Hi, my name is Neil, I'm a product design student in Brighton. I'm looking into possibly doing a home beehive design, and yourselves as gardeners have probably encountered the odd bee or two. I have a quick question for you then, are you;

a/ completely unafraid of bees.
b/ very frightened of them - you may even be a confirmed apiphobic (fear of bees) or cnidophobic (fear of stings).
c/ somewhere in between:
c1/ you are able to keep calm and ignore them, but wont go too close
c2/ you'll move away / go indoors until they're gone
c3/ you'll try to get rid of them using bug spray etc.

Any replies will be of great value to me, thankyou for taking the time to read and respond.

Neil

wesleyn n.r.wesley@brightonDOTacDOTuk expounded:


Hi, my name is Neil, I'm a product design student in Brighton. I'm
looking into possibly doing a home beehive design, and yourselves as
gardeners have probably encountered the odd bee or two. I have a quick
question for you then, are you;

a/ completely unafraid of bees.

That would be me, I'm a beekeeper.

Any replies will be of great value to me, thankyou for taking the time
to read and respond.

Neil

You're welcome.
--
Ann, gardening in Zone 6a
South of Boston, Massachusetts
e-mail address is not checked
******************************

wesleyn wrote:
Hi, my name is Neil, I'm a product design student in Brighton. I'm
looking into possibly doing a home beehive design, and yourselves as
gardeners have probably encountered the odd bee or two. I have a quick
question for you then, are you;

a/ completely unafraid of bees.
b/ very frightened of them - you may even be a confirmed apiphobic
(fear of bees) or cnidophobic (fear of stings).
c/ somewhere in between:
c1/ you are able to keep calm and ignore them, but wont go too
close
c2/ you'll move away / go indoors until they're gone
c3/ you'll try to get rid of them using bug spray etc.

Any replies will be of great value to me, thankyou for taking the time
to read and respond.

Neil






Question is how much do you know about bee keeping to fathom the idea of
making a "home beehive" design. It's not like keeping bees is anywhere
near the same as putting up a bird house. You'd have more chance of
being hit in the head with a bird than a swarm moving into an empty box
on its own.

You need to buy a queen and a starter colony, then acclimate them to the
hive. Not exactly a hands off process by any means.

Most home owners will cringe at the idea of having to handle bees to get
the setup done and then for gathering the honey.

Tie that in with the fact that so many people who get started in this
have a tendency of over collecting of the honey and not leaving enough
for the bees to survive the winter, killing off the whole colony.

At any rate: a/

Jangchub wrote:
On Wed, 14 Nov 2007 07:42:47 -0500, Ann wrote:

wesleyn n.r.wesley@brightonDOTacDOTuk expounded:

Hi, my name is Neil, I'm a product design student in Brighton. I'm
looking into possibly doing a home beehive design, and yourselves as
gardeners have probably encountered the odd bee or two. I have a quick
question for you then, are you;

a/ completely unafraid of bees.
That would be me, I'm a beekeeper.

Any replies will be of great value to me, thankyou for taking the time
to read and respond.

Neil
You're welcome.

Ann, did you hear this new theory that bees are somehow effected by
some chemical which is giving them a form of Alzheimers and they are
literally forgetting where their hive is, and also forgetting how to
alert one another with their dance which points them back in the
direction of this hive? I don't recall where I heard this, but have
you heard it in any of your bee keeping journals?

victoria


Blog post on the subject along with several cross links.

http://www.bloggingstocks.com/2007/0...-disorder-but/

Jangchub wrote:
On Wed, 14 Nov 2007 07:42:47 -0500, Ann wrote:

wesleyn n.r.wesley@brightonDOTacDOTuk expounded:

Hi, my name is Neil, I'm a product design student in Brighton. I'm
looking into possibly doing a home beehive design, and yourselves as
gardeners have probably encountered the odd bee or two. I have a quick
question for you then, are you;

a/ completely unafraid of bees.
That would be me, I'm a beekeeper.

Any replies will be of great value to me, thankyou for taking the time
to read and respond.

Neil
You're welcome.

