Warning!.. Never put a mouthful of chew in your mouth before going out to work your bees. You'd be surprised at the mess you make when you absent mindedly spit into your veil....several times..
A warning to all you Beekeepers!
- Thread starter Jitterbugdude
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Warning!.. Never put a mouthful of chew in your mouth before going out to work your bees. You'd be surprised at the mess you make when you absent mindedly spit into your veil....several times..
LOL. That's too funny. I guess it's better than trying to relight your cigar.
Ishi
Well-Known Member
Bee tough veil what veil? Get a bigger smoker and load it with Tobacco.
I had to wear a veil. I had a colony with 8 medium supers tip over and tumble down a hill. Not sure when it happened, sometime earlier in the day. By the time I found them they were let's say... a little pissed off
workhorse_01
Well-Known Member
Why do bees seem to get mad when you hold out the veil to spit and one gets inside? It's like you got a wet hornet in a helmet with you.
Mrs BeeKeeper
Well-Known Member
Yikes! Will only wears his veil when they're cranky too. Actually in the summer, he works them in shorts and sandals. Crazy beekeepers I tells ya! I'm not in the bees very much, but can do without a veil when we're just visiting checking them out. But I have waist length hair piled on top of my head. Bees seem to love to burrow in that. Which I can't stand. So I wear a veil if we're going to be in them for any length of time.
And I've managed not to spit in my veil. XD. Though it seems I always get a chronically itchy nose as soon as I put it on. Hard to scratch your nose through that mesh.
ChuckP
Well-Known Member
Howdy Randy!
I wonder if you had a bear visit you? I just had a buddy not too far from me, come home from preaching to find two bears had trashed his hives. He had put up an electric fence around them and it had no effect on the bears. I wonder if he put a couple of ground rods or not. Probably the same bears we've had visit us for our blackberries and paw paws. Spooked our horses one day and had to chase them down near the highway. A couple of weeks later my son was picking some blackberries, when he noticed the bushes were swinging back and forth and saw the bear about 6' feet from him on the other side of berry patch. Luckily the bear didn't pay him nonevermind and was too busy eating the blackberries! I told him next time take my plotthound with him, Ol' Boomer likes tangling with bears and bobcats.
I wonder if you had a bear visit you? I just had a buddy not too far from me, come home from preaching to find two bears had trashed his hives. He had put up an electric fence around them and it had no effect on the bears. I wonder if he put a couple of ground rods or not. Probably the same bears we've had visit us for our blackberries and paw paws. Spooked our horses one day and had to chase them down near the highway. A couple of weeks later my son was picking some blackberries, when he noticed the bushes were swinging back and forth and saw the bear about 6' feet from him on the other side of berry patch. Luckily the bear didn't pay him nonevermind and was too busy eating the blackberries! I told him next time take my plotthound with him, Ol' Boomer likes tangling with bears and bobcats.
chillardbee
Well-Known Member
Try this for a bear fence. We put our hives 25 miles up logging roads right in the heart of bearville. We use flexy nets but any fence will do if you can get multiple lines around it (6 or more). we lay down chicken wire around the parameter of the fence and attach the ground to that while keeping all the other lines on the fence itself hot. A good fencer is good too, something that can hit the 10,000 volt range is nice. I use a 6 volt solar charged par mak and it can kick out around 9,000-10,000 volts. we've used ghalliger (probably didn't spell that right)back in the 90's, they ran on 12 volt car batteries.
In the 23 years we've been doing the mountians, we've never lost a hive to a bear with this set up.
In the 23 years we've been doing the mountians, we've never lost a hive to a bear with this set up.
That chicken wire on the ground is a good idea. I think a bears fur is too thick to get hit by the fence wire. The pads of its feet would be open to current though.
chillardbee
Well-Known Member
All they need to do is touch their nose to the fence once. some guys have hung uncleaned fish cans from the fence (i never worked up the nerve to do that) but in most cases they'd bump their nose on it. BUT, I forgot to mention this before, It is really hard to stop a bear once he has had a taste from the hive and E.F.s may not even work. I've heard of bears chasing beeks out of the bee yard because in the bears mind, thats his food.
If the fence no longer works, about the only two options one has is to either move the bees or introduce him to your high powered rifle.
If the fence no longer works, about the only two options one has is to either move the bees or introduce him to your high powered rifle.
A bear was not my problem. Bad luck was. Last year I had moved two colonies a little deeper into the woods line. They were going on a hill so I made a 2x10 frame out of pressure treated wood for them to set on. Before placing the frame down I layed down a generous amount of crusher run stone then put down a concrete block on each corner. It was nice and level. Unfortunately with all the excessive rain the hill washed out a bit and my colonies started to tilt forward a little bit. I had 3 medium brood chambers and 5 honey supers on. I decided that on the 4th of July I would take all the boxes off and re-plumb the frame. Unfortunately they tipped over on the 2nd. Bees kind of don't like it when you take their house, tip it over and throw it down a hill.
Fussy little buggers ain't they?
Boboro
Well-Known Member
I always loved bees but never have had time to mess with them. Ive had wild ones but never in boxes.
chillardbee
Well-Known Member
Yes, they kind of frown on that.
workhorse_01
Well-Known Member
Yeah they are! Try opening the top on a cool overcast or rainy day. They aint cool with that.
ChuckP
Well-Known Member
Howdy Will!
Thanks! I'll pass this along to Willie. I think his problem is grounding.
ChuckP
Well-Known Member
Howdy Randy,
That make sense with all the rain we've had in this half of the country! we've had almost 6" of rain in the past 36 hours and flash flood warning everywhere in the state. I know over by Bob (DeluxeStogie) in Roanoke they had 4-5" of rain in an hour and showed clip after clip of folks having to be rescued.
It's been a hard year for folks, hay, tobacco and bees. I hope we start getting some hot sunny days with rain no more then once a week tops!
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