Had an "interesting" experience yesterday.....was cleaning out my rental appartment from the scraps left behind by my last tenant and getting rid of some old cleaning supplies. I have a utility sink out back an an exterior wall of the garage that's probably 30 feet from the hives at the house and I decided to salvage a couple of the nicer spray bottles and just dump the content down the drain and keep the sprayers. Well this purple gunk called Fabuloso (its a product favored by every cuban grandmother in south Florida) is "supposed" to be lavender scented but i am not sure who in their right mind would call that stench lavender....in any event I wasn't careful and didn't pour it straight down the drain hole but rather just upended it in the sink and it covered quite a bit of surface area....the smell was very strong and i was swarmed within seconds by 20-30 bees who were angry off ;-P
I took four stings as I retreated...and had to get a long hose from the front yard and arc a jet of water into the sink basin from long range to wash the crap out before I was allowed back into the back yard.
Just a word of warning to anyone using any cleaning products with strong scents in the vicinity of your hives :-)
Oh boy Jeff. There's always some excitement with the bees. I love that about them. Hope your stings aren't too bad.
it was certainly a wake up call.....my lovely gentle bees who the day before couldn't care less when I pulled a chair up within 3 feet of the entrance and drank a beer and got into a bee trance lit me up like crazy...if I hadn't stayed calm and retreated it could have easily been 10+ stings.
Every day I learn something new....some days its an easy lesson some days the lesson comes from the school of hard knocks..
Notice how this sort of story didn't make it to my Facebook page Yvonne? Some things are to be shared only with people who understand :-)
Ha Ha!
That HK University can be a bit of a buttkicker :grin:
Sorry to hear about the "lesson".
Old Blue
Straight outa ............
Kali-bone-ya
lol I got one for ya. In March I figured it was time to give them a pollen patty. So I just lifted the hive body and slipped one onto the top frames between the supers. About 2 weeks later it was a niceish day again so I thought I'll see if they need another patty. I figured, oh, I'm just gonna be in and out so I don't need to start my smoker. I don't need to put on my jacket or my veil. It'll just take a second. HA! LOL Well, again I lifted the hive body and lo and behold to my surprise, not a trace remained of the other patty! I was so excited and just KNEW they were building strong and working hard. I slipped in another patty and went to put the hive body back down but it wouldn't go down! So now there's a slit where the bees are starting to come out like an attack force, all in a row, I swear, lol. I didn't know what the heck the problem was so I lifted it again and tried to reposition the patty and tried closing it again but it still wouldn't go. lol I ended up just forcing them together and fastening it tight with a wratchet strap which I had around all winter. I thought I had messed with their burr comb or something. They were circling me pretty good throughout this and followed me a ways but I just stayed calm and walked away and they luckily stopped following me. Wen I got back into the house and started cooking dinner, I suddenly heard a psssss psssss. I have long hair mind you. lol I ran outside, shook my hair like crazy and took off all my clothes and shook them out. Never did see her and I didn't get stung, luckily.
Yesterday when I finally got to pull things apart I found out that the reason it wouldn't close was because they never did eat that first patty. It was just stuck to the bottom frames of the hive body I had lifted. lol I felt like an idiot. lol I had tried to look down but I never did try to look up. lol
Yeah, that didn't make my fb page either. lol
I generally get more than annoyed when people wear too much of today's sad excuse for cologne or perfume. Most of them are cheap synthetics and they will burn my eyes, nose, and even start an allergic reaction. I avoid the detergent aisles until I absolutely have to go there, and I buy only unscented product. I don't blame those bees even a tiny bit for getting angered off over that smelly junk.
OTH, well-made scents derived from natural botanicals are a pleasure when use in moderation.
Quote from: Hops Brewster on April 11, 2016, 04:32:29 PM
I generally get more than annoyed when people wear too much of today's sad excuse for cologne or perfume. Most of them are cheap synthetics and they will burn my eyes, nose, and even start an allergic reaction. I avoid the detergent aisles until I absolutely have to go there, and I buy only unscented product. I don't blame those bees even a tiny bit for getting angered off over that smelly junk.
OTH, well-made scents derived from natural botanicals are a pleasure when use in moderation.
Oh lord don't even get me started! lol I HATE that crap. I have no idea how people walk around in their clothes washed in Tide or whatever, that smell so strong! I have to hold my nose going past them. I couldn't wear clothes like that. One time, this guy in line in front of me smelled like cologne like you wouldn't believe. It stayed on ME for HOURS afterwards. So gross. Give me the musk of my working man any day. lol Yes, I see how it would offend the bees.
Not to pick on smokers, but in my experience they have little sense of smell so usually the ones with an excess of cologne are smokers...
but now I'm annoyed with myself, because I noticed my 100th post was a gripe. :angry:
Well, here's to the next 100... may they be a little rosier! :cheesy:
Not to pick on smokers, but in my experience they have little sense of smell so usually the ones with an excess of cologne are smokers...
I always tell folks it was cheap so they put a lot on (lol)