Beer

[emo_snal]

   (A) I've remembered my dreams for the last few nights, which is a bit unusual. (i) Three nights ago I dremt I was a political prisoner; (ii) The night before last I dremt I was an adventurer in Saudi Arabia around the turn of the century. Lawrence of Arabia style (not that I've seen the movie actually, but I'm guessing), riding around on horses

Comments

[emo_snal]

Sometimes even after meticulously putting on the whole suit they can somehow find their way into some gap or hole in the suit you were unaware of or accidentally left. BUT

Whats more likely is that, as you can see for example my associate doing here, experienced beekeepers almost invariably eventually become too lazy to put the suit on unless they really have to. If you have docile bees and aren't rummaging about their hive overly much you can still maybe expect to get stung once or twice while wearing no protective clothing, but one usually eventually decides this isn't a terrible cost to pay to not have to wear the big clumsey suit.

Or frequently beekeepers just sloppily put on the suit and say leave gaps around their wrists, or I, personally, frequently don't bother to zip the veil on -- so bees can occasionally fly in and buzz around my face, but I also can itch my nose, take a drink, etc etc.

Or in the case of the day I took these pictures I actually wasn't wearing gloves when I took the pictures because my gloves quickly became sticky and I wasnt' about to get my camera sticky. Suprisingly I only got one sting to my hands.

And then there was the time in january which due to an error in judgement on the part of myself AND two other experienced beekeepers (well one was drunk at the time I think) we attempted to move beehives in the dark without protective suits after they'd been rattled around on a trailer and I got stung 130 times. d= but we all laughed about it later and the older beekeepers remarked I'd "gotten my cherry popped" and "it happens to everyone sooner or later."

As to what to do differently .. not really. Start out small with just a few hives to get the hang of the common procedures. Helps if you are able to befriend a local beekeeper to show you the ropes or perhaps join a local beekeeping club if there is one. Where do you live? If you live somewhere thats already saturated with Africanized bees I highly recommend you buy your bees from somewhere else rather than catching a local swarm.

But yeah. Bees are fun! You should get into it. (=

[misterschmoo]

Well that's good to hear, in other words I will only get stung as much as I deserve to be.

There is a bee keeping club here and a guy just in the next town over who will sell swarms for a nominal fee, so that's all good, to my knowledge we have no problems with africanised bees here, though the country has a problem with the Varroa bee mite,

http://www.biosecurity.govt.nz/pests-diseases/animals/varroa.htm

Though I don't think it has made it to my area yet, and I don't know if it's innevitable that it will.

[emo_snal]

Yeah varroa mites are pretty much throughout North America now I think. There are some basic treatments though which should keep them at bay. Where are you located?

[emo_snal]

Oh I just looked at your profile and you're in NZ -- I don't know if Vorroa mites are there. But yeah you probably do not have Africanized bees. I have no idea you might even have the asian honeybee there, Apis cerana (which is good IMO, they're more resistant to many of the diseases currently ravaging Apis mellifera across North America).