Bees and Lavender

i dunno. maybe in aus but i have strong memories of honeybee issues on the news.

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It gets lots of attention in these parts (but I work in ecological sciences so any reference trips my filters).

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When I first started we had an above-ground backyard pool. They loved it. The neighbor kids initially freaked at seeing even one bee. Then after awhile the attraction of the pool outweighed their fear of the bees and they all got along fine. Later after the pool came down, the pizza oven helped socialize the neighbors to the bees :smile:

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This is all good stuff! I’ll have to check for some beekeeping Meetups. Also city ordinances. I hadn’t thought about that. Growing up in AK and other rural areas, I’m still not used to people telling their neighbors what to do on their own land.

Beekeeping is something that I really really want to do, but I’m scared since I had a fairly intense reaction to a wasp sting a few years back. I should probably talk to my doctor about that to see if there’s any way that I can try anyway.

Meanwhile, we do have a bee box in a remote-ish section of the property. We got it from a University of Nebraska citizen science project to try to support/study bumble bee populations. Sadly, I don’t think anyone has ever taken up residence (at least, I don’t notice any activity).

I’ve planted pollinator plants everywhere and my efforts seem to be paying off. We have a very healthy bee population (both honeybees and bumble bees) and this year we have had SO many butterflies!

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People are usually amazed to find out how many hives live close to them, wild hives are so well hidden and if conditions suit then they ‘swarm’ and thus (essentially) duplicate yearly in Spring.
I cannot speak for US conditions though because the prevalence of disease might control the wild populations.

Another point of interest is that a European Honey Bee can travel up to 5km to gather nectar/pollen or water so if you plant the crops they will come!

Another Fun Fact: A European Honey Bee Worker Adult will live for ~880km worth of flight, so the closer you put the food source to the hive the longer your bees live and the less stress it is on the Queen to keep population levels up.

You should certainly get an allergy test before you try to keep bees. A bee allergy is not something to take lightly and i mention my hives to all workers and visitors to the property to make sure they are safe.

I have been stung through my leather gloves… if you open a hive to check on its health (as one should regularly) then the chance of getting stung increases.
Also this depends on the Queen involved.
Because the Queen is the ‘brain’ of the hive her personality dictates the mood of the rest of the bees.

  • One of my hives has a wonderful placid Queen, i can even open the Brood Box with just gloves and no other protection, the bees are fine.
  • My other hive’s Queen is an absolute b!tch and i will not do anything to the hive without being fully suited up
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I have a trap hive out for the past two years. Nothing so far. Don’t know why they would use it because there is a whole forty acre forest around it, but I tried for optimal location with food and water source. This year I might just get a split from a local bee keeper. I can’t take care of the machines I own and use them, don’t know how I can deal with bees. But I have a top bar hive built and ready to go. Just need bees.

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Ditto. I’m about as allergic to bee & wasp venom as one can be without going into full anaphylaxis, so beekeeping is on the verbotten list.

Interesting fun fact straight from my allergist – since their venom is protein-based, treating a sting site with a paste made of meat tenderizer (Adolph’s or just straight MSG) and water will break down the proteins and minimize their effect. :wink:

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My last place had a pretty epic lavender plant.

it also had a lavender shrubbery!

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Interesting! I always assumed that all bees are gentle, and only wasps and hornets are aggressive. My property (and especially my garden) has a crazy healthy bee population, but they never bother me. I can work out there right alongside them and they just leave me alone. Now I may have to second guess the high trust level that I have for them! :fearful:

No, dont worry about the workers away from the hive.
Like any mumma they just go nuts if you threaten their home and babies!

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And the breed. The reason I picked Buckfast bees was the general (relative) level of docility of the breed. Nice bees - Catholic in fact :smile:

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Very proud of Gregor Mendel and Brother Adam as representatives!

I got mine from Texas (official US breeders) not direct from the Abbey but they’re related :slightly_smiling_face:

Funny story - in the US they can be shipped via the post office. So mine come in and I get a note left by the postman that they’re waiting to be picked up at the post office. Not because a signature is needed but because my local PO can’t find anyone willing to bring them on the route.

My wife goes to pick them up (I’m working). She tells them who she is. They let her into the back. There way in the back by the loading dock is a lone mail bin. No one around it. They point her to it and step back into the main part of the PO. No volunteer to help. She goes back to the car, grabs a towel and retrieves the two boxes. Walks back to the car. All the while everyone working there keeps backing away shaking their heads.

Most people don’t know you can order various critters to be delivered via the Post Office…bees…chicks…:grinning:

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My mom had a monkey she ordered by mail as a kid. When i lived in Alaska, there were ads for mail order brides still. Sad. On a happy note, that guy that mails potatoes is still open last i checked.

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lol! love that :heart: What ever happened to the old Postoffice creed of “Rain or shine, snow or sleet, your mail will be delivered…unless you ordered bees, then you’re on your own!”

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Dogs can also be a reason that the Postal Carrier doesn’t deliver.

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So I got my plants out of the grow room yesterday. I know I’ve probably done 100 things wrong but I had to get them out there before they croaked. I also lost the WAR (Wife Approval Rating) on a few things and had to reset.


Built a box…sort of. It’s a little too tall, but it’ll work for now. The ground has a lot of clay so we had to pitch fork it instead of tilling. That took forever but less future weeding, so that’s nice.

Soil doesn’t drain well with the clay and all. I attempted to mix some rock in there to aid drainage. I also elevated them to deal with the recent rain. Started out with separate mounds. Looked pretty nice.

Then I lost the WAR. The bed was originally supposed to be much larger/longer and wrap around the sidewalk by the house. Last-minute my wife decided that it was probably not the best idea. So I ended up with a much shorter better than planned. I know it’s not ideal to put the plants together this close, but I ran out of options.
All the most likely to succeed plants had their own mounds and I filled in the spaces with the less likely. Hoping that in the case of competition, the less likely are sacrificed over the better ones.

Still wanna get that box height down a bit, but that will have to wait. If you look closely you can see the roof is needing attention.

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that looks nice. honestly since it’s already in the ground i’d leave the boards, put in some sort of small moundy plants or bricks or rocks or something around the outside, and slowly build up the soil level inside, so you end up with a little raised bed. i think it would look really good.

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My wife suggests I stain or paint it later. It probably needs some sort of seal eventually. I like the idea of slowly building it up. It may help it out through the winter.