This man is crazy but he loves his job.

http://www.jpthebeeman.com/jpthebeeman/itemdisplay.asp?itemid=3665

I love how this dude is just all nonchalant about SCOOPING HANDFULS OF BEES OFF A TRUCK, barehanded, in street clothes.

Nope.

NOPE.

NOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPE

I really want to keep bees. There is a bee epidemic going on, and I want to do what I can to help... Colony collapse disorder is serious business.

Couldn't handle watching that for more than 30 seconds

F-that E36 M3!

I had to!

Yeah...pass.

In reply to Maroon92:

I think it would be interesting, but I'm not sure I could get past the whole stinging part of it.

As a general rule, they don't bother me. 20K-30K of them might be another story.

Wow. That's pretty crazy.

Maroon92 wrote: I really want to keep bees. There is a bee epidemic going on, and I want to do what I can to help... Colony collapse disorder is serious business.

That's really admirable of you.

I couldn't help getting a full-on body shiver watching that.

I could do that ....... I think. It's only honey bees

as long as you move slowly and do not get too aggressive with them, they are not going to sting

bgkast wrote: I had to!

This is the best.

In a swarm situation they are pretty docile. They are much more concerned with keeping track of the queen than they are in stinging. Using the lemon oil, which they really like, sugar water so they are distracted by a new, readily available food source, and smoking them so they don't get too riled up makes this job relatively easy compared to removing an established colony from a house. He really had them going in the box at one point, but I think the queen must have flown back up on the suv because they seemed to cover the side again after he went under the bumper. Cool to watch.

Maroon92 wrote: I really want to keep bees. There is a bee epidemic going on, and I want to do what I can to help... Colony collapse disorder is serious business.

Question:

How do you help without resorting to having a bee hive on your property? Planting flowers?

Enyar wrote:

Maroon92 wrote: I really want to keep bees. There is a bee epidemic going on, and I want to do what I can to help... Colony collapse disorder is serious business.

Question: How do you help without resorting to having a bee hive on your property? Planting flowers?

Limit your use of pesticides in your yard, provide plants that are nutritious and flower throughout the year, buy honey from local beekeepers, and call your local ag extension or bee club if you see a swarm before someone overreacts and tries to kill it with fire. If you plan on having a vegetable garden, having a beekeeper within a mile or two will help you get more production.

Here's a list of plants that are beneficial to honey bees.

This is a cool video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ewz7BW3DZNs&list=UUSRygjIHmKEwJ_6LdSvROTQ

There are a couple of times you can actually watch the entire hive move toward the box. This guy must really know his stuff.

Enyar wrote:

Maroon92 wrote: I really want to keep bees. There is a bee epidemic going on, and I want to do what I can to help... Colony collapse disorder is serious business.

Question: How do you help without resorting to having a bee hive on your property? Planting flowers?

Well, my plan is to eventually host several bee hives.

For the time being, yes, you can plant specific flowers that bees benefit from.

Plant a bee garden

This is my hand:

and here I am doing an inspection: Tame as kittens. I got 94 pounds of honey from one colony a few years back.

yeah, kittens is so fluffy

Though terrifying to some, honeybees are most docile when they're swarming like that.

Bees and I get along fine. They chill out in the flowers and occasionally buzz around my food but I can't ever recall being stung by one.

It's these motherberkeleyers that are on my "soon to be endangered" list. They go out of their way to draw my ire and I take special time to create new and interesting ways to dispatch them.

Apis_Mellifera wrote: Though terrifying to some, honeybees are most docile when they're swarming like that.

When I was in college, I took a beekeeping course. The school had one colony of hybrid bees, that were mean as a snake. Most bees are Italians and pretty docile.

Crazy makes money.