At 08:20 PM 3/29/98 -0700, you wrote:
>I wonder what happens if the bees arrive at their destination at noon. Do
>the beekeepers unload at mid-day? If so is there much problem with
>drifting? Do they continue to water them? Or do they plan not to arrive
>during the heat of the day.
Come on Allen, you know how many hours it is to Grandmother's house, most
plan that trip to arrive at a time that insures they will get a good meal
and not in the middle of the night and not so early that they will have to
mow the lawn or something. The same type of logic is used to plan long
distance moves of bees. Trucks mostly arrive here in the middle of the
night so they can be unloaded by daylight and make a back haul from the bay
area or southern California. No one plans to arrive in the heat of the day
the plan is not too. If a driver was to screw up we would do our best to
keep the bees cool by removing the nets and work with the hand we were
dealt, which could be unloading the truck right away or waiting until it
cooled off.
This has never happened to me that I can remember with bees transported by
bee haulers so I can't say from experience but it would not be the normal.
But people who are in the business of transporting bees across country know
how to arrange their schedule so they arrive at the best time as ordered by
the shipper and I am sure they do stop and sleep at night as the law
requires it so that is when adjustments are made in arrival times.
During the time of winter when it is foggy here and the night time and day
time temperatures are close to the same many loads come in from the north
and can be moved day or night as any bee that comes out to see what's up
soon goes back in to keep warm and few problems have been reported.
As for unloading bees in the middle of the day. I did have one very bad
experience with this years ago.
In the early summer it is foggy and cool sometime all day on the coast and
you can load bees just about anytime. I had a driver who had a hard time
listening to directions and he and I were making a load off the coast. I
told him to wait until six to load, but we arrived about two several miles
apart to load. I had a bad feeling that he would just load and leave and
knew it was 90 to 100 degrees in the valley 50 miles away from the coast
and the bees would explode off the truck in that heat if they had the light
to see by.
I loaded as fast as I could so I could rush over and make sure my helper
did not leave too early, when I got there he was gone and as fast as I
could I got on his trail. I caught up with him just as he reached the
sunshine and warm temperatures and it was too late to turn back. It was a
mess, the bees covered everyone's wind shield and they all had their wipers
on to try to clean them off. I never have seen so many
index fingers raised toward anyone as what we got when we got to wide spots
in the road so people could pass.
At last we made it to the farm location after about one hours trip in the
hot sun. I unloaded as fast as it was possible and the bees fogged out by
the millions paying no attention to any amount of smoke. They were not
happy but we got the job done without being stung to death. As we left the
bee yard the bees were a black cloud over the yard.
I wish this was the end of the story, but I had to return the next day to
check things out. I could not believe what I found. Dozens of swarms of
bees as large as man on willow trees maybe a 100 yards away. I hoped they
would come back but that did not make it happen. The 250 hives were just
about a total loss as so many adult bees left the queen and a few young
bees could not care for the brood or regulate the temperature and many just
died out within a few weeks those left took the rest of the season to look
normal but never were worth the effort to keep them. I really could blame
no one but myself and I now know that to turn back away from the heat of
the valley for a few hours would have been the right thing to do the next
time. There never was a next time, thank God.
>Andy, I would *very* much like to hear about these systems.
Nothing more then standard orchard spray rigs washed clean of chemicals.<B>
>I did send a semiload of bees (400 hives) to Arizona a number of years ago
>by reefer. We built special ducts in the front and kept one tiny door open
>at the back. AFAIK they arrived just fine. However that was November.
>Just the same, they did go through Las Vegas at mid-day and the truckers
>said they did stop for lunch.
Yeah, it can and is done, but......problems have been reported and I am not
sure if anyone is using this type of equipment to move bees today on a
regular basis.
>>>As far as I can determine, the notion that Mineral Oil smothers mites is a
>>>"guess" promulgated by this list. It seems to be derived from the fact
>Well, actually it came from Dr. Rodriguez' talk at the ABF convention in
>Virginia last year. He put up a large slide of the mite and explained that
>due to differences of scale and the small size of the varroa's pores and the
>mechanism by which they control their body moisture, that they were
>susceptible to small amounts of oil that would not bother bees due to the
>larger size of everything on the bee. Effects that are weak at larger sizes
>get relatively stronger as the scale decreases. ...Something to do with
>capillary action and surface tension and viscosity and water bugs walking on
>water wheras we can't...
I can buy that, but it really matters little how it works as long as it
works.
>I believe Sammataro did some work on the attractiveness of young bees coated
>with oil when working with tracheal mites. Her video is a must to see. Even
>better than Ulee's Gold.
Well I have not seen Ulee's Gold but I will watch late nite TV for
Sammataro movie unless you want to loan it to me.<G>
>>The rule beekeepers should remember is that cold bees can be revived but
>>seldom are overheated ones and even if they live don't have much
>>value...Cold bees will fall down in a package bee cage but this seems not
>>to harm them and they do not smother because of it and will get back up
>>when warmed up
>I wonder about the chilled bees. I contend that, yes, they do get back up
>and look okay, but only long enough to sell to a northern beekeeper. In my
>early years I bought some packages that I found out later had been chilled.
>They looked okay on arrival, but did not stay up; they dropped again the
>first night (which was cool) and had to be combined two for one to make
>decent colonies.
Well my point is that the over heated one's don't get up at all.
But from my own experience with thousands of packages I made and used
myself I never lost a hive because of the cold. I sure you did but I was
lucky. I loved the cold, I would divide the four ponders into two and dump
in the queen and run home to warm up in a few hours instead of days. The
first time I did this I just knew all was lost, but that was a real good
year and never had to replace a dozen queens in the 1,000 plus hives. I
always waited until the last day of the bee shipping season to take my own
packages to Colorado and most of the time the weather was spring like when
I got there and it would take several evening of hard work to get them all
in. I made up some of the late start with feed and drugs but in the end a
reduction in crop was also taken but it paid as the costs never ran much
over 70 man days for the total operation and we were never there more then
30 days in any one year and had time to fish two or three times each and
every day we were out in the field.
.
...I love it all, the snow that covered the 1st cutting of hay in July,
they only make one cutting a season, the thunder storms every after noon
and the fat skunks running around town at dusk cleaning up all the dog and
cat food left out... and thousands and thousands of Elk in herd's...the
deer following behind the bailer...the sheep herders and their distinctive
trailers with the same for their horse...the beef shortage with fat cattle
in every pasture... and one year no chicken.. the local restraints that
opened at 8 am and close at 7pm, they roll up the sidewalks...and the God
Blessed rodeo ground down the hill from the honey house and most of all
country music, Coors beer so weak the football coach treated the team after
every practice.. friendly people who respect others hard work and
property...and then came oil shale and all went to hell in a hand basket
and I sold out twice but the 2nd time it stuck...well the oil shale boom
busted and all went away but I have never returned to Meeker, Colorado,
American west as it once was.
ttul, the OLd Drone
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