Coffee, 4th of July 2015
- SWPaDon
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But, but, but...............how are the bees?lowfog01 wrote:Morning all,
We've got rain here, too. It looks like it will stop in time for the Nats game before resuming with Natural fireworks this afternoon. Hopefully, those storms will clear out in time for the National Fireworks on the Mall this evening. We'll be heading down to Pentagon for that around 6. Parking there gives us a good view but keeps us on the the right side of the river. We'll be back on the interstate after the show before the first car leaves DC.
I hope everyone has a great Holiday. FFred my thoughts and prayers are with you, Take care, Lisa
- lowfog01
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Well since you asked - The Top Bar bees are doing ok. I'm getting ready to harvest about 25 - 30 lbs of honey from my top bar hives. That will leave about 30 lbs in each Top Bar hive for the girls to eat in the winter.
My square or Langstroff hive just hasn't taken off. I keep playing the numbers in my mind (beekeeping is an incredible amount of basic math) and it should be booming but it's not. I haven't been able to go in the hive and check things out because of my foot surgery. Not from lack of volunteers to help but because I'm still on crutches and can't get down to the hives to direct. You'd be surprised how many people ask if they can come help or just watch.
I know the new queen was laying eggs on June 15, I know I put additionally capped brood from one of the other hives in the Lang hive to boast the nurse bees inside the hive. That was for insurance. And I know that 21 days later I should be seeing newbies from that hive. That's any day now. What can I say, it's a lesson in patience building.
Thanks for asking. Lisa
My square or Langstroff hive just hasn't taken off. I keep playing the numbers in my mind (beekeeping is an incredible amount of basic math) and it should be booming but it's not. I haven't been able to go in the hive and check things out because of my foot surgery. Not from lack of volunteers to help but because I'm still on crutches and can't get down to the hives to direct. You'd be surprised how many people ask if they can come help or just watch.
I know the new queen was laying eggs on June 15, I know I put additionally capped brood from one of the other hives in the Lang hive to boast the nurse bees inside the hive. That was for insurance. And I know that 21 days later I should be seeing newbies from that hive. That's any day now. What can I say, it's a lesson in patience building.
Thanks for asking. Lisa
- lowfog01
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More news from the bee front - I'm sure that most everyone has heard about the plight of the bees and how around 40% of hives are lost over the winter to disease or starvation. The main culprit to the disease issue has been the Varroa mite, a pin head size parasitic mute that sucks what passes for blood out of the bees. These mites provide an entryway into the bees internal workings for numerous other bee killing diseases or pests. They can kill a hive in a matter of months. That's why you don't see honey trees or wild hives anymore.
Up to now the only solution to the mites was the use of insecticides. Yes, we use insecticides to kill bugs on the bugs. As you can imagine this is not a ideal situation mostly because the mites develop resistance to the insecticides. It was looking pretty bleak to say the least.
However, people who are way smarter than I have been studying the genetics of bees and found a gene in a bee from the Caucus Mountains that actually causes the bees there to attack varroa mites in the hives. The bees carrying this gene are referred to as "ankle biters" because they bite the legs off the mites and that causes them to dehydrate and die pretty quick.
Queens carrying that dominate gene are now available to backyard beekeepers so we can get the gene into the gene pool. That will happen pretty fast since as a dominate gene it is carried by both the drones and the queens.
Things are definitely looking up for the bees. Just thought you'd like to know, Take care, Lisa
Up to now the only solution to the mites was the use of insecticides. Yes, we use insecticides to kill bugs on the bugs. As you can imagine this is not a ideal situation mostly because the mites develop resistance to the insecticides. It was looking pretty bleak to say the least.
However, people who are way smarter than I have been studying the genetics of bees and found a gene in a bee from the Caucus Mountains that actually causes the bees there to attack varroa mites in the hives. The bees carrying this gene are referred to as "ankle biters" because they bite the legs off the mites and that causes them to dehydrate and die pretty quick.
Queens carrying that dominate gene are now available to backyard beekeepers so we can get the gene into the gene pool. That will happen pretty fast since as a dominate gene it is carried by both the drones and the queens.
Things are definitely looking up for the bees. Just thought you'd like to know, Take care, Lisa
- SWPaDon
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Thanks for sharing the 'ankle biter' news. I'm glad they found a way to fight the mites other than insecticides.
Best of luck on the Langstroff hive. And I hope your foot gets better soon.
Take care, Don
Best of luck on the Langstroff hive. And I hope your foot gets better soon.
Take care, Don
- McGiever
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Our bees here just started on the American Linden trees, more commonly know as the "Basswood" trees...look it up to read and understand this wonderfull nectar source.
The yellow sweet clover bloom is done (it ran 4 weeks) but the white sweet clover has just begun it's another 4 week bloom.
Our little pocket of geography supports some feral honeybee colonies in the trees around here. A couple contributers to the feral bee's success are some protected from the chainsaws, forest lands (greater number of mature trees) and that I let some of my bee stock (swarms) intermingle with the feral stock and vise-versa.
The yellow sweet clover bloom is done (it ran 4 weeks) but the white sweet clover has just begun it's another 4 week bloom.
