Thursday, May 28, 2015

Eco-Freak/Horse Lover Hate Mail and the Tractor in Swarm Mode





So I was checking my email from the blog last night (ya I know once a month kinda thing) and I guess I struck a nerve with some horse loving eco-freak who likes to fantasize that she is some percentage Injun (just like Faux-o-hawness Lizzy Warren I guess) and went so far as to claim Honey Bees have no more of a right to be in North America than White Supremest Men like me.

I actually emailed her back to ask if I could use her email in a post but she never answered. I suppose since she sent it to me I could use it anyway but I think I will just para-phrase and go on.

The scary part about it is people like this lunatic vote.

So she goes on about how she enjoys riding her horse through un-touched wilderness and get's so worked up when she sees invasive and introduced plants and animals that have no right to be here. Said it made her sick like seeing roads and homes everywhere and she dreams the day will come when this land can go back to it's natural state.

Honestly my friends I couldn't stop chuckling about her tirade all day. What kind of mental illness would have to be eating away at someone who has the nerve to claim all creatures and plants that have been introduced to America should be removed while admitting she enjoys riding a horse? What kind of person thinks they can form such an opinion without even a rudimentary study of the history she is pontificating about?

Only someone so stupid and wrapped up into their own fairytale land who cannot take the time to find out exactly how her beloved horses got here. That's who. Why I bet she has a picture of a unicorn tattooed some where on her body. Prolly right above her pseudo-Celtic tribal tramp stamp she thinks is Indian art. Excuse me native Indo-Asian immigrant art.

So while I was finishing up some random mulching inside the grape vines this morning and before the rains started up again this afternoon, I had another swarm come out of one of last years hives. I usually don't stress over much about swarms in general and out of year old hives in particular because some hives just need to swarm and often times you do more damage trying to stop em than if you just let it happen.

It was a big swarm and landed in a Cedar tree just inside the sheep pasture. A fine time to put the 8N to work in Swarm catching/Bee hive moving mode.




I used my trusty Home-Made carry all and plopped that swarm down right inside the waiting hive. I had the entrance totally covered up and just put the entire branch with the swarm of bees on it right into the waiting hive after I climbed up the ladder and cut the swarm out of the tree.




It was then just a matter of driving the new hive down to the back hayfield stands and setting it in place. I left the swarm locked inside the hive until late evening and then removed the entrance blocker and took out the branch I had put it inside with. Ain't no place for em to go all night and in the rain so I imagine the queen will begin setting up house over night. I will go down when it clears off tomorrow and put some drawn frames of comb in and get em all set up.

Another easy swarm capture and this will make swarm number six for the year so far.

I have to say so far this has been a damned good bee year. The old established hives should be over flowing with honey soon.

Keep Prepping Everyone!!!!!!


19 comments:

  1. Hey PP. I was standing beside my hive today, watching the bees come and go. I noticed some bigger and louder bees coming and going. The other bees seemed to pay them no mind. Do drones come and go as a normal occurrence? I thought that unless they were on a mating flight, the drones just lounged around inside the hive all day. At least until the workers murdered them in the Fall, that is!

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  2. Oh yeah, my bees are coming back loaded with bright orange pollen. I don't have any idea where it is coming from, probably some sort of tree because no crops are blooming yet.

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    1. SD - Drones actually have a super secret outdoor concentration area nearby. They go there to have a beer and throw darts and wait for a random virgin queen to fly by so they can mate with her and then die. Honestly I am not lying just embellishing a bit. There really is a drone concentration area and the new queens in the area seem to know where it is and go there for their mating flights.

      Outside of that drones can come and go from any hive in the local area freely and the nurse bees will still take care of them. That is how mites and other issues usually get spread from one hive to another is through drones visiting all the hives around.

      Up here bright yellow pollen can come from Dandelions and other trees. Some wildflowers like daisies and sunflowers also produce yellow pollen that I have seen as the bees collect it. Not that that covers all the sources I am sure. They only one I have ever seen that produces a color that is rare is bright red, that comes from Dead Nettle and I usually only see it in early spring.

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  3. What do ya wanna bet she drives or wants a coal fueled also known as electric car?

    Good to hear about the bees, your post about the stupid state "invasive species" rules tempts me to buy some yellow/purple/crimson clover "seed bombs" from amazon and go for a littering drive.

