I’m on my way!

[pargyle]

That's all good advice and as with all your posts thankfully not at all patronising, thanks James !

I think the manky old comb is a really good attractant...I also find that a box that bees have previously lived in helps ...otherwise I paint the inside of the bait box with propolis dissolved in meths... the resultant bee smell is fantastic. I put lemongrass oil on a tissue just inside the entrance..there is no doubt bees are definitely attracted to lemongrass oil.. get some on you hands or clothes and see what happens ! Whether it actually attracts the scout bees ? Not sure but it can't do any harm. I've also used swarm lures...they have seem some success but I think, as with many things bee related, there is a degree of luck involved. I do think that swarms of bees do return to the same spot ... I have a tree in the front garden where swarms regularly settle ( not always mine) and whilst I raise the issue not wishing to start a debate there is plenty of apocryphal evidence that bees are attracted to sites where energy lines intersect.

 

[FidoDido]

I think the manky old comb is a really good attractant...I also find that a box that bees have previously lived in helps ...otherwise I paint the inside of the bait box with propolis dissolved in meths... the resultant bee smell is fantastic. I put lemongrass oil on a tissue just inside the entrance..there is no doubt bees are definitely attracted to lemongrass oil.. get some on you hands or clothes and see what happens ! Whether it actually attracts the scout bees ? Not sure but it can't do any harm. I've also used swarm lures...they have seem some success but I think, as with many things bee related, there is a degree of luck involved. I do think that swarms of bees do return to the same spot ... I have a tree in the front garden where swarms regularly settle ( not always mine) and whilst I raise the issue not wishing to start a debate there is plenty of apocryphal evidence that bees are attracted to sites where energy lines intersect.

*plenty of apocryphal evidence that bees are attracted to sites where energy lines intersect*

Whoa! Really??

 

[Erichalfbee]

I’ll second Philip. My bait hive which gets swarms every year sits at just such an intersection.

 

[Superlativesoul]

I’ll second Philip. My bait hive which gets swarms every year sits at just such an intersection.

My fellow beekeeper regularly gets a swarm attracted to a small Bush, that is where I got my first colony from .a friend used a divining rod and it was affected possibly by lay lines .Who knows
John

 

[JamezF]

Whereas I strongly believe that "energy lines" or whatever you call them are a complete load of tosh

James

 

[JamezF]

Whereas I strongly believe that "energy lines" or whatever you call them are a complete load of tosh

To save me ranting again, I'll just post this link to a previous one and save a lot of effort

https://beekeepingforum.co.uk/threa...cupy-my-traffic-cone.53110/page-2#post-828686

James

 

[pargyle]

*plenty of apocryphal evidence that bees are attracted to sites where energy lines intersect*

Whoa! Really??

http://www.dave-cushman.net/bee/leylines.html

 

[JamezF]

http://www.dave-cushman.net/bee/leylines.html

Alternatively that article might be considered as clear evidence that people with poorly developed reasoning faculties exist

James

 

[pargyle]

To save me ranting again, I'll just post this link to a previous one and save a lot of effort

https://beekeepingforum.co.uk/threa...cupy-my-traffic-cone.53110/page-2#post-828686

James

A few years ago .. people scoffed at plants and trees communicating with each other ... now we find that they do - via fungi ... although on what level remains an unexplained phenomena - we don't yet have a full explanation but it seems from observations that there are symbiotic relationships.

https://theconversation.com/do-tree...-wide-web-heres-what-the-evidence-says-199806

Or perhaps you dispute that as well ? There is so much about the earth and nature that we don't know about and so many things we see happening but can't scientifically prove - companion planting for instance or planting in accordance with the phases of the moon ? Why have my dogs always laid, for preference, in the sames spot in the garden, despite the last one being separated from our previous dog by a two year interval after the last one died - he finds the same spot and according to my divining rods the spot is a multiple intersection ? Why, when someone, who does not believe in energy lines, puts the divining rods in their hands and finds, in a blind test, the same intersections that I find ? I can only report what I see with my own eyes and experience - I can't offer scientific explanations because, at present, there are none that hold significant credence.

I'm not a paid up member of the flat earth society - all I respond to is things that work - I don't always crave explanations.

 

[ericbeaumont]

Ooh why take it out?

As Dani sad, robbers will clean it out, but another good reason comes to mind: you don't know whether the old comb & honey given to you contains disease spores, and it is not good practice to use another beekeeper's combs. Robbing is a good way to spread dlsease.

very confusing

the advise in one course will be different from another

if you do that, you get told off for jumping in too quickly

There are multiple methods and techniques to deal with each facet of beekeeping and all may work, depending on variable circumstances, so expect and embrace confusion for the next few years as trainers, books and bees teach you the ropes. You will learn most from the bees.

You will get good advice here but it would help us if you took it that way (even if delivered bluntly) and not as personal insult; some of your responses - that you feel 'told off', 'shouted at', 'that's me told' or 'looked down on' - come across as overreaction, and get us nowhere.

