Worldwide Beekeeping
Beekeeping => Beekeeping 101 => Topic started by: Lburou on November 24, 2014, 06:10:15 pm
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Was reading a recent post by tec where he implored us to call out when we see people practice bad habits. I know tec, and he would be the most tactful person in the room in that situation, but there is room for education and improvement along these lines. Here is a quote from another thread that might get this thread going in a helpful direction:
........Lastly to Jack.... if you value your bee club and want it to continue to grow then I would suggest as one of your club's elder statesmen it is your duty to make comments when you see things not being done properly or even to shout at the top of your voice when you see bad habits are being consistently reinforced.
Last time I was with tec in a friend's bee yard, he pointed out that I was standing in front of the hive and blocking foragers from leaving and returning to the hive entrance.....I'll work on that. What are some other habits you have seen that are contraindicated for good beekeeping practice? :)
P.S.
Definition of CONTRAINDICATION: something........that makes a particular treatment or procedure inadvisable
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Not having a smoker going.
I've paid the price on more than one occasion, and it always seems to end up the same. You are only going to be in there for a second or two, you take the first shot OK, and then after about the third you start to think it won't get any worse, and after the fifth or sixth you close things up and go get the smoker.
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Ditto Perry, and on forums the question: "Was that the right thing to do"?, rather than "Should I do this"?
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Seen many beekeepers pull frames starting in the middle looking for the queen,yes she will usually be on the middle four frames, but that's a good way to roll and kill your queen. I always start from it end and work inward. My bad habit is pulling a frame out and lean it on the hive next to my feet, i've got lit up several times doing that :o :no:.Lburou, i agree,except for the Elder statesman part ;D there are several older than me, and they are grumpy :D. Ohh, and one more bad habit some people do,Don't lay your supers up side down on the ground. :laugh: :laugh: Jack
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Seen many beekeepers pull frames starting in the middle looking for the queen,yes she will usually be on the middle four frames, but that's a good way to roll and kill your queen. I always start from it end and work inward. My bad habit is pulling a frame out and lean it on the hive next to my feet, i've got lit up several times doing that :o :no:.Lburou, i agree,except for the Elder statesman part ;D there are several older than me, and they are grumpy :D. Ohh, and one more bad habit some people do,Don't lay your supers up side down on the ground. :laugh: :laugh: Jack
I have went into the hives looking around, not necessarily looking for the queen, but when I put the inner cover back on, I found the queen there. I try to remember, but don't always, to look for the queen on the inner cover before I set it down on the ground. I do, however, make it a practice to turn the top upside down, and put the inner cover and supers on the top. That way hopefully if there is a queen there, hopefully she'll fall into the top and not be lost in the grass.
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great thread you started here lee.
lit smoker, hive tool, (veil). smoker education, we don't need to smoke the beejeebers out of the bees. light puffs across the tops of the frames, and i only send a puff across the ends of the frame i am going to remove, and each successive frame, just enough to move them. inner cover, make sure you check the inner cover every time you open a hive, especially in spring months, to see that your queen is not on that inner cover before setting it aside. i remove the 2nd frame in first. first frame seems to always have brace comb to some degree, lift the second one out, check for the queen over the hive on that frame before setting aside to give room to manipulate and pull others. check each frame over the hive as if the queen were on it.
many newer beeks seem to check their hives too often because they can't resist, too many things can happen with this. if there is no reason or purpose to be in the hive, then don't go in there.
not a bad habit, but would encourage learning; read, find a mentor, join a bee club, post on the forum, ask questions and never stop asking questions, share how you do things, educate yourself and help to educate/share your experience with other beeks.
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Not having a smoker going.
The other side of this is, most times I inspect, I'm able to avoid smoking at all. I try to do it just because I don't want the bees scarfing through their stores due to an imaginary threat. If they start acting particularly agitated I'll go ahead and smoke but I rarely actually need it. So far I've been stung twice and both were blatantly my own stupid fault, not due to failing to smoke enough.
That said, of course...I've only had these bees for about four months, so my input probably deserves a grain of salt :)
EDIT: But -- I do *always* light the smoker, just in case :)
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Not using smoke is like going in your neighbor's house without knocking.It just lets them know you are there. Only new beeks go in the hive without knocking. The older beeks know going in houses without knocking will eventually get you shot.
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OK.. Bad habit.. Laying the hive tool down!
NEVER, EVER, Lay down your hive tool! DONT do it! The little Leprechaun that lives under the hives will have it faster than you can bloody blink! Put it in your back pocket! Trust me, a torn truck seat is WAY better than buying a new hive tool every week! Duct tape will fix the seat, but you have to drive to town to get another hive tool!
I know its that dag nabbed leprechaun! Otherwise I would have hit one of the dozen hive tools that have vanished with the lawn mower by now! No such luck, those hive tools are now being polished by tiny hands. Re shaped and sharpened for the day they rise up to take over the world!
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great thread you started here lee.
not a bad habit, but would encourage learning; read, find a mentor, join a bee club, post on the forum, ask questions and never stop asking questions, share how you do things, educate yourself and help to educate/share your experience with other beeks.
Well said riverbee!
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I should take a picture of my tool bucket for Lazy, got the idea from a speaker at bee club. My long italian hive tool falls out of my pocket, my favorite frame grabber doesn't fit. And I have more than one suit, only thing stays in a pocket is a queen clip
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I'm retired, with a lot of time to spend putzing around the house, yard and the bees. So, I may find inspiration to check about something relative to a hive or two, several times in one day. In doing so, I snuff the smoker with a cork between uses and relight it each time....trying to relight the snuffed smoker charge with a butane torch is where I have formed a bad habit. The smoker only burns for a minute or two because it wasn't properly lighted, leaving me without smoke in the middle of something. Investing the time to properly light the smoker provides the proper insurance smoke provides on those quick visits to the hive to feed, adjust, or peek. I've never seen a better job lighting a smoker than this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3MjiaCqqU8
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i think...........my only bad habit.............is bees............... ;D :D :D :D
lee, i am surprised that guy doesn't burn his fingers?! not sure why keeping a smoker lit seems to be a 'challenge'?......or we skip lighting it properly i guess. i like to use a larger smoker, they never seem to go out. i crumple and shove the newspaper like material in loosely, small sheets 2 or 3, hit it with a larger butane torch, puff until flames come up through the paper, then add a fistful of chips, puff until flames come up through the chips. add another fistful of chips, puff, until the flames come up again, add more chips, by then the smoker is lit, and smoke rolls out, add chips needed, and puff a few more times. lasts for hours. takes about 45 to 60 seconds? if you are retired lee, ya have 45 seconds, or a minute if you are slow............. :D
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I use cotton floss from Dadant for short inspections. Cool smoke, not overkill, easy to keep lit, put out by putting a cork in the smoker. I only use wood chips if I will be going complete through at least 2 hives.
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A bad habit that I see all the time is people holding frames upside down. Cells are slanted down toward the back, so when you flip a frame upside down things fall out. The proper way (according to our bee inspector) is to stand the frame so the top bar is vertical and rotate the frame around that axis to check both sides.
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I do a horizontal rotate using a frame grip, and hold the frame over the hive, because every once in awhile I will drop one, maybe one time in 300, and if the queen is on that frame I want her to land in the hive.
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i think...........my only bad habit.............is bees............... ;D :D :D :D
.....by then the smoker is lit, and smoke rolls out, add chips needed, and puff a few more times. lasts for hours. takes about 45 to 60 seconds? if you are retired lee, ya have 45 seconds, or a minute if you are slow............. :D
Sometimes I feel like the Mad Hatter as I perform the rituals necessary to open a hive, maybe the Mad Hatter's bees were about to swarm....Yes, that is probably why he felt so late. ;)
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"Sometimes I feel like the Mad Hatter as I perform the rituals necessary to open a hive, maybe the Mad Hatter's bees were about to swarm....Yes, that is probably why he felt so late. ;)"
oops...... :P
btw lee, liked your description of 'performing the rituals necessary to open a hive'..... ;)
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......snip..... if you are retired lee, ya have 45 seconds, or a minute if you are slow............. :D
Yes, but one time in five I can restart it in two seconds... ;)
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Pete- "A bad habit that I see all the time is people holding frames upside down.
I am guilty of this :eusa_doh: I will correct my ways ;)
Learned some new stuff on keeping smoker lit. When you talk wood chips, would that be store bought?
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wood chips~ i use cedar bedding chips/shavings sold at the local fleet farm, for animal bedding, and dried sage brush i collect when in montana. smells great, both burn cool.
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Good to know! I can get better luck with newspaper and pine needles, but have to keep check that the smoke is cool. Burns for awhile tho...
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Learned some new stuff on keeping smoker lit. When you talk wood chips, would that be store bought?
Jen, I would be concerned that the wood chips were treated with something like a preservative or insect repellent.
I have lots of bad habits, I'm sure. I just don't know what they are until I read them here! :-[
I am bad about not keeping my tool bucket cleaned out.
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The county cleans the limbs and brush off the road right a ways and grinds it up, they are looking for places close by to dump truck loads of it (i volunteer :yes:). It takes a long time to burn a dump truck load of wood chips :D and they burn for hours. WHAT? i agree with rb again ??? Except mine are free. :P Jack
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you are scaring me jack!............(https://worldwidebeekeeping.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1056.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Ft373%2Friverbee1%2FEmoticons%2Ffreakedouttribblewoo_zps53f2dd29.gif&hash=a89f9ac282c0b31f44b67ba2751fe1071404b378)........ :D
ps baker's, the wood chips i use, though not free like jacks, it's all natural, nothing in it. go to a garden center, different story.
one other bad habit i have seen, is beeks dropping wax bits, scrapings, dripping honey from a frame and leaving it lay around or near the hive. (or slopping syrup.)
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OK.. Bad habit.. Laying the hive tool down!
NEVER, EVER, Lay down your hive tool! DONT do it! The little Leprechaun that lives under the hives will have it faster than you can bloody blink! Put it in your back pocket! Trust me, a torn truck seat is WAY better than buying a new hive tool every week! Duct tape will fix the seat, but you have to drive to town to get another hive tool!
