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Question for the bee keepers

Southern Ray

Southern Ray

Well-known Member
It's that time of year again when spring is approaching and the wild flowers are blooming.
The bees are also back. These are the Africanized or killer bees.
A few of the gals come buzzing into my tractor shed looking for something.
They haven't bit me but they sure like to buzz around. One lit on my can of WD40.
I don't keep anything sweet in the shed and I don't leave any soda water cans laying around.
Could it be my bottle of Marvel Mystery oil?
Is there a repellant to keep the bees out of my tractor shed. I keep checking and can't find any hives.
I sure don't want the queen to come in and set up housekeeping. These gals are vicious killers.
 
How do you tell an Africanized bee from the others?

Will a single Africanized bee show more aggression, or only when the hive is threatened?
 
The killer bee queens have invaded and wiped out all the European bees.
I am told many of the local bee keepers are cultivating the killer bees.
They seem to be more productive in honey making.
 
Not likely to be the Killer bees because if they where you would be likely to get your self stung if you got close to there hive which will be at least a mile or less from you. Killer bees are well known to attack just about anything that gets even close to there hive. Also by the way they do not bite they sting
 
"How do you tell an Africanized bee from the others?"

Their pants hang down really low ! lol.
 
How can you tell if they are Africanized? Pictures might help. How large are they? Could be queens of European hornets, 2+ inches long and look like a giant yellow jacket.
 
I can't be certain, but I think it might have something to do with the colors. You mentioned WD-40 (bright yellow on part of the can) and Marvel Mystery Oil (fairly bright, red oil). Up here, yellow jackets will stop to investigate [b:8f361b08f1]ANYTHING[/b:8f361b08f1] with bright flower colors.
 
Kind of doubt if they are cultivating killer bees. All of the testing results I have read show they actually make far less honey than the European breeds. Testing shows Killer bees love lemon grass or anything that resembles it.
 
you cant tell an africanized bee from a regular bee just by looking. have to go under a microscope. your bees may or may not be af bees. they are out foraging for food. they are seeking pollen and nectar. they will go after ground corn, or any similiar ground feed. also any type of sugar. you could try and place a remote feeder to draw them away from your shed. 1 to 1 sugar water in a shallow pan way away from your dwellings will keep them busy. when foraging, even af bees are not agressive, only when defending the hive. also, the af bees have been breeding with our bees and it is reducing their agressiveness. do a search for a local beekeeper and give them a call for help. russian and carniolan are two breeds of bees kept in the us that are more aggressive.
 
oh yeah, heres some of my girls!!,
a256232.jpg

a256233.jpg
 
I have 25 hives on my place. When we get a warm winter day, the bees come out. They take a bathroom break but there's not much else to do so they are kind of loafing around before they return to the hive. They may go after birdseed as a source of pollen but there's really no nutritional value there. So there are these bees everywhere, just stretching there wings, landing on whatever's around. On one recent day like that I started the tractor to move some firewood. As I reached for the FEL control I happened to glance at it--why, I don't know. But right there on the polished gray metal knob was a honeybee where I was getting ready to grab. Would have gotten stung for sure. I brushed her off--saved a bee and saved me from having a giant hand for a couple days. When the first blooms take place--often maple trees--the bees will have plenty to do. They won't have time to hang out and bother you.
 
Gee,how did you identify that as a "racist" comment? unless you recognize something in it !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
Menwhogrow might be right.... If I get some time later, I'm going to reasearch if there all the cultures that are notorious for congregating in groups where their trouser inseam is closely aligned to their knees. :)

Good looking ladies you've got there! (is that sexist?)

We lost 2/3 of our hives this Jan. I think someone local didn't treat and we robbed out some hives with heavy mite loads.
 
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