brightspark
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thems bumble bees u never kept them
Bumble bees often nest outside our workshop. I find them very docile. I think it would take a lot to make them angryWhen my grandad kept bees i used to help him. The bees he had were very docile & i never got stung though he did for some reason! this caused a constant "ouch" *****, arrgh" ***** " while he worked. then one day when i was about 14 mum got stung on the neck while mowing the lawn, she came indoors & said "I feel a bit light headed", I suggested that she phone the doctor & luckily she got straight through, they told her to come down straight away. She decided to walk as it was only a quarter of a mile away. Only just made it & collapsed through the front door of the surgery. Dr Holloway had syringes of adrenaline & antihistamine ready & shot her up on the floor in reception. Later he told Dad that "We nearly lost your good lady, her blood pressure was on the floor & unreadable, she is lucky to be alive".
It turned out that the bee had a lucky hit & got her straight in the jugular vein which probably caused the severe reaction.
After that the bees had to go as we couldnt take the risk of another episode.
Last summer i had a bumble bees nest inside the 4" box section of the boat cradle in my shed down the club, they came & went & i got used to them, they only got a bit aeriated when i started the noisy planer thicknesser next to them but didnt sting me.
It's a form of " observation hive " . I've seen OH's in peoples sheds , offices and cellars as well as inside a bee proof tent at agricultural shows & the national association of bee keepers place when it was in Warwickshire . Look for some videos of Polish bee keepers overwintering their small nucleus hives in their cellars& houses .Today I watched an interesting video about breeding bees in self-made transparent hives made from old KEG beer bottles.
The guy spent several years experimenting, and laid out his observations in a capacious form.
Subtitles are available in auto-translate.
I don't know if his way is a revelation.
PM me for help maybe we can zoom , I used to farm 100 plus summer hives and neucs as well as over wintering about 50 hives till I got crippled at my day job.Beekeeping, on the list of to do's. Have a load of books here on it, but the local club is semi stood down because of you know what.
It depends on how sweaty you are & how close to their nest . Back in 1993 I was called to a racing stables in high summer where the hay & alfalfa was set on a palleted floor for air flow and at every fourth bale up a another floor of pallets for the 20 x 20 x 15 at the apex shed.Bumble bees often nest outside our workshop. I find them very docile. I think it would take a lot to make them angry
Had some bees in my workshop roof last year. Didn't mind them. I think they moved on as it gets really hot in the summer. You could hear a constant hum as they tried to cool their nest down.This came out of the cavity of my old workshop a few years ago just prior to me dismantling it to make way for the current shed.
View attachment 325558
This was about a fifth of what they'd made. I would often just stand and watch the bees coming and going through one small knot hole. Mightily impressive.
Exactly that!... You could hear a constant hum as they tried to cool their nest down.
thought u were going to say he fell off there at 1st i was once hangliding and it was very thermic. at about 1000 foot a bumble bee flew past they dont normaly fly very high so must have got lifted up on the updraughtOnly been stung once but it was enough! Sister keeps bees and her husband got stung 3 times not so long back, ended up in hospital going into shock. Dad got stung by a hornet whilst up a pylon when he was on the leccy board, said it hurt like nothing else
smoke subdues themMy folks had a large bee nest in their apple tree, someone put me in touch with a local guy who rescued and rehomed - never knew such thing existed.
I asked if I could help / watch, he said sure and went to his car and got a set of gloves, hat & suit for me, he didn't use anything!
It was fascinating and seemed fairly gentle process with not much more than smoke and a cardboard box, he spotted the queen in no time and marked with a felt tip pen! - Lovely old boy.
If you watch PMQ's you can see " Lady Nuge " chewing a wasp most weeks.Our old dog used to catch bees and chew them up, somehow she never seemed to get stung ...