Post by beesting on Mar 30, 2005 20:34:55 GMT -7
I recieved this from another forum from a friend that knows I follow the world of beekeeping. My opinion is the poster is talking about "Incense" Ceder shavings???
(snip)
: Apparently, this bee shortage has created a black market -- or perhaps it's a black and yellow fuzzy market, nonetheless -- there be bee banditos in them thar hills.
Hi de ho Everyone,
Well I do not know if my little bit of information can help but since you never know about these things, I thought I'd might as well share. When we were living in England, I had a wonderful opportunity to learn about bees. One day I looked out in my backyard and it was literally covered in bees. I thought maybe I was in some sort of grade B horror flick at first. But then they settled down and I realized that there was a new hive in my backyard. So I called the local Beekeeper to find out what to do. He immediately rushed to my house to collect this new Queen and her subjects.
We became instant friends and he gave me quite the education on bees. As is my habit, I take in all sorts of information because you never know when it will come in handy. He of course told me about thier many enemies of which wasps, in particular yellow jackets, are some of thier biggest enemies. Since then I never pass up an opportunity to help control the yellow jackets population. I have found that the best way is to find thier nests and wait until dark. If the nest is hanging you knock it down and destroy it, if it is underground you simply cover the opening with dirt. When the Beekeeper showed me his hives there were cedar shaving all over the ground and so I asked why. He said that cedar keeps mites and other sorts of insects out of thier hives. So ever since I moved into this house 3 yrs ago now, I have followed his advice. I try to keep down the yellow jacket population and have investigated the woods surrounding my house and located all the wild bees. Every spring I cautiously approach the wild hives and throw cedar shaving everywhere around them. The first year the bees were a little unhappy with me but the last two years they have not bothered with me at all. And thier hives have gotten alot larger which I think may mean that they are prospering. Also two years ago I shared this with the local Beekeeper and he found the information fascinating and immediately took it to heart.
He told me this past winter that he appreciated the advice and has found that the cedar really does help and that his bees are doing great. He takes hives to many of the local
farmers and makes sure that he sets his hives on plenty of cedar shavings. He also said that last year he started putting cedar oil on the openings to his hives and since he
started doing that, that his bees have gotten alot healthier. In fact I recently talked to him and he told me that he has twice the amount of new queens than he has ever had before. I am finding all this very interesting as I have been doing studies on cedar oil and have found that most insects do not like it. But it seems that the insects that do not like it are usually parasitical ones. Like fleas and ticks and mosquitoes and clothing moths. It does not seem to bother any sort of bees or wasps or butterflies. These are just some simple observations from an amauteur researcher and I hope that they may help someone. many blessings ttfn jas(end snips)
If my memory still serves me, the "Trachael" mite was first discovered in "The Isle of Man" an island close to England. Maybe this English beekeeper has finally found something that works?
........beesting.