial beekeepers who generally keep bees around our orchards and cranberry bogs. My hive isn't productive enough to make honey for sale, so this first year I only got a little bit of honeycomb for myself. It was pretty nice, though! In the future, I might make a little business out of it. so are you keeping them for honey only, or also as pets?
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Dec 18, 2014 21:43
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Woah, I had no idea that bees were used to pollinate commercial farms like that. That's really cool! Next question: how much honeycomb do you extract from the hive, and how do you do so? I assume the hive lives off the honey (is that correct?), so you don't take everything? |
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Dec 18, 2014 21:45
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do you take pleasure in telling people where their honey comes from in gross detail? |
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Dec 18, 2014 21:47
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Do you ever suck the bees off? |
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Dec 18, 2014 21:48
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What';s the capital of Peru |
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Dec 18, 2014 21:48
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u got gears? |
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Dec 18, 2014 21:49
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What was his name. |
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Dec 18, 2014 21:50
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I.N.R.I posted:What';s the capital of Peru Lima!!
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Dec 18, 2014 21:50
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I.N.R.I posted:u got gears? 2 and 3.
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Dec 18, 2014 21:50
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Matoi Ryuko posted:What if you set up hoops for the bees to fly through, and then filmed it with slow motion cameras? I will try this in the spring. Come up with some drinking game rules. Yo, imma blob posted:what can i, a humble layperson, do to help bees Plant flowers, don't spray so much pesticides, quit pulling dandelions. Bees loving love dandelions. The Green Calx posted:How much money to buy 6000 live bees and send them in a box labeled "live ladybugs" to i am he? Where do you live and how far away is i am he from you? Go catch a swarm of bees, stuff them in a box, tape it shut, and mail it through USPS. Swarms are ~free~ Straight up purchasing a package of bees can cost $110. It may be less if you live closer to where the supplier actually breeds and raises bee colonies. If you know a guy, you might even get them super cheap/for free. i am he posted:can i have some honey are you a bear The Green Calx posted:How many of these bees would have to sting me in order for me to die? If you're allergic, maybe one. If you live in the US, you're twice as likely to die from lightning strike as you are from a sting. Lethality varies with your sensitivity, health, and body weight, but this year some guy near us died after being stung on the forehead by a bee. If you're stung by a colony you've disturbed, make sure to go to the hospital, though. A hundred or so beestings will leave enough venom in you to do significant damage to your body, and all the garbage from that which collects in your bloodstream can overwhelm your kidneys, leading to renal failure and an agonizing death. Interestingly, honeybees are the only bugs that die after stinging you. When they sting, they leave their stinger in you, which essentially disembowels the bee. These girls are 
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Dec 18, 2014 21:52
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how do you get the bees in the box |
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Dec 18, 2014 21:54
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RedTonic posted:are you a bear https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSUW-Z_Cnc0
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Dec 18, 2014 21:55
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I really like bees and some day I want bees
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Dec 18, 2014 21:58
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how do you get bees?