Ann, did you hear this new theory that bees are somehow effected by
some chemical which is giving them a form of Alzheimers and they are
literally forgetting where their hive is, and also forgetting how to
alert one another with their dance which points them back in the
direction of this hive? I don't recall where I heard this, but have
you heard it in any of your bee keeping journals?

victoria


Further reading via Google;

http://www.google.com/search?q=Bee+C...lapse+Disorder

wesleyn wrote:
Hi, my name is Neil, I'm a product design student in Brighton. I'm
looking into possibly doing a home beehive design, and yourselves as
gardeners have probably encountered the odd bee or two. I have a quick
question for you then, are you;

a/ completely unafraid of bees.
b/ very frightened of them - you may even be a confirmed apiphobic
(fear of bees) or cnidophobic (fear of stings).
c/ somewhere in between:
c1/ you are able to keep calm and ignore them, but wont go too
close
c2/ you'll move away / go indoors until they're gone
c3/ you'll try to get rid of them using bug spray etc.

I try to avoid disturbing their nests. That can be painful. Other than
that I ignore them. I do spray in-ground nests of yellow jackets in our
lawn or flower beds since it is impossible to not disturb those nests.
I also spray nests of paper wasps in shrubs that I have to prune.

We have some yellow jackets that come into our house. They are totally
nonaggressive. They are attracted to light. When they bask in the sun
by sitting on a window pane, I crush them so I won't risk stepping on
them in my bare feet at night and get a foot pain.

Any replies will be of great value to me, thankyou for taking the time
to read and respond.

A 2000 Cornell University study concluded that the direct value of honey
bee pollination to U.S. agriculture is more than $14.6 billion.
Beekeeping is very commercial here. It is about fruit and vegetable
productions, not honey production. Migratory commercial beekeepers
raise humungous numbers of bees and move them to the crops.

For example the blueberries in Maine are pollinated by hives trucked in
from over a 1,000 miles away in South Carolina.
[http://www.answers.com/topic/bee-migration-9045-jpg]

A migratory commercial beekeeper in Washington State with over 13,000
hives transports his hives to California to pollinate almond fields.

There is a list of migratory commercial beekeepers at:

http://www.pollinator.com/Pollinatio...s/polbkprs.htm

This is one way for farmers to stay in business in areas with colony
collapse disorder. These commercial beekeepers protect their hives from
chemicals that cause CCD. No one is saying the bees are dying, the bees
just aren't finding their way back to their hive. No dead bees are
found.

--
Pardon my spam deterrent; send email to
Cheers, Steve Henning in Reading, PA USA
http://rhodyman.net

wesleyn wrote:
Hi, my name is Neil, I'm a product design student in Brighton. I'm
looking into possibly doing a home beehive design, and yourselves as
gardeners have probably encountered the odd bee or two. I have a quick
question for you then, are you;

a/ completely unafraid of bees.

Not at all afraid of bees. Grandpa kept several hives and we used to go
out to bring in honey with him.

ummmmmmm... chewing honeycomb...

Jangchub wrote:
On Wed, 14 Nov 2007 07:42:47 -0500, Ann wrote:

wesleyn n.r.wesley@brightonDOTacDOTuk expounded:

Hi, my name is Neil, I'm a product design student in Brighton. I'm
looking into possibly doing a home beehive design, and yourselves as
gardeners have probably encountered the odd bee or two. I have a quick
question for you then, are you;

a/ completely unafraid of bees.
That would be me, I'm a beekeeper.

Any replies will be of great value to me, thankyou for taking the time
to read and respond.

Neil
You're welcome.

Ann, did you hear this new theory that bees are somehow effected by
some chemical which is giving them a form of Alzheimers and they are
literally forgetting where their hive is, and also forgetting how to
alert one another with their dance which points them back in the
direction of this hive? I don't recall where I heard this, but have
you heard it in any of your bee keeping journals?

victoria

Latest theory is problem is caused by cell phone towers.

Stephen Henning wrote:
wesleyn wrote:
Hi, my name is Neil, I'm a product design student in Brighton. I'm
looking into possibly doing a home beehive design, and yourselves as
gardeners have probably encountered the odd bee or two. I have a quick
question for you then, are you;

a/ completely unafraid of bees.
b/ very frightened of them - you may even be a confirmed apiphobic
(fear of bees) or cnidophobic (fear of stings).
c/ somewhere in between:
c1/ you are able to keep calm and ignore them, but wont go too
close
c2/ you'll move away / go indoors until they're gone
c3/ you'll try to get rid of them using bug spray etc.

