Site selection, and too much rain!

[Lburou]

Successful realtors and beekeepers must be concerned about Location, Location, Location!

My bees were stinging the neighbors this spring and, at the suggestion of a neighbor, I moved some hives 300 feet away from the house, down by the river.  That made him happy and was fine, but it rained a lot this week.  I need to revisit that decision.  Here is a picture of the rising water this afternoon (11/29/2015):

[iddee]

Yep, you need to put them on that little green spot over by the picnic tables.   

[rwlaw]

Hope the creek don't rise no more!

[neillsayers]

Holy Moly...at this rate your bees are gonna need little pirogues!

[Perry]

As someone who moved out 5 full size colonies from my own backyard as a "suggestion" from a neighbour I can sympathize.
The only consolation is mine are no where near a river.
By the way, for everyone else who wondered what in the heck a pirogues was:
A pirogue (or piragua or piraga) can be one of several kinds of small boats. One kind is associated particularly with the Cajuns of the Louisiana marsh. The early Cajun pirogues were cypress dugouts but today they are usually flat-bottomed boats. Pirogues are not usually intended for overnight travel but are light and small enough to be easily taken onto land. The design also allows the pirogue to move through the very shallow water of marshes and be easily turned over to drain any water that may get into the boat.

[lazy shooter]

Around Lee's area there were some 10-inch rains.  The Dallas-Fort Worth area has some major flooding and Lee lives on the high bank of the Brazos River.  His house stays high and dry but his back yard floods.  It's beautiful when not flooded, but it is one of those mixed blessings.  And, yes, his Bweaver bees are a bit aggressive.  Hmmm, maybe a bit more than aggressive.

Some of the old Cajun families still make a few pirogues for sale.  They are small.  A big fellow fills one up from side to side.  The ones made from cypress trees have beautiful wood grain.  Most of them are finished with a natural varnish.  They are easy to paddle and TURN over.  It is a great boat in the swamps.

[Lburou]

Water is down three or four feet this AM.  There are no ants attacking today! Was using that bench for queen mating NUCs, (queen castles), I think that is all I'll put there next year, they are easy to move.  We had 8 inches of rain over Thanksgiving.

BTW, workers are still bringing something into the hive on warm days here.  :-)

My emergency evacuation plan includes a canoe, maybe one of those "p" boats would work....I was only wading in 18 inches of water at that bench to take the picture.

[neillsayers]

Spot on Perry,

I was born and raised in south Louisiana and I often forget that most folks have never heard of a pirogue.

Lburou,
On the optimistic side, maybe any SHB larva in the ground got drowned out!

[Ray]

Weren't you Texans carrying about a drought, just a little while ago? 
Sorry! Lburou I couldn't help myself. 
You have my sympathy, I remember (and lived through) hurricane Beulah.

[Barbarian]

Plan A ..... Near the house didn't work.

Plan B ..... Near the river has problems. On a flood plain. Near to picnic tables. Problem with soggy ground when driving to the hives. 
                 Very visible structure ---- curious or vandals.

Plan C .... May be needed.... On a river terrace ?

Thanks for an interesting topic. Other members may wish to post their pluses and minuses for an out apiary.

[Lburou]

...On the optimistic side, maybe any SHB larva in the ground got drowned out!

What a wonderful thought!

[riverbee]

wow lee, incredible, and great photos you shared.

i have been fortunate with spring floods from our river rising up on the hives, come close but not to where i would have to move them.
flooded the road, house, garage, outbuildings, gardens, but not my bees!
best wishes to you on your decision to move lee, keep us posted!

[lazy shooter]

I didn't see a SHB this year, but my bees are meaner than Africanized bees.  I think they eat SHBs for lunch. 

And, I'm one Texan that made a promise to myself to never complain about rain.  All of my homes are on hills, and i've seen it too wet and too dry and too dry was worse.  I hate to see people lose valuables to floods, including deaths of love ones, but the drought cost a lot of mental anguish to many people.  Some farmers and ranchers had to sell out or lose their property during the drought.  It was a slow agonizing way to lose. 

