I got my first bees about 1929. I see. You just started out with one, right? Started out with four colonies
bought over on Jackson Creek. Right. And now how many do you have? I have about 160 up in the Fort Wayne
area. I have bees at home where I live. I have bees in locations east, eight or ten miles.
south eight or ten miles west of Whitley County, 20 miles and north of Fort Wayne. In other words, I
have bees all the way around Fort Wayne. There are a lot of bees up there. A lot of people have bees.
I see. Now, what would a person need to start beekeeping? What are some of the general necessities?
Well, of course you need bees. Right. Before you get the bees, you get the beehives.
You need beehives and all that goes with them. The frames that go in, the beehives, the foundation,
the sheets of wax that go in the frames. Then you need bees. This would be a good year to have picked
up bees. They were swarming a lot. You could pick up swarms. Last year I didn't see one swarm. Bees
swarmed very little last year. You can buy packages from the south, say Georgia, Florida, Alabama,
Mississippi, so on.
You can buy packages for this area. Oh, middle of April, last half of April would be a good time to
get these packaged bees. That's three pounds of bees and a queen. Put them in your hive. Then you would
have to feed them some to start. A good thing to feed them is a mixture of sugar and water,
half and half. Mix up a syrup and feed your bees. That'll get them started.
Right. And then when fruit trees and dandelions start blooming, hopefully they'd be able to get nectar
to live on and to build up. At that time of year, the queen starts laying a lot of eggs. They're getting
nectar. They're raising bees for the honey flow that comes in, say, June. I see. Now, what are some
of the equipment things you need? We know about the hive tool and the veil and the gloves. Now, what
else do you need?
Well, you just needed your hive body, which is what? Frames and? The hive itself. Hive body, frames,
foundation. And you can generally buy these by mail order or something like that? There are companies
that sell bee equipment. Several companies. And there are dealers. I understand there's one in Fort
Wayne now that deals in bee equipment.
This year, he had a hard time keeping enough supers. They seemed to sell out as fast as he got them
in, I understand. That's because you were getting a honey flow in this part of the country. Right. Up
in Fort Wayne, ordinarily, we would have a lot of honey on the bees by this time of year. June is the
honey month. But because of the rain, the wet weather, there hasn't been any honey flow.
The hives have very little honey in them at this time, and it's getting late enough that I'm getting
kind of anxious to see what's going to happen. What happens if there's not a honey flow? Will you not
be able to rob them at all? In other words, you won't be able to sell any honey this year, right? Well,
the honey crop varies a lot from year to year, depending on the blossoms and especially on the weather. Right.
And I've always gotten some honey. But here it is, July, haven't gotten any, but still have some hopes
of getting some honey. But some years they have averaged 100 pound, used to right along average 100
pound a year. For 100 hives, right? For one hive. Oh, for one hive, I see. 100 pounds on the average.
And some years, due to the difference in the weather,
They would maybe average 50 pounds and have had averages down maybe 20, 30 pounds. Depending very much
on the weather. And of course you have to have the blossoms. What happens when you take the honey off
the hive and you've got it here in the super? What do you do with it once you've got it in the frames
and so forth? Then you need an extract to get the honey out of the combs, put them back in the super,
save the combs,
Use them again next year. That's one thing about extracted honey. You can use your same combs year after
year. Now, if you're going to produce comb honey, you put on new foundation, new sheet of beeswax, get
new combs every year, and then you take the frames out, you lay them down, and you cut that honey out
in chunks, sell honey, beeswax, and all as comb honey. That's a little more expensive because you're
Wax is used up and you have to buy a new foundation every year. And they won't make as much honey. It
takes quite a bit of nectar or honey for a bee to eat to produce wax. They do not produce wax when they
are not getting a lot of honey. They must be getting very much honey, a good honey flow, then they can
produce wax and meal combs. Right, now producing this wax, they kind of, we'll get sidetracked here
a minute, they kind of
Do they take it into their system and some chemicals or something in their system and they mix it together
and presto, it comes out wax? Well, how does a cow produce milk? You never had a cow, did you? No, I
never had a cow. OK, well, you got me there. Now, you feed the old cow real well and she will secrete
milk. That's about all there is to it. Bees, if they are fed real well on nectar,
They'll secrete. The kind of nectar to eat, they secrete the bees' wax. Right. The stomach, the bottom
of the bee, the bottom of the stomach is in segments there. The outside of the bee is in segments. And
wax will be secreted out between these segments. And the bees will collect that wax and chew it in their
mouth and form it into wax, flexible wax and build combs. Right.
