--- Bill Truesdell <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Lots of good info, but my problem is I have no bees
> to start the process. Do your friends also have bees
> or do
> they have a "beeless" technique?
Hello Bill,
Sorry bout your beeless situation. Man, I know how
you feel. I still get that sick in the gut feeling
hearing of your bee loss as it reminds me so much of
my past losses. Starting in 95 and maybe 5 times
since then, I’ve lost all my colonies over wintering.
Was a real blow to my confidence, had no idea what I
was doing wrong, and bees still dying. However, since
2002, I have never had large losses, feral stock,
smaller cell size, no treatments and recovering feral
population I think the key here.
Bill, you can do the smudge pot method without bees,
the smudge pot, is to attract the bees quicker from a
greater distance, then as they begin feeding from your
bee hunting box where the reward is located, and then
start the coursing process. The bees are a technique
that I have added above what I have learned from the
bee hunters, and is really not needed.
Smudge pot method to attract scouts is common with the
bee hunters. But one bee hunter I know uses a method
I think perhaps most difficult. He carries syrup with
Anise in cotton in a small jar, and simply blows
across the opening, or wafts the odor out with his
hand, I enjoy his description of the method ,,, “You
take some anise,,, and you go like this,,, go like
this,,, hold still,,, and soon a bee will come”. He
tells of the past, only taking a single course from
one bee to locate nests, but I imagine, in those
years, feral nests would tend not to be very far. He
helps me with my feral bee project by placing traps,
and he was prodding me already, asking when I was
bringing over the traps.
I have some old bee articles about bee hunting tucked
away in the files here, and more in line to be typed
into a text file:
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/HistoricalHoneybeeArticles
Best Wishes,
Joe Waggle ~ Derry, PA
‘Bees Gone Wild Apiaries'
FeralBeeProject.com
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