SNIP

This is one way for farmers to stay in business in areas with colony
collapse disorder. These commercial beekeepers protect their hives from
chemicals that cause CCD. No one is saying the bees are dying, the bees
just aren't finding their way back to their hive. No dead bees are
found.



Think about that statement for a minute.. If bees are not making it back
to the hive, do you really think they're surviving somewhere without a
food source?

Furthermore, the cause of CCD has not been pinpointed yet. It could be
any number of things. Sure, it could be chemicals but it could also be
viral, bacterial, or maybe even those odd suggestions such as cell phone
towers messing with their navigation.

Now, having a traveling hive for hire to pollinate is swell, but those
bees that they are pollinating in place of aren't just wondering around
asking for directions.. I'd say they're toast.

Frank frankdotlogullo@comcastperiodnet expounded:

Latest theory is problem is caused by cell phone towers.

That's been discounted, when we took their cell phones away they still
died off....
--
Ann, gardening in Zone 6a
South of Boston, Massachusetts
e-mail address is not checked
******************************

Jangchub expounded:


Ann, did you hear this new theory that bees are somehow effected by
some chemical which is giving them a form of Alzheimers and they are
literally forgetting where their hive is, and also forgetting how to
alert one another with their dance which points them back in the
direction of this hive? I don't recall where I heard this, but have
you heard it in any of your bee keeping journals?

Imidacloprid. Google Gaucho and France. The French banned the stuff.
There has been an exponential increase in the use of it in this
country over the past two or three years. It's in the grub control we
put on our lawns (Merit), and they spray it all over ornamentals like
those huge sunflowers sold in so many markets, for blemish-free
blossoms. It's been shown to make bees 'forget' how to get back to
their hives. I think the link is strong, but it's the 800 pound
gorilla sitting in the middle of the room due to the chemical industry
in this country and how it's so imbedded into our agriculture and
economy. But that's just me.....

The CCD problem seems to have many sources, but the smoking gun seems
to point to too many chemicals in the environment. Remember,
honeycomb is like a sponge, it soaks up all of these toxins, which
include the stuff we're using for agricultural use and the stuff we're
(I'm speaking in the inclusive we here, not all beeks are using these
bad chemicals) using to combat the varroa mites. If you watched the
special PBS did on CCD you'd see the scientists astounded to see how
high the virus level is in our poor bees.

There is a movement to get beekeeping back to a more natural state,
but it's hard. A commercial beekeeper can't afford to let his stock
die off and let natural selection take place (selection for bees that
withstand varroa without treatment). The life of a commercial beek is
very difficult, there are fewer and fewer out there making a living at
it. The salvation may come from the hobbyists like us who keep bees
because we love them and love their byproduct, honey. We'll see how
it all goes. All I know is I'm trying really hard to get our six
hives through the winter. We treated with formic acid pads (formic
acid is naturally present in honey, it's non-toxic, and seems to have
been effective, there were dead mites all over the bottom board when
we removed the pads). I'll let you know in the spring if they make it
(fingers crossed).
--
Ann, gardening in Zone 6a
South of Boston, Massachusetts
e-mail address is not checked
******************************

Scott Hildenbrand wrote:

Think about that statement for a minute.. If bees are not making it back
to the hive, do you really think they're surviving somewhere without a
food source?

Think about this a minute. They are out gathering food. Why should
they come back to a man made hive?

Furthermore, the cause of CCD has not been pinpointed yet. It could be
any number of things. Sure, it could be chemicals but it could also be
viral, bacterial, or maybe even those odd suggestions such as cell phone
towers messing with their navigation.

They have identified chemicals that make the bees loose their sense of
direction and they have found these chemicals in the areas of the CCD.

Now, having a traveling hive for hire to pollinate is swell, but those
bees that they are pollinating in place of aren't just wondering around
asking for directions.. I'd say they're toast.

