When hobbies collide...

Re: When hobbies collide...

Bill Houghton, Sebastopol, CA

>Cool. How do you do any useful work at all, when you've got something so fascinating to watch?

Yikes ! ! !

Bob Hutchins in central TX

>Seein' as how I'm allergic to bee stings (carry an anabolic steroid syringe in the car) AND the TX bees have been africanized, that thing might give me nightmares.

Where do I send the shrinks bill?

(:>)

BobH

Very cool, but spooky...

Scott Burr in up to 81 deg Ben Lomond,CA

>That would drive my cats nuts! Hope it's well sealed.

Fresh honey yummmm...

Re: When hobbies collide...

Steve knight

>now that is one of the more cool things I have seen. better then the and farms we all had.

Re: bee questions

Moses Yoder in White Pigeon, MI

>Bee keeping is something that has always interested me to some degree. Did you buy bees to stock the hive to start? Did you have plans for the hive, or design your own? Looks like a really neat project.

Cool...

Denis Chénard, Orléans, Ont.

>The Museum of Nature here in Ottawa has a similar setup (but the woodworking isn't nearly as nice...).

DC

Re: bee questions

Ross Canant

>Moses, I have a friend that helped me get started about 4 years ago. I bought my equipment and he gave me enough bees for 3 hives. Otherwise, I would have bought packages of bees for the hives. 3 is a good number to get started with. If a hive gets in trouble, you can borrow from the other hives to help them. This observation hive is my design, but it borrows from others that have done it before. www.beesource.com discussion board is a great place to get information on beekeeping.

Africanized bees -- beekeepers generally don't worry about africanized bees. We talk about two kinds of bees, mean and gentle. Any race of bees can throw a mean hive. When they are mean, you give the hive a new queen. Bees live about 6 weeks in warm weather, so six weeks after a new queen, you have a new hive of bees with a different attitude.

Re: Very cool, but spooky...

Ross Canant

>The cat is fascinated :)

Re: Cool...

William Duffield, on the Cohansey

>The Smithsonian has one in their Natural History Museum (the building on the Mall with the dinosaurs) in Washington DC, too.

Oh no...My round tuit list just got longer.

Victor Parisian

>That is so cool. I called my wife over to see it, and now she wants one... to entertain the cat. ;>)

Re: Oh no...My round tuit list just got longer.

Todd O. Cronkhite Maine Native in FL. Exile :~(

>HA HA HA That's FUNNY Victor...........now get busy, the cat awaits!!

Ross,

Don't you have to keep this covered most of the time? I was under the impression that bees like it DARK.

Real cool thing tho, I really like it. When hobbies collide is a bit of an understatement in my book, Just too COOL.

How long has this one been active?

Have you learned anything that you didn't know about bees by having this observatory?

Todd O.

Re: Oh no...My round tuit list just got longer.

Ross Canant

>I just set this one up this week. I pulled frames and bees from a nuc colony I had. And yes, I keep it covered when I'm not watching them. It's supposed to be less stressful for them.

Re: When hobbies collide...

Tony Mattioli

>I can't stop looking at it. It's a great idea! What will the upkeep be like? I assume that you can move the whole things outside when you need to remove the combs?

I'd love to see more pictures if you have any.

Thanks,

Tony

Re: When hobbies collide...

Ross Canant

>The top bracket is hinged. You just flip it up and lift the hive out to take it outside. Of course, you have to pull and plug the hose. I put the glass in with 3/8"x3/8" beads and 23ga brads so it's easy to remove. The top is screwed down so it comes off easily too. I hope to let it be pretty self sustaining. I'll probably let it swarm and hope my swarm traps catch them.

By the way, just two screws in the top, a bolt for the top pivot, and a piece of plastic pipe for the bottom pivot. That's all the hardware in the whole thing.

Re: When hobbies collide...

Jeff Tapke

>Are you able to disconnect the entire hive to take it outside to harvest the honey?? I would think that opening that hive up in the office would make for an interesting day for you and your co-workers. :)

Re: When hobbies collide...

Ross Canant

>I've started a webpage for anyone interested in reproducing the observation beehive. I probably won't do a complete set of plans, but I'll give overall dimensions, gotcha's, and key components like the swivel. It can be built to accept either deep or medium standard frames. It could also be built as a topbar hive without frames allowing the bees to draw natural comb. If you aren't already a beekeeper, get some help on that aspect of it. Chapter one on the swivel base is posted.

http://www.myoldtools.com/OBhive/OBhive.html

Africanized bees

Bruce, a MN Galoot

>I saw a news article yesterday about a lady in Texas who had gotten stung 400 times when a swarm attacked her. She was doing okay. I'm not sure how.

Uffda!

Bruce

Re: Africanized bees

Scott in Douglassville, PA

>Just happened to AJ Foyt, too.

This part of the country, it's becoming rare to see actual honeybees anymore. Think that's spreading, too.

Scott, 4H beekeeper years ago

Re: Africanized bees

Bob Hutchins in central Texas

>Howdy Bruce!

Folks around here say that all colonies have been Africanized to some extent (don't know if that's true or urban legend, probably the latter 'cause the queen determines the gene pool, I think). Showed a piece on the local news tonight of a swarm that looked to be about 2 feet wide and 3 feet long AND most of it was inside the roof. The owner was supposedly stung several times.

OUCH!

BobH

Re: Africanized bees

Ross Canant

>I'm a beekeeper, so I guess I can comment. The story was from Arizona this time, not Texas. There are AHB both places of course. In this case, I would imagine they were AHB, but they don't have to be. Any honey bee hive can get mean when disturbed. The weather, drought, disturbances, and other things can contribute to how they react. A mean hive one day maynot react on another day.

Beekeepers don't usually try to determine whether a hive is AHB anymore. It really doesn't matter. If they are mean, you re-queen. I still open breed my queens locally without getting mean hives, so I would have to guess that AHB isn't that common here, even though they have been identified. If it gets to where open breeding doesn't work for me (they get mean consistently) I'll order queens from outside the area. It's pretty much that simple. My strong recommendation for wild hives and swarms is to call a beekeeper. That veil really makes a difference when you don't know how they will react. 99% of swarms will be gentle until they are established in a hive. Only then will you know for sure what you have.