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Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology

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Subject:
From:
"J. Waggle" <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Fri, 14 Mar 2008 16:54:20 -0700
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--- 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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