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    1. Ody - I wonder how she gets her horse to those wilderness areas without roads too :)

      I tried to go back and find the Mo invasive specie list with the new ruling but couldn't find the link again. It's there and technically they can fine landowners for letting a plant on the list grow. I also noticed yesterday the Crown Vetch is blooming along the clover leaf in Jefferson City. I wonder who will get fined for that? Prolly us lol.

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  4. I'm new to bees, just got my 2 nucs this year, but enjoy your posts about bees, makes the task seem less daunting for a beginner. Just checked my hives today, added a second brood box to one, the other isn't as strong, hopefully it'll be ready in a couple weeks.

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    1. 3 R and a C - Boy I bet that's one busy chick :)

      Thank you for commenting!!!!

      I think a lot of bee keeping that is recommended is actually overkill and contradictory. Like for instance they (as in bee keeping authors) tell you to check your hive but do so quickly. I have never figured out how to check each frame in a hive without leaving the thing in pieces for like an hour. I mean seriously it takes a good two minutes to get a frame unstuck, check it over etc. etc. that's 20 minutes per box and if you have 3 boxes on a hive... I decided to go with more of a hands off approach and see what would happen. I figure if I can catch more swarms or do more splits than I lose a year I am in good shape. I watch the entrance numbers and look at the debris under the screened bottom board to tell if a hive is in trouble and THEN I go into it. For a quick swarm check I will pull each super off and look at the bottom of the frames but since it only takes a hive 21 days to hatch out a queen and they will build a new swarm cell within an hour of removing one I figure why not let em go. At leasta swarm will break the mite cycle.

      Good luck with your bees. They are wonderful creatures and I will answer any question you have to ask as best I can but I will admit a lot of times my answers are not mainstream.

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  5. You realize of course that there weren't horses here until the Spanish brought them, she better dismount.

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    1. Sf - I know right. That little fact as given me no end of joy raining on the hipster horse lover feminist parade over the years. I am surprised how many of them, like the email hater, just do not seem to know that fact.

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  6. hahahaha..... like the horse's hooves didn't create any 'footprint'... or is that hoof print.... in the 'pristine' wilderness she rode her horse in? How about those delightful road apples her critter left behind? I certainly hope she feeds her horse weed-free hay...

    We had a hive send off a swarm here, too, but thankfully we had seen it on our way out to tackle another project and had a set-up ready for it left over from last year. Our first swarm!! Pretty sure they were our own bees,but it was still pretty exciting. Yeah, we're 'newbee's' ;-) Oh, and I am so glad that it takes you about an hour to check a hive. Now I don't feel like such a slow-poke!

    Sounds like you've been busy, PP. Good thing. Keeps you out of mischief. ha!
    ~hobo

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    1. Hobo - Oh ya it takes a while if all the frames are built out and to check each one. I honestly don't see how anyone can claim they can do an inspection on a hive in under 30 minutes. If they are they are not really inspecting it.

      Gratz on your new hive!!!!

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  7. Love the hypocritical self righteous sat on her horse. Introduced species can be beneficial as well as bad. I brt she ate some bread and rice over the years, or has she just ate maise, squash and buffalo?

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    1. Kev - I honestly don't think these types really know. They just think anything they like has to be "Native" and anything they don't isn't. I just have to shake my head.

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    1. Know how to turn a Billionaire into a Millionaire? Let him marry a horse woman :)

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  9. Well crud let me try this again, first comment seems to have been eaten by blogger lol. Bees are on my list, hopefully this next spring. Aren't you the comedian saying my blackberries were photo shopped ROFL ROFL. good one.... Those are Kiowa variety, to my knowledge the largest blackberry we grow in the states. They are mean whew, thorns huge ones all over them but they are super easy to grow and care for. Really no care. Mean to pick but the pay off, those giant berries. If you plant any, they are invasive so keep that in mind. :O)

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    1. Texan - They looked huge. I have never seen Black Berries that big. Either that or you have extremely small hands. Something I am aware of because I have the smallest hands I have ever seen on an adult, male or female.

      Gooseberry bushes have some mean thorns but they aren't large, just needle thin.

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  10. I do have small hands but the berries are truly huge :O) Nothing fine about the thorns on the Kiowas, they are big mean thorns. LOL

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  11. Well, your comment form states, " Sometimes we have even been known to feed Trolls" Does this gal not realize that it was Europeans who introduced the horse to the western hemisphere? Seems the more out of touch society is with the natural world, the worse they get in their rants.

    Nice to hear about the swarms! I actually saw some of my bees on our white clover near the water faucet. I've seen so few bees since we moved her 6 years ago that it was a treat to behold.

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