So my daughter is now a BEE keeper (round 2)

[Jaymann]

They set up the empty hive yesterday and the swarm has pretty much calmed down. It is pretty ingenious. The queen bee comes in a separate small box with a cork in it so the others won't fly away. Then you replace the cork with a marshmallow. By the time she chews her way out the hive is established.

Plus it is a fascinating display for the grandkids in their little bee suits.

[dbt1949]

Is she the queen mother?

[LordMortis]

They set up the empty hive yesterday and the swarm has pretty much calmed down. It is pretty ingenious. The queen bee comes in a separate small box with a cork in it so the others won't fly away. Then you replace the cork with a marshmallow. By the time she chews her way out the hive is established.

Interesting, why does it have to work that way?

[Unagi]

They set up the empty hive yesterday and the swarm has pretty much calmed down. It is pretty ingenious. The queen bee comes in a separate small box with a cork in it so the others won't fly away. Then you replace the cork with a marshmallow. By the time she chews her way out the hive is established.

Interesting, why does it have to work that way?

I believe if they don’t lock her in, the swarm will ‘abscond’ .
They are forcing the swarm to ‘move in’, and then the queen is greeted by a group that’s more at peace with the new hive.

I think if not, the whole crew would run.

[Brian]

[Jaymann]

They set up the empty hive yesterday and the swarm has pretty much calmed down. It is pretty ingenious. The queen bee comes in a separate small box with a cork in it so the others won't fly away. Then you replace the cork with a marshmallow. By the time she chews her way out the hive is established.

Interesting, why does it have to work that way?

Yeah, no queen and they might all fly away.

[Jeff V]

Since I'm surrounded in farmland, there's plenty of people who have established a modest honey business, and the bees frequently visit my garden. My 5 year old loves them...a couple of years ago, she excitedly called me out to the yard, where she proceeded to stand next to a stand of lavender surround by 12-15 honey bees. She proceeded to tell me each one's name...

More surprising is when she later that year got stung in the face by a wasp -- and she realizes they are assholes and it has not the least bit made her timid amongst the bees, which are still her friends.

[Isgrimnur]

[LordMortis]

They set up the empty hive yesterday and the swarm has pretty much calmed down. It is pretty ingenious. The queen bee comes in a separate small box with a cork in it so the others won't fly away. Then you replace the cork with a marshmallow. By the time she chews her way out the hive is established.

Interesting, why does it have to work that way?

Yeah, no queen and they might all fly away.

I didn't know the queen would fly away but would be coaxed into staying if the hive was settled. Bee keeping is a mystery to me.

[em2nought]

So the queen stays in her bunker because she is otherwise unacceptable until it is too late to get rid of her?

[Unagi]

They set up the empty hive yesterday and the swarm has pretty much calmed down. It is pretty ingenious. The queen bee comes in a separate small box with a cork in it so the others won't fly away. Then you replace the cork with a marshmallow. By the time she chews her way out the hive is established.

Interesting, why does it have to work that way?

Yeah, no queen and they might all fly away.

I didn't know the queen would fly away but would be coaxed into staying if the hive was settled. Bee keeping is a mystery to me.

I think the idea is that they catch a hive that is splitting and has swarmed, and is ‘in the moving processes’.
We artificially make the swarm think the queen has found a new spot, when in reality they are all still in ‘expand’ mode.
Enough time, and they are convinced this is the new home.

[Lassr]

That is so cool. I know there are several places around here with bees. I see so many local honey products at the stores.

[Jaymann]

When it comes time to harvest, that is pretty cool too. You pull out a slat that full of honeycomb, crack it open and drain it out. Then you seal it back up and reinsert.

[Isgrimnur]

Had a swarm travel through my back yard while I was out there. 'Twas interesting

[A nonny mouse]

They set up the empty hive yesterday and the swarm has pretty much calmed down. It is pretty ingenious. The queen bee comes in a separate small box with a cork in it so the others won't fly away. Then you replace the cork with a marshmallow. By the time she chews her way out the hive is established.

Plus it is a fascinating display for the grandkids in their little bee suits.

This seems like a longer post or conversation that the beginning was chopped out. I am a Beekeeper, by the way.

What everyone here is saying is kind of correct. swarm control can be done many ways and for many reasons. people have been trying new things and discussing (arguing) the 'best' way to do this for very long time.

If Jaymann's daughter bought a "package of bees" that is when the queen comes in a little box - the workers are not her daughters, and until they accept her, they could just kill her. that is the reason for the marshmallow or sugar candy in the escape hole - by the time the workers chew through the candy - they should have accepted her. This is not always the case and is a reason for hive failures. This is not their mom, and some packages just don't accept the new queen.

if there is a swarm, it has its own queen. An established hive that is overpopulated or one that has plenty of resources will "swarm" so 1/2 the workers will leave the hive with the queen - leaving behind queen cells in the hive so the remaining workers can raise a new queen. this is a natural way to increase the population of that genetic lineage.

