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crashdive123
06-06-2010, 11:45 AM
Yesterday afternoon (Saturday) I got a call at about 5:30 pm. The voice on the other end of the phone was frantic. You could tell that she was really scared. The problem? Bees. I picked up my bee suit and equipment and headed on over. Got there at 6:30 pm (not a bad response time for a Saturday hug?) and sure enough, she had bees. Lots of bees. I did not use any sprays or insecticides until the wall cavity was cleaned out of as much comb that I could remove. I know that a lot of bees were killed in the process, but think that I was able to "save" quite a few.

Here's a few pictures from last night (finished about 9:45). The walls were cinder block covered with stucco. The hive filled one vertical cell with the top being about ten feet off the ground and the bottom being about a foot off the ground.

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii67/crashdive123/Wild%20Edibles/BeesGumTreeRd005.jpg

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii67/crashdive123/Wild%20Edibles/BeesGumTreeRd006.jpg

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii67/crashdive123/Wild%20Edibles/BeesGumTreeRd007.jpg

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii67/crashdive123/Wild%20Edibles/BeesGumTreeRd001.jpg

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii67/crashdive123/Wild%20Edibles/BeesGumTreeRd010.jpg

I harvested some comb and honey with about half going to the home owner. Here's the rest.

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii67/crashdive123/Wild%20Edibles/HoneyCollection1002.jpg

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii67/crashdive123/Wild%20Edibles/HoneyCollection1003.jpg

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii67/crashdive123/Wild%20Edibles/HoneyCollection1006.jpg

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii67/crashdive123/Wild%20Edibles/HoneyCollection1007.jpg

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii67/crashdive123/Wild%20Edibles/HoneyCollection1008.jpg

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii67/crashdive123/Wild%20Edibles/HoneyCollection1005.jpg

I'll let the honey drain most of the day, maybe over night and then filter it. Fresh honey. Yummmmmmmm. I'll salvage some bees wax from the comb at some point.

Camp10
06-06-2010, 11:51 AM
Great find! That's quite a crack in the house..looks like some job security there.:innocent:

Sourdough
06-06-2010, 11:55 AM
Very interesting, So You responded for a "Saturday HUG"........and to get some "HONEY"......does Mrs. Crash Know....??????:innocent:


Mrs. Crash, "Where are you going, dinners nearly ready"?????

Crash, "Well a lady just called, and requested a Saturday Hug, and said I could get a little Honey, if she could get some also".

Mrs. Crash, Is she paying for this service"????

Crash, "I would assume so, she got my number from a lady down the street, that uses my services regularly".

Mrs. Crash, "I guess some women just have a thing for a man in a bee suit, will you be home for dinner"????

:innocent::winkiss::innocent:

oly
06-06-2010, 11:55 AM
Nice, a little honey and wax.

crashdive123
06-06-2010, 12:04 PM
Great find! That's quite a crack in the house..looks like some job security there.:innocent:

About half way through making that "crack" with my 3 lb hammer I figured I would get a 10 pounder on my next stop at the flea market.

Justin Case
06-06-2010, 12:08 PM
Very cool ! Glad you didn't waste all the honey :)

Camp10
06-06-2010, 12:36 PM
About half way through making that "crack" with my 3 lb hammer I figured I would get a 10 pounder on my next stop at the flea market.

Umm, I guess I should have looked a little better at the pictures. I assumed that the "crack" was found by the bees and became the hive. Wont a 10 pounder get heavy after a few swings overhead like that?

crashdive123
06-06-2010, 01:21 PM
Umm, I guess I should have looked a little better at the pictures. I assumed that the "crack" was found by the bees and became the hive. Wont a 10 pounder get heavy after a few swings overhead like that?

Maybe, but wearing that heavy suit in 98 degree temps - I'll at least get the big holes started.

crashdive123
06-06-2010, 01:27 PM
Very interesting, So You responded for a "Saturday HUG"........and to get some "HONEY"......does Mrs. Crash Know....??????:innocent:


Mrs. Crash, "Where are you going, dinners nearly ready"?????

Crash, "Well a lady just called, and requested a Saturday Hug, and said I could get a little Honey, if she could get some also".

Mrs. Crash, Is she paying for this service"????

Crash, "I would assume so, she got my number from a lady down the street, that uses my services regularly".

Mrs. Crash, "I guess some women just have a thing for a man in a bee suit, will you be home for dinner"????

:innocent::winkiss::innocent:

I did say hug didn't I? I wonder how many misplaced letters have caused marital strife.

Husband that made a harmless typo: "Honest honey - I meant to put an h there instead of the g. The h is to go where the g is."

Understanding wife: "Did you just tell me to go to he**?"

2dumb2kwit
06-06-2010, 05:30 PM
Sweet score!
(Yeah...I know. But sooner or later, someone would have said it.) :innocent: LOL

crashdive123
06-06-2010, 06:35 PM
The honey has drained through the collander. It has been strained through a strainer basket. The air bubbles are slowly rising to the top and by tommorrow it should not be so cloudy. Next it will be filtered through a finer mesh filter. After that - nothing left but the eating. Managed to get just under two and a half quarts of pure, fresh honey.

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii67/crashdive123/Wild%20Edibles/HoneyCollection2005.jpg

Rick
06-06-2010, 06:49 PM
That's some good stuff. Those bees were just loaded with pollen!!

Camp10
06-06-2010, 06:56 PM
Looks good Crash!!

Justin Case
06-06-2010, 07:02 PM
How to use Honey in place of regular sugar, http://www.pickyourown.org/SusbtitutingHoneyForSugar.htm

Rick
06-06-2010, 07:52 PM
Okay, now I'm really confused. How is "honey" different than "sugar" and can a Saturday hug involve both?

Justin Case
06-06-2010, 08:11 PM
Okay, now I'm really confused. How is "honey" different than "sugar" and can a Saturday hug involve both?

sugar comes from a plant, Honey comes from bees ,,,,,:innocent: (never try to hug a bee!)

your_comforting_company
06-07-2010, 06:24 AM
I would love to trade something for about a pound of that wax.. Keep me in mind!!

crashdive123
06-07-2010, 05:59 PM
I finished the final filtering today. The red thingie is a canning funnel. The filter is one of those reusable coffee filters. This honey is a little "thinner" than what you get from a managed hive. Here's why - the bees fill the cells with the honey. That honey has a fairly high moisture content. When the moisture is lowered to a certain level, the cells are capped off, or sealed. In a managed hive, the boards that have the comb on it are removed when most of the cells are capped. A thin layer of the wax is removed with an uncapping tool (basically a heated knife) and the honey is extracted. In collecting from a feral hive, you get what you get - so many of the cells are uncapped. Since the moisture content is higher, the honey is thinner (it does filter easier).

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii67/crashdive123/Wild%20Edibles/HoneyCollection3001.jpg

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii67/crashdive123/Wild%20Edibles/HoneyCollection3002.jpg

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii67/crashdive123/Wild%20Edibles/HoneyCollection3003.jpg

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii67/crashdive123/Wild%20Edibles/HoneyCollection3004.jpg

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii67/crashdive123/Wild%20Edibles/HoneyCollection4001.jpg

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii67/crashdive123/Wild%20Edibles/HoneyCollection4002.jpg

rwc1969
06-08-2010, 12:13 AM
Pretty neat, looks yummy.

Sourdough
06-08-2010, 12:25 AM
Crash......Do you use heat at any point.....?

crashdive123
06-08-2010, 07:04 AM
Crash......Do you use heat at any point.....?

I have not. I thought about pasturizing it, and in the process removing some of the moisture content, but have decided not to - at least for now. I still want to study a bit more, and suppose I could down the road. I've talked with several people about the "tale" of local honey curing allergies. I don't have allergies, but it makes sense that eating a by-product of the pollen that causes your allergies could be helpful. Everybody that I've talked to about it swears by it. I don't know if there are other benefits to the unpasturized honey or not (still looking).

Sourdough
06-08-2010, 07:21 AM
Anyone know what start-up cost would be for a super-small bee keeping business.....? And how would one transfer a queen-bee....?

Rick
06-08-2010, 07:23 AM
This is a bit dated, Sourdough but should give you an idea.

http://sfp.ucdavis.edu/pubs/sfnews/archive/94032.htm

crashdive123
06-08-2010, 07:41 AM
Anyone know what start-up cost would be for a super-small bee keeping business.....? And how would one transfer a queen-bee....?

The link that Rick posted gives a pretty good list of what is needed. Some of the items listed are for turning it into a business. This is where I buy all of my equipment (suit, veil, smoker, etc.). You can see the prices on hive bodies. http://www.mannlakeltd.com/

This link (same site) gives some info on a “starter” kit.
http://www.mannlakeltd.com/learning/beekeeper.html
http://www.mannlakeltd.com/infopage.asp?idPage=2

As to how to get bees – through the mail. Queens are ordered seperately and the process for introducing them is fairly simple and takes a few days to get the hive "used" to her.

Sourdough
06-08-2010, 09:27 AM
I just realized I would have to build a solid concrete enclosure to keep the big bears out.

crashdive123
06-08-2010, 10:46 AM
I just realized I would have to build a solid concrete enclosure to keep the big bears out.

Even that is doable. Here, if you keep bees in a residential area you need to have a fence around the hive (can't remember if it's 6 or 8 feet high, and maybe about 10 X 10) so that when bees leave the hive they fly up and above heads. I wonder if you could put hives on a pully system and raise and lower it as needed?

Rick
06-08-2010, 11:55 AM
Or train the gooses how to disable a bear.

Here you go. All you ever wanted to know about bee keeping and bear shooing.

http://icwdm.org/Publications/pdf/Bears/bearsbeehivesCoSU.pdf