buzzzzzzzzzz new adventure

[addy1]

Haha. We have been married 25 years so hopefully a little extra honey wouldn't sink the marriage!

Actually should "sweeten" it up!

 

[addy1]

We had our last market yesterday, 48f climbed to 51, wind howling. All honey stuff put away now. Still feeding the bees. Need to feed a couple gallons to each hive a few more times to get them ready for winter.

Had a few requests for teacher appreciation gifts, for a wedding (200 favors) for a baby shower, honey soaps.

honey Soap

Wedding favors

Teacher appreciation day

 

[Tara]

That soap looks fantastic.

 

[Tula]

How big is the bar of soap and do you have any available for sale?

 

[j.w]

Those sweet honey gifts would make nice prezzies for any occasion!

 

[addy1]

How big is the bar of soap and do you have any available for sale?

They are about 2x2 inches and around 1/4 inch thick plus a bit. Colors can be a light green, blue, red, yellow, orange, have a bunch of different smells. Vanilla, lavender, rosemary mint, honey bear, baby bear, goat milk and honey, lemongrass. It is non detergent soap with a bit of honey added.

I sell them cheap, a little thing that a lot of parents like to pick up for their kids, guest bathroom, etc.
0.50 cents a piece.

I shipped 40 of them and could have added more for the price of a small priority box, 7.25.

 

[addy1]

I have some other neat soap molds, one has a piece of comb shape with a bee, another like a bunch of flowers with a bee.
I was charging 1.00 for them since they were bigger, a lot more soap to make, but I found the people liked to buy the .50 ones.

 

[addy1]

Well................ We are down here in Florida for a brief trip to start the work on hubbies house, his parents for years.
The tenant died in March, to refresh the memory, she was a food hoarder the rats moved in. We were down here in March but not since.

We were very worried we would find rat poo, rat bodies, rat debris all over the house when we got here.
With no food or water traps everywhere since March the rats are gone. YEAH now we need to fix the damage she did and the rats did. This is a quick trip, we did have our nephew move in our house to baby sit it while we are gone.


And here is what we found when we got here.....................the bees follow us!
We walked and see debris everywhere, well it was not rat poo (which we first thought) it was dead bees! 1000's of bee bodies. A few live buzzing around. They fly to light so the bodies were gathered where the curtains were open a bit.

Next step what the heck how did they get in, well a quick look found the entry. They had chewed through the edge of the wall and the ceiling, the bees would wander in and were not able to find their way out. I put tape over the hole to stop more bees coming in.

So next step..............all of our bee equipment is in Md, we do need to go up into the crawl space see what is going on. How big is the hive, how many bees, where is it. I can see the entry on the outside. We need to go up into the closet trap door with a bright light and scope them out. With face protection, bee fly to bright lights.

They may be Africanized, which is a problem in FL. We had even talked of bringing some equipment down with us............but didn't.

 

[Lisak1]

Oh my gosh! What are the chances?? If they are Africanized, how will that change your approach to handling them?

 

[Tara]

Wow, can't feel anything but bad for them getting stuck like that. Just be careful removing them, don't envy you the task of climbing into the attic of a food hoarder, who knows what you'll find.

 

[j.w]

This could only happen to you...................the Queen Bee Addy! I hope it all works out best for you and the bees. Hope they are not Africanized! Don't get stung!

 

[addy1]

Oh my gosh! What are the chances?? If they are Africanized, how will that change your approach to handling them?

If they were Africanized, we would kill them, very nasty aggressive bees. They would not be able to handle our cold up north. If we kill them we would need to remove all the comb dead bees etc or the ants, mice and rats move in again...

 

[addy1]

Wow, can't feel anything but bad for them getting stuck like that. Just be careful removing them, don't envy you the task of climbing into the attic of a food hoarder, who knows what you'll find.

We borrowed our neighbors ladder. Took the strong flashlight we had brought with us and went into the attic. Into means feet on ladder body in attic, closet trap door. Hubby went first, if the bees were in the attic they would immediately fly to the light, they love bright lights, he did not want me to get stung. No response from the bees. No hive seen.

I went up next, a bit taller than hubby so I could get on the top of the ladder and look deeper in the attic. Nothing, no buzzing no bees, no wax.

Long and short of this story, they are in a area of the house, but not in the house or attic. These places have a flat roof joining a pitched roof, there is a built out area that does not communicate with the house or attic. The bees are in there. We are going to leave them, let them live a happy life. It would be pretty extensive damage to get to the hive, they are not harming us, as long as they do not come into the house again.

To remove we would need to tear out fascia board. And who knows what to the built out area.
They have a exit to the outside they just decided to chew through into the house, probably a tiny area that let light in.

So we are putting up a piece of wood trim in the house so they can not chew through the dry wall again.

If they manage to survive without any mite treatments, they will be valuable genetics. Maybe down the road we would try to get the queen. Not this trip have enough to take care of. Total kitchen tear out and redo (cabinets), two bathrooms to tear out and redo, (cabinets) too much rat damage to keep.

This could only happen to you...................the Queen Bee Addy! I hope it all works out best for you and the bees. Hope they are not Africanized! Don't get stung!

 

[j.w]

Guess that's all you can do for now anyways. Glad they get to live and you don't have too much to do to keep them out of the house. Would they ever just decide to leave on their own?

 

[addy1]

They might, if the area is too small, they will swarm or they will die off due to mites. We have no clue on how open the area is they chose to live in. Usually bees choose somewhere that is large enough to support a large hive.

If the area is big enough they could live there for years.

This is our second swarm that has chosen our house as a home. 3ish years ago they went through a tiny hole around a hose bib and moved into the laundry room wall, behind the drywall. That one we cut out. A very small swarm, they did not do well.