I know its that dag nabbed leprechaun! Otherwise I would have hit one of the dozen hive tools that have vanished with the lawn mower by now! No such luck, those hive tools are now being polished by tiny hands. Re shaped and sharpened for the day they rise up to take over the world!
Hint: I keep a big magnet in my pocket. The hive tool sticks right to it just where my hand is. (although I do lay it down from time to time, and it never fails I end up looking for it).
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LOL greg, a big magnet!
wait til you start looking for it, closed up a hive not realizing, or don't remember you laid it down on top the frames of the hive, and the bees do their best to propolize it down.......and you don't find it for another 2 weeks..... :D
you need another hive tool to dig it out.......... :D
i think my big brother jack did this.......... :D :laugh:
so lesson is carry or have available more than one hive tool............. :D
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Yep, i'm guilty squirt :P, i was working hives late in the evening and inspecting a hot hive . I remember laying it on top of one of the brood boxes(the hive tool), well the worker bees was coming home and was looking for there top entrance (hive was 2 deeps,2 med. supers, a top feeder with the top entrance on the bottom of it). I had already taken several hits and the returning workers was hitting my net and stinging through my jacket and gloves (my clothes were sweated through), I put it all back together and got out of there ;D.Two months later while robbing them i found it on the bottom board. I must of got 20+ hits, but they got a new queen. :D Jack
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so lesson is carry or have available more than one hive tool............. :D
True, I have several. Plus Dad helps me find things, too. ;)
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Hive tools...I still have the one I started with in 1976. Of course it has disappeared and reappeared several times. During my 20 year beekeeping hiatus, I used that tool for scraping and painting, but it has only one use today. ;)
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I buy a dozen at a time, about every other year.
Of course, I sell a few, give many away, and lose a few. A dozen can be bought for 20 to 30 dollars. Handing one to a teen wannabee brings a smile that pays me for the whole dozen.
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It's not the free hive tool that brings the smile, it's the old guy that is working his bees that forgot his shirt, and gave the teen the hive tool to hold so he won't lose it that brings the smile. :laugh: :laugh: Jack
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I buy a dozen at a time....for 20 to 30 dollars.
Where do you do that iddee?
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Normally at the state meetings, where all the vendors are together in one room and I can make offers. It's almost like having them bid at my auction. ;D
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...one other bad habit i have seen, is beeks dropping wax bits, scrapings, dripping honey from a frame and leaving it lay around or near the hive. (or slopping syrup.)
We fight little bits of wax that appear on the floor and inside the house near the back door, especially after extracting on the back porch. I try not to let wax pieces make it to the floor while extracting, even pick wax bits off the ground around the hives so I don't track them back to the house. Call me fastidious, its true. I have been surprised to find wax moth larva on TINY pieces of comb lying about the shop.
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Normally at the state meetings, where all the vendors are together in one room and I can make offers. It's almost like having them bid at my auction. ;D
Now thats an idea! Thanks :)
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That is a great idea. Thanks Idee!
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I've found that if i spray paint my hive tool a bright yellow i don't lose many. 8) Jack
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I think my worst habit to break is record keeping, or should I say lack thereof. I have good intentions, but never seem to get much written down. I keep justifying it by saying there are only two hives, but my memory is barely good enough to remember breakfast let alone prior years. Plus I know I need to get in the habit if I plan to expand this coming summer.
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I think my worst habit to break is record keeping, or should I say lack thereof.....
I lost a NUC hive a week or two ago (to robbing I think) and I couldn't remember the history of that colony of bees.....That makes it more difficult to look back and learn from it. I had been using hivetracks.com, but got lazy and stopped regular visits there... did well until the hive numbers got to about 20, then the memory got fuzzy. Good point zweefer. :)
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Only have 2 hives, so most of the time I know which is which. Oh and my hive tool is yellow and I still lose it and one time was when it was in my back pocket.
Ken
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Kebee, your not related to perry are you?? Jack :laugh:
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Only to those who lose thing easely, and it seem to be getting worse, maybe after my heart surgery in a couple weeks I will get more blood flowing to perk my brain up, uhoh that want happen until March and April when they clean the artery to the brain out, but before than I have to have a stint put in the vain that has expanded feeding my legs. Getting a repipeing done in the next 4 months.
Ken
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Lou and Zweef, this is what I started doing towards the end of summer and thru fall. Use a pencil. Each inspection I would wash it off with a sponge and replace what I needed to look for on the next inspection. Only way I can keep up with a lack of memory these days
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I noticed that Mann Lake sells a product called a lumber crayon. It is meant to write on almost any surface, wet or dry lumber, concrete, and metal. It lasts longer and won't melt in the sun like a regular crayon. I think I recently posted, somewhere on this site, that I know a beekeeper that uses a sharpie on metal hive tops.
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and you can also buy a 'lumber crayon' in any big box store, they do work great, don't expect fine lines........ :D
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river- it was something new to me. I wrote this just so I could hear the bells tinkle. 8)
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too funny bakers..... :D
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The tinkling bells are soo darned cute! Cracks Me Up!