RKeith
05-08-2006, 09:37 PM
First off, I would like to give a profound thank you to the collective community throughout these boards, for the hundreds of informative posts and comments that I have read and learned from in the past several months. I feel like I have been exposed to some sort of crash course in bee-keeping.
I purchased an Italian package this year, my first personal bees [though I have been exposed to them through my grandfather as a child and a young teen doing the 'back-work' for him, I really did not "learn" anything other than he would pay me to move this here or there smile.gif ] This particular batch has been extremely cooperative and peaceful to deal with since early April and have made my entrance into keeping bees very pleasant. Thus far, all has been very Zen-like in the backyard.
A co-worker called me Saturday afternoon and told me that a largish swarm had landed on his trampoline and would I come get it [he is deathly afraid of bees.] I did not really want to expand to a two-hive operation yet : I am still learning, but I figured a free hive to experiment on would be nice, and after seeing much about top bar hives here and there, thought this would be an ideal chance to see if I preferred a TBH or a Langstroth hive.
More than anything else, it was because I had some spare lumber in the workshop, enough to make a kenyan style TBH, but not much time to refine it. It's a simple, bang up job, pretty much 1x12 sloped sides & 1x6 bottom [like an old fashioned feed bin] with bars/strips 1-1/2" wide situated across the top much like a piano keyboard. I currently have an old sheet of tin atop to keep out the elements and a weight atop that until I can buy or make a better cover. Hole bored in one end for an entrance, and I tacked up a landing board for them at the entrance. So a bare minimum, primitive hive - but I was pressed for time.
Now, with most of the introductory visualization out of the way: some general questions that I would deeply appreciate your view on.
(1) How much of a problem is inter-hive robbing when you are maintaining multiple hives? Is there any special considerations I need to keep in mind with having two different hives in the same general area? [They are six feet apart at the moment with no obstructions between them, each slightly angled off the morning sun.]
(2) The TBH knock-up that I built seems to have been accepted by the swarm I captured. How soon should I begin looking into it to see the inevitable cross-comb I am sure I will find or otherwise check on them? Would 3 days be too soon? And what problems should I expect or anticipate with this simple arrangment? [Foraging apears to be very, very heavy at this time, at least watching my already established hive it appears that way.]
(3) The swarm I captured is markedly more agressive and inquisitive to me wandering near it than the packaged Italians I ordered who completely ignore me, even when inspecting. They look very very similar [the "feral" ones are a deep tawny golden color, however.] I thought most feral bees were sort of darker? Could they be ill natured because they were starting to starve? I put a sandwich baggy of sugar water in their hive and they seem to have become a lot more docile.
Your advice and comments deeply appreciated:
I purchased an Italian package this year, my first personal bees [though I have been exposed to them through my grandfather as a child and a young teen doing the 'back-work' for him, I really did not "learn" anything other than he would pay me to move this here or there smile.gif ] This particular batch has been extremely cooperative and peaceful to deal with since early April and have made my entrance into keeping bees very pleasant. Thus far, all has been very Zen-like in the backyard.
A co-worker called me Saturday afternoon and told me that a largish swarm had landed on his trampoline and would I come get it [he is deathly afraid of bees.] I did not really want to expand to a two-hive operation yet : I am still learning, but I figured a free hive to experiment on would be nice, and after seeing much about top bar hives here and there, thought this would be an ideal chance to see if I preferred a TBH or a Langstroth hive.
More than anything else, it was because I had some spare lumber in the workshop, enough to make a kenyan style TBH, but not much time to refine it. It's a simple, bang up job, pretty much 1x12 sloped sides & 1x6 bottom [like an old fashioned feed bin] with bars/strips 1-1/2" wide situated across the top much like a piano keyboard. I currently have an old sheet of tin atop to keep out the elements and a weight atop that until I can buy or make a better cover. Hole bored in one end for an entrance, and I tacked up a landing board for them at the entrance. So a bare minimum, primitive hive - but I was pressed for time.
Now, with most of the introductory visualization out of the way: some general questions that I would deeply appreciate your view on.
(1) How much of a problem is inter-hive robbing when you are maintaining multiple hives? Is there any special considerations I need to keep in mind with having two different hives in the same general area? [They are six feet apart at the moment with no obstructions between them, each slightly angled off the morning sun.]
(2) The TBH knock-up that I built seems to have been accepted by the swarm I captured. How soon should I begin looking into it to see the inevitable cross-comb I am sure I will find or otherwise check on them? Would 3 days be too soon? And what problems should I expect or anticipate with this simple arrangment? [Foraging apears to be very, very heavy at this time, at least watching my already established hive it appears that way.]
(3) The swarm I captured is markedly more agressive and inquisitive to me wandering near it than the packaged Italians I ordered who completely ignore me, even when inspecting. They look very very similar [the "feral" ones are a deep tawny golden color, however.] I thought most feral bees were sort of darker? Could they be ill natured because they were starting to starve? I put a sandwich baggy of sugar water in their hive and they seem to have become a lot more docile.
Your advice and comments deeply appreciated: