Agri Vehicles Insurance from Greenlands

Author Topic: Anybody reading this?  (Read 4115 times)

Fleecewife

  • Joined May 2010
  • South Lanarkshire
    • ScotHebs
Re: Anybody reading this?
« Reply #15 on: February 26, 2020, 09:06:35 pm »
[member=132794]Scarlet.Dragon[/member] why not concentrate on native bees - bumble bees and solitary bees, as well as other flying pollinators such as hover flies?  There are many, many different types of hoverflies - they don't sting, they don't buzz but they do look a little bit like wasps and flies, some even look like bees.  I had a small phobia about bumble bees when I found a very angry one caught in my baby's clothes when I brought them in from the line (that baby is now 48!). It was buzzing like mad and struggling to extricate itself.  A few years after this I realised my fear was rather silly, so I set out to quell it.  By then it had spread to honey bees, even tv pictures of them moving in the hive.  I knew I couldn't  go the whole hog and start a hive, and anyway, knowing it takes a bee's whole lifetime to make something like a teaspoon of honey, I did not want to steal their honey.  So now I concentrate on wild bees, and I find them absolutely fascinating.  First thing was to discover that if a BBee flew straight at me, it wasn't attacking, it was just going about its business, and I was in the way.  A beeline really is a beeline, whether a human is blocking it or not.  I wouldn't go so far as to lift a bee in my hand, but I would always rescue one in trouble, by other means (jam jar).  I got to like wasps by watching one way back in my allottment days, as it quartered the lettuce patch, picked off a caterpillar and staggered off to fly back with it to its nest as food for the young - what a useful insect!
So you don't have to brave a honey bee hive, just love our native flying insects  :bee: :bee: :bee: :thumbsup:
"Let's not talk about what we can do, but do what we can"

There is NO planet B - what are YOU doing to save our home?

Do something today that your future self will thank you for - plant a tree

 Love your soil - it's the lifeblood of your land.

Anke

  • Joined Dec 2009
  • St Boswells, Scottish Borders
Re: Anybody reading this?
« Reply #16 on: February 26, 2020, 09:08:44 pm »
I think Shetland is just a bit too far north for honeybees - that said I have a hive that seems to thrive on being let go feral - I have not opened it and not taken honey since it was re-colonised by a swarm a few years ago. I had lost all my colonies slowly over the years, not helped by intensive arable farming (incl neonicitinoids on the rapeseed etc), but the hives are still in-situ. These incoming bees survived the "beast from the east" without any extra feed and being so late in the winter I was sure they would die. I think human management doesn't suit bees very well... but it means no honey either.

Now of course I am worried that with the UK being "free" of EU rules many of the nasties are going to come back in use...

I'm intrigued by this Anke.  I have a phobia about buzzy things, having been badly stung as a child (presumably by wasps, hornets or yellowjackets).  I've always wanted to have a hive to force myself to face the fear but am afraid that my phobia would result in neglect and I wouldn't want to do that.  I'm now wondering if I could get hold of an old hive, whether or not it may be "adopted" by wild bees that can take care of themselves...what do you think is it worth a try and if so, any suggestions on where to source an old hive/what I should be looking for?
No I wouldn't get any old hive - these can harbour disease and mites, like varroa. My hives were clean and probably also had some honey etc left. Sometimes beekeepers use something called swarm-lure (no idea what it is though) to try and attract a swarm. Doesn't work too often. Most likely you would end up with a wasp nest if you set up an empty hive.

I think I was very lucky, and have a suspicion that these bees came from my neighbours roof space, which was originally settled by a swarm out of my hives.
I think having set ups for bumble bees around is just as worthwhile as having honeybees, bumble bees fly in colder and windier conditions, very useful for Scotland.

Fleecewife

  • Joined May 2010
  • South Lanarkshire
    • ScotHebs
Re: Anybody reading this?
« Reply #17 on: February 27, 2020, 12:37:52 am »
Ah, you're there then  :thumbsup:
"Let's not talk about what we can do, but do what we can"

There is NO planet B - what are YOU doing to save our home?

Do something today that your future self will thank you for - plant a tree

 Love your soil - it's the lifeblood of your land.

Polyanya

  • Joined Mar 2015
  • Shetland
    • The Creative Croft
    • Facebook
Re: Anybody reading this?
« Reply #18 on: February 27, 2020, 09:03:14 pm »
Yes Anke we do have lots of babbitys up here even a Shetland specific one and you're very right about the sugar syrup produced by bees fed lots of sugar. I'll stick to the heather honey I buy in - its just a romantic notion I have about keeping bees although I remember one time seeing a swarm of what looked like a football sized mass of buzzing bees in my garden and I totally freaked out :o, so maybe not the best idea.
In the depths of winter, I found there was in me an invincible summer - Camus

www.thecreativecroft.co.uk

 

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