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Post by wildlifefriendly on Feb 27, 2012 17:37:44 GMT
I've been reading up on bees and came across some interesting facts.
Bees never sleep
A single bee can visit 1000 flowers in one day
One bee makes 1/10th teaspoon of honey in its entire life.
If bees disappeared, man would only have four years of life left.
It is completely useless information but interesting ;D
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Post by Lou78W on Feb 27, 2012 19:42:10 GMT
indeed it is.....   |
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Post by Cherry on Feb 27, 2012 19:44:44 GMT
There were loads of bees on the crocuses.
How far do they travel?
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Post by Lou78W on Feb 27, 2012 20:16:36 GMT
indeed it is..... Interesting, I meAN |
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Post by wildlifefriendly on Feb 27, 2012 22:34:35 GMT
There were loads of bees on the crocuses. How far do they travel? There isn’t an easy answer to that question, generally the answer is ‘as far as they have to’. They will forage up to seven miles from the hive but after four miles they use more energy than they gather and the hive begins to lose weight. Being able to feed within a two mile radius is the healthiest for the hive. |
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Post by grindle on Feb 28, 2012 4:47:19 GMT
interesting facts  I'm planning doing my 'bit' by putting Sarah Ravens tips to use on my little garden at the side of the house, hope I get plenty of them in there |
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Post by Rosie on Feb 28, 2012 9:18:36 GMT
That is fascinating Sue. I am going to take on some of Sarah Ravens idea's too Grindle  |
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Post by jrae on Feb 28, 2012 14:22:24 GMT
I've also observed that having different kinds of bees in one place means wrestlemania just joking. Seriously, I had a neighbor who is into Apiculture and he gave me two starter hives for my mango/coconut plantation. That was before I found out that I had my own native stingless bee colonies around here. I've seen it several times if some native bee gets to a coconut spadix first then later foreign honeybees end up in the same spadix, after a few minutes there will be two swarms of bees in the air fighting both trying to cover the entire coconut spadix first so the other kind of bees won't be able to get any nectar. So I hauled the Apis mellifera hives into the other end of our place so they can have all the nectar they want from the mango trees and we wouldn't lose so many bees because they've been fighting over which colony gets first dibs on flowers and such. |
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Post by Cherry on Feb 28, 2012 17:34:36 GMT
Have you had bother with varroa mites Jrae? Australia's bees are clean and they export to US and UK.
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Post by wildlifefriendly on Feb 28, 2012 18:29:45 GMT
That is interesting Jrae, I don’t think we have that problem in the UK, at least I haven’t heard or read about it. Our problems are down to the mites which Cherry mentioned and the lack of food. Modern agricultural methods means there are not enough wild flowers any more. We are all being encouraged to plant some bee friendly flowers.
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Post by jrae on Feb 28, 2012 20:32:48 GMT
A year ago we had a mite infestation and we thought the bees we had would be wiped out. But after a couple of months there were several new beehives hanging from tree branches so we figured they could cope with it. I've also found lots of colonies in old terracotta pots that we had stored in the old shed. Hubby had forgotten to fix the broken shutter and that's how they got in. When we opened the shed to clean it out we found out that it had become one big beehive. I think the bees decided to camp in there when the rainy weather set in. So what I do now is I stick a wide plastic saucer to the top of a pot so the pot has an umbrella and hang the whole thing in a tree branch and the bees then use it as a hive after a few weeks. I have to hang it in an out of the way place though or they don't use it.  I have to remember not to disturb the pot when we're harvesting fruits because the bees can get very aggressive. |
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Post by Lou78W on Feb 28, 2012 21:33:09 GMT
We have a few hives at The Alnwick Garden. This year there will be an "Information Centre"....with a cross section hive so the children can view the bees at work, safely......a bed of "bee friendly" plants will be sown nearby. It will be a good education tool this year ;D
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Post by Cherry on Feb 29, 2012 9:03:31 GMT
My neighbour's bees are doing so well, she sold three lots of them last year. She does not want more than she can cope with.
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Post by SueA on Feb 29, 2012 11:29:10 GMT
I like that idea of hanging the pot in the trees for them jrae! I've got some 'bee friendly' flower seeds & am going to get some wildflower plug plants as well this year to encourage more bees & hoverflies. I wanted a wildflower meadow as well after watching the Sarah Raven series but I'll have to settle for the odd flower here & there. |
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Post by jrae on Feb 29, 2012 13:49:43 GMT
I wonder how long honey is supposed to last though at least the one we have. I just extract honey from abandoned hives (the bees usually abandon the old hive when they're splitting up between new queens). I do have an extractor but after a half a year or so the honey goes bad. Maybe I'm not storing it properly?  I just put it in the same cupboard where I put jars and jars of pickled stuff. |
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I'm planning doing my 'bit' by putting Sarah Ravens tips to use on my little garden at the side of the house, hope I get plenty of them in there
I have to remember not to disturb the pot when we're harvesting fruits because the bees can get very aggressive. 
I just put it in the same cupboard where I put jars and jars of pickled stuff.
