Wait, let me guess... Was it the Bumble office?
You really made an account just for that?
[deleted]
20k honey bees took over a tech company’s empty office during lockdown
41–50 of 81 posts
Re: 20k honey bees took over a tech company’s empty office during lockdown
#42Re: 20k honey bees took over a tech company’s empty office during lockdown
#43Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes! 100% call local beekeepers when possible for an almost always free removal. A beekeeper will sometimes even PAY you so they can come move the hive. No such luck with wasp and hornet nests though. Had to pay to have one of those removed from the siding in our house. And wow were they mad when the beekeeper started vacuuming them up. Got talking to the guy for a while, fascinating industry. He's very nervous about…
What about carpenter bees? I've seen a lot of those around lately and have been thinking about checking the roof. Do they have the same value as honey bees?
Carpenter bees are awesome, they pollinate flowers (so we can have fruits in our backyard) and have an awesome short life of minding their own business.
Re: 20k honey bees took over a tech company’s empty office during lockdown
#44Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes! 100% call local beekeepers when possible for an almost always free removal. A beekeeper will sometimes even PAY you so they can come move the hive. No such luck with wasp and hornet nests though. Had to pay to have one of those removed from the siding in our house. And wow were they mad when the beekeeper started vacuuming them up. Got talking to the guy for a while, fascinating industry. He's very nervous about…
What about carpenter bees? I've seen a lot of those around lately and have been thinking about checking the roof. Do they have the same value as honey bees?
Yes! Carpenter bees are just as important as honey bees. While they don't create honey like honey bees do these carpenter bees are vital for pollination.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carpenter_bee#Ecological_signi...
Re: 20k honey bees took over a tech company’s empty office during lockdown
#45Earlier quoted context omitted.
My dad and sisters are beekeepers. They run around all year to capture swarms. First, they try to capture the queen and mark her, then keep her extra safe in a special cage. Then they have a "bee vacuum" which is basically a shop vac hooked up to a bucket, both with a really low flow rate to avoid injuring the creatures. Most of the time, it's an entertaining process and the bees are as gentle as flies.
> They run around all year to capture swarms. There may be a difference in certain regions, but usually swarms are a spring thing, with another small reoccurrence in autumn. Mid summer is quiet and winter has none. This relates to the times at which a queen can mate - there are no male drones in winter (the females kicked them out!) and so any queen that hatched would be a virgin, and couldn’t lay. Sometimes swarms w…
The ones in the "off seasons" are usually very aggressive from what I've heard. They typically ran away from home to break away from some environmental stress I've been told? I'm not a beekeeper :) Just repeating what I've heard
Re: 20k honey bees took over a tech company’s empty office during lockdown
#46Earlier quoted context omitted.
My dad and sisters are beekeepers. They run around all year to capture swarms. First, they try to capture the queen and mark her, then keep her extra safe in a special cage. Then they have a "bee vacuum" which is basically a shop vac hooked up to a bucket, both with a really low flow rate to avoid injuring the creatures. Most of the time, it's an entertaining process and the bees are as gentle as flies.
> They run around all year to capture swarms. There may be a difference in certain regions, but usually swarms are a spring thing, with another small reoccurrence in autumn. Mid summer is quiet and winter has none. This relates to the times at which a queen can mate - there are no male drones in winter (the females kicked them out!) and so any queen that hatched would be a virgin, and couldn’t lay. Sometimes swarms w…
Our friends had a bee swarm show up in one of their trees this summer after a big storm. Their neighbor happens to do beekeeping, so he came over and helped them set up a hive for the swarm.
I think they still have the bees. Haven't heard much about it lately.
Re: 20k honey bees took over a tech company’s empty office during lockdown
#47Cue the typical "Nature is Healing" especially because pollinators are under massive pressure due to pesticides and herbicides. Having said that, I'm glad they called a good beekeper who was able to rescue the hive. Also, I've heard that if you have a bee infestation in your attic for example, not to call an exterminator, but to call a beekeeper. Often these new hives are valuable to hobbyists and they are happy to c…
Yes! 100% call local beekeepers when possible for an almost always free removal. A beekeeper will sometimes even PAY you so they can come move the hive. No such luck with wasp and hornet nests though. Had to pay to have one of those removed from the siding in our house. And wow were they mad when the beekeeper started vacuuming them up. Got talking to the guy for a while, fascinating industry. He's very nervous about…
In the past there were companies that would take a hornet hive for free. They'd drop it into a nitrogen filled container and sell the hornets for medical research
My memory is fuzzy on the details but that's the gist of it
Re: 20k honey bees took over a tech company’s empty office during lockdown
#48Earlier quoted context omitted.
> They run around all year to capture swarms. There may be a difference in certain regions, but usually swarms are a spring thing, with another small reoccurrence in autumn. Mid summer is quiet and winter has none. This relates to the times at which a queen can mate - there are no male drones in winter (the females kicked them out!) and so any queen that hatched would be a virgin, and couldn’t lay. Sometimes swarms w…
The ones in the "off seasons" are usually very aggressive from what I've heard. They typically ran away from home to break away from some environmental stress I've been told? I'm not a beekeeper :) Just repeating what I've heard
This must be somewhere warms
and with very mild winters?
NZ is lucky to have fairly easy going bees - this doesn’t mean that they are all friendly, just that Africanised bees are so much worse. There are accounts of them flying into smokers and putting them out. It’s all rather intense.
Re: 20k honey bees took over a tech company’s empty office during lockdown
#49For reference, an average hive has 30k bees in it (20-50,000 if you want a range).
Re: 20k honey bees took over a tech company’s empty office during lockdown
#50Cue the typical "Nature is Healing" especially because pollinators are under massive pressure due to pesticides and herbicides. Having said that, I'm glad they called a good beekeper who was able to rescue the hive. Also, I've heard that if you have a bee infestation in your attic for example, not to call an exterminator, but to call a beekeeper. Often these new hives are valuable to hobbyists and they are happy to c…
Finding a hive that can survive the winter can be a multi-year event (at least for me it was). The hive which ended up surviving came from a captured swarm
What was the cause of the deaths?
Here is usually varroa - I’m just contemplating getting my autumn treatments in, as the little horrors are actually visible on frames now. I hate them so much.