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My Archives: February 2006

Friday, February 24, 2006

Nothing like some superficial drama to make the day complete.
On Valentines day I had taken some time after work to just sit and watch the hive. One of the things you notice is bees near the end of their life drop onto the ground around the hive. Without enough energy to fly into the hive and a lack of suport from the hive their hours are numbered. Bees that are also defective or crippled in some way also end up here.

When I had done the merger of my feral queenless colony to the nuc with with the active queen. I knew any non mated queens would end up getting kicked out of the hive. Savagely kicked out. Queens even unmated are very distinct in their apperance, they have longer bodies.

On the ground with a couple of broken legs was an unmated queen. The bee wasn't going to last much longer. I moved it over to a nice area and let it alone. There wasn't anything I could do about it. It would be nice if that was enough.

I know I am not a real experienced beekeeper and my ablity to recognize eggs freshly laid in the cells. I did a what I thought was a nice inspection on Saturday on the new hive I bought from Leonard. But I didn't see the queen. I didn't think much of it. You don't always see the queen. Well Sunday something wierd happened. One of two things happened I can't be sure which. Either the hive was attacked (my choice) or the queen was superceded. I came out at about 3pm to a massive black cloud of bees around my new hive. Bees everywhere. Well I figured there was either an attack of something wierd happened. Now I decided not to stick around because angry bees don't like anybody even me. On Wenesday I went into the hive. The numbers were much lower. I went through each frame. There was no capped brood. And then on the middle frame near the top right corner was a queen cell formed. That means I have no queen until she hatches and mates, this could take just about a month. So basically when it comes to queen bees my track record sucks. I never got the one from the feral colony I removed from the boat. I have lost the queen to my second hive or one reason or another.

It just seems like the women in my life keep dying and I have to bury the bodies in the yard.

If this hive gets to weak I will have to do something, because the hive beetles will decimate the hive.

I think I am going to switch to permacomb frames.

Posted by understudy @ 09:45 AM EST [Link]

Saturday, February 11, 2006

Mass bee genocide.
Leonard from the beekeeper association in my area was finally able to come by and tag up with me. My schedule has been so hectic that I had to cancel my three other attempts to meet with him.
Let's go over the facts. I did have a queen cell on my feral colony. It did not take. There were not enough bees and the small hive beetles had decimated the hive. The 4 frames and the queen I picked up about three weeks ago are doing fine. The queen in laying eggs and the hive is strong. So after discussions with Leonard and reading through the bee forum I basically have destroyed the hive that I took out of the boat.
Here is what happened. The bees that I bought were placed in a cardboard nuc box. Since the cardboard nuc box was much cheaper to ship overnight. I had them do that about a week before I left for San Fran. I kept the bees in that until I got back. Yesterday I assembled the wooden nuc box and painted it. I had planned on putting the bees out of the cardboard version of it and into the wooden version of it.

Leonard and I agreed that my orginal hive was dying and in about another week or two the bees would be all but gone. While they were making new comb, the hive beetles were quick to eat it. And with no queen the colony was in a weak state. Instead of moving the bees I purchased into the box with the orginal bees we would move the orginal bees into the nuc. However just the bees. We did not want to transfer anything but the bees.

So what I did was I literally went into the cardboard nuc took the frames out and put them into the wooden nuc. Now I have one group of really mad bees. However why settle for one group of mad bees when you can have two. So after getting the cardboard nuc bees into the wooden nuc I went for my orginal colony and took out each frame and brushed off the bees. And banged the frame on the corner to motivate the bees that kept hanging on. Banging your frame is a hell of a way to piss of bees but it worked. I repeated that with each frame and the box and now I have completly removed the bees home.

I move the wooden nuc box to where the orginal bees were and placed branches in front of the hive and also placed branches where the cardboard nuc use to be. So now I have two very angry groups of bees flying around trying to orient themselves to home and one group is trying to move into where home was. The bees in the wooden nuc view these bees as robbers and are trying to stop them from coming in. Basically they will either accept my orginal bees or they will kill them either way the remains of the orginal colony that I took from the boat will not exist in another two weeks becase the last of those bees will have reached the end of their lifespan.

I am going to buy a colony from Leonard and use that as my second colony. I want to have two hives so that the two will work with each other.

I have to admit it kinda sucks that the orginal colony will vanish through attrition, but I don't regret moving them out of the boat. Exterminators would have just killed them and I wouldn't have had a chance to enjoy the bees. I have learned a lot. And when I went into this I did not have very high expectations of success. But I would do it again in a heartbeat. I still have one colony and I will have a second soon and I will be very happy to raise those bees and get honey and wax from them. I also have the ablity to say that I have been in a wild bees nest and removed it. Not everyone can say that. Not everyone would probably want to. Maybe not everyone is as crazy as I am.

Stay tuned to this channel for futher updates on bees in my neighborhood.

Posted by understudy @ 02:11 PM EST [Link]

Friday, February 10, 2006

Within the past 12 months I have had the pleasure to be involved in 3 automobile accidents. None of them were my fault. But that will prove to be irrelevant. Let me go over what you should do if you are in an accident. If you are not injured and no one in your vehicle is then do this first.
1. Get the license plate of the car that hit you. On paper.
Do not do anything until you have done that.
2. If you can write the make and model of the car.
3. If possible call 911
4. If traffic is not moving, even if you are blocking the road do not move your vehicle out of the way.
5. If there are vehicles that are stopped becase of the accident or cars that have pulled off to the side of the road, get their plate numbers, and make and model of those cars.
6. Now if you have done the following now find out about the status of the other driver.
7. If the driver is pleasant and amicable, get their drivers license, correct address, insurance, and phone number.
8. If the driver is not get the names and contact information of the witnesses.
9. Wait for the police. When the police ask for it give them the information.

Now some notes, If traffic is still flowing move yourself and any uninjured passengers off the roadway. Get the plate number of the car that hit you from a safe place if possible. Do not stand by or near your car if traffic is flowing. But do not move the vehicle unless you have gotten information from the vehicle that hit you.

Okay some information here. The accidents I have been involved in have all been hit and runs. Only once have I been able to have justice with any of the drivers that hit me. And if you do not have information on the drivers that hit you, you have to deal with yor insurance and pay for the increase in rates. Basically accidents that are not your fault cause you to get screwed.

While it may be cold not to follow the standard rules, having drivers take off after causing an accident really sucks.

Posted by understudy @ 08:40 PM EST [Link]

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