So I have finally been able to get a hold of a queen, which is great. I have bees just no brood. So tonight I am transferring a frame of brood/eggs over to hang with the new queen.
So I got a replacement for my queen, they hive has been rebounding. Now to see if they can make it to/through the winter.
In other news I think I am developing an allergic reaction to bee stings. So thats fun I guess.
In other news I think I am developing an allergic reaction to bee stings. So thats fun I guess.
What's happening, specifically?
I don't tend to have strong swelling reactions in general, but I get get huge amounts of swelling from bee stings and the affected area takes about three days to clear up and joints within 6 inches or so feel arthritic during that time. My wife and kids just get a sting with no significant follow on consequences.
So far, things haven't gotten worse than that, but I try to be vigilant, especially as I have other family members with significant allergic reaction issues (peanut) and I seem to have become more reaction prone to various other allergy triggers as I have gotten older.
Keep some benedryl around.
Igneus wrote:In other news I think I am developing an allergic reaction to bee stings. So thats fun I guess.
What's happening, specifically?
I don't tend to have strong swelling reactions in general, but I get get huge amounts of swelling from bee stings and the affected area takes about three days to clear up and joints within 6 inches or so feel arthritic during that time. My wife and kids just get a sting with no significant follow on consequences.
So far, things haven't gotten worse than that, but I try to be vigilant, especially as I have other family members with significant allergic reaction issues (peanut) and I seem to have become more reaction prone to various other allergy triggers as I have gotten older.
Keep some benedryl around.
I have that reaction as well. i figured that was normal for bees. I also tend to suffer from constant low intensity allergies in general. It occurrs to me that if bee venom directly stimulates mast cells, then that could inform the differing allergic type reactions between people based on how active their cells tend to be.
Igneus wrote:In other news I think I am developing an allergic reaction to bee stings. So thats fun I guess.
What's happening, specifically?
I don't tend to have strong swelling reactions in general, but I get get huge amounts of swelling from bee stings and the affected area takes about three days to clear up and joints within 6 inches or so feel arthritic during that time. My wife and kids just get a sting with no significant follow on consequences.
So far, things haven't gotten worse than that, but I try to be vigilant, especially as I have other family members with significant allergic reaction issues (peanut) and I seem to have become more reaction prone to various other allergy triggers as I have gotten older.
Keep some benedryl around.
When I started and I got stung. It would be a minor thing. Redness maybe some swelling, but very minimal. Now 3 days later after one sting on my arm it is still noticeably swollen. It has become difficult to put on my work dress shirts as the sleeve is now really tight. A month ago I got stung my hand and it wasn't usable for a few days due to the swelling. I think that as I too am getting towards middle age that my body now hates me. Still its not like I am having a deadly reaction, but I do worry.
If it were me - and I'm not a doctor - I'd go see a doctor about it. Get an epi-pen in case of systemic reactions. I'd consider bee venom therapy, but unfortunately, it's risky. It can cause anaphylaxis, apparently. So... Let your doc know what's up and ask for an epi-pen script.
Better safe than sorry.
Yeah I dont think I am epi-pen territory. I've administered them in a previous line of work. But I will be keeping some benedryl or cortosone cream around. It is certainly one of those things we need to be aware of.
Researching it has led to this little quote:
According to the Journal of Asthma and Allergy, approximately 5 to 7.5 percent of people will experience a severe allergic reaction to insect stings in their lifetimes. In beekeepers, this risk rises to 32 percent.
Obviously this should go without saying. Individual internet medical research while valuable is no replacement for ACTUALLY GOING TO A DOCTOR. I will probably go do an allergy test soonish.
The above linked medical journal article stated that venom immunotherapy (VIT) while it can be helpful is not really cost effective unless one experiences frequent stings, like beekeepers. So maybe that could be something if I continue to get large localized reactions.
I did some NCBI searches, and the literature indicates that beekeepers are not more likely than others to develop allergies, BUT they are more likely to have a reduced IgG reaction on the skin. So... I would worry that might have a masking effect, making you think that maybe you're not reacting that much when in fact you're still courting a higher risk of systemic reaction.
Unfortunately, the literature reviews also note that venom immunotherapy has a relatively high risk of anaphylaxis in patients, so... Tread carefully.
So the hive I requeened, and have been having issues with is not making it. The queen doesnt look to have taken. There is barely a handful of larva with a bunch of died dried out larva in places. I really dont know what happened.
Now my second hive is doing great. Nice brood patterns. Great honey stores. Some slight cross combing, but that is really mild. I havent been feeding, but they have been blowing up anyways. That means the flow in my area has been pretty good for them.
Could it be something like chalk brood?
Could it be something like chalk brood?
No I don't think so. Certainly a good theory. With chalkbrood the larvae die after being sealed in. The caps are then removed sometime later by worker bees. These larvae in my hive were never sealed. The more I look into it I think it could of been bad mite issue. They never became sufficiently big enough to do a good grooming. Mites became to much and killed them. The issue with this theory is I am not finding that many mites on the sticky board.