The wax is a secretion of a well-fed bee. OK. When they're not getting a lot of food, they cannot produce
wax. Like when you don't feed the old cow, she isn't going to produce any milk. OK. Now, you mentioned
when you run the honey through an extractor and it drains down into whatever you have it, drain into
a bucket or a jar or whatever, is it ready to be sold right then? Or is it treated? Or what's done to
it? Or is there anything done to it?
Well, there's two or three different ways. A good part of the honey is then warmed up. I have a tank,
a bottling tank that will hold three or four hundred pounds of honey. Strain it through cheesecloth
into the bottling tank and warm it up to 140 degrees and then put it in the jars and put the caps on
it. It does not granulate. Many people like unheated honey.
So it comes from the extractor, strain it through a cheesecloth. Need good warm weather to do that,
because it's hard to get that through that cheesecloth unheated. And sell the unheated honey. But that
will granulate for most honey. For the honey I get, clover honey, alfalfa honey, it granulates. Now,
your tulip poplar honey you got this year is not likely to granulate. Some honeys are a little different
sugars in them, and they
don't granulate nearly so soon. Some of them granulates right away. OK. Now, some people ask me, honey's
been cooked. I says, I don't know. What do you mean by cooked honey? Well, they don't know what they
mean by cooked honey. But 140 degrees certainly doesn't cook anything. You know how many degrees it
takes to boil water? No. You're going to boil your potatoes, going to boil your green beans. How hot
do you have to get them?
Well, I just turn on the burner and boil my water. It boils when it gets to the temperature it boils.
212 degrees. 212 degrees. And how close is 212 degrees to 140 degrees? Not very close. You don't boil
the honey. You don't cook the honey. You warm it. You heat it up. And it will strain better. And also
it doesn't granulate. So I sell it both ways.
Right. They want unheated honey. They come out in August when I'm extracting, and I can sell them unheated
honey, but I tell them it'll granulate. Sometimes when it granulates, that sugar granulates, goes into
crystals, and the moisture in there is left to not granulate, so the moisture that's left has a higher
water content, or the liquid that's left, the liquid that's left has a higher water content than the
honey did, and it can ferment a little.
I see, okay, well. Ordinarily not, it'll just granulate and not ferment. Okay. Well, is there anything
else you'd like to say? Anything else you'd like to tell us? About bees and beekeeping? Beekeeping,
most of the beekeeping is by people just keeping a few hives to get honey from the cells, maybe to sell
it a little. Right. In Indiana, it's
It's very difficult to make a living from beekeeping. There are a few places if you keep a lot of bees
and especially if you take them to Florida or Texas like a lot of people do in the winter time.
Some people, a few in Indiana do make a living from beekeeping but I could probably count them on one
hand the number of people that make a living from beekeeping in Indiana. For most people it's a sideline.
Just a hobby line? More or less a hobby.
But it's a hobby that if you work at it and know about the bees, it'll pay for itself. I went to Fort
Wayne. I think I mentioned I had these bees in Fort Wayne. I could make 50 cents an hour painting houses
in the summertime. I was a school teacher. I thought, gee, I can make that much with bees. So I took
up some bees.
second year had bees up there. They made the best crop of honey I ever saw in 1938. A fellow that had
an old 50, 60 colony said he sure was glad when winter came and then bees quit making honey. That's
the only time I've ever heard anyone say they're glad the bees quit making honey. He got tired of hauling
in honey. That was an exceptional year. Alright. Okay. Delmas, thank you very much. Yeah, you're on
now. Go ahead and start. This is a beehive.
