One Big Tbh Disadvantage

[D. Murrell]

Hi Guys,

I went to work my bees today. Upon entering my outyard, I noticed a few of the Langs, although set together, didn't look right. And the covers were off my tbhs. Obvioiusly someone had been in the beeyard and had looked into my hives.

Could it have been the bee inspector? I've kept bees for over 35 years and haven't seen him yet. Although I have talked with him on the phone. Maybe, but I doubt it, as he told me he would call before inspecting my hives as he wasn't familiar with tbhs.

I'll bet it was a noisy, local beekeeper who just couldn't resist getting into my beeyard. The Langs were set back together, although not the way I do it. But the tbhs were another story. Upon removing a rear topbar, I was in for a shock! That clueless beekeeper had attempted to remove the combs, which were destroyed in the process. Pieces of those combs were scattered around and stacked in the freespace, at the rear of my hive, and not where they would have fallen naturally. About half of each broodnest was destroyed this way!

Meanwhile, the bees had drawn comb every which way, during our major honey flow, and tied the whole works together. As a sidenote, the bees used the stacked comb to store honey also. So, I've got quite mess. I hope I can salvage enough comb to make a colony.

I'd never thought of this as a disadvantage for a tbh, but they are very susceptible to damage from maurading, clueless Lang type beekeepers.

Regards
Dennis

[jim b]

:mad:

[buckbee]

Sounds like a case for keeping something with sharp teeth in your bee yard, Dennis. Maybe electified roof coverings...

[BjornBee]

Dennis, It may help to analyze the past history of such a beekeeper who does such matters. What are the past successes and failures of bee theft. What kind of upbringing did this other beekeeper have? Was he disadvantaged? Was he somehow raised with this type teaching? What did you do to bring this upon yourself? Is it the nature of the beekeeping community that forces some beekeepers into these acts due to the cost of equipment? Is it poor education or indoctrination of some sort? What about the foriegn markets and the price of services and honey? Is it other forces that we should blame that contributed to this type behavior?

You mention that "from maurading, clueless Lang type beekeepers." Did you take the time to educate and sympathise with these "other" type beekeepers you so label with blanket statements? Whether they want to destroy your business or your ability to keep bees, that is not the issue. It comes down to blaming you for your faults, understanding the perpetrators of such acts, and coming to understand the meaning of such deeds. I find buckbees comment of actually having a defense upon such acts as very interesting...

Pesonally I would rather just hack a few fingers off such individuals. But I guess that would be as bad as wanting to eliminate some terrorsts. Can't have that you know.

Of course denial of any bad intent is always good. Catagorizing this event as a "noisy" beekeeper is a good thought. I can see taking a look at all the curiousity and nosiness (or as you say "noisy") that a beekeeper could have. I see more sinister intend by the attempt to take or remove comb. But I guess some just don't see the big picture.

What are your views as to why this happened, and then can we psychoanalyze the reason and true meaning? I know your good at such things and would find it truly inspiring to hear your take.....

[size="1"][ July 23, 2006, 04:16 PM: Message edited by: BjornBee ][/size]

[D. Murrell]

Hi Bjorn,

>What are your views as to why this happened,...

Well, we can't just sit around and do nothing under these circumstances. It's time for action. We will talk and think about it later. The less talking and thinking the better!

First, it's obvious that this un-godly act was committed by a most devious sort of individual who doesn't understand what it truely means to be an American citizen. It was un-American! It was un-christian. I will build an impassible fence along the border of my beeyard to keep all such un-American people out. And I will get the "Americans for Beeyard Freedom" vigilantes to patrol the fence for those vicious marauding Lang type beekeepers.

And this marauding activity is likely to happen again. So, I propose we bomb...er...destroy...er...crush...er...(oh what a sissy word, I can hardly say it).....topple a few of the local beekeepers yards. Then they will get to fighting amongst themselves, especially the commercial ones, and most of the trouble will be away from my yard. Neat huh!

And to take care of all those rouge, migratory beekeepers that come through here and don't have a permanent address, we can just bomb...er...destroy...er...start some brush fires in say North Dakota or Florida, where alot of them reside, to take out all the infrastructure they could use to get to Wyoming and mess with my hives.

And if any non-beekeepers suffer any colateral damage, it's ok. Because they are collaborating with the guilty. They live in the same state, don't they.

Besides Halliburton, Kellog Brown Root, et all., have the capacity to take our billions in useless surplus and do something truely meaningful with it. We could rebuild North Dakota and Florida, in our own image, insuring that they vote properly in the next election.

Also, we could data mine every phone call in the world and if anyone mentions the word "honey" we could put them on 'THE LIST'. And if they are found consorting with known beekeepers, especially migratory ones, we could wisk them off to a place, maybe like Lewisberry, where the rules of law just don't apply. There, we might be able to get some real information about their satanic plot to destroy my beehives, my beeyard, .......the American way of life. AND AMERICA ITSELF.

