Posted on 06/06/2017 10:07:49 AM PDT by simpson96
WASHINGTON — Vice President Mike Pence's wife, Karen, has installed a beehive on the grounds of their government residence in Washington.
Mrs. Pence says honey bees play an important role in agricultural production in the United States.
She says one out of every three bites of food consumed in the U.S. are made possible with the help of pollinators such as bees, butterflies, birds and bats. But managed bee colonies are in decline, posing a challenge to agricultural production.
The Pence's beehive has 15,000 to 20,000 honey bees, including the queen bee.
Mrs. Pence says honey the bees produce will be given away as gifts.
(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...
Never heard of that one. You jerkin my chain?
I used to have fun with my dads hives. I would go and stand in front of the entrance and watch. Turn around and there would be a whole bunch of them in a holding pattern waiting to get into the hive.
When honeybees sting they secret a pheromone. Get enough of it in one place it smells just like bananas (very close).
I've been around bees a lot, and for a while worked as a field hand for a middling sized pollinator and queen producer.
We would take bees from many colonies, to then place in 4-way mating nucs. During the process we'd have a large cage with a pile bees a foot deep or so in the bottom , once we banged the cage on the ground, and squirted them down with syrup water (keeps them from flying as much).
Using a stainless steel bowl (about the size one would use for serving of salad, soup or breakfast cereal) we'd reach into this cage and scoop out about a cup and a half of bees which would be then placed in each of four compartments of the mating nucs, along with a new queen cell which we'd press into the wax of a comb, drawn-out portion facing down, of course.
During that process the banana smell coming from the large cage would become quite noticeable.
We probably ran around a thousand of those four-ways, plus several thousand full colonies.
We'd have to keep dozens of colonies as queen cell builders, too, so they'd be queen-less, and in that condition (moderately crowded) they'd be pissy little bitches, whereas a queen-right colony on a day with good flying weather (warm enough, not too cloudy, hopefully not too windy) would have large percentage of the foraging population gone - out to forage -- and so with just a little smoke (a few good puffs from short distance away from the entrance -- wait about 15-20 seconds--- plus a couple of puffs when opening a colony, they'd usually be not too bad. We'd work them wearing bluejeans and t-shirt, bare-handed, no veil -- whenever we could get away with it. When they'd be a little hot, or if we knew we'd be opening multiple colonies at a time (among dozens, if not a few hundred in one orchard, but spread out by the few, and several dozen in any one place) ---then time to put the veils on.
We'd wear veils AND gloves when making up mating nucs in early spring, and when making up package bees to sell, though everyone tried to avoid using gloves, for the most part. They can be a vector for spreading disease (for one thing) and would often be a hassle to keep track of among a crew of 3-8 people.
Working the queenless colonies would require gloves. The long kind,if you know what I mean. Hat and veil of course, also, although a person could get away with feeding syrup using outside top-feeders (we'd use metal gallon cans inverted into a hole in the top of migratory cover, with small holes drilled in the lid so the syrup would drip slowly).
We'd buy syrup by the tanker load. Seriously. Partial loads, anyway. From tankers as big as fuel tankers one sees filling underground fuel tanks at gas stations. We'd add water to thin it, and sometimes (expensive) additives formulated for bee health.
Nutrition of one of the biggest keys to success with bees. But no, feeding tons of syrup is not the best way to do it.
My grandfather kept bees, and I was with him at the hives unprotected. Never got stung.
When I lived in Ireland ('78 - '81) I was with a friend for dinner one Sunday when we went out to his hives. He took the top of one and expected me to run. I didn't. I also was not stung.
More recently, I have thought about having hives...not so much for the honey, but more for the pollination factor.
Obviously I know nothing about bee keeping. Maybe when I retire to my farm, I’ll start.
> WOW Buffalo Jack, you know your anthophilia!
Anthophilia is an order of moths; Hymenoptera covers bees and wasps.
Actually, bees mate in midair. The act kills the males and very few get to mate as the queen only mates with a handfull of drones over a couple days time. After that, she may lay eggs for 1 to 3 years. The queen is able to lay either fertilized or non fertilized eggs at will. The non fertilized eggs develope into males which are genetic copies of the queen.
No sir. My dad and I were working the hives once and after lunch they tore me up while the left pop alone. Only difference in our lunch that day was I had bananas.
Usually toward the end of her life cycle so the new queen will have mates.
Don’t wear dark clothes and never, never, never wear corduroy pants. I had so many stingers in those pants I had to ride home in my underwear
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