In Russian and Ukrainian the word used for drone in the bee family in a figurative meaning means a lazy person who lives off someone else. I’m surprised that it is called a drone in English, because in the other meanings drones are very useful.
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I forgot to mention. Bees make great weather anchormen. They don’t (generally) swarm if there’s rain coming…
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Not as reliable as swallows who fly low because - even more reliable if you’re able to spot them as they make the first move - they are after the moskitos.
Actually I used to rely often on the behaviour of swallows as a kid.
Lovely to see, my dad used to be a beekeeper and he did al lot of swarm pickups with the fire dep. Nature at its finest!!! If you are allergic to bee stings, just keep away. make sure you have some precautions, EPiPen, etc. If you spot them just call the authorities, they know the local beekepers who would be happy to add another hive to the portfolio…
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If the bees are so clever, why do they agree to live in the location chosen by beekeeper, if they already had some other place in mind?
If someone would give me a free ride, gently transporting me to a completly equipped house and say, there you go, it’s all yours … I wouldn’t mind 
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I am allergic to bee and hornets stings (luckily not the most severe type of allergy) so I’m trying to keep a healthy distance away from them…nevertheless, interesting topic. 
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Same, though it’s decades since the last sting.
Still, I got me an Epipen last year, just in case (to be replaced about bi-annually).
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Yesterday we had the most unpleasant and …I don’t even know how to define it - unsettling? experience at the beehouse.
On saturday, a man (blond, on his mid-30s, speaking english with an eastern european accent) stood outside of the hedge, looking at us, working with the bees, for 45 minutes. He didn’t say anything. He disappeared, and then came back and asked ‘do you eat that’? I laughed, and said ‘no, we are rearing queens’ (as we were preparing small colonies to create queenbees). He left.
Yesterday afternoon, I went to the beehouse to clean frames (yes, beekeeping is a physical job), and I got stung three times before I even entered inside the hedged area.
This is strange – bees ‘recognize’ the beekeeper (yes, they do, as much our smell, as our face).
I couldn’t understand why they were so aggressive!
Then I noticed that one of the beeboxes (about the size of a microwave and about 4 to 5 kilos), was not there.
My hubby had been in the morning, and everything was OK.
I immediately thought of that guy.
With that weight, and the bees following him, he couldn’t go very far, so I combed the forest. After 40 minutes, and no success, I went to the entrance of the forest, where there is a fountain. He was there, washing his hands and face. I asked him in English "did you take our bees’? He turned around, shouted “no”, and runned away. As he turned, I noticed that his face was extremely red. I swore something pretty harsh to him in Czech & Russian…and then in English, French, German and Spanish -in case he didn’t understand the first - and started the search again - I was sure that the bees were not far away. I found the frames scattered in the forest, half eaten, with the poor bees roaming around the frames, and then the box, with the frame rearing the queens (in that frame there is no honey), still inside the box. Bstrd!!! Our poor queens! 
.We don’t know if the queens will survive 
- we will only know in the coming week
The worst part – he came back later, and attacked a second one of the beeboxes! These were more aggressive, so he couldn’t take any frame out.
We have resorted to lock the boxes inside the large house.
Can you imagine the number of stings that he got on the face and hands? He is probably mentally deranged.
…one of those days…
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Have you reported him to the police?
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What a story. I haven’t heard of such lunacy in my entire life. I thought every sane person knows you’re not supposed to “provoke” bees or wasps etc.
You should definitely go to police and report this incident in all details, show pictures if you have any.
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Seems that at least a little bit of justice has bee‘n served.
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no, not yet. I have asked the neighbours, and they had seen him roaming for the whole week between the forest and the houses. Now they are concerned also (as there are a lot of kids playing alone in the forest) - so they will call the police if they see him around again
Yes, I think it is lunacy.
My partner said it is hunger – i saw him on the local Denner, on the Coop, and later on the Migros… ‘roaming idly’ if you know what I mean-- difficult to miss him, given his appearance… As Sunday all supermarkets are closed ,probably he had not got anything and was hungry. But clearly, very deranged…
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Before I go today to the beehouse, a quick story, on more bee-quirkiness. Actually, I would change the title of the thread to that…
Did you know that bees have a mind on their own --and nobody (neither beekeepers, not scientists-- can second guess them.
In some occasions, a complete colony absconds - i.e. they just leave. Without leaving a trace. Like that joke " just going down to buy tobacco".
