Just wondering. Is there a general rule of thumb? 4pm curfew? Or is it entirely temperature dependent, Italians return as soon as it starts to cool, Carniolans return at sunset, AHB fly all night? (There will be a zombie bees movie. Just wait.)
One hour before sunset and I shut the entrances. Anybody left out spends the night under the mesh floor
really? you lock your bees in each night? Is that to stop pests, robbers, bees going AWOL and out to nightclubs raving? Seriously- do you actually do that- then get up at dawn to open them every day? you donāt run a dairy do you?
Wow Dee,
Thatās discipline ā¦ Iād have set a click alarm as time is not stationary ! . Even my hens are under that curfew ā¦ At least in Nam we had a 22:00 thru the gate n bed check by 11:00. Of course since I was the strange over in Nam (job related ā¦) my position was always " Accounted For/not Present " ā¦ I drove the fuel trucks in the airfield so was on call 24/7 ā¦ Guess I always had the āPass-Keyā. Hmmm, no Paas-key in your Apiary ?!
. One of the many small aircraft I fueled in Nam.Thankz for the info n input ā¦
Rebell bees here in Coalfield,
Gerald
Wow Gerald is that you?
That looks like a Cessna Bird Dogā¦
Bee relevance? Hmm, well I once knew a pilot who had a swarm of bees settle inside his light aircraft. They made a lovely sticky home before he noticed, probably 3 months laterā¦
I imagine @Dee is talking about what she does when she needs to shut them in, for mowing grass, moving them etc. I doubt that even an OCD retired person has time to shut them in every night!
Heavens. I didnāt expect anybody to take me seriously. The bees take themselves to bed. My black bees generally take themselves out earlier and retire later and fly in worse weather than the others.
Dee !
I didnāt ā¦ Thus my reply ! ļø
I see some bees returning home when it is half dark. The other morning I was up before daylight, I made a cuppa, checked this forum & went out to checkout my live rat trap which is near a male pawpaw tree. It was kind of only about 1/3 light when I noticed the silhouette of a bee in the pawpaw flowers. I couldnāt believe my eyes.
Anyone into bedtime stories for bees? Why not?
Dee your storey about thd 4pm curfew reminds me of Ping, the duckling who stayed out all night rather than risk a smack for being the last home.
If you have important news, particularly if somebody close to you dies, you have to go tell the bees.
Tonight it is almost completely dark and many bees are returning with great loads of pollen in steady streamsš
Tonight after dark i went to put my bees to bed and check that the moths werenāt hovering. When they heard me, the guard bees told me to go and buzz off. One energetic guard tried to sting. Okay i said and left. A short storey.
To avoid waking the guards I use a flashlight with a red filter around the hives after curfew.
Thank you. Thatās a good tip #Steve_F.
I find that they fly up with the light - land on you and rather than angry buzzing they just crawl around. You donāt know they are there until eventually they crawl down your collar or up your trousers. Entanglement usually has only one painful outcome. I speak from recent experience on that one. I will have to try the red filter. We use them here looking at Penguins.