General update. I got my first beehive two years ago. It didn't make it through the 17-18 winter. I got two more beehives after that. Both of them made it through the 18-19 winter. In '18 though, I didn't get any honey out of them and I had to feed them a ton of sugar water over the fall and winter to build up adequate stores.
Right now, I've got close to 30 jars of honey sitting on my dining room table. I've probably pulled about 50 pounds of honey out of the two hives so far this year.
The last frame I pulled was entirely built out, from brand new empty frame to fully capped honeycomb, in 28 days. Based on my experience so far, this feels insanely productive to me. (Each frame produces around 4 pounds of honey and a few ounces of wax.)
Here's what it takes to produce honey:
"Incredibly, on average a worker bee will produce 1/12th of a teaspoon of honey in their lifetime. So it takes 12 worker bees to produce a single teaspoon of honey! Taking that further, to produce 0.5lb (227g) of DrBeekeeper honey it takes about 30,000 bees travelling 27,500 miles and visiting more than a million flowers to gather the nectar required."
Thats awesome.
My wife’s friend started this company to help with pollination and lack of bees
https://vimeo.com/298072498/2d33463f17
I kinda want to get more bees around my home not for honey but just to have them flying around. I rarely see any these days.
Most depictions of beekeeping in popular media are kind of BS.
(One of the big tells is super clean white bee suits.)
Anyway, here's some legit bee bothering:
whoa this thread is so old it predates the Texas Bee Works controversy.
(It's Gamergate, but for honeybees. Literally, it's angry male beekeepers complaining about women in beekeeping but claiming it's about ethics in honeybee journalism.)
Related: After suffering catastrophic hive losses to black bears in the spring, I've installed a bee shed that will house a new hive this May.
Anyway here's a video i took from a couple years ago using the mountain camp method of winterizing bees. I've had quite a bit of success with this method over several winters.
whoa this thread is so old it predates the Texas Bee Works controversy.
(It's Gamergate, but for honeybees. Literally, it's angry male beekeepers complaining about women in beekeeping but claiming it's about ethics in honeybee journalism.)
Wow. I was totally unaware of this controversy. I'm not really active in any beekeeping forums, but I don't think I'd ever seen anybody talk about the Texas Beeworks lady with anything other than wonder and admiration.
Looking at the article from The Cut, it seems like almost all the negative attention comes from the twitter account of one Los Angeles beekeeper (an urban beekeeper in a city that runs on publicity?). Although it is utterly wrong that these conditions exist, it seems like an unavoidable and inevitable fact of life that women in public forums are going to attract some weirdo male attention. I don't know that this article in The Cut is doing anybody (other than LA Beekeeper and the writer) any favors by signal boosting this harassment and extrapolating a trend from loud activism of an individual.
And, of course, the things are going to look different to people situated differently from me. But this article only cites a single identifiable source for the criticism. Some cases of harassment should absolutely be publicized and critiqued. In other cases, the publicity maybe validating the psychological needs and impulses of the harasser.
Anyway, my four hives are doing well. Last year was kind of a rebuilding year and I didn't get much honey. We had a lot of swarming last spring, and I even managed to capture a couple of the swarms use them to found new hives. It's a mild (but wet) winter here in Northern California, and I think the bee populations are going to start exploding soon.
I don't keep bees. Thank you to those who do! We try to plant a bee friendly yard and have developed a nice little ecosystem. Unfortunately with all the house renovations, our yard has been stomped badly. We also took down the 40 ft tall Sycamore. Poor us, we have to replant this year 
Would any of you be able to suggest dome bee favorites? We have full Sun with a southern exposure. Thanks!
Yeah I haven't posted in a while. Last year after losses due to My improper mite management, exasperated by moving, I took a season off. I will hopefully be getting some packages this year and rebuilding to 2 -4 hives. We shall see.
Good luck Igneus!
I don't keep bees. Thank you to those who do! We try to plant a bee friendly yard and have developed a nice little ecosystem. Unfortunately with all the house renovations, our yard has been stomped badly. We also took down the 40 ft tall Sycamore. Poor us, we have to replant this year
It's great that you're thinking of adding pollinator flowers to your landscaping! I can't really give much advice without knowing your agricultural zone or flower preferences, but I can share some personal experience. I've found that dinner plate dahlias are huge, gorgeous, relatively easy to keep alive, and are favorites for not just honeybees but also bumblebees and hummingbirds. I've noticed that honeybees especially seem to be drawn toward the clover blossoms, lilacs, and geraniums. Bumblebees -- which have to be the world's most hilarious bee -- seem to really enjoy flowers they can burrow into, like hosta blossoms.
Sedum is a really big family of plants, so I included a picture of the one to which I'm referring -- when they turn pink/red like in this pic, the honeybees and bumblebees just roll around in it like kids in a bounce house.
edit: i found a video of a bumblebee letting me pet her because she was enjoying the sedum!
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