Locating Wild Hives

[Beequiet]

Hi everyone I am new to beekeeping and the like but I have always wanted to find a wild hive and I am trying to now.  I was wondering if any of you have ever tried to locate a ferral hive and what methods you used.  Right now I am using honey as bait and catching a few worker bees and introducing them to the honey. I catch them in a jar with a little hone in it and open the jar when they start feeding. I place this jar near my setup so they will find their way back.
   My setup is a bright yellow coffee can top with honey smeared on it.  I placed it a flower level in a field with golden rod in it.  So far i have confirmed the rerturn of 2 bees.  One returned at least 3 times and the other at least 5 times.  I watch the direction they go in and have confirmed it, they both went the same direction everytime.  I know they are the same bees becasue i marked them with nail polish.(Just a very small dot it shouldn't hurt the bee at all)  It takes each bee about 12 minutes to return from that direction although earlier I saw some going in a different direction but they stopped comming once it rained.
 So now my questions.  Do you guys have any further advice to help me out here?  have you ever attempted this yourselves?  I am open to other techniques if they are more effective.  Also, I fiqured that 12 minutes round trip meant that the hive was about 3/4 of a mile away, what do you think?  Any and all responses or posts would be greatly appreciated.  This seems like a very well put together and informative sight so i hope you prove me right thank you.

[randydrivesabus]

of course the bees may be from a non-wild hive.
try moving the jar progressively closer to the direction they fly in from. this could take a while.

[thegolfpsycho]

do a search for bee-lining.  I know there have been some discussions here, and I'm sure there are more out there.

[Jerrymac]

You think they are about 3/4 miles away? What is in that general area? Trees? Houses? Junk pile? Go to the 3/4 mile point in the direction you saw them going and set out more food and do what you just did and see what direction they go from there and the time it takes.

[Michael Bush]

I usually go for a water source.  You're likely to find a bee and the same bee always comes back to the same spot.  By timing the bees you can get a distance.  By going at right angles to where the bees are "beelining" you can triangulate.  By setting some bait there you may get a better supply of bees to beeline By glueing a piece of down (fuzzy small feathers) to the bee you can slow it down enough to get a better line and if the feather is the right size and you are fast you may even be able to follow it.

Details here:
http://www.beesource.com/pov/wenner/bsjun1992.htm

[Beequiet]

Well I set up 4 different stations for bees using half water half honey.  At first I only had one station and 2 or three bees coming every 6 minutes or so.  Then half an hour later at 9:30 am there were about 7. Then half an hour later there were about 20 and then they seemed to double every ten minutes or so until there was at least two hundred bees flying around by 11 am.  That is when I started making different stattions in the direction most bees seemed to go when full.

When I set up the second and third stations , before i transported more bees to it, 5 bees had found it on there own. Soon there was at least a hundred bees at these two stations as well.  I was unable to determine where the bees were going from these stations. I set up a fourth station by a creek to hopefully see where they were going.  They seemed to head right back towards trees near the first station but they also seemed to be COMING from the other side of the creek.

I attempted to glue down, paper towel on the bees, tape and tie floss to their abdomens and even tried to coat the bees in corn starch.  None of these techniques prooved effective and we were unable to trace the bees.  What would be the best thing to glue down feathers on a bee with?  i tried small pieces of tape, a gllue stick, nail polish and honey and they barely stuck at all.  I was stung once when I attempted to tie floss on the bees abdomen and my father said it wouldn't sting me if I grabbed its head. Stung me right on the end of my trigger finger.

Has anyone seccessfully used any of these methods to actually track a wild hive?  Does anyone have any suggestions for the next time I try?

[beemaster]

BeeQuiet:

You surely have found a knowledged group, so you should always have a helpful place to get an answer or two from.

I understand the dilemma of gluing feathers to a honeybee, just don't use a staple gun - it didn't work very well, my personal record was 52 feet  :shock:

Best wishes and welcome aboard

[Jerrymac]

Once upon a time...... I think I have the story here somewhere. I was doing a cutout from a house out in the country. There got to be a bunch of bees around all over everything. Then I noticed a bunch zipping off to the west. I started following the herd.... er.... the direction the bees were flying. I would have to stop every now and then and watch carefully until I notice another bee fly by me and know I was still on the right track. I followed this trail for about a quarter mile I guess and found the bees comeing from under a well head.

It can be done pretty easily if there are enough bees flying along the same path head high or lower.

[Michael Bush]

>What would be the best thing to glue down feathers on a bee with?

Superglue?  I've used pine sap.  You can pin a worker down with your finger directly on her thorax and glue the feather on her abdomen.

[wayne]

I keep a shallow bowl of sugar syrup on the porch rail. From watching the bees I have found 3 feral hives within a half mile of the bowl.
  Most seem to forage within a couple hundred yards of their home.
It's fun to follow them ond work out the locations.


wayne