I do like the way The Apiarist writes.

Yes, a source of calm and reasoned information. Look also at Dave Cushman's A-Z, and Black Mountain Honey and The Norfolk honey Company on Youtube.

 

[Antipodes]

http://www.dave-cushman.net/bee/leylines.html

Have you ever seen a drone congregation area?

 

[FidoDido]

As Dani sad, robbers will clean it out, but another good reason comes to mind: you don't know whether the old comb & honey given to you contains disease spores, and it is not good practice to use another beekeeper's combs. Robbing is a good way to spread dlsease.




There are multiple methods and techniques to deal with each facet of beekeeping and all may work, depending on variable circumstances, so expect and embrace confusion for the next few years as trainers, books and bees teach you the ropes. You will learn most from the bees.

You will get good advice here but it would help us if you took it that way (even if delivered bluntly) and not as personal insult; some of your responses - that you feel 'told off', 'shouted at', 'that's me told' or 'looked down on' - come across as overreaction, and get us nowhere.


Yes, a source of calm and reasoned information. Look also at Dave Cushman's A-Z, and Black Mountain Honey and The Norfolk honey Company on Youtube.

Re: diseases - I put it in the freezer for two days (she advised me to), would that help at all?

 

[FidoDido]

To save me ranting again, I'll just post this link to a previous one and save a lot of effort

https://beekeepingforum.co.uk/threa...cupy-my-traffic-cone.53110/page-2#post-828686

James

See, I am a complete sceptic about anything “woo” but I’d absolutely love a reason to believe any of it

I remember seeing a programme on dowsing. When - inevitably - they all failed when tested properly, one old boy reckoned it was God having a laugh

 

[pargyle]

Have you ever seen a drone congregation area?

Yes ... there is a well documented one near Gilbert White's house in Selborne, Hampshire - first documented by Gilbert White in the 1700's and still there today. I've come across another one in the New Forest to the South West of Brockenhurst. It's quite spectacular when you find one ..the noise and activity is extraordinary. Again, there is no commonality to be able to predict where Drones congregate .. they are not defined by topography, climate or proximity to anything obvious - they are just there (unless you accept that bees can define something that we cannot ?)

 

[Erichalfbee]

Re: diseases - I put it in the freezer for two days (she advised me to), would that help at all?

Maybe her bees are clean and so is the comb but visiting bees can carry disease. AFB for a start. My BKA training apiary is half a mile away as the bee flies. They had AFB three years ago. It was a worrying time till the SBI cleared my hives.

 

[pargyle]

See, I am a complete sceptic about anything “woo” but I’d absolutely love a reason to believe any of it

I remember seeing a programme on dowsing. When - inevitably - they all failed when tested properly, one old boy reckoned it was God having a laugh

Don't knock it until you have tried it .. all you need is an open mind and two bent bits of wire ..

 

[Erichalfbee]

I remember seeing a programme on dowsing. When - inevitably - they all failed when tested properly, one old boy reckoned it was God having a laugh

I know water boards dowse

 

[Erichalfbee]

Don't knock it until you have tried it .. all you need is an open mind and two bent bits of wire ..

A nice pair of turned handles from Pargyle Enterprises helps too.

 

[pargyle]

A nice pair of turned handles from Pargyle Enterprises helps too.

Still available ...£5 a set plus postage ! Yew wood from trees in my garden and copper coated iron rods.

 

[JamezF]

A few years ago .. people scoffed at plants and trees communicating with each other ... now we find that they do - via fungi ... although on what level remains an unexplained phenomena - we don't yet have a full explanation but it seems from observations that there are symbiotic relationships.

"People"? What "people"? "People" with a deep understanding of the natural world and plant biology? Or would these be the same sort of "people" who claimed that we were about to enter a new ice age in the 1970s when in fact there was absolutely no scientific consensus suggesting such a thing?

companion planting for instance or planting in accordance with the phases of the moon ?

What happens (at least) in certain instances of companion planting is well understood as far as I'm aware. Planting in accordance with the phases of the Moon has been debunked frequently. I believe many fans claim it's to do with the way that water behaves under the influence of the Moon's gravity (like it does to create the tides, right?) whilst ignoring the fact that water in contained spaces such as plant cells will behave completely differently.

Why have my dogs always laid, for preference, in the sames spot in the garden, despite the last one being separated from our previous dog by a two year interval after the last one died - he finds the same spot and according to my divining rods the spot is a multiple intersection ?

Perhaps dogs just like that spot. What have you done to discount any other plausible explanations? What other explanations have you even considered?

Why, when someone, who does not believe in energy lines, puts the divining rods in their hands and finds, in a blind test, the same intersections that I find ?

Without accurate and specific documentation of the test, that's really not an answerable question.

I can only report what I see with my own eyes and experience

Which is therefore subject to whatever biases, prejudices and errors of judgement that affect you. As I've posted before, one of the most important parts of testing a hypothesis (that dowsing works, for instance, or that "energy lines exist) is eliminating the issues that humans unwittingly bring with them.

James