Author Topic: Lets talk about some 'Bad Habits' we need to avoid as beekeepers.... (Read 15696 times)

riverbee · « **Reply #20 on:** November 26, 2014, 12:06:56 am »

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.

Jen · « **Reply #21 on:** November 26, 2014, 12:22:36 am »

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...

Bakersdozen · « **Reply #22 on:** November 26, 2014, 07:13:04 am »

Quote from: Jen on November 25, 2014, 11:03:21 pm

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.

brooksbeefarm · « **Reply #23 on:** November 26, 2014, 08:16:05 am »

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

). It takes a long time to burn a dump truck load of wood chips

and they burn for hours. WHAT? i agree with rb again

Except mine are free.

Jack

riverbee · « **Reply #24 on:** November 26, 2014, 10:53:01 am »

you are scaring me jack!............

........

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.)

Slowmodem · « **Reply #25 on:** November 26, 2014, 12:05:05 pm »

Quote from: LazyBkpr on November 25, 2014, 08:07:47 am

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).

riverbee · « **Reply #26 on:** November 26, 2014, 06:01:09 pm »

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.....

you need another hive tool to dig it out..........

i think my big brother jack did this..........

so lesson is carry or have available more than one hive tool.............

brooksbeefarm · « **Reply #27 on:** November 26, 2014, 10:13:05 pm »

Yep, i'm guilty squirt

, 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

.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.

Jack

Slowmodem · « **Reply #28 on:** November 26, 2014, 11:29:37 pm »

Quote from: riverbee on November 26, 2014, 06:01:09 pm

so lesson is carry or have available more than one hive tool.............

True, I have several. Plus Dad helps me find things, too.

Lburou · « **Reply #29 on:** November 26, 2014, 11:33:03 pm »

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.

iddee · « **Reply #30 on:** November 27, 2014, 06:46:05 am »

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.

brooksbeefarm · « **Reply #31 on:** November 27, 2014, 09:29:29 am »

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.

Jack

Lburou · « **Reply #32 on:** November 27, 2014, 10:42:58 am »

Quote from: iddee on November 27, 2014, 06:46:05 am

I buy a dozen at a time....for 20 to 30 dollars.

Where do you do that iddee?

iddee · « **Reply #33 on:** November 27, 2014, 10:48:08 am »

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.

Lburou · « **Reply #34 on:** November 27, 2014, 11:22:15 am »

Quote from: riverbee on November 26, 2014, 10:53:01 am

...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.

Lburou · « **Reply #35 on:** November 27, 2014, 11:23:14 am »

Quote from: iddee on November 27, 2014, 10:48:08 am

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.

Now thats an idea! Thanks

Zweefer · « **Reply #36 on:** November 28, 2014, 08:22:05 am »

That is a great idea. Thanks Idee!

brooksbeefarm · « **Reply #37 on:** November 28, 2014, 09:26:14 am »

I've found that if i spray paint my hive tool a bright yellow i don't lose many.

Jack

Zweefer · « **Reply #38 on:** November 29, 2014, 10:24:28 am »

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.

Lburou · « **Reply #39 on:** November 29, 2014, 01:21:24 pm »

Quote from: Zweefer on November 29, 2014, 10:24:28 am

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.