Honey bees, you can see the bees flying in down here at the entrance. And we want to check in this hive
and see what condition the bees are in, see if there's any honey. And we need a smoker. A little smoke
will keep the bees down, keep them under control. When you raise the lid up a little, give them a little
smoke here, they'll know we're coming.
the inner cover, pry it up, a little more smoke. Now what does that smoke actually do to them? This
smoke causes them to go down and fill up with honey. Because they think there's a fire there in the
hive? Because they think there's a fire in the hive? Yes, that disturbs them. They fill up with honey
and when they get their stomach full they're in a good humor. Yeah. They won't sting so badly, so much when the
They have their stomach full. Right. Here we have a super with two, four, six, eight, ten frames. I'll
see if I can get a frame out. Okay. And we'll see if they have any honey. This is a hive tool. This
is the thing you need to work a hive with. Kind of like a crowbar, isn't it? The parts are glued together
with propolis. And when I come up here, I see a frame pretty well filled with honey.
Now, what's the white stuff there? This is cappings. Over here, more honey's capped. And in these cells
that aren't capped, there's some honey, some nectar there. And notice the bees are clustering on the
ones that aren't capped. Right. They're filling up with honey. Right. What about the rest of the super?
Is it looking pretty good? Can you tell without going into it in detail? They are pretty much like this
one, partly filled with honey. Yeah.
Usually there's more honey in the center of the super and the lesser in the outside frames. Those are
nice white tappings. Now this honey is rather dark honey made from the tulip poplar. Tulip poplar has
yielded nectar very well this year. Indiana, southern Indiana,
has a good crop of tulip poplar honey. I live up in northern Indiana where we get mostly clover. And
we haven't had a good year up there, but a very poor year, the poorest year I've seen in 40 years. But
they may make some yet. They had a good tulip poplar honey flow down in Kentucky and Tennessee and the
Carolinas and Virginia all over the southeast where the tulip poplar grows.
How long will it be before all the frames are filled there, would you say? I would say the tulip poplar
flow is over. The bloom is over. So they'll be putting in what now? What kind of honey will go in there
now? And if there's something else that blooms, they may get some more. Well, like clover or?
Something like that? Well, coming this time of year, second crop alfalfa would be the best guess.
I see. There is a lot of white Dutch clover around. Uh-huh. Some years, white Dutch clover yields. Right.
What are you looking for when you go into a hive? Specifically, what are some of the things you look
for? Well, if we go down here for them, we'll find the brood nest. Pardon me? Find the brood nest. Right.
Right. OK. That's where they raise the bees. Right. And we should find...
The brood down there should find eggs in the cells, some of them with larvae, some of them capped over
where the brood is going through the pupa stage. 21 days after the egg is laid, a full-grown bee hatches
out. Need a hive tool here again to get these apart. I don't know what's down in here. I haven't seen
these myself.
We'll see what we can find. Well, since it's my hive, I can tell you there's mostly honey in there.
Mostly honey? Yeah, mostly. That's what it's used for. I haven't found much brood in it. These get heavy
when they are full of honey. How heavy would you say that one is there? Well, that one's half full.
So it's what, about 30, 40 pounds? More like 20 pounds. 20 pounds. How heavy does one get generally?
One of these, this size super, would hold 35 pounds of honey.
I see. Is that one much lighter there? That one very little in it. How about this one? This one has
a little in it. Are they all drawn out? Is the foundation all drawn out there? Yep. We look at the outside
here. See here you have your white comb. A little honey. They're working on it. We put a sheet of beeswax
in here with the base of the cells on it. The bees will
use wax and build that out. The only time bees can create wax is when they are getting a lot of food.
