Hi George and All
 
Thanks for the reply about using a goose brush. I will try that at
some point - although  I suspect here it will be a bad move with our
bees as they definitely hate water fowl.
 
On the topic of pulling honey, I have found when pulling from my
hives by fart the easiest way of getting the bees out is just to take
the whole super, hold it in front of the hive and drop one side
sharply (not so that it breaks the combs) against the ground - soon
the bees are scenting the entrance of the hive and then if the super
is placed about an arms length from the hive they will just all walk
out of the super into the hive iin about five minutes. This does not
work so well during a dearth or on hot days. It also only works onb
supers that are fully capped.
 
Interestingly I have also found that making bees scent their hive
entrance, by dumping some bees of a frame or super in front of the
hive is one of the easiest ways of quietening a beehive. (I do all my
hive manipulations withoug any protective gear whatsoever and will
now usually average only about five or so stings for working through
20 hives)
 
Also, in africa, anybody who is rough with bees soon has no bees -
one tap too many and you will kill a large proportion of a beehive -
beacuse it will sting things. (Learning to work with bees has cost me
a good couple of nucs worth of bees lost to stinging - one can
seriously weaken a big hive by aggravating them and causing them to
rampage)
 
Has anybody noticed a strange reaction in bees due to
diethyltoluamide? (in bug repellant?) I have noticed it drives them
to een sting each other to death.
 
Keep well
 
Garth
 
Garth Cambray           Camdini Apiaries
Grahamstown             Apis mellifera capensis
Eastern Cape Prov.
South Africa
 
Time = Honey
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