Bees existed wild for many millenia before man made his first hive.
Keeping bees in hives is relatively new in their history. They will do
just as well as Canada Geese do when they don't fly south.
--
Pardon my spam deterrent; send email to
Visit my Rhododendron and Azalea web pages at:
http://rhodyman.net/rahome.html
Also visit the Rhododendron and Azalea Bookstore at:
http://rhodyman.net/rabooks.html
Cheers, Steve Henning in Reading, PA USA Zone 6

wesleyn wrote:
Hi, my name is Neil, I'm a product design student in Brighton. I'm
looking into possibly doing a home beehive design, and yourselves as
gardeners have probably encountered the odd bee or two. I have a quick
question for you then, are you;

a/ completely unafraid of bees.
b/ very frightened of them - you may even be a confirmed apiphobic
(fear of bees) or cnidophobic (fear of stings).
c/ somewhere in between:
c1/ you are able to keep calm and ignore them, but wont go too
close
c2/ you'll move away / go indoors until they're gone
c3/ you'll try to get rid of them using bug spray etc.

Any replies will be of great value to me, thankyou for taking the time
to read and respond.

c/ somewhere in between. I got stung by a honeybee this summer by my
pile of apples which attracts them, and it hurt like crazy for a long
time, like hours and into the next day, even after I put baking soda
paste on it. That was a first in 30 years. I didn't see that one, but
if I do, I just freeze until they fly off. My grandmother and now my
grandson have developed a very bad allergic reaction to them; luckily so
far I'm ok about that. A bee sting can be deadly for some people.

Other than that, I love them, and never kill any if I don't have to,
inside or out, even the ground wasps. Both honeybees and bumblebees
have found their way into my house, 5 or 7 a day for awhile a couple
years ago, until I guess we got a broken window in the attic fixed,
still a few every summer, and I devised a method to trap them with a
yogurt cup and a knife with a very wide blade (have accidentally killed
a couple that way), and release them outside. I really felt bad when a
bumblebee got trapped between my screen and storm, I cracked the storm
and screen open at the bottom, it was pitiful watching it try to find
its way out, would not come down to the open air, so I was raising and
lowering the screen and storm and accidentally squashed it.

This is how goofy I can get. One summer they were tearing shingles off
the roof, and completely covered the opening for some little ground
wasps that never bothered me, and I was mowing then. They were upset.
I dug until I found some clothing I thought would be protective, looked
mighty weird, and took a rake and pulled the shingles away so they could
get back in their nest.

If one gets in my car when I'm driving, I do feel a little panicky, but
they usually fly right out an open window.

The only things I will kill, don't know about a dangerous dog, are
cockroaches, flies and mosquitoes. The cat has caught a couple mice and
chipmunks. I saved two chipmunks and one mouse, made her drop them. Of
course, I can't save them all. She came to me where I have my computer
holding the the body of a chipmunk in her mouth meowing funny, another
she got by the tail. I made her let them go, they hid in the closet
like I had hoped, I put her out, and shut the door. Then I cracked open
the window and set some peanuts on the windowsill. They both found
their way out. One morning I got up to peanut shells all over my
keyboard lol. By now, I have a Havaheart trap, think I've got it set
right, didn't seem to go near it.

Way more than you asked. Sorry.


Neil

Hettie® wrote:


That was a first in 30 years.

Oops. A couple years ago I got stung with my yogurt cup method. It
didn't hurt too bad at all. Maybe it depends on where you get stung,
hand vs. inside of my thigh.

Stephen Henning wrote:
Scott Hildenbrand wrote:

Think about that statement for a minute.. If bees are not making it back
to the hive, do you really think they're surviving somewhere without a
food source?

Think about this a minute. They are out gathering food. Why should
they come back to a man made hive?

They are out gathering pollen. Pollen is not the food source of bees.
It's used in the making of honey, which is their food source.


Furthermore, the cause of CCD has not been pinpointed yet. It could be
any number of things. Sure, it could be chemicals but it could also be
viral, bacterial, or maybe even those odd suggestions such as cell phone
towers messing with their navigation.

They have identified chemicals that make the bees loose their sense of
direction and they have found these chemicals in the areas of the CCD.

Now, having a traveling hive for hire to pollinate is swell, but those
bees that they are pollinating in place of aren't just wondering around
asking for directions.. I'd say they're toast.

Bees existed wild for many millenia before man made his first hive.
Keeping bees in hives is relatively new in their history. They will do
just as well as Canada Geese do when they don't fly south.

If they can't reach their hive, they don't survive.