Hey everyone, it has been a rather slow year in terms of saving bees as we are approaching winter bees become a little less active, however the phone calls seem to be gaining momentum again. On this evening we went to a client whom had 'problem bees'!
As bees establish themselves and increase in numbers and their stored honey volume increases they tend to get more protective and aggressive, this is generally at which point folks call us to come and safely remove and relocate the bees!
The below pic I took as we removed the IBR sheeting. I first gently smoked the bees to pacify them and then slowly removed the covering sheet and snapped this shot. This is a rather interesting pic. I have been doing feral bee rescues for some time now as well as producing honey and to date never seen what looks to be red honey ??
We have recently started using a red light for our night time rescues. We generally only ever save bees at night. They are all in their nest so we don't miss any bees as well as them been far more passive and relaxed at night. The darkness also renders an 'insurance' policy in the event things go wrong the bees can't see much as it is dark and do not go on a proverbial 'rampage'
This is what the original sight looked like. I did not make this my index pic as it is no where near as the first one, you get the idea :)
We put some pine needles (pine straw) in the smoker, lit it up and gently blew some smoke into their nest to calm them down in order for us to be able to manage them better.
Here my partner busy putting on his gumboots, back left our super sucker unit which we use to safely extract the bees from their nest to be re-located later on.
I generally light the pine needles and leave the smoker open for a while, it takes a little practice to get it to smoke optimally, too many pine needles and it does not light and too few means it burns out way faster. I generally half fill it, let them burn a little whilst the unit is open, add another half, close up give a few puffs and then smoke the bees with a cold air as not to damage them.
As we pulled away the IBR a lovely comb with red honey, at this point all the bees had clustered on the opposite side of the hive to escape the smoke, which naturally made it easier for us to work with and start to remove combs.
The black pipe (bottom right) which we used to gently suck the bees up into the sucker unit, bees already off the combs, 'clustering' in a defensive manner.
Here we have my partner with his red light inspecting, moving twigs, leaves and larger branches to allow us access to the bees and combs!
Like most of nature, bees also either fight or flight, once they know they are 'defeated' they generally pacify and let us do what we do, in this case they are clustered together and trying to avoid been sucked up by this very noisy machine, which obviously they don't know is actually saving them!
After we removed the IBR sheet from the wall, the bees had over time built and attached their combs to the sheeting as well as the bricks on the opposite end. Here a nice pic we took after removing the bees. We now gently removed all this mature capped honey and re-installed it in their new hive in order for them to feed and settle in faster and establish much quicker too.
These pics are fantastic in illustrating the incredible use of propolis. As per wikipedia : Propolis or bee glue is a resinous mixture that honey bees produce by mixing saliva and beeswax with exudate gathered from tree buds, sap flows, or other botanical sources. It is used as a sealant for unwanted open spaces in the hive. Propolis is used for small gaps (approximately 6 millimeters (0.24 in) or less), while larger spaces are usually filled with beeswax. Its color varies depending on its botanical source, with dark brown as the most common. Propolis is sticky at and above 20 °C (68 °F), while at lower temperatures, it becomes hard and brittle.
While foraging, worker bees primarily harvest pollen and nectar, while also collecting water and tree resin necessary for the production of propolis.[1] The chemical composition and nature of propolis depend on environmental conditions and harvested resources.[2]
More of that here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propolis
All that been said can you identify where in these pics propolis is present? That whole black spot on the wall is propolis, it is so clean and sanitary you can literally lick it. Bees smear it all over as to have a spotless, clean, hygenic living area. They really are incredible house-makers!
Here is the box in which we suck the bees to be housed temporarily (an hour or two) whilst we put their combs back into the new hive, later adding the bees.
This is a catcher box from a swarm we safely saved and relocated the previous night. The swarm size was half of this 'wall swarm' but these will also be in this Nursery around other healthy, happy, thriving rescue bees!
Our Swarm count is now 33, amazing in just 8 short months come the next honey flow season August-Sept we will have an abundance of delicious raw nutritious honey and more than likely around 60 hives by that time! It promises to be an incredibly interesting, rewarding and amazing journey further, if the last 8 months is anything to go by I can certainly guarantee it will!
I shall take some pics of the progress soonest and blog them too. I inspected them today and at least half the bees are sitting outside their new hive. This is an indication of both heat as well as bee volumes very high, we added a super immediately as to give them more space, this should solve the problem.
Be sure to stay tuned for more of my epic bee-keeping adventures.
Cheer$;)
I saw your post mentioned in the @c-cubed post and came over to see what all of the buzz was about. This was fascinating and educational. I also appreciate how you're turning pests to some into a cash cow when they're properly maintained. With all decreasing number of bees in the world, and the risks of the snowball effect on our ecosystem from that, this is great to see.
Thanks a ton @steemmatt much appreciated brother. Ye bee-keeping is very rewarding and I get honey ;P Doing my bit for bees and the planet too is really 'feel good' Cheer$;)
Well done on another curie @craigcryptoking! I am really impressed with your feral rescues.
Hi @buckaroo, will you be posting again soon?
You would qualify to be included in the 10,000 Minnows Project if you do.
@pennsif thank you so much for thinking of me, as well as your comment. I haven't been around for personal reasons. Trying to make an effort but I'm not sure how soon I'll be able to post. Will keep you ... umm ... posted ;)
Sister you been gone too long welcome back. Folks here are missing you make a post ? G thanks xx
You tell her @pennsif I am done begging her, AGAIN :P
You know I would if I could my nagging brother! Nice to be wanted but I'm still not 100%
LOL bite me.... nag that :P
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Thanks a mil much appreciated !
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Thanks so much, much appreciated!
Lovely bee resuce...... XD
Your bee thing made me remember the bee movie where these bees sued human for taking over their rights. They ended up winning since every prove they brought made the judge get them what they wanted . And after a while, these bees saw that their lives were boring with a lot of honey around them and they didn't know what to do with it.
Keep the rescue spirt up. I really enjoyed your write up.
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Thanks a ton really appreciate that ;) Cheer$;)
You are humbly welcome
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Brilliant post. What is the diameter of the bee vacuum hose and fan volume/time rating? Don't want to pull to hard/fast and hurt any bees after rigging something up like this.
Hey bud its juts a standard vacuum cleaner pipe. They don't see the vacuum cleaner at all naturally they are captured in the box before ;)
What an astounding post. You certainly have an interesting job and so helpful to everyone including the bees. I hope you will show us how this particular hive makes out.
But what is IBR Sheeting? Maybe it is South African. I have not heard of this before.
I tweeted your post with share2steem. I hope more people will come and see this great work you do.
Thanks a ton I shall do. It is basically a corrugated iron tin roof sheet, will post updates soonest ;) Cheer$;)
hi @craigcryptoking
Your post is very beautiful and original, different from the many seen here until today. I've never seen anything like this, to tell the truth I did not even know that the saviors of bees existed !! Thanks for teaching me something new, nice description and nice photos. Your work is very interesting and your connection with nature is amazing! congratulations and always thanks for sharing with us
Hey thanks for popping in. Ye someone needs to save bees without them life on Earth as we know it is done I just wish more realized it ; ) Cheer$:)
Hi craigcryptoking,
Visit curiesteem.com or join the Curie Discord community to learn more.
Stunning @curie thanks a ton much love and appreciation as usual :) Cheer$; )
It is amazing what you do by saving these bees. That hive looked challenging being where it was. I am sure by now you are getting better at doing this and are not daunted by anything now. The bonus is you are doing some good by preserving the bees and the bonus of growing your hives at the same time. A win win service that you are providing.
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