When there's a lot of nectar coming in, they secret wax and they use wax to build their combs. I see,
I see. Now we're going to get down to the deeper part. This is the hive body. And down here we should
find some brood.
and get some idea about their queen. About how many bees? Could you estimate how many bees are in a
hive like this? Well, I'd say this hive has, oh, 30,000, 40,000. Is that good? Is that what they should
have? Huh? Just an ordinary hive. They may have swarmed. Yeah, that's what I worded. Colonies that haven't
swarmed have 60,000, 70,000 this time of year.
Yeah, I was afraid that it swarmed. Now down here you're looking specifically for larvae. This is what's
called the brood chamber, right? That's the brood chamber. And by looking at the larva, the brood combs,
I can tell what kind of a queen, how the queen is doing. A good one or an old one? I can tell more about
the queen by looking at one frame of brood.
than I can by looking at the queen herself. Now, what you mentioned earlier, a swarm. Why would a beehive
swarm? There's been more swarming this year than I've ever seen. Well, why? And that's been true all
over Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, the East, and the West, Minnesota, Dakotas. And two or three things.
We had an easy winter on them.
They came through the winter in good shape, and we've had a lot of rain. Yeah, and they don't like that
rain. And when it rains, that confines them to the hive, and they're crowded in the hive. As a result,
they will take an ocean to swarm. Bees are happy when they're working. And if we have a good season
with blossoms and good weather for them to work and give them room to put the honey, they're not likely
to swarm. I see.
But if they get crowded, if there's rain, cloudy days till they can't work, they will build queen cells.
And when the queen cells are about to hatch, the old queen and about half of the bees will go out as
a swarm. And just find a new home. The old queen's one goes out. They will go out here a ways and settle
on a tree. Right. Scouts go out in all directions.
looking for a place to establish their home. And they will find a hollow tree, and I've had them to
find empty hives that have setting out, and we'll move over there. Now this, they look like they're
empty. Notice these cells are dark. They've raised bees in them, brood, we call that brood, they've
raised brood in them. And every time they raise a cycle of brood, the comb gets a little darker. Uh-huh.
two or three more years this will be black. Now it's kind of brown. And here's just a few sails that
are capped. There are young bees right now hatching out. I see two or three of them here chewing off
the cappy. Can you bring that over a little closer to us? Sure. I want to see if I can get a good picture
of that. Now you tell me about how close. Okay, that's good. That's good. Now let me hold it right there.
Let me focus in on this now.
There is one. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I see that. It's breaking out. Now, what kind of bee is that? That's a
worker bee chewing her way out. If I help her just a little. She can maybe get a little. Get this off.
Right. You should see the bee crawl out. Now, they live how long? How long does a worker bee live? There
she comes. Oh, yeah. There she comes.
How long does a worker bee live? Well, it's been 21 days since the egg was laid. Right. She's hatching
out in 21 days. And this time of year, they'll live, say, six weeks. There you see a bee born. Right.
Fantastic. Now, what will that bee go and do now? Will it just eat for a while? That bee will get around,
get something to eat, and a few days it will start helping feed the larvae.
Right. Now, after she spends, say, two weeks helping feed larvae, she will start out. Here's another
one coming out. She will start out gathering nectar. All right. Now, I notice the bees are clustered
around the rim of the frame. Why is that? That's where the honey is. I see. They're gorging with honey.
They put the honey on the outside and the brood on the inside. That's right. They got the honey here
convenient.
It takes honey to feed the bees. It takes more than honey. Honey has no protein. You have to have protein
to raise young. Even older people need some protein, too. And the bees get their protein from the pollen.
Here, they've stored pollen. Around the edge of this, there's pollen stored. I see. And that's called
bee bread, isn't it? Bee bread, some people call it. Or it's pollen.
Right. Come here, Ann, I'll give you a bite of pollen. Come on, Bessie, get a bite. Oh, come on. You
want to help me? Just take a little nibble there, Ann. Take your finger and take that off of there.
