Do bee keepers recognise their own bees?

[Nordicul]

Hi All,
Watching the bees working a Mahonia shrub in the garden today got me wondering....were they my own bees?

I didn't know if Beeks can recognise their bees and if so how?

The shrub is about 80 feet from my two hives, in the opposite direction, in a field prob about 500 feet away another Beek has hives.....I'd like to have thought it was my own girls getting my gardens bounty.

I tried trying to figure which direction they were coming from or departing too but I couldn't, again maybe there is a technique?

So please tell, Do you know your own bees?

Nordicul

 

[Curly green fingers]

I've no apairys near me for 3 miles at home so I'm certain when I walk the dogs 1/2 mile up the hill and see girlies on the gorse there mine I've watched them leaving and returning with gorse pollen so I'm pretty confident there mine . You could mark them I suppose.

 

[Murox]

Patience. One they have "tanked up" observe the direction in which the go, not easy but thats how to find the hive/nest location. Otherwise go really high tech.

 

[MartinL]

I sometimes have difficulty recognising faces.

+ given that there's a feral colony in the pub chimney??

At the height of summer, the ones fighting at the entrance or climbing the vertical face of the hive before takeoff can most accurately be identified as "Bogies". Whereas bees in the local area are just "unidentified".

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I've no apairys near me for 3 miles at home so I'm certain.

Are you really? how do you know? and what about feral colonies?

 

[alfazer]

The important skill is recognising bees that are definitely not your own bees. Those ones that annoy your neighbours or have them swarming on the eaves of their roof.
Definitely someone else's....different stripes, brown eyes, smaller wings.

 

[masterBK]

These are not bees but black wasps and those stains on their washing and on their cars are due to industrial pollution!

 

[enrico]

All mine are named. But I can't remember them all so I get them to wear name tags.

 

[Millet]

Mark all the bees in your hives with a different colour to the Queen.. that way you will now if they are yours or not...

 

[Swarm]

My garden is planted with wildlife in mind and it's a haven for pollinators. When I had hives down the bottom, I would regularly see the workers flying back to the hives but more fun was watching them on a good flow. My garden is on a slope with mature Oak, Ash and Birch at the far end with a large Bramley just before them. The hives were dotted around in the clearing and on a flow, there was a constant stream of traffic curving around the apple tree and gaining more height to clear the houses. The cars were dotted all the way up the street.

 

[Curly green fingers]

Are you really? how do you know? and what about feral colonies?

I know , I've spoken and know all the people in the hamlet. Feral bee's would be mad living up here

 

[Hivemaker.]

I know , I've spoken and know all the people in the hamlet. Feral bee's would be mad living up here

Nice and isolated, really good place, having almost 100 square miles with no other bees around.

 

[Curly green fingers]

Nice and isolated, really good place, having almost 100 square miles with no other bees around.

70 square miles so there's definitely other bee's

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[Curly green fingers]

70 square miles so there's definitely other bee's

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The picture is over the wall from my hives

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[Millet]

Feed them thistles...

 

[Curly green fingers]

Feed them thistles...

No need theres miles of them as far as the eye can see. behind there's lots of thorn as far as the eye can see going down to the valley.

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[Curly green fingers]

Going over towards the summit we topped them of and had a second flush of flowers

No need theres miles of them as far as the eye can see. behind there's lots of thorn as far as the eye can see going down to the valley.

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[Hachi]

The things we think about when winter comes calling

 

[ShinySideUp]

Although I'd like to think that bees on local plants are mine they may well not be, but I am happy that there are bees there at all, to whomsoever they belong, if, that is, belong is the correct word; can insects really be owned by anyone?

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

can insects really be owned by anyone?

only if you brand them