What changes can we make to our lives to deal with the economic and energy crises ahead? Have you already started making preparations? Got tips to share?
biffvernon wrote:Of course, but your bees will be getting their neonicotinoid fix from several miles around.
Well, there's no harm in building (or finding somewhere) a hive and leaving it with lemongrass oil on it and hope some bees just turn up. Stranger things have happened!
We must deal with reality or it will deal with us.
UndercoverElephant wrote:Cheers. Although I've never been stung by a bee...
It's an experiment. What's the worst thing that can happen?
Good idea to get yourself stung in controlled conditions, with someone who knows what to look for. In some people the reaction can be very serious.
Lots of info online about beestings and anaphylactic shock.
I'm aware of the risks. To be honest though, I'd be very surprised if I'm susceptible to this. I seem to have a fairly robust constitution. I have no allergies and I'm hardly ever ill. But I could be the unlucky one, I know.
My sister was stung by a bee when I was about ten. We were at the viewing area of Gatwick airport and a bee was caught between her face and the eyepiece of a telescope. Bee stung her on the bottom eyelid and half her face swelled up. No anaphylactic shock, but it looked pretty bad.
We must deal with reality or it will deal with us.
If you move the hives a relatively small distance, within their forage area then yeah, they'll get confused as they will recognise the environment and head back to where the hive was. If moved to a whole new environment (several miles), they just seem to reorient and get on with it.
Moving hives is old practice, you take hives up mountains in the summer, onto the moors to the heather etc.
A friend of mine has had bees for years. He just uses a cardboard box. No idea if this is good or bad from the bees' points of view, but he's happy.
I experience pleasure and pains, and pursue goals in service of them, so I cannot reasonably deny the right of other sentient agents to do the same - Steven Pinker
emordnilap wrote:A friend of mine has had bees for years. He just uses a cardboard box. No idea if this is good or bad from the bees' points of view, but he's happy.
And he takes honey from the box, or just leaves it there as a home for the bees?
We must deal with reality or it will deal with us.
emordnilap wrote:A friend of mine has had bees for years. He just uses a cardboard box. No idea if this is good or bad from the bees' points of view, but he's happy.
And he takes honey from the box, or just leaves it there as a home for the bees?
Oh yes, he steals their honey! I suppose they are on his land...
I'll ask him some more when I next see him.
I experience pleasure and pains, and pursue goals in service of them, so I cannot reasonably deny the right of other sentient agents to do the same - Steven Pinker
emordnilap wrote:A friend of mine has had bees for years. He just uses a cardboard box. No idea if this is good or bad from the bees' points of view, but he's happy.
Well exactly. Bees are presumably perfectly capable of making their own hives since they've been doing it for millions of years. Therefore, a basic structure that maybe gives them a bit of an incentive to use it and also gives them a head-start should be all that is necessary as a bare minimum I would have thought. I am guessing that the point of a fancy, all-singing-and-dancing, man-made hive simply means that the honey is easier to get to and/or the hive is maybe more efficient from a honey production point of view.
emordnilap wrote:
Oh yes, he steals their honey! I suppose they are on his land...
I'll ask him some more when I next see him.
Does he steal all their honey? or just the excess?
As a side note is it odd / wonderful / lucky that there are some species (e.g. honey bees, cows) which produce more stuff (honey, milk) than they seem to need? I suppose it makes them more resilient in leaner times, but lots of other species (other bees, other milk producers) don't,
Peter.
Does anyone know where the love of God goes when the waves turn the seconds to hours?
There are some important features of man-made hives. Having a mesh floor means varroa mites, when the bees brush them off, fall out of the hive bottom and can't climb back up. Insulation improves the colony's energy budget - they have to maintain 33-36C when raising brood and a well insulated hive means they don't have to burn as much energy to do so. The entrance should be able to be covered by a mouse guard in the winter - mice find hives very attractive winter accommodation. Also, it's good to be able to reduce the size of the entrance if the colony is small or there are a lot of wasps around to they can more easily defend it - prevent robbing. Having a hive of variable size means it can be small when the colony is small (again helping to maintain heat) and larger as the colony grows.
So, yes, any natural void will work - but there are advantages to the bees of using 'conventional' hives.
clv101 wrote:There are some important features of man-made hives. Having a mesh floor means varroa mites, when the bees brush them off, fall out of the hive bottom and can't climb back up. Insulation improves the colony's energy budget - they have to maintain 33-36C when raising brood and a well insulated hive means they don't have to burn as much energy to do so. The entrance should be able to be covered by a mouse guard in the winter - mice find hives very attractive winter accommodation. Also, it's good to be able to reduce the size of the entrance if the colony is small or there are a lot of wasps around to they can more easily defend it - prevent robbing. Having a hive of variable size means it can be small when the colony is small (again helping to maintain heat) and larger as the colony grows.
So, yes, any natural void will work - but there are advantages to the bees of using 'conventional' hives.
How much insulation is there in an ordinary hive, which to my eye looks rather like a wooden box? And is the benefit of the box somewhat negated by the mesh (and so open-ish?) floor?
Peter.
Does anyone know where the love of God goes when the waves turn the seconds to hours?
Blue Peter wrote:As a side note is it odd / wonderful / lucky that there are some species (e.g. honey bees, cows) which produce more stuff (honey, milk) than they seem to need?
I doubt that's commonly true in nature; it wouldn't make much sense really. Milk cows have been bred to produce more milk than they need and are routinely and often raped by humans to ensure they do. They then have their calves taken from them and have various compounds fed to them to maximise milk production. Bees often have to be fed non-honey stuff during the winter to make up for what's stolen from them.
Milk from another species and honey from bees are at best non-essentials for humans.
I experience pleasure and pains, and pursue goals in service of them, so I cannot reasonably deny the right of other sentient agents to do the same - Steven Pinker
