Banana?

[BlueBee]

AceBird

What happened to that Banana you threw in your hive the other day?  Did the bees eat it, or is it still sitting there? 

You mentioned in another post that after throwing in the banana you later found the ground littered with dead bees and bee poop.

What's your hypothesis about the dead bees?  Old dead bees the caretakers removed because they smelled of banana or newly dead bees?

Anybody else throw bananas in with their bees?

[T Beek]

No, never done that, I save my old bananas for my worm farm.  They eat em right up.

But I sometimes smell something like bananas coming out from from my hives, kinda wierd, heh? 

Smells are subjective though, so who knows, and I've had my nose broke a couple times which may mess up the smeller ;) 

I'd also like to know where Acebird heard that was a good thing, to put old bananas in the hive, how bout it?

thomas

[BeeCurious]

Dave Miska talked about cutting bananas in half and placing 1/2 on the topbars of a hive. He was describing this at the SNEBA conference.

[Grid]

I've heard it is sometimes used as a treatment for chalk brood.  You can google "banana chalk brood" and you'll find a few references:

"There is some anecdotal evidence in Australia that banana fruit placed in hives is an effective control for chalkbrood..."

Grid

[Acebird]

I just took a quick look and I know I shouldn't be bothering them but we got another warm sunny day (above freezing).  It looks to me that they ate half the honey patty and at least half the banana.  Coming out of the freezer and thawing it out in the microwave makes the banana very watery.  A good puddle of water ended up on the top cover when I squirted the banana onto it.  I am guessing they drank it because it doesn't seam as though it could evaporate that fast but this is far from scientific and I am not promoting it or making any claims.

As far as dead bees go I only saw three new ones today.  Based on the fact that I didn't see any dead ones under the cover today I suspect that most of the dead ones yesterday were already dead.  But by the same token I never saw so many dead bees around the hive.  He, he, with my two year experience under my belt.  I must explain that we live in an area that has "lake effect" like Syracuse.  What that means is you can get 25 days of light coatings of snow a month.  Each day the dead bees get covered and when you have a warming trend these successive layers become expose all at once.  It is difficult to know what actually happened.

Tbeek, I started this topic a while back.  It will give you some background.

http://forum.beemaster.com/index.php/topic,30807.0.html

[BlueBee]

AceBird,  thanks for the link back.  I missed that one earlier. 

From the earlier posts, it looks like there are a lot of skeptics. 

Please keep us posted on your results.  It sounds like you may be our Thomas Edison on this one.

How often have you been feeding them bananas?  Summer and Winter?

[Acebird]

Are you kidding?  I'm a new beek and I am not sure I even qualify for that.  It was the first time I threw one in.  I didn't hear about it until September of last year.

As far as skeptics ...

Name one topic about beekeeping and there is almost equal numbers who take opposing views.  That says two me that even old timers haven't got it knocked.  Everybodies winging it.

[Grandma_DOG]

Name one topic about beekeeping and there is almost equal numbers who take opposing views.  That says two me that even old timers haven't got it knocked.  Everybodies winging it.

I disagree. There are twice the opposing views.

;)

[rdy-b]

>This was floated in Australia as the be all and end all of stopping
chalkbrood.  It was based on a medical paper where bananas were used to help
stop some forms of ulcers as I recall.  However, the beekeepers did not
realise that ulcers are caused by bacteria and chalkbrood by a fungi.

Some beekeepers started using bananas cut in half and placed on the top bars
above the brood area.  The skin and all was used.  The theory was that it
was the potassium in the banana that was doing the trick.  There had been
stories of using lite salt to stop chalkbrood i.e. salt that has the sodium
replaced by the potassium, and this is where the potassium idea came from.

After several seasons, the reports are that the hives are still getting
chalkbrood just as bad.  So it seems that there is no need to rush out and
buy a banana plantation.<

Trevor Weatherhead
AUSTRALIA      8-)           
it made it to australia----RDY-B                       

[Acebird]

Have you ever taken a potassium pill?  I take them because it relieves my leg cramps at night.  One side affect is it also acts like a laxative.  Nothing makes you feel better than being regular.  Maybe the bees like it too.

We buy organic.  I can't stand the taste of a non organic banana.  A rotten banana is almost all sugar and I feel much better feeding the bees bananas than cane sugar if I can't feed them honey.  Hopefully I will be able to tell if it is detrimental to them.

[rdy-b]

there are many theories about what works best -there is a theory that cinnamon works to clean up chalk brood add to sugar and dose the bees-the cinnamon was found to slow the mold process on pastries -so notice one old beekeeper who
notice his pastries did not mold and the ones without cinnamon where quick to mold-perhaps someone should Email Minska
and get they information from him since his name keeps poping up about bannana-RDY-B

[Michael Bush]

It's like cold medicine.  If you take it your cold will go away in about a week.  If you don't take it your cold will go away in about a week... chalkbrood will go away when the weather warms up...

[Bee Happy]

Isopentyl Acetate: The chemical responsible for the scent in bananas; also the chemical found in the bee's attack pheromone. - same chemical - C7H14O2
maybe an angry hive is inhospitable to chalkbrood?

Just for kicks look up Penn & Teller's 'organic taste test. (chase children from the room first due to language).

[Grid]

One of my hives had chalk brood this past year.  I did nothing, other than make sure the hive was well ventilated.  It cleared up.  No bananas.  :)  However, I had several beeks recommend bananas.  I also remember someone else saying that with bees, when in doubt, do nothing.  I was in doubt, and doing nothing worked remarkably well!

Grid

[Acebird]

chalkbrood will go away when the weather warms up...

It is my understanding that chalkbrood can occur during warm months.  It is also my understanding that after the banana treatment chalkbrood clears instantly not seven days later or months later.  I have not proof.

[Brian D. Bray]

The scent of the banana closely resembles that of the attach phenome of the bees (smell the stinger).  A noticable smell of bananas upon opening a hive is a good indicator that the bees will probably be proddy and were recently disturbed by something or someone (neighbor kids?). 

When I was eleven yrs old I was told by my mentor (who was 86 and beekeeping for over 60 yrs) that if I ate the banana my mother had packed in my lunch I would be stung badly as we finished up looking at the 50+ hives in one of his bee yards.  I had to learn the hard way and ate the banana.  After lunch, when we went back to working with the bees it seemed like every bee in the yard had a target drawn on me.  A few times later on, after my mentor had passed away, I momentarially forgot this sage advice and went in my bee hives after eating a banana, only to be reminded by the bees that bananas smell like their attach phenome.

[Countryboy]

Isopentyl Acetate: The chemical responsible for the scent in bananas; also the chemical found in the bee's attack pheromone. - same chemical - C7H14O2

Isoamyl acetate (sometimes called isopentyl acetate) is the chemical that is responsible for the banana TASTE in artificial banana flavorings.  It smells SIMILAR to bananas.

I've eaten bananas around bees, with no observable effects.  I've put bananas and banana peels at hive entrances, and the bees ignored them.

Artificial banana flavoring is what you have to be careful with - it is the same chemical that is the bees alarm pheromone.

[Acebird]

Artificial banana flavoring

I don't care much for somthing artificial either.

[hardwood]

I eat bananas as a quick snack anytime I'm working the bees...never had a problem.

Scott

[Bee Happy]

C7H14O2 - isopentyl and isoamyl are apparently synonyms. perhaps there is some inherent difference in organic C7H14O2 that scientists are not yet aware of. :roll: