Managing your bees alongside looking after your dog

[SDM]

Mentoring . She started with three hives in October 2017 plus no training...

What doing ?

 

[Wingy]

My bees are on the allotment, only 1 hive at present but trying to increase to 4 by next winter, my Weimaraner goes everywhere with me and spends long days on the allotment digging rats out, chasing squirrels etc. One afternoon I was busy turning over a plot when I looked around, there was a large cloud of bees hovering around the hive. The dog was sat directly in front watching the entrance. The returning bees were stacking up trying to manoeuvre around her to get in. I whistled and the dog came to heal. Not 1 sting. The bees disappeared inside like water down a plug hole. If anything went bad I always have the option to put her in the truck.

 

[madasafish]

What doing ?

Ensuring her hives were fed and treated before winter.

 

[SDM]

Ensuring her hives were fed and treated before winter.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Nn5Yi60wCUg

 

[madasafish]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Nn5Yi60wCUg

Ah I am out of touch .. seen the ads numerous times but I automatically blank out ads for things I don't want to buy, don't need or can't afford....

 

[Eyeman]

My bees are on the allotment, only 1 hive at present but trying to increase to 4 by next winter, my Weimaraner goes everywhere with me and spends long days on the allotment digging rats out, chasing squirrels etc. One afternoon I was busy turning over a plot when I looked around, there was a large cloud of bees hovering around the hive. The dog was sat directly in front watching the entrance. The returning bees were stacking up trying to manoeuvre around her to get in. I whistled and the dog came to heal. Not 1 sting. The bees disappeared inside like water down a plug hole. If anything went bad I always have the option to put her in the truck.

From memory a Weimaraner has very short hair and is a light tan colour? Perhaps that is what I need rather than a shaggy, dark brown breed.

 

[SDM]

Ah I am out of touch .. seen the ads numerous times but I automatically blank out ads for things I don't want to buy, don't need or can't afford....

Generally, when it needs explaining it isn't funny. Made myself laugh at least.

 

[Erichalfbee]

My welsh Collie picked up a couple of stings as a pup. He comes with us but lies flat by the gate watching. In winter he runs to the pond by the hives. He knows when the bees don’t come out to get him.

 

[Millet]

My welsh Collie picked up a couple of stings as a pup. He comes with us but lies flat by the gate watching. In winter he runs to the pond by the hives. He knows when the bees don’t come out to get him.

The Staffy whippet is not so clever, with most working Bull breeds they thrive on pain and this little chit is no different, a small swarm was checking a bait hive out last year and the little dog was sat at the entrance catching the bees as they came in and out, god knows how many times she was stung but she enjoyed it all the same, in the end she had to be locked in the house for the sake of the bees, the collie X is similar however she will not sit at the hive entrances chomping on them but she kills honey/bumble and wasps in flight and any thing else that is within reach, neither have ever needed treatment for stings to the lips and tongue, neither of these two dogs will stop doing this no matter how hard they are disciplined.

For the OP suck it and see i have lost many pooches over the years but never to wasp and bee stings.

 

[For want of a better word]

From memory a Weimaraner has very short hair and is a light tan colour? Perhaps that is what I need rather than a shaggy, dark brown breed.

I like the dark shaggy local variety rather than some exotic import... let aloone a Cockkerpoo!!!!

Needless to say my Springer and Cornish Collie stay at home when we are out bee wrangling!!

Nos da

 

[Michael Palmer]

Charlotte knew which apiaries where she could get out of the truck. She must have had landmarks, because she always knew before we ever got there. She didn't hang out with me in the bees, she had rounds to do. Anyway, when I was finished with the bees, I would load the truck, give a whistle, and drive to the gate. She was always waiting somewhere along the lane.

 

[Ely]

My 11 year old border collie just sleeps all day. I saw her looking out over the marshes just taking in the view and the breeze last summer. She seemed to enjoy it just like a little old lady would and seemed very wise and deep in thought.

 

[ShinySideUp]

Someone once said that heaven is where we go to be with all the dogs we ever loved. I hope so.

I do hope so too because I wouldn't want to spend eternity with most of the people I've met!

 

[eltalia]

G'day...wouldn't be without a dog or two or three or so around, had a dog mate
for as long as I can recall, and then some as baby photos attest... images of
my "Blackie" after a mauling by dingoes.
The current patriach of the pack - a 13yr old Labrador Rottwieler first
cross - has a very sweet tooth to the point he cannot be trusted in the back
of the 'truck' with backfilled frames not sealed into a box. He licks them
clean as a whistle down to the foundation.
Because of the heat he is never too far away in a cool spot whilst I work, but
is quick to clean up any discarded honey filled comb as I pack the truck up.
He has been stung in the past, at a time in Life when he took the fight to
them and did often snap at a bee flying past, but these days he is happy
to share and rarely pays them any attention - or they him - as he munches on
comb the bees are keen to recover spillage from.
Don't ask me what happens to the wax as I have never poked around to find
out for myself. I can say there are never any wax coated afters ever seen lying
around his favorite dump sites.

Bill

 

[Wingy]

From memory a Weimaraner has very short hair and is a light tan colour? Perhaps that is what I need rather than a shaggy, dark brown breed.

Yes very light grey / sandy colour with very short hair but don't be fooled into thinking they don't moult. The fine hair gets everywhere if you don't groom regularly and is a pain to get off carpet etc.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

My old spaniel was fascinated with the bees, she would spend hours sat in front of the garden hives watching the bees go back and forth.
Also a previous dachshund we had loved being amongst the bees she'd often go missing and we'd invariably find her sat underneath one of the hives, chilling out and listening to/watching the bees about their business.

 

[nantmoel]

Always leave mine at home now, he used to come with me but I had a nasty hive 3 years ago and they attacked him, he was covered in bees all trying to sting him. Some managed, I had to kill loads as he was covered in them, I gave him an antihistamine and left him in the car while I closed the hive up and took him home. That was the last time he ever came with me to the bees..

 

[Millet]

Always leave mine at home now, he used to come with me but I had a nasty hive 3 years ago and they attacked him, he was covered in bees all trying to sting him. Some managed, I had to kill loads as he was covered in them, I gave him an antihistamine and left him in the car while I closed the hive up and took him home. That was the last time he ever came with me to the bees..

You should have taken him again, the outcome may well have been different.

 

[Poly Hive]

Why distress an animal to no positive outcome?

PH

 

[mbc]

My dog would rather brave the odd sting than be left at home. Some sights she has to stay in the truck due to livestock etc but most apiaries she can wonder while I work, she generally waits under the truck once she's had a nose around, no trouble really and good company.