I have 3 hives, about 300 feet from my pool, deck, garage and etc... My wife says to me, "I can't even sit outside without the bees hovering around me." Now I'm outside and they don't annoy me, but I see what she is talking about. One landed on my hand and another buzzing around me. It does seem that if one is interested in you, it attracts more. Even as I write this, one landed on my sunglasses. They did not act like this in the spring, not even all summer. They all have one full medium and have been working on the second mediums now for a few weeks. I haven't looked at there single deeps in awhile, because I didn't want to disrupt brood rearing.
Just wandering if most set there hives in there own yards or drive far away and put them on vast farmland? How do most put multiple hives on lots of land if you don't own the land?
Mine is in my yard and they don't bother us. Just a guess that the colour of your clothing may attract them
Mine is in my yard and occasionally one will land on me to lick the salt off. They have the bird baths and water barrels wrapped up.
Someone mentioned at the bee meeting to put a bit of salt in the feed. I have not tried it yet, however when I am around the bees one will land on me and seems to be interested in the salt on my skin.
Mine are in my suburban 1/4 acre yard, so they're not more than 45 feet from my back door. I haven't ever had any come bother me out on the porch. I think I'm probably more of a pest to the foragers than they are to me. It never ceases to amaze me to watch them on the Russian sage or the asters as I get in close and try to see their little proboscis in the flower or packing pollen on their baskets. They tend to move off if I get in too close.
Rookie,
My bees are in my back yard. Right next to our pool. The observation deck entrance is just a few feet from the pool. The biggest problem is bees in the pool.
I think if you get a small mineral bloc that they sell for rabbits, they may stop bothering your wife.
Jim
Thanks for the replies. What I think most are saying is get a salt lick or mineral block, if that is different. I'll definitely get one. I should also mention that my pool is a salt water pool. They were in it all summer, not too much of a problem there, because they hung out below the skimmer, by the ground. It is always wet down there because something always had a small leak or waves spill over there. I didn't get too many drowning because I used a solar cover when we were not in it.
They liked the pool water so much, maybe I should put some of it in a chicken waterer down by them.
Matt.
Here at the house I have 5 acres with 20 hives here most of the time.
My neighbors have a swimming pool and the bees were drowning in their pool.
I put out 2 five gallon buckets with water in them for the bees.
I take a 5 gallon bucket and go down from the top about 2 inches or so and drill four 1 inch holes evenly spaced around the bucket for an overflow in case of a hard rain.
I fill the bucket with water and a few drops of lemon grass oil to get the bees interested in the buckets of water.
I then use Styrofoam peanuts (Packing Peanuts) to cover the top of the water inside the bucket.
I call them Bee Boats for the bees will land on the peanuts a get water from the sides of the peanuts.
I've also found the bees favor a white bucket over other colors.
When buying the packing peanuts get the Styrofoam type not the starch of bio-degradeable ones.
The bio-degradable ones will turn to a gooey mess.
But that's how I water my bees and have been doing it for several years now.
I don't know if this applies to bees, but this my understanding of goats. Mineral and salt blocks are different - at least the ones I select are. It is said that goats will only take up X amount of salt. Mineral blocks has salt in them. Once they get their fill of salt they will leave the blocks alone - although they may have not got the mineral amount they needed. That's why we don't put salt blocks in our pastures.
I feed loose minerals to my goats. They get what they need fairly quick and can go back to browsing (not grazing). Goats browse, sheep/cows/horses graze.
Quote from: GSF on September 28, 2014, 10:31:06 AM
I feed loose minerals to my goats. They get what they need fairly quick and can go back to browsing (not grazing). Goats browse, sheep/cows/horses graze.
What is loose minerals?
What is the difference between browsing and grazing.
Sorry for the simple questions, but I am a city rat. :)
lose minerals; I get mine in a plastic 10 or 15 pound bag. It has the texture of ocean sand (beach). I pour it in the troughs and they lick it up or I'll put it on top of their feed. Goats need minerals with an extremely high copper content. If you feed my goat minerals to a sheep the high level of copper in it will kill it. So I'm told.
If you watch horses, cows, or sheep they will usually stand still (compared to a goat) when they are eating grass. Goats will eat some and take a few steps, eat some more and keep moving some as they eat - noticeably more than the others. In addition, if you were to put the four together at the edge of a fenceless field the goat would head straight toward the leaves while the others are more prone to head to the grass.
At one time cattle ranchers were adding goats to their herds. The goats will see a plant sticking up out of the grass and go straight to it. They'll keep it ate back too. This denies the necessary photosynthesis for the plant to continue living. Goats will usually clean out a pasture of invasive plants.
Ask any time. I'll be more than happy to answer.
Gary,
If I am not mistaken, the difference between a browser and a grazer is what they eat. Goats and deer are more browsers and horses and cows are more so grasers. The grazers eat grass and the browsers eat the bushes.
Jim
Jim you're right. I guess I didn't make my point clear.