Keeping hives in my garage year round?

[TwT]

thanks trot, make sense now....

[Trot]

Hi all...

This is the third time I'm trying to send this out and I get it lost somehow!
I think that the age is finally creeping up on me, hee...

Anyway, I just came off an forum where they were discussing that expert beekeepers are saying that Carniolan and Italian bee are the same race??
Well, I am no expert, but... I know that light coloured bees are worm climate bees - and dark ones are cold climate bees! Sort of going from Equator towards both poles... In other words, beeks in warm climate should keep Yellow and bees in northerly (cold) climate should keep dark bees.
But we all know that we don't do what bees require. We do what suits us and is pleasant for our eye. And yellow does please us! Therefore Italian girls are forced to make their living in places they in nature would not inhabit.
One could make a very long story out of this - but that is not my intent.
I just want to post a link below, in case same of you are of the same mind as the fellas on the other forum.
I hope they too, see it...


http://www.carniolan.com/uk/caracter-uk.htm


Regards,
Trot

[Mici]

HI!
i just have to intervene into this debate.
i won't explain a lot, i just see many of newcomers are interested in beehouses/bee sheds, this was a hot topic few months ago and i made few photos, mostly out of books just so you could see them:
http://s108.photobucket.com/albums/n29/Mici_02/Cebele-bees/Cebelnjaki-Beehouses/

You can also  browse my gallerie to see the hive type AŽ, I photographed it step by step.

[Ymbe]

Hi Mici

Thanks for the great photographs, I particularly liked the water trickler design and the shot of the skep house - you can see how the full bee house might have developed from this.

Cheers

Ymbe

[Brian D. Bray]

Any bee loaded with cargo: nectar, pollen, water, or propolis will be allowed to enter a hive.  An empty bee is considered a robber.  If you have a weak hive exchange places withh a strong hive and the weak hive is suddenly much stronger.
Bee hives can be closely spaced--per the photos of bee houses--and not experience a great deal of drift. 
At the same time hives can be placed six to 10 feet apart and major drifting can occur.  The difference is hive identity.  The major reason for the decorations of the hives in the bee houses was to distinguish individual hives from one another.  The more identifying visual information on a particular hive the less likely are the chances of drift even when placed side-by-side and touching.  If all the hives are painted the same color (as is often the case in the US) then other identifiers need to be incorporated to limit drifting. 
Even letters and number will make a difference as identifiers where drifting is concerned. 

[Ymbe]

The major reason for the decorations of the hives in the bee houses was to distinguish individual hives from one another.  ...  Even letters and number will make a difference as identifiers where drifting is concerned. 

Here is some research on facial recognition in bees which demonstrates the subtleties bees can distinguish

http://jeb.biologists.org/cgi/content/full/208/24/4709

Whether or not they recognise their keeper is another question... ;)

[Trot]

With all my dealings with bees, I would have to say that they do recognize their keeper?!

Mine are located at my summer home and I have just today mentioned to my wife,
how strange it seems that when I am in proximity of the hives, they come out and about - even though the temp. was only +6 today. (they were still chasing out drones..?) But, when I am not there - not one is seen?

Last year I had 8 tandem loads of gravel brought in and dumped on one spot where I plan to build a garage.  While I was cutting down the trees and brush I realized  that there was a wild bee colony in the ground - right smack in center of my spot. I instructed the truck-driver not to dump there, but crazy bugger did it anyway - on purpose!  The whole 16 yards of gravel, right on the nest!
Well, I grabbed the shovel and started digging!  But, poor things outperformed me!
Before I could dig to where I judged that their entrance would be - they emerged about 3 feet up on the pile. To make a long story short. I shoveled and leveled all them 8 loads and not one bee bothered me.
But every time my wife would come to try to help they would sting her in the head
before she would even get to the further pile in the bunch. After three different attempts, on different days and three stings she decided that the old fool and his bees can have the gravel all to themselves, heee.  .  .  . 

Maybe they did not recognize me - but were only thankful for helping them out in need. .?????

I kinda hope that next year they would not be there - cause I would really like to put up that garage...

Regards,
Frank

[Brian D. Bray]

I am also one who believe that bees can recognize their keeper.  I've got a more than a dozen stories to support it but.  I also believe the ability to do this has a much to do with genetic memory within the hive as anything else. 

Scientists are finding out that the bee dances are much more explicit than they ever had imagined and that doesn't touch what is communicated by feeler to feeler.

A swarm of bees is like a brain, a single bee is simply a nerve ending.  The collective intelligence is what is often overlooked.