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Dec 18, 2014 22:00
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mailorder bees! posted:how do you get bees? in the mail i guess |
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Dec 18, 2014 22:00
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The Green Calx posted:Is it true that the bees are disappearing? Yes and no. Colony collapse disorder is less a single disease than a convergence of factors and it's still pretty hotly debated. It's attributed to climate change, the rise of agricultural monocultures (especially things like fields solely of rapeseed, corn, etc.). Recently I saw a whitepaper come out that said feral bee colonies are actually on the rise in the US, which is a good sign. Apis mellifera, the honeybee the vast majority of apiarists keep, isn't a species native to the Americas. Europeans introduced the honeybee to the Americas during colonization. Yeah, that's right, whitey brought the bee over on fuckin' boats. Native Americans called the honeybee "white man's fly." Awesome! posted:i appreciate that there are people like you out there who put these psychopaths in their place a bee hive is like a female-only, minimum security prison with a work release program. Bull Runner posted:so are you keeping them for honey only, or also as pets? More as pets than for honey. I actually had a phobia of bees when I started. Now they only make me a little nervous. The first time I worked the hive, I did so alone. I was covered in sweat afterwards. I had to go have a stiff drink. DrSanchez posted:Woah, I had no idea that bees were used to pollinate commercial farms like that. That's really cool! Next question: how much honeycomb do you extract from the hive, and how do you do so? I assume the hive lives off the honey (is that correct?), so you don't take everything? I only pulled one frame of honeycomb this year. Most beekeepers still use what's called the Langstroth hive, which is basically boxes of bees stacked on top of one another. That's that purple pile of boxes in the first post. Each box has several "frames" inside, which is what that top post is. That particular frame is from a "deep" brood box. When I get home, I'll post some more pics of beehive parts, but you jam a lot of those frames inside a box and the bees will build their comb inside the frame. That way you can pull out parts of the hive without destroying the whole thing. You take those frames full of honey-bound comb, cut the "caps" off (you see how those cells are all covered with a layer of wax? that's the cap), and use a honey extractor to get the honey out. Extractors are usually simple centrifuges and might be powered by hand or electricity.  You definitely don't take everything. You want to leave at least 70 lbs of honey in there. Some people do more or less. I live in a cold place, so I need to make sure my bees have a lot of honey. Strangely enough, there's a lot of controversy about the standard way of setting up a hive to get honey, which involves shallow boxes called "supers" or "honey supers." They're called supers because they usually go on top of the hive. You fill these with smaller frames and usually you'll use a queen excluder between the super stack and the main hive body. This keeps the fatass queen from laying eggs in your honey supers, because most of us don't want honey full of bee eggs and bee larvae (which are basically just bee maggots, let's keep it real). Some people think that doing this is Bad for Reasons. Awesome! posted:do you take pleasure in telling people where their honey comes from in gross detail? I love bee vomit, you love bee vomit, let's all cry for bee vomit I.N.R.I posted:Do you ever suck the bees off? Nearly the entire hive is female. The males are drones. They hang out in packs during the daytime, waiting for a virgin queen to fly by. They gently caress on the wing, and then when done, the male's penis pops off and he falls to the ground, dead as a doornail. Any drones who don't lose their virginities are rounded up when the days grow short and cool and evicted from the hive. Eventually they starve or freeze to death, because they're so helpless that they can't even feed themselves. I.N.R.I posted:u got gears? such gears
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Dec 18, 2014 22:05
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This is awesome thanks for the answers
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Dec 18, 2014 22:07
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my husband is allergic to bees, but we want to do whatever we can for them once we have a yard. I'd plant flowers now but maintenance would rip them out. does emailing the EPA about neonicotinoids do anything? |
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Dec 18, 2014 22:08
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where did you get your box and bees? do you plant things for your bees or do you just hope they find enough forage around the neighborhood? how many hours per week do you spend doing bee maintenance? how far is the hive from your house? |
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Dec 18, 2014 22:09
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| # ? Apr 26, 2024 02:24 |
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Awesome! posted:how do you get the bees in the box carefully, while wearing a full body condom I started with one deep brood box already filled with frames. The frames had a sheet of beeswax in them, which smells like home to bees. I bought a package of bees, which really was a lovely wireframe box with a can of sugar syrup and another tinier cage inside with the queen bee in it, trapped by a plug of hard sugar. I put her tiny cage in between two frames, put the can of syrup on the brood box, shook the gently caress out of the package so most of the bees were dislodged and fell in the hive. Then I put the package down on the hive's ramp and ran away. Awesome! posted:in the mail i guess Yep, you can order bees by mail. As far as I know, the USPS is the only US postal company which will actually ship bees. The other ways are to 1. catch a feral swarm or 2. split an already established bee colony into two colonies. Of course, if you're lucky, you might know someone who is willing to part with a colony too. Sometimes these new colonies are called "nukes" for nuclear colony. GODSPEED JOHN GLENN posted:I really like bees and some day I want bees astronauts should definitely keep bees. One day bees should be taken into space. I wish I could join the bearforce 
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Dec 18, 2014 22:10
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