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[addy1]

Our first hive swarmed, I posted shots in my pond thread, but it was suggested I post here too.
The hive swarmed, then did something they do not usually do, they came back to their hive, and have stayed now for almost 5days.

This is the swarm landing in our small weeping cherry tree, 15 feet from the hive. We were preparing to collect the swarm and put them in one of our hive boxes, when they flew back into their hive, they are still there.

Go figure, give them a good home, good food, and they still want to leave home.

 

[j.w]

So addy when we see honey bees in our yards on our flowers now since there is a lot of disease going on w/ them are these bees prolly from a hive that someone has started in their yard and are caring for or could any of these be wild honey bees? Just wondering if some are surviving on their own out there and would it depend on your climate if the wild ones can survive?

 

[Dave 54]

Here in the UK this year we have all been asked to count and report all the bees we see here in the UK to the wildlife trust thats all bees from the Hunny Bee through to the solitary bee.
I think they are realising we are having major losses and are trying to set up something to reverse this decline .
So far this summer weve counted 6 which is a really small number we usually see loads of them as our garden is designed with bee's in mind

Dave

 

[addy1]

It is a crisis, they are saying a lot of death of the bees is from homeowners using systemic insecticides on their plants. Esp the ones with nicotinamides. Bee keepers will have a hive die off usually in days, from someone using, esp if the garden it is used on has a flower the bees are feeding on, heavy in nectar or pollen.

They are now saying rural bees have a better chance, less homeowners, less insecticides. I use nothing on our gardens, except nematodes, milky spore to attack grubs which controls the bag worms and beetles.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imidacloprid_effects_on_bees

some Plants bought at garden centers come with systemic insecticides in them deadly to bees.

mono crops without any wild flower islands are hurting the bees, no food. GMO stuff is hurting them too

 

[addy1]

So addy when we see honey bees in our yards on our flowers now since there is a lot of disease going on w/ them are these bees prolly from a hive that someone has started in their yard and are caring for or could any of these be wild honey bees? Just wondering if some are surviving on their own out there and would it depend on your climate if the wild ones can survive?

A lot depends on the climate, nectar flow season, a home they can go into. Southern warm climates prob do better with wild bees, but they still fight all the diseases that arrived from over seas. Also the africanized bees, we don't have that here, to far north.

They have a 10% chance of surviving up here if they swarm and make a wild hive. The northern states , like the dakotas with long summer days, actually do great with bees, compared to us.

 

[j.w]

Thanks addy I see quite a few here especially when my Sedums are all in bloom. How far do bees fly away from their hives? Just wondered where they all come from. Hard to tail a bee to see where it lives tho

 

[addy1]

They can forage up to 3 miles from their hive, sometimes further but not usual. They mainly stay a mile radius from their home.

 

[j.w]

So the bees I am seeing could be coming from the hives that I see when I go on my walk as they are only about 2miles away as the bee flies. Saw another bunch of hives down the road from the other ones I posted. This place has a bunch of hive boxes. Prolly more around that I don't see out of eyesight at other homes.

 

[addy1]

So the bees I am seeing could be coming from the hives that I see when I go on my walk as they are only about 2miles away as the bee flies. Saw another bunch of hives down the road from the other ones I posted. This place has a bunch of hive boxes. Prolly more around that I don't see out of eyesight at other homes.

Yep!

 

[j.w]

Took some pix of the other hives I saw the other day. They have a bunch!

 

[addy1]

Nice and neat! Thanks

Way more than we have

 

[addy1]

Totally shocked!

We had a hive swarm to our weeping cherry tree.
We set up one medium box at the tree to catch the hive that swarmed, the bees then swarmed back to the main hive. Anyways, think 6 wks ago or so, when they swarmed, we stuck in one frame of capped honey, two frames of comb, one frame of brood with all bees knocked off of it and 6 empty frames into the medium.

When the hive swarmed back to their home, a whole bunch hung out under the hive on the bottom screen, my honey swooped up a bunch of bees,
on a piece of cardboard and dumped them into the fake hive.

So we checked them off and on, one frame of brood not even enough bees to cover one side of the frame, but for some reason the brood survived, a few bees started hatching. We checked them before we left we had maybe enough bees to cover the sides of 1 and 1/2 frames now. No Queen, but we did see two tiny queen cups that were not there before, how did they make queen cups, no clue, but maybe there was two eggs they started feeding royal jelly to.

So advance three weeks..............

We come home, check the pretend hive, we have brood, pupae, eggs and A QUEEN! We are totally shocked. So now going to put a robber screen and start feeding the pretend hive. The other hives are too strong and they would rob this pretend hive if don't set up a robber screen.
And look at the beautiful brood pattern! We have one and 1/4 frames of brood.........now we have 5 hives.............

See if you can find the queen.

 

[j.w]

Wow yep I see her in the second photo down. She has more black behind her eyes on her back and is bigger. Glad it is going great guns for them!

 

[addy1]

When one side of the frame is covered with bees, solid covered, it is around 1000 bees. I very seldom find the queen, was shocked to find her, but also very low number of bees. We are going to start feeding them, use an entrance reducer and a robber screen. Once the other hives sense the feed they will try to rob this weak little hive.

 

[Lisak1]

That's the one I picked, too! Very cool! Although when you said "my honey" I got a bit confused... ha!