Our first bee rescue in a year!!

Hey eveyone what a busy week I had... Yesterday had to get around 12 000 eggs packaged and out and then 'sore back and all' head off to rescue a feral bee swarm on a friends farm!

IMG20200919WA0000.jpg

Reason I havent rescued bees in a year? Time simply is not what it used to be and we have around 30 super strong swarms now so not a priority as it used to be anymore!

IMG20200919WA0003.jpg

Beekeepers may remove the entire honeycomb to harvest honey. Honey bees consume about 8.4 lb (3.8 kg) of honey to secrete 1 lb (454 g) of wax,[1] so it makes economic sense to return the wax to the hive after harvesting the honey. The structure of the comb may be left basically intact when honey is extracted from it by uncapping and spinning in a centrifugal machine—the honey extractor. If the honeycomb is too worn out, the wax can be reused in a number of ways, including making sheets of comb foundation with hexagonal pattern. Such foundation sheets allow the bees to build the comb with less effort, and the hexagonal pattern of worker-sized cell bases discourages the bees from building the larger drone cells.

"Artificial honeycomb" foundation plate in which bees have already completed some cells
Fresh, new comb is sometimes sold and used intact as comb honey, especially if the honey is being spread on bread rather than used in cooking or as a sweetener.

Broodcomb becomes dark over time, because of the cocoons embedded in the cells and the tracking of many feet, called travel stain[2] by beekeepers when seen on frames of comb honey. Honeycomb in the "supers" that are not used for brood (e.g. by the placement of a queen excluder) stays light-colored.

Numerous wasps, especially Polistinae and Vespinae, construct hexagonal prism-packed combs made of paper instead of wax; in some species (such as Brachygastra mellifica), honey is stored in the nest, thus technically forming a paper honeycomb. However, the term "honeycomb" is not often used for such structures. More here as per wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honeycomb#:~:text=A%20honeycomb%20is%20a%20mass,stores%20of%20honey%20and%20pollen.&text=The%20structure%20of%20the%20comb,centrifugal%20machine%E2%80%94the%20honey%20extractor.

IMG20200919WA0004.jpg

Here we have a very new swarm as can be seen by the fresh white fragile combs. As they get older stronger and darker.

IMG20200919WA0005.jpg

We rehived and relocated these bees to our premesis last night. This morning woke up, successful rescue.

Nature the incredible!

I trust you have an amazing weekend!

Love and light, be blessed.
Cheer$:)



0
0
0.000
4 comments
avatar

The world of bees is simply fascinating!

Upped and Reposted

!tip

0
0
0.000
avatar

Sorry, the tip is higher than your deposit.
You can check your deposit by sending 0.001 HBD to @tipu with memo: status
(the minimal tip is 0.1 HBD/HIVE)

0
0
0.000
avatar

Ran to the bank and put more $$ in! Let's try it again without bouncing the tip!

!tip

0
0
0.000