Africanized in Costa Rica

[Africanized]

Hi, I'm an experienced beekeeper managing Africanized bees in Costa Rica.  I grew up in Florida and had bees there starting when I was about 14, 40 years ago (today's my birthday).

I have a lot of interesting information to share on Africanized bees, in particular how to handle fully-developed colonies so that they remain completely calm.  (By that I mean not a single bee flying to sting after an extensive inspection of the brood chamber.)  My methods are very unconventional and are likely to spark a lot of discussion, so I'll start a new post in the main beekeeping forum.

It's good to find a large community of beekeepers!  If a lot of you love your bees and put their well-being above the profit motive, then I'm in the right place.  Here in Costa Rica I don't know anyone (outside my family) who cares about bees beyond the profit they provide.

[Sunnyboy2]

Happy birthday.  I'm sure your post will be interesting, but I hope never to need the information.

[Joe D]

Happy Birthday Africanized, glad you joined us.  As most I expect, will be all ears on handling African bees.




Joe

[AllenF]

Welcome to the forum. 

[tefer2]

Welcome to the forum unconventional !

[fshrgy99]

Welcome. Am looking forward to hearing all about your African Girls!
Dennis

[BeeMaster2]

Welcome to the forum. At a conference in Tampa FL, one speaker from Brazil, had bees for collecting green propolis. He showed a video with them in the hives. I had to ask, since this is Brazil, aren't they Africanized. The bees acted like Italians. The explained that it is how you handle them but did not go into detail. It would be nice to know.
I have learned that you cannot  use pallets and the hives have to be separated by a certain distance. What is that minimum distance?
Jim

[Africanized]

Hello everyone,
Thanks for the welcome.  Sorry to post back so late.  I expected to see an emailed notification of replies to my post, but I didn't see any!
@sawdstmakr: In the video you saw with Africanized bees that looked like Italians, were the hives fully developed/well populated?  Small or weak Africanized hives (single brood chamber) usually are relatively mild.  Once strong, however, the attack response is not like any Italians I have ever seen.  My hives are about 200 yards from the house, which is plenty.  They do need to be on separate bases, else any vibration from working one hive will infuriate other hives.  I use concrete block bases about 8 feet apart.

I'll post on the Africanized bees in a new thread.  I hope to have time for that tomorrow.  Rainy season is about to begin and we are up to our ears in farm work!

[BeeMaster2]

Hello everyone,
Thanks for the welcome.  Sorry to post back so late.  I expected to see an emailed notification of replies to my post, but I didn't see any!
@sawdstmakr: In the video you saw with Africanized bees that looked like Italians, were the hives fully developed/well populated?  Small or weak Africanized hives (single brood chamber) usually are relatively mild.  Once strong, however, the attack response is not like any Italians I have ever seen.  My hives are about 200 yards from the house, which is plenty.  They do need to be on separate bases, else any vibration from working one hive will infuriate other hives.  I use concrete block bases about 8 feet apart.

I'll post on the Africanized bees in a new thread.  I hope to have time for that tomorrow.  Rainy season is about to begin and we are up to our ears in farm work!

Africanized
They had 1  or more deep supers on top of a deep brood box. The speaker pointed out that with a group of students he opened the biggest hive all the way to the brood chamber, then he let the students pick the weakest hive and open it. They had to run for their cars within a few minutes. It was his technique that allowed him to open them with out any problems. He did not go into his technique.
Jim

[Africanized]

sawdstmakr, that's very interesting!  Too bad there was no info on his technique.