BEE BEARD

BEE C · August 02, 2006, 03:19:48 AM

Hey, Honeyland Canada where I work just had our annual blueberry and bee festival. I did my first bee beard! It was awesome. Not one bee sting. A full deep brood box of bees. What a rush. :D

Kathyp · August 02, 2006, 11:23:46 AM

ok....i have always wondered how you get them to do that. why don't they just fly off like they do when you open the hive??

your are a brave soul :lol:

BEE C · August 02, 2006, 09:57:54 PM

I had an assistant put the queen into a queen cage on a string, and hand her (the queen) around my neck. The inner cover is put up to the queen cage so the bees on it clamber onto my neck. Once enough bees are around my neck, another assistant shakes frames towards the cluster of bees on me. Smoking the bees gets them to crawl up me. Once done, the queen cage is removed and I did a big jump to get most bees off. Smoke and brushing remove the rest. Young bees are another trick, they are much less likely to sting, and if they do they don't have as much alarm pheremone. :D

manowar422 · August 02, 2006, 10:01:18 PM

Nice pic man!
Also like your signature...

Hi-Tech · August 02, 2006, 10:09:27 PM

Did you take any stings in the process?

bassman1977 · August 03, 2006, 04:46:17 PM

That's awesome. I can't see me doing that...you are brave.

melliphile · August 03, 2006, 05:58:49 PM

Very cool! I bet you really love to show off that pic. I saw an episode of "Fear Factor" recently where that was one of the tasks.

Apis629 · August 04, 2006, 12:19:20 AM

Who's behind you?

BEE C · August 04, 2006, 05:23:11 AM

Thanks! Not one sting HI tech! I didn't believe my mentor when he said no stings, now I do. I got stung helping him do his beard :shock: Apis nice pics, I loved the top bar pics. I am just finishing an electric fence around my bee yard and building stands for hives, I plan on trying some top bar hives next season, seems like a nice cheap way to store swarms, and cell builder colonies. Members pics always make things a lot clearer than a book. And yes I do like showing this pic :D my family thinks Im nuts, but kids especially are facinated. My mentor is really a honeybee advocate trying to teach people the value of the bee. Its amazing how much fear is out there (and we don't even have AHB in our area :D ) It saddens me everytime I hear of a swarm being killed because people freak out when one lands in a park or public place. We have a lot of school groups come to HoneylandCanada to do tours which is great, the less fear people have of bees the less the bees get blamed for being a menace. Bees are being hit by disease, and losing ground to farming practices and pesticides at an alarming rate.

BEE BEARD

manowar422