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Wives tales

5K views 23 replies 13 participants last post by  sakhoney 
#1 ·
My wife's family owns a grocery store. Part of the agreement we had when I married her was that I would work there as well. It's a great place to be and wonderful place to visit with the community. Sometimes things come out that are head scratchers though.

The other day someone was asking how to tell if a watermelon was ripe or not. One of our assistant managers said without hesitation to look for little bumps that look like bee stings. "When the watermelon is ripe honeybees will sting the watermelon and suck the juice out"

I couldn't believe thus was coming from him.

Any other wives tales you've heard regarding honeybees?
 
#4 ·
I once heard this real funny one. Ha, that guy was stupid. He said that bees have these long tongues they stick into flowers and suck up sweet juice and make it into honey.

Ha. Everyone knows honey comes from those Chinese peoples in the big square factories.

:p
 
#9 ·
"When the watermelon is ripe honeybees will sting the watermelon and suck the juice out"
I grew up in watermelon country -- Eastern Oregon, Hermiston Melons. It is a common thing there, when i grew up at least, that the yellow jackets will scar the melon when it is ripe. Not honeybees, but yellow jackets. I think your guy mixed his stories up......

Not saying they do it, just that it is a common thing people say.
 
#17 ·
Still don't believe it. Those scars are generally on the bottom of the watermelon. How on earth does a yellow jacket get under the watermelon to create those scars. I think it's a growers way to tell the uninformed that their watermelons are the best. In all likelihood the scars are created by the ground itself as the melon grows.
 
#10 ·
You can't move a hive once less than 2 miles without loosing the field bees.

In actuality the "lost" bees eventually smell their new location and head there. The closer the hive is to the original location the faster this happens but they always find their way home.
 
#11 ·
In actuality the "lost" bees eventually smell their new location and head there. The closer the hive is to the original location the faster this happens but they always find their way home.
Cool, I didn't know that. Thanks for sharing.
Is there like a scientific paper on this? Where they like marked foragers and then moved the hive to see if any made it back?
 
#12 ·
Nope, personal experience. Try it yourself, no need for a scientific paper. I used to follow the wives tail religiously. I needed to move some hives 20 ft quickly a few years back. I decided to test the theory and simply moved them over lunch. It took a day with some confusion but by nightfall everything was fine. No need for branches or any of the other wives tails for them to reorient. They'll figure it out. Now to be fair, the most I've moved them was 100 yards and that worked the same way.

Ask yourself, when a tree with a beehive in it falls how do the bees find the new location? They always do though. The honeybees sense of smell is incredible. They can smell their queen and they'll orient in on her. If they can do it with the 20 yard tree fall, logically they can do it further. Where's the cut off? No idea but there's no need to do the 2 mile move wives tail unless you like busy work.
 
#15 · (Edited)
Interesting. I ought to try a little experiment sometime.
My 2nd swarm I ever caught I first dumped it in a box. They settled in, and that afternoon, I could see lots and lots of bees flying around in circles around the box (orientation flights). Since that wasn't the place I wanted the hive, I moved it just the next morning. About 30 feet or more. For a little while that morning after the move, there were only a handful of disoriented bees flying around the first hive position. By midday, all the bees had cleared and everything was okay in that hive. I've had it ever since. Been strong. And all it takes is one bee to find the hive and they'll Nasonov away, creating an even greater "smell signature."
So, you must be right.
That is very interesting to hear. Thanks again! :)
Because I was wondering about if I had to move some of my bee hives under an (open) shed to keep them out of the cold, harsh late winter wind. Now I can have some confidence that the hives would be okay being moved only about 100ft.
I wonder how real bees drifting from hive to hive is. It doesn't seem right somehow. Why would a bee from hive A just move to hive B?
 
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