From one day to the next. No, it is not swarming. They ALL leave, together, at once.
It occurs very rarely, but mainly, when the beekeeper has ‘housed’ a swarm. In 10 years, it has happened once to us. And it was very disconcerting!
The bees are happily buzzy the first day, then the second day the get calmer, and when you go and check them out on the third day, the 15,000 bees are gone. All. You open, and only a few dead bees are on the floor of the hive. Why? How? Well, who knows. they usuaslly don’t leave a note behind, 
but most likely is because the bees did not like the ‘housing’ that you provided, and, as soon as they realize it, they send scouts to find a better house for them!
There are a lot of hypotheses, as of why they might not feel welcome – when the wood of the hive is too new, or they feel threatened, there is too much of a smell on the neighbourhood, or the place is not calm, or the location is not optimal… they are picky as a we are!
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Wow. I had no idea. Thanks! I already was a great admirer of bees (from distance!!) before, but now I’m a devoted fan. I’m fascinated by ants too (again, not exactly when they’re “trespassing” my balcony )
Well, it is that time of the year again…but not any time, it is harvesting time!
Our bees have been very busy, and have produced veeeery fine honey. Really tasty of clover this year! and only 3 stings, that got my fingers like Wurste…
did you know that the bees exhibit the same behavioural traits than their mother, the Queenbee? So, if the colony has an aggressive mother, the 60,000 children will be…a pain in the *ss during harvesting. And we have 2 of them. But, go find the queen between all of them now… 
Sooooo… the new chapter of “game of thrones”: Why are there super-aggressive (aka 'Killer") bees? These bees kill -every year- about 1000 people in Africa, and also in North & South america. Well… a ‘game of thrones’ story: This is from the 'natural history museum":
n 1956, Brazilian geneticist Dr Warwick E Kerr began to interbreed subspecies of the western honeybee. He chose a selection of European honeybees and the African honeybee (A. m. scutellata) in an effort to improve honey production in Brazil.
The ambitious scientist aimed to isolate traits of each species and breed them into a new subspecies, combining the European bees’ greater honey yields with the African honeybees’ adaptation to warmer climates.
However, the new hybrid bees also took on a less desirable trait from their African relations: their aggression.
African honeybees are much more hostile than European varieties, as their natural environment has far more predators looking to destroy hives for honey. Coordinated defensive manoeuvres enable African bees to better fend off these attacks.
In 1957 around 20 colonies of the new Africanised bees escaped captivity in Brazil. “Escaped”… how is that possible? Bees don’t “escape”, particularly if they are happy in their hive. Bees swarm, when they leave the hive (sometimes, they abscond, but that’s very rare). Well, here is the ‘game of thrones’ story… a junior researcher was blamed “the technician removed the queen separators, and the bees swarmed”. others say that “Dr Kerr was a political dissident, and the police entered his lab and smashed the hives, liberating the bees”.
Whatever the story was, the escaped bees established new colonies in the area and also invaded local hives.
Hardy and adaptable, the killer bees aren’t fussy when choosing a new home. They will settle into both natural nest sites and man-made structures.
The subspecies began spreading northwards from Brazil, through South and Central America and into the United States.
Despite their name, a single killer bee is no deadlier than any other honeybee subspecies. They are in fact smaller than other honeybees, have shorter wings and carry less venom.
The major difference lies in their nest defence.When an ordinary European honeybee colony is threatened, around 10% of the bees will venture out to protect the colony’s home.
By comparison, killer bees often all but empty their nest. There are even reports of swarms of 300,000 to 800,000. With each sting, a pheromone is released, signalling for more bees from the colony to join in the onslaught.
It is estimated that around 1,000 stings could kill an adult human. As Africanised bees attack in numbers far exceeding that figure, their nickname comes as no surprise.
These bees are also very determined. Human victims have reported taking refuge underwater to avoid the stings - but the bees are willing to wait. The insects are alleged to have continued their assault when their targets came up for air.
Are there killer bees in Europe? Well, yes… actually coming ‘naturally’ from Africa. but they mix with local ones, and their aggressive traits are diluted. So, maybe our two colonies have a great-great-great-great-grandmother born in Africa, but …it is still manageable. Ah yes, why Dr. Kerr also wanted to breed them…? because they produce also A LOT of honey!
Happy weekend!
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For anybody in ZRH (city), and, very small (so @Phil_MCR does not ban me 
) whisper we have raw honey
And, now, on some curiosities on honey… How do beekeepers know when to harvest? It is an art and a science. Well, more art than science, to be honest. It is almost like a delivery – during the last weeks, we monitor the weather, the nectar flows, and how fast the bees are covering the honey frames on the hive with wax. Why? because when they cover the cells with wax, that means that the honey has reached about 16% - 18% of humidity, and can be capped and stored (and harvested).
When bees collect nectar from the flowers, the mix that they carry contains about 80% of water, and 20% of nectar; it is very runny and very watery, and cannot be stored on the hive (and tastes nothing). So, there has to be a transformation -made by the bees- to eliminate most of that water. The bees, through enzymatic metabolism, lower the concentration of water from 80% to about 20% - 25%. Let’s not go into details on ‘how exactly’, because …you wouldn’t eat honey Then, the thicker mix (with 20% - 25% water on it) is deposited in the cell. It is still too humid to store, so the bees ‘dry’ the honey by increasing the temperature of the hive, and create hot air currents by flapping their wings, to eliminate humidity. Once the humidity reaches a maximum of 18%, the honey cell is capped with wax. How do bees differentiate between a cell with honey at 20% humidity, and another at 18% humidity…is a mistery of life. But however they measure it, they are capable of differentiating that 1% - 2% humidity changes, probably with their antenas, in which they have receptors also for windspeed (later copied by Boeing and Airbus - and this is not joke)
Coming back to honey and harvesting: Uncapped honey in the cell contains usually >20% of humidity, and shouldn’t be harvested. As such, if harvested too early, honey can ferment, giving it a sharp and sour taste and smell. Don’t worry, our bees have a strict QC process, a established sixdigma , and check the humidity of the honey. And, of course, we do also - check the concentration of water in the honey through a refractometer. This year, it is 17%. So much science …by the bees!
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How is the liquid honey (that is sold in he supermarkets in the squeezable bottles) produced? Do they water it down or just harvest it earlier?
ay, @TinyK you opened a can of worms there…
To start, fresh honey is very liquid very runny. It is what scientists call a ‘supersaturated solution’ of 3 sugars (fructose, mainly, and glucose, with a minor melezitose content). Like any other supersaturated solution, sooner than later, the sugars start crystalizing (that makes the honey settle, more solid).
A lot of the honey that you buy in the supermarkets has been ‘duped’ - for commercial, marketing or economic reasons- for example, adding sugar water (glucose) so it crystallizes slower, so it is runnier for longer. Or adding corn syrup (a cheaper sweetener with thicker thixotropic honey-like characteristics), or with god-knows-what. I am talking about ‘international honeys’ – and this includes, unfortunately ‘european’ honey. The beekepers are not guilty, it is just that the honey passes through a lot of hands inbetween; 1kg of sugar costs 1 Euro. 1 kg of honey, 8 - 30 Euros (depending on the country and honey). And there is a lot of greediness on the trade…
let me give you a couple of examples: China alone dwarfs the rest of the world, when it comes to honey production - It produces 25% of the global honey production; 500K tons of honey per year. China exports about 30% of it (140K tons, or about 267M US$). They export mainly to UK, Japan, Belgium, Poland and Saudi Arabia. Chinese honey exports to US are totally banned due to price dumping and fake honey issues. The largest exporter of honey to US is India, who has doubled production in 10 years, and is now also having the same quality issues than the Chinese.
The European Union produces, each year, about 280K tonnes of honey, from about 20 million hives. During the last 10 years, the production has experienced ups and downs, of up to 30%, due to bad weather conditions, the arrival of the Chinese bee-pest (varroa), and COVID - which affected…the beekeepers!
How strange… China’s production is each year stable and growing, despite the climatic change, COVID or their pesticide problem. (In some regions of China, the massive pesticide concentration has killed all of the bees, and the polinization of apple trees has to be made by human hand). Europe imports about 190K tonnes of honey from non-European countries, and 1/3 of it comes from China…
You can see here the European anti-fraud office, that presentes the results of the 2023 QC analyses of European honeys… The OLAF report 2023: Investigative activities - OLAF’s investigative performance in 2023 - Protecting EU revenue - No money for fake honey - From investigation to legislation ; from 230 samples of honey, 46% were adulterated…
Switzerland is better (only 10% - 20% adulteration found), although some very interesting…like honey with viagra (seized by Swissmedic) Supposedly herbal products
Please, buy only honey from reputed sources, and look carefully at the label!!!
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