Our little pocket of geography supports some feral honeybee colonies in the trees around here. A couple contributers to the feral bee's success are some protected from the chainsaws, forest lands (greater number of mature trees) and that I let some of my bee stock (swarms) intermingle with the feral stock and vise-versa.
- lowfog01
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Boy, I wish I had all the nectar plants that you have. Little or no clover here except along the Parkway and they keep that mowed. We get a few weeks and than it's gone.
I think there maybe Linden Trees around. At least the next street over is Linden Tree Lane. I'm going to take a look around. I first heard about them at the state beekeeper's meeting last month. I thought about putting one in my yard but they are too big and grow too slow. I do have two Redbud Trees in the yard and the bees love them. Lisa
I think there maybe Linden Trees around. At least the next street over is Linden Tree Lane. I'm going to take a look around. I first heard about them at the state beekeeper's meeting last month. I thought about putting one in my yard but they are too big and grow too slow. I do have two Redbud Trees in the yard and the bees love them. Lisa
- freetown fred
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Hi--ho, hi--ho, it off to surgery I go. I'll be back!
- lsayre
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My best to you Fred!freetown fred wrote:Hi--ho, hi--ho, it off to surgery I go. I'll be back!
- SMITTY
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Your in our prayers, Fred! May God be with you! Hopefully this is the last of your hospital visits.
Hope everyone had a great Independence Day!
Funny you should mention string trimmers, Rob - I just acquired #10 for my pile of defunct trimmers. They all share a common bond - they were ALL sold at big box stores under the names, Homelite, Weedeater, Craftsman, and Ryobi. I keep them around for parts. I might get motivated at some point and try salvaging one or 2 of them. Not much money in those brands though, so if not a simple fix, in the pile it shall stay, since new ones are like $80. Also accumulating a pile of junk lawn tractors as well. The engines always outlast the units themselves. Gotta love a mower with a fancy, unserviceable, failure-prone transmission that nobody makes parts for. You could buy a new tranny for 3x what the tractor is worth, though.
Took a ride yesterday in the Marquis with friends to check out a farm up the road here. Been by there a million times over the past 25 years of motorcycling, but never took a second look at the place. They seem to promote the treehugger talking points (this is MA after all ...), but they had great ice cream. Was checking out some old hit/miss engines laying around the property. One was a runner, used for sawing timbers, and one was attached to an ancient cement mixer that had it's own ecosystem inside. Also saw an old 4-cylinder Hercules engine connected to an exposed 3-cylinder pump - could see the crank and pistons on the pump side. Pretty wild. Guess they must've used it for spraying trees, or crops. Was on a horse drawn cart. Neat setup - like a miniature 4-cylinder car engine.
Hope everyone had a great Independence Day!
Funny you should mention string trimmers, Rob - I just acquired #10 for my pile of defunct trimmers. They all share a common bond - they were ALL sold at big box stores under the names, Homelite, Weedeater, Craftsman, and Ryobi. I keep them around for parts. I might get motivated at some point and try salvaging one or 2 of them. Not much money in those brands though, so if not a simple fix, in the pile it shall stay, since new ones are like $80. Also accumulating a pile of junk lawn tractors as well. The engines always outlast the units themselves. Gotta love a mower with a fancy, unserviceable, failure-prone transmission that nobody makes parts for. You could buy a new tranny for 3x what the tractor is worth, though.
Took a ride yesterday in the Marquis with friends to check out a farm up the road here. Been by there a million times over the past 25 years of motorcycling, but never took a second look at the place. They seem to promote the treehugger talking points (this is MA after all ...), but they had great ice cream. Was checking out some old hit/miss engines laying around the property. One was a runner, used for sawing timbers, and one was attached to an ancient cement mixer that had it's own ecosystem inside. Also saw an old 4-cylinder Hercules engine connected to an exposed 3-cylinder pump - could see the crank and pistons on the pump side. Pretty wild. Guess they must've used it for spraying trees, or crops. Was on a horse drawn cart. Neat setup - like a miniature 4-cylinder car engine.
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- Lightning
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I can vouch for that. I have a John Deere L120 that I bought from home depot 12 years ago. I refuse to junk it cause every thing else is fine on it. 6 years after I bought it, the hydrostatic transmission began to fail, likely due to pushing snow with it. Like you said, the tranny is "unserviceable". I got online, (you can learn how to do ANYTHING online hahaha) and saw some vids on replacing the pumps in the transmission. So, I bought the parts and did it, was an all day event. That lasted two years. Must be I didn't get all the metal shavings out of it. It has little magnets at particular niches in the case that collect metal shavings. So I replaced the whole tranny, cost about $500. It still runs great at 12 years old so I'll keep running it till the transmission fails again (or something else does).SMITTY wrote:Gotta love a mower with a fancy, unserviceable, failure-prone transmission that nobody makes parts for. You could buy a new tranny for 3x what the tractor is worth, though
- michaelanthony
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Look forward to the new and improved FF!freetown fred wrote:Hi--ho, hi--ho, it off to surgery I go. I'll be back!