[lazy shooter]

Successful realtors and beekeepers must be concerned about Location, Location, Location!

My bees were stinging the neighbors this spring and, at the suggestion of a neighbor, I moved some hives 300 feet away from the house, down by the river.  That made him happy and was fine, but it rained a lot this week.  I need to revisit that decision.  Here is a picture of the rising water this afternoon (11/29/2015):





Does Johnny Cash's song about "How high's the water momma, Three feet high and rising" come to mind.

[Lburou]

Does Johnny Cash's song about "How high's the water momma, Three feet high and rising" come to mind.

I have to say, that being 7 driving hours away for Thanksgiving made that a topic in several phone calls.  It's been ten years since the water was even close to that high and it was that high twice this year.  ;-)

Added:  FWIW, At least 20% of Texas is in a drainage up-river from the river bed behind our home.

[Slowmodem]

As someone who moved out 5 full size colonies from my own backyard as a "suggestion" from a neighbour I can sympathize.
The only consolation is mine are no where near a river.
By the way, for everyone else who wondered what in the heck a pirogues was:
A pirogue (or piragua or piraga) can be one of several kinds of small boats. One kind is associated particularly with the Cajuns of the Louisiana marsh. The early Cajun pirogues were cypress dugouts but today they are usually flat-bottomed boats. Pirogues are not usually intended for overnight travel but are light and small enough to be easily taken onto land. The design also allows the pirogue to move through the very shallow water of marshes and be easily turned over to drain any water that may get into the boat.

You're a fountain of information, Perry! 

[Slowmodem]

At the time of this post, we've had 4.54 inches of rain since Sunday.  Luckily, the river is 1/4 mile away so I don't have to worry about that.  But I have the week off and wanted to get some dozer work done, so my luck runs true to form.

Weather (for the most part) moves west to east, so we're getting what the Midwest had.  This shows the reason why, but beware, it's a big file (4.5 MB).

https://media.giphy.com/media/d2Z6a1hdr48jMtdS/giphy.gif

[Newbee]

4.5 inches?!! Still better than the winter's I'm used to! Looks like this system is about to blast the old neighborhood!
Guess that stream that appeared in the back yard isn't going away soon? I'll be off all week at this rate! LOL! Feel free to give a shout if you need a hand, I've been off all week, and don't think we'll start a new job on Friday (even if it does dry by then).

- K

[riverbee]

wow lee!

incredible!  i do live near a river; the house and outbuildings are about a football field away...the river has flooded up and we have been flooded from it and flooded down from the top of the ridges (farm fields) the house, the garage, the gardens, the land and the little county road from warm weather snow melts coupled with rain.........my hives have always escaped.........am thankful i haven't had to move them. they are a little elevated, always seem to escape the flooding we can experience.
this video i have posted before......this one was the last one we experienced. may 2012, snow on the ground, a quick warm up followed by hail and pouring rain. the video doesn't really do it justice, but you get the pic.  we experienced a great deal of flood damage, which we have since gone to work on and 'fixed' or diverted.  while i was filming this with a little point and shoot, the water started out at the tops of my feet, and progressed to my knees........i was wearing flip flops!  when i realized how fast the water was rising, i had already lost one flip flop, (found it the next day in the roadway near my hives). the water was about mid thigh.  it was crazy.  we have some some incredible floods from the river, but this one was crazy because it rained down on the snow melt from the top and flooded the house.  i think we have this 'fixed' for any similiar future events; hiring folks in excavation to divert.  so far, so good.



how are things now for you lee?

[Slowmodem]

At the time of this post, we've had 4.54 inches of rain since Sunday.  Luckily, the river is 1/4 mile away so I don't have to worry about that.  But I have the week off and wanted to get some dozer work done, so my luck runs true to form.

Weather (for the most part) moves west to east, so we're getting what the Midwest had.  This shows the reason why, but beware, it's a big file (4.5 MB).

https://media.giphy.com/media/d2Z6a1hdr48jMtdS/giphy.gif

The total at my house for the rain event was 6.54 inches of rain.