There was a good article on raspberry crazy ants and their effect on honey bees in today's paper. Unfortunately, it is pay only so I'll link to other free-er sources.
Like the fire ant the raspberry crazy ant was discovered in Houston. It was probably imported in soil, wood or other lawn type material.
The ant is prolific and voracious. It will eat and out compete fire ants. I'm glad of that. There was a time you could spread a blanket on the ground where I grew up and not concern yourself with being eaten by fire ants. No longer. I watched fire ants move through Little Rock in the 90s.
Raspberry crazy ants are problematic though. They eat bee larvae and infest electronics. The have been known, like fire ants, to short out electric motors. They are immune to over the counter ant poisons. They will be a problem for lots of people as they are spreading.
There is a simple solution to the beekeeping problem though. When I first started keeping bees I was worried about fire ants eating my bees. I constructed hive stands out of 2x4s and mounted them on heavy duty galvanized pipe. At each leg I put a small metal coffee can half filled with water and a layer of oil (vegetable or motor oil) so that the legs of the stand sat in the water/oil filled can. No problems.
Showing posts with label beekeeping. Show all posts
Showing posts with label beekeeping. Show all posts
Thursday, August 06, 2009
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
capturing bees
I had gotten some questions on my bee box video on youtube and needed a little more room to answer than they offer. So here they are:
denizaks14 wrote about capturing bees and harvesting the honey. The following is an attempt to address both issues. Please keep in mind I no longer keep bees and NEVER was an expert to begin with so please take all my answers with a block of salt.
The bees aren't actually kept in the bee box, a point I should have made clear in the video. The box is only used to line (or track) the bees back to their original hive. A hive can generally be a kept hive or a feral hive. By kept hive I mean a hive that already has an owner. I'd recommend leaving those alone. ;-) A feral hive is a swarm of bees that have swarmed from a kept hive.
A feral hive can be described as an escaped colony and needs care. Wild bees oftentimes no longer exist because of a variety of ills. Varroroa mites, disease and Colony Collapse Disorder all take their toll on an escaped swarm. These can be controlled (well perhaps not CCD) by an attentive beekeeper.
Here in the southeastern US, bees will often find a hollow Sweetgum tree. To capture the hive the top of the tree would be cut off so that the cut is above the hollow. Then the bottom would be cut below the hollow leaving a log that contains the hollow. This hollow log can then be carried to a convenient location for keeping. An empty hive body can be placed near the tree hive and the bees might move into the new hive making them easier to keep.
Honey can be extracted using a tool called a honey extractor. A honey extractor is basically a steel bucket with a rack inside that is spun by either a motor or by hand slinging the honey out by centrifugal force. The honey then runs down the inside of the bucket to a waiting spigot. Plans for honey extractors can be found here and here or they can be bought outright.
Make a mark! Leave a comment!
denizaks14 wrote about capturing bees and harvesting the honey. The following is an attempt to address both issues. Please keep in mind I no longer keep bees and NEVER was an expert to begin with so please take all my answers with a block of salt.
The bees aren't actually kept in the bee box, a point I should have made clear in the video. The box is only used to line (or track) the bees back to their original hive. A hive can generally be a kept hive or a feral hive. By kept hive I mean a hive that already has an owner. I'd recommend leaving those alone. ;-) A feral hive is a swarm of bees that have swarmed from a kept hive.
A feral hive can be described as an escaped colony and needs care. Wild bees oftentimes no longer exist because of a variety of ills. Varroroa mites, disease and Colony Collapse Disorder all take their toll on an escaped swarm. These can be controlled (well perhaps not CCD) by an attentive beekeeper.
Here in the southeastern US, bees will often find a hollow Sweetgum tree. To capture the hive the top of the tree would be cut off so that the cut is above the hollow. Then the bottom would be cut below the hollow leaving a log that contains the hollow. This hollow log can then be carried to a convenient location for keeping. An empty hive body can be placed near the tree hive and the bees might move into the new hive making them easier to keep.
Honey can be extracted using a tool called a honey extractor. A honey extractor is basically a steel bucket with a rack inside that is spun by either a motor or by hand slinging the honey out by centrifugal force. The honey then runs down the inside of the bucket to a waiting spigot. Plans for honey extractors can be found here and here or they can be bought outright.
Make a mark! Leave a comment!
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