Bee Question

[walshie 2,804]

A bloke has a few hives (6) in a secluded corner of my land. He doesn't pay rent, but he does keep us supplied with honey and is a keen sea fisherman so gives us the odd crab and/or mackerel. At least that's the arrangement he had with the previous owner.

 

We never venture into that part of the land, but we do have to walk past it now and again. In the last week, my wife has been stung on the back after a bee went down her shirt, and yesterday a bee was buzzing round my head then flew off and stung a visitor to our house right on the lip.

 

My question is are bees always angry like this? If they are, he and his bees can f**k right off. Once I get stung or the dog does, he's out.

 

Any advice much appreciated.

[dymented 2,220]

A colony of bees varies in its aggressiveness depending on a number of factors. Colonies that have gone queen-less, have been pestered by animals, or are exposed to high levels of noise may be skittish and temperamental. Colonies at the end of winter, in the midst of a nectar flow, or in the act of swarming may seem unnaturally calm. These fluctuations in behaviour can be helpful clues as to what is taking place inside the hive.

[David K 172]

I keep bees, some on my own land and some on other peoples land. There can be many reasons for bees annoying people near them and a hives temperament is dictated by the queen. There's a lot of activity at this time of year with hives building up in size and the queen laying eggs like mad.

One of the main reasons people have a run in with bees is that you are on their flight path and it's not that the bee is looking for someone to sting. A simple solution the beekeeper may take is to put up some sort of barrier close to the hives to get them to fly higher. There may be a problem with an angry hive which can be resolved by replacing the queen but an angry colony is usually only a problem for the bee keeper when doing inspections and they don't really go looking for trouble. Have a word with the bee keeper and tell him your concerns, if he wants to keep you happy he should try his best to sort the problem.

One thing I do know from keeping bee's is that whenever anyone gets stung they automatically blame my bee's even though it could have been a bee from anywhere.

[hedgerow pete 25]

well the following two posts were pretty well spot on for the answers

 

like the others i am a bee keeper and keep hives on a farmers field

 

so starting that others reading this dont understand my i start differently

 

for many bee keepers either unable to have hives at home and or more hives or hives better placed we try to outsource them.

 

personally i used to have my hives in corner of fields or dead spots or scrap spots of brush or rough. in this way the farmer has a gift or money for land i am using that he would of not used or made proffit from himself normally

 

i normally try to have a writen agreement laying down the rules and costs, i preffer to pay in honey 2kg per hive per year or a cash payment of £5-£10 per hive per year, sounds a lot but but on a good spot each hive would produce 40kg to 100kg of honey with a retail value of £16-£25kg its cheap for me and good for the farmer as its free stuff for zero input.

 

i would normally secure the area with peeled and pointed 8 foots and sheep fence bottom and top with four strand wire and scaffolders debre netting , this causes the bees to fly up wards quickly to there normal 16 foot high bee flight path

 

 

as the areas i would choose are normally well off the beaten path issues like this rarely happen

 

to me for this situation, i would

1, inform the bee keeper he is on iffy ground due to the girls behaviour

2, ask him to install a 6foot fence to push them up quicker and away

3, ask him to check for aggressive bee issues in the hives

 

as well as the usual answers above people have i think missed to major ones. first up is natural queen succession and for me the biggest one has to be as it drives my lot into madness and very aggressive natures is

 

oil seed rape

 

my lot work them selves into a freenze when they get a whiff of this stuff, if you have any within 3 miles of the hives they are going to be more testy than ever

 

you might also find that a wild swarm has taken up home near by to where you are walking by and as such your hero bee keeper can come and rescue you from these evil bees

 

because beekepers are wonderfull people really

[David K 172]

 

because beekepers are wonderfull people really

Seconded on that Pete, really good informative answer to the difficulties the original poster is experiencing, so hopefully the bee keeper will be able to sort the problem. Not a lot of oil seed rape here in the south west of Ireland which in many ways I'm thankful for but I hear its great for building up colonies in the early season.

[mushroom 12,397]

question....

 

If a bee stings ya gentleman's region does it give you a boner??

[iworkwhippets 12,247]

Can anybody answer Mushrooms question about the boner please reply, cos if the answer is yes, im off to find the nearest bee hive

[socks 32,253]

Walshie you fukcing townie there are insects in the countryside and sometimes you will get stung ... Man up ffs ... Typical english townie moving to the countryside and trying to change the way things have been done for generations ... You will be popular NOT ... Let the man keep his bees there like he has for years .... Oh and bring me a pot of honey at the next fishing comp ...