Taste it. People pay several dollars. Now you can walk back out of the bees. People pay several dollars
a pound for that pollen. Yeah, that's right. You can put on a pollen trap and collect that and eat pollen,
sell pollen. It is rich in protein. Right.
Right. Now these cells, they look like they're empty. I see. Now why is that? Most of these cells. But
when I look in them, I see eggs in some cells. Oh. Very small. Just big enough with my bifolks I can
see them. Some of them I see larvae. Which means? Not much bigger than these eggs. Some of them have
a little larger larvae. That's a little worm in there. Which means what? These bees feed that larvae
continually. Yeah feed it what honey and pollen? Use a little water they use a little water in there.
Right. Mixing up the feed. Sure. Oops you're gonna get some there on your shirt. And this found a sheet
of foundation a sheet of wax is put in the middle to start this comb. Right. These build out this way
and they build out in this side so you can see the two sides are very much alike. Can you tell now does
this hive have a good working queen?
Well, I can tell better if I get a clomhorchol seal, but I can also tell by looking closely. Every cell
there has an egg or a pollen in it. I see. And when they're filling every cell, that indicates the queen
is all right. That's good. But I looked through a few more here. I'll find some that have more cells
kept. OK. All right. Can you see this bee here? Let me see. This one has a load of pollen on each side.
They carry pollen on their legs. Here's another one. One right here. Oh, yeah. OK. Here's another one
with pollen. See, they're bringing in pollen day. It's a good day to collect pollen. Uh-huh. Maybe one
will crawl up here on my hive tool with a load of pollen. Not going to do it. They go the other way.
Yeah. That one flew off. But there's bees coming in all the time with pollen.
There's one with pollen on each side. They're nectar. The nectar to make honey is carried in an extra
stomach they have. They have a nectar sack. Oh. There you see the loads of pollen on his legs. Look
at it kick. Look at it turn that stinger up. If I could get your finger, you'd lose me. And you want
the bee. Take a good look at it. Can you see that pollen?
Yeah, that's good, yeah. Now where does he get this pollen? Does that come off the flowers or? This
pollen comes from the flowers. This yellow pollen this time of year. I don't know. Now that's the color
they get off a dandelion when dandelions are blooming. Of course there's not many dandelions blooming
now. Might mention the most important thing for bees, the most important thing they do for us. Of course
they make honey. That's the sweetest thing they do. Yeah. But the most important work of bees
is to pollinate plants for us. All right. This is zucchini time of year. They're just coming on. Uh-huh.
You can't raise zucchinis without bees. Well, you see, my daddy, he has bees, has zucchinis, and he
raises zucchinis. He doesn't have bees. Sure you can if you don't have bees. But your neighbors have
bees. Somebody around you has bees. Somewhere a half a mile, someone a mile, or someone within two miles
away has bees.
early in the morning the sun comes up those bees find that zucchini patch and they carry the pollen
from the male flowers to the female flowers and pollinate them I raise zucchinis the female flowers
were blooming two weeks ago and those zucchinis they just shriveled up and died the zucchini part because
there were no male flowers to get pollinated
Well after a week's time the male flowers bloom out in this variety I have and every zucchini that comes
out and blooms grows and makes a big zucchini. They get pollinated by the bees. You can't raise them
without bees. You ever see the big red apples? Red delicious apples. You can't grow them without bees.
When the people went to the state of Washington they found that a good place to grow apples. They set out
Red delicious apple trees, acres and acres of them. And those trees bloomed and no apples. Next year,
they bloomed and no apples. Here in Indiana, they put out red delicious and they always bore apples.
Well, they found out that red delicious has to be pollinated by some other variety. They cut down a
delicious tree here, down here ways, cut down down and planted other varieties.
and brought in bees and they grew the big red delicious apples you see. Right. They grow them out there
by the hundreds of acres but there's other varieties mixed in and they got along