Wake up America, can't you see the danger were in. Never before has such a great disaster and threat camped at American's door. The very foundations of our civilization are at stake. Don't look to the past but look ahead. It will be a long hard struggle, but in the end we shall prevail. Because god is on our coins and on our side. If we don't strike long and hard, now. We may never get that chance again.

The results will be no irate beekeepers. A civil and god fearing society. And peace and security in my beeyard.

By the way, Bjorn, you have a very un-American sounding name. And I recall you have a few Lang type hives as I recall. Hummmm.....You wouldn't be one of them godless, un-American, marauding, yard trashing, Lang type beekeepers, would you?

Just where have you been during the last couple of weeks?

;&gt)))))))

Regards
Dennis

[size="1"][ July 23, 2006, 08:55 PM: Message edited by: B Wrangler ][/size]

[D. Murrell]

Hi Bjorn and Everyone,

Humor and stereotyping aside. I believe no harm was intended by the curious look in my hives. The hives were set back as best as could be done under the circumstances. Nothing was taken.

The tbhs were at the back of the yard. I suspect the individual looked in a couple of Langs first and then moved to those very odd looking tbhs. His lack of familiarity with the skills need to work tbh comb resulted in the un-anticipated damage, which he set back as best as he knew how.

But I think the bees got the best of him before he could fully complete the task. Hence the misplaced covers, etc. Nothing wrong was intended, but things certainly got out of hand. I suspect it was a novice beekeeper exercising some very bad judgement. Maybe he was trying to impress someone(girlfriend, children, etc.)with his beekeeping skills :&gt

It certainly isn't the end of the world for either me or my bees. And I certainly wouldn't cut any fingers off. The bees hardly missed a beat. But it will require a little more work for me.

And it pointed out a area of tbh beekeeping that I hadn't thought about. This disadvantage could be a significant factor in some situations.

Regards
Dennis

[Dick Allen]

>Hi Bjorn,

>>What are your views as to why this happened,...

>Well, we can't just sit around and do nothing under these >circumstances. It's time for action. We will talk and think about >it later. The less talking and thinking the better! (etc., etc., etc.,....etc.)

Well, I just laughed my ass off over all that!
Thanks Dennis

[Keith Benson]

"The very foundations of our civilization are at stake."

I thought one of the benefits of a TBH was that one needn't buy foundation.

I am confused.

Keith

[size="1"][ October 13, 2006, 08:13 PM: Message edited by: kgbenson ][/size]

[Sasha]

Well Mr. Bwrangler that was funniest thing I have read in a while.
Joking aside this speach of you reminds me ,of a story from serbia during nato bobming of a beekeeper visiting his apiary with his family,when a nato airplane -probably american drop a projectile on the apiary,result -the apiary destroyed,(the bees gone mad attacking everything in sight) brother of the beekeeper killed(he was also a beekeeper) his doughter has lost her leg,and his son was killed if I reember correctly.So Dennis it did happen.Unfortunatelly.

[sierrabees]

I bet a few of the Texas beeks would be glad to ship you a few AHB queens to make forign exploration of your yards more interesting. Of course doing that might fall under the new anti-terrorist laws and cause you a little trouble, but wouldn't it be worth it? After all, the end justifies the means.

[dragonfly]

Would you like some queens bred from my Rambo hive for your TBH's? Nosy beekeepers or nosy anybody else's would be deterred [img]smile.gif[/img]

[girl Mark]

holy molee, something similar happened to a friend of mine. The friend had to leave town this summer due to a parent developing cancer- he went home to be with his mom for a couple of months. IN the meantime, I did some maintenance in one of his hives, and all was well, but he WAS gone for two months.

The hive was in a community garden, which in the meantime got a new administrator who was unfamiliar with the agreement that Oskar and the previous administrator had made regarding Oskar's bees.

Unfortunately, some clueless Lang beekeeper (supposedly a beekeeper- maybe he took a workshop somewhere) convinced the administrator that he (the clueless newbie) should 'take care of the hive'. The Lang kid went in there, harvested honeycomb WITHOUT BRUSHING THE BEES OFF!!!), and then tried to extract it in a Lang extractor. WHen this mess failed, the clueless newbie convinced the administrator that 'this top bar stuff is bunk, doesn't work, is obviously inferior to how beekeeping is supposed to be done, etc.'


ARGGGGHHHH!!!!!

[size="1"][ October 13, 2006, 02:37 AM: Message edited by: girl Mark ][/size]

[Finman]

.
You had to make user's manual how to open nabour's TBH and put it to hang in nail in hive.
.

[girl Mark]

With a nice little bag of angry Africanized honeybees hidden inside the manual...