[walshie 2,804]

Walshie you fukcing townie there are insects in the countryside and sometimes you will get stung ... Man up ffs ... Typical english townie moving to the countryside and trying to change the way things have been done for generations ... You will be popular NOT ... Let the man keep his bees there like he has for years .... Oh and bring me a pot of honey at the next fishing comp ...

 

Sometimes? We've only been down there twice and been stung twice. FYO the beekeeper is an English b*****d too. And stick your honey up your arse.

[Tiercel 6,986]

Question for the bee keepers. I seen some hives the other day but instead of being multi layered they just had one home made layer. There were about five or six of them in a row. Is that how the hives start off each season expanding layers as they go? Just thought it odd, I have never seen hives like that before.

 

TC

[socks 32,253]

 

Walshie you fukcing townie there are insects in the countryside and sometimes you will get stung ... Man up ffs ... Typical english townie moving to the countryside and trying to change the way things have been done for generations ... You will be popular NOT ... Let the man keep his bees there like he has for years .... Oh and bring me a pot of honey at the next fishing comp ...

 

Sometimes? We've only been down there twice and been stung twice. FYO the beekeeper is an English b*****d too. And stick your honey up your arse.

Well if you've only been down there twice you clearly don't need to go down there so stay the fukc away from the place ... I don't know what you and trish do with your honey but I like mine on toast thanks ............

[squab 2,875]

A bloke has a few hives (6) in a secluded corner of my land. He doesn't pay rent, but he does keep us supplied with honey and is a keen sea fisherman so gives us the odd crab and/or mackerel. At least that's the arrangement he had with the previous owner.

 

We never venture into that part of the land, but we do have to walk past it now and again. In the last week, my wife has been stung on the back after a bee went down her shirt, and yesterday a bee was buzzing round my head then flew off and stung a visitor to our house right on the lip.

 

My question is are bees always angry like this? If they are, he and his bees can f**k right off. Once I get stung or the dog does, he's out.

 

Any advice much appreciated.

that sting on the lip hurts like a bitch lol,walked past a couple hives the other evening in the corner of a field not sure why but they have wire mesh fencing squares covering each hive and a green wood pecker had got up inside one,do they eat bees?anyway thought i would attempt a rescue mission until my lurcher jumped in to save the day,went for the wood pecker knocked the mesh cover over and pecker was away,oh and i got stung on the lip for my trouble,next time feck the pecker

[David K 172]

Question for the bee keepers. I seen some hives the other day but instead of being multi layered they just had one home made layer. There were about five or six of them in a row. Is that how the hives start off each season expanding layers as they go? Just thought it odd, I have never seen hives like that before.

 

TC

Yes, most colonies will overwinter in one brood box, containing the queen and a few thousand workers to look after her and maintain the hive. In spring she will start to lay eggs again and the colony will increase in size so more boxes are added for the bees to store the honey in.

[hedgerow pete 25]

question....

 

If a bee stings ya gentleman's region does it give you a boner??

so first up,

 

no it does not, it does how ever well up to much that is constricts you wee pipe and you have to have bag and tube fitted for a week and have treatment for the swelling that also dislodged a testical, which if you ever have to know how that feels ask as a rugga play to drop kick in the nads , its very similar

 

at the time i was 17 , recovering from a night on the cider and could not be bothered to walk ten feet further from the hives, now i wished i had gone 200 feet further than the hives.

 

within 20 mins i was unable to walk and had to crawl over to get help, i was stung at the base on the grion and not the member its self, and its fair to say its not on my list of things to do twice

[hedgerow pete 25]

Question for the bee keepers. I seen some hives the other day but instead of being multi layered they just had one home made layer. There were about five or six of them in a row. Is that how the hives start off each season expanding layers as they go? Just thought it odd, I have never seen hives like that before.

 

TC

bees are kept in two styles of wooden box a house or home general day to day box , this a "brood chamber" he all the bees are born, eggs laid for new ones and general day to day works go on.

 

up stairs is the pantry storage areas " supers"

 

the queen and the small over wintering colony (5,000bees) stay downstairs over the winter, when its warm enough the queen starts to re lay eggs and starts to build the colony back up ready for the summers works (45,000 bees)

 

to stay on work and damage we bee keepers store the supers at home untill needed , these are also the boxes that have the frames inside the bees fill with honey for us too