If she is doing an artificial swarm (splitting an existing hive) - the caged queens can be purchased for the 1/2 of the split that does not have queen cells or if you are splitting workers and want to start a new genetic line with a new queen. It is very early in the year to just purchase queens.

Most artificial swarms are to move the queen and a portion of the bees away from brood (larvae) to a new location in the bee yard so they think they have swarmed and not take off into the trees - so you potentially lose them. just like with a natural swarm, the remaining 1/2 of the workers (at the original hive site)will raise a new queen from queen cells, or if you purchase a queen (in the cage) you can place her in there with the queenless hive. this has to be after a few days of no queen, so the scent of the old queen dissipates a bit.

It is both very simple and very complicated. Just like with kids, Each hive is its own entity and personality, and you have to be able to "read" them to tell what is going on.

Most people just buy packages and then expect honey come fall. Nope.

[A nonny mouse]

When it comes time to harvest, that is pretty cool too. You pull out a slat that full of honeycomb, crack it open and drain it out. Then you seal it back up and reinsert.

Wait, is she using one of those Flow hives? I'm not sure what system it is that you pull a frame, crack it open and then reinsert.

I also don't extract - I produce comb honey.

[LordMortis]

When it comes time to harvest, that is pretty cool too. You pull out a slat that full of honeycomb, crack it open and drain it out. Then you seal it back up and reinsert.

Wait, is she using one of those Flow hives? I'm not sure what system it is that you pull a frame, crack it open and then reinsert.

I also don't extract - I produce comb honey.

They sell something like that (perhaps exactly that) at Costco... or did a year or two ago...

The crack and reinsert sounds like the bee boxes of my youth.

[Isgrimnur]

[disarm]

The Stuff You Should Know podcast did a pretty great episode on beekeeping a couple years ago. They cover a lot about how bee colonies behave, the ideas behind artificial hive construction, and a very basic summary of how one would acquire/start their own hive. It's a very informal overview, but I learned a lot and found it pretty fascinating...

The Ins and Outs of Beekeeping

[Unagi]

How much land is needed. Can a small suburban backyard be used ?

[Jaymann]

When it comes time to harvest, that is pretty cool too. You pull out a slat that full of honeycomb, crack it open and drain it out. Then you seal it back up and reinsert.

Wait, is she using one of those Flow hives? I'm not sure what system it is that you pull a frame, crack it open and then reinsert.

I also don't extract - I produce comb honey.

They sell something like that (perhaps exactly that) at Costco... or did a year or two ago...

The crack and reinsert sounds like the bee boxes of my youth.

That is exactly what they look like.

[Jaymann]

How much land is needed. Can a small suburban backyard be used ?

I think so. We have a small gated off area about 10 feet long.

[The Meal]

Our property management at work has placed three hives on campus this spring, which I thought was neat. But just this morning they have announced a Queen-naming contest. So I’m crowd-sourcing my one entry to my creative OO brethren. I have until Friday to submit one entry. A $50 Visa card is on the line here, people!

Names?

[Blackhawk]

Bee Arthur

[LawBeefaroni]

Sister Flo.

[Kraken]

Cordelia would be double-obscure.

[LordMortis]

Queen La Bee fa.
Kate Pierson
Beelizabeth
Anna Falxis

[LordMortis]

Cordelia would be double-obscure.

I was thinking Ophelia to Hamlet... To Bee or not to Bee... But while trying to get somewhere with that it got drown out by thought of Kate Pierson's and the Bee 52s hairdo.

[Unagi]

The Mum Queen

[Freyland]

Beealzebub

[Jaymann]

The Snow Queen

[Isgrimnur]

Stabitha

[em2nought]

Beejesus or Beejeezus

[Holman]

Queen Labeetha

(But I actually support Bee Arthur, above)

[Chraolic]

Beata McBeeface

[LordMortis]

Sweet Bea Bee Essa.
Elaenor Rig

The biggest failure is is that Coleoptera isn't an order of insect that contains bees, otherwise Coleopatra would win my vote easy.

[Holman]

I'm guessing the post really exists for the punchline, but (just to be pedantic) bees are not "deciding" to sacrifice a portion of their output in exchange for protection.

Bees do what they do, and part of that is making honey for the hive. Wise beekeepers take enough honey but not so much that the hive suffers from the lack. When the honey disappears, the bees just make more.

I guess the interesting question is why or how bees evolved to produce an excess of honey rather than just enough. Perhaps in the wild the excess protects them from occasional theft by honey-seeking animals (which is of course what a beekeeper is).

[stimpy]

Beeyonce

[em2nought]

I guess the interesting question is why or how bees evolved to produce an excess of honey rather than just enough.

Maybe all the other pollinators should get subsidies from the bees because they used more than their share of all the pollen.

[Holman]

There was a viral post sometime back from a beekeeper whose neighbor asserted that the neighbor should be entitled to a portion of the honey sales because the bees were "taking pollen" from the neighbor's garden.

The comeuppance was that the neighbor's garden only existed because the beekeeper's bees were pollinating the garden flowers.