BBKA Forum

On the subject of gloves and smokers I tried and experiment when using the adapted snelgrove 2 on my normally mean girls.
Very thoroughly went over my leather gloves being sure I "had " got all the stings out, put them on and gave them a bit of a wash under the tap. Not enough to soak through them but enough to remove most of any smokey smell and hopefully sting pheromone, then gave them a very light spray with deodorant and I do mean very .
Along with this I didn't smoke the enterance or under the crown board and just went nice and slowly through the frames moving the couple of capped ones into the spare brood box ,along with some stores and setting the supers to one side; after an little peek at how they were doing.
Even with having to pull it apart a second time to put the supers in the right place I only used the smoker once to discourage a very persistent vail bumper that was upsetting my Mrs.
So it looks like over smoking and smelly gloves may have been my issue.

You sound sorted:)

Well sorted Bobby. I've inspected a few hives from hell to find them like pussy cats (mainly). Often the leather gloves the owner was using were covered in so many stings so they were a walking pheromone attack gloves.
If you use nitryl and get a sting, try wafting that sting over the hive you will see how the bees react....then imagine their reaction with a few hundred old stings embedded...

I have a tin of air freshener in my tool tray..when I get stung I give the spot a quick spray and it seems to help stop any more stings..

Its not all B.S.
I can confirm with absolute authority that the old wives tale regarding having a hidden hole in the veil will result in stings to the neck is ,in fact,spot on.

Alfred wrote: ↑

13 Jun 2021, 14:04

Its not all B.S.
I can confirm with absolute authority that the old wives tale regarding having a hidden hole in the veil will result in stings to the neck is ,in fact,spot on.

My favorite one is not synching in the elastic at the bottom of my smock tight , that results in the famous Folk Dance from which Morris Dancing originated (complete with hands waving) of getting a pull over the head smock off as quick as possible while retreating to the shed squealing like a big girls blouse.
Now you know why Morris Dancers wear silly hats and white shirts. The sticks. ribbons and bells are purely for the tourists.

Some kind old gent told me today that you should never put wet frames back in a hive till just before dusk.
The reason he gave actually made a fair bit of sense "If you do it on a hot day your hive will almost certainly trigger robbing"
I took the advice and didnt see any signs of it. might see what they look like at 7 or 8 am but i would think by then they should have licked them clean and stored it in the other frames

Bobbysbees wrote: ↑

16 Jun 2021, 21:20

Some kind old gent told me today that you should never put wet frames back in a hive till just before dusk.
The reason he gave actually made a fair bit of sense "If you do it on a hot day your hive will almost certainly trigger robbing"

The robbing that this method deters is robbing of other hives, not the hive that the wet frames go onto. This is because there's no waggle dance to communicate that the food source is 'above' and so the foragers will leave the hive looking for the nearest available source of food, which in an apiary will be the other hives.

Not sure I've explained that very well, but hopefully you'll get get the gist!

There is no robbing going on in either scenario.
What happens is the bees in the hive can't communicate where the nectar source is as it's so close (as Caroline says) ....so they dash hither and there and it looks like robbing because you see frenzied bee activity all over the place. .It all settles down within 30 minutes when they "learn" where the new frames are. It's a case of beekeepers seeing one thing and assuming it's something else. Same happens if you leave a wet super out near the hives. Lots of frenzied activity for 30 minutes....ohh they are robbing. No they are looking for close by food source in several directions. As no directions for nearby rich nectar sources. instructed


But putting wet supers on late night you don't get this activity.