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funny story, really short on facts but high on speculation
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:lpf::lpf:
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Outside of the whole "save the bees" mentality, this reminds me of a short story by Jean Giono that I read as a teenager sometime in the 1970's. It is worth a few minutes time.
View attachment the_man_who_planted_trees_jean_giono_1995.pdf
View attachment the_man_who_planted_trees_jean_giono_1995.pdf
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I love that story, what a gem! truly a way of life that I try to embrace. Thanks for posting that. Deb
Yes, lots of speculation. Would like to see the facts as to how many "log homes" he has made and how many are being used. Also seems to be a lot of work when there are so many other homes you could make for bees to use. Thanks for sharing the story.
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I gotta admit, I do it too, though it is not a mission of mine, and I do keep bees in some well-built hives.
More places for feral and "wild bees" to live is unlikely to hurt Mother Nature a whole lot. I've left nearly a hundred of the mason bee blocks around 5 counties- the ones with the grids of 5/16ths inch (8mm) diameter holes 4-1/4 inches (10.8 cm) deep. I stop by construction jobs and ask for cutoff pieces.
I also use an ice auger for bore out large, fallen tree limbs, and tie them up in the trees. The colonies that occupy them have thrown me a good number of swarms over the years.
These practices done along rivers help keep the trout nice and fat, too.
More places for feral and "wild bees" to live is unlikely to hurt Mother Nature a whole lot. I've left nearly a hundred of the mason bee blocks around 5 counties- the ones with the grids of 5/16ths inch (8mm) diameter holes 4-1/4 inches (10.8 cm) deep. I stop by construction jobs and ask for cutoff pieces.
I also use an ice auger for bore out large, fallen tree limbs, and tie them up in the trees. The colonies that occupy them have thrown me a good number of swarms over the years.
These practices done along rivers help keep the trout nice and fat, too.
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Got it to open from the desktop- great story.
I was struck by this line, "When you remembered that all this had sprung from the hands and the soul of this one man, without technical resources, you understand than men can be as effectual as God in other realms than that of destruction."
Thanks for sharing this gem.
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The "save the bees" blurb can be dropped.
We need to save the insects as a whole, not "bees".
Otherwise a worthy project - anyone should benefit from presence of self-sustaining (but yet protected) feral bees.
Now that the honey bees have been entrenched in the North America (just like the apples too) - might as well let them be.
Most anyone could be running 1-2 un-managed log-hives in the "back 40", just as well.
We need to save the insects as a whole, not "bees".
Otherwise a worthy project - anyone should benefit from presence of self-sustaining (but yet protected) feral bees.
Now that the honey bees have been entrenched in the North America (just like the apples too) - might as well let them be.
Most anyone could be running 1-2 un-managed log-hives in the "back 40", just as well.
Careful there Gregv. I posted exactly that and was called a "dirty apiary" and "mite bomb waiting to happen".
Sad thing is, they are going into year 7 as my strongest hives. I opened the hives last week for the first time since March and the queen is still laying. They are still at 14 frames for brood and are still capping drones. The outside deeps and super are full of honey. The hives that have been fed sugar water are down to one deep with 5 frames of brood. I think I will add 6 more "set it and forget" it hives next year!
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I would not worry about it.
Been mocked and slammed enough.
Not a worry.
Once you get the worthy bees going (not some treatment-dependent commercial package/nuc and the like), should not worry much.
This year the first time I got offers to buy bees from me (by a nearby per-annual bee-looser who still runs into 100% loss every year after 5-6 years - no matter the treatments).
If I winter more than enough bees, we'll talk then.
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About Michael Thiele in the 1st post video. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-c...-idUSKBN1X31CE
We invited him to speak at our bee meeting. His talk was over the top groovy, hippie, organic, treatment free, naturalistic, not that there is anything wrong with that if it works for you. It hasn't for me. It was all so esoteric the only thing I could remember the next day is that he suggests that hives be spaced 1000 feet apart. I asked on our message board what other people remembered. They cold not repeat anything else either.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=59&v=EN0TpCPkHC8&feature=emb_logo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hj5tPU1q-Ns
We invited him to speak at our bee meeting. His talk was over the top groovy, hippie, organic, treatment free, naturalistic, not that there is anything wrong with that if it works for you. It hasn't for me. It was all so esoteric the only thing I could remember the next day is that he suggests that hives be spaced 1000 feet apart. I asked on our message board what other people remembered. They cold not repeat anything else either.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=59&v=EN0TpCPkHC8&feature=emb_logo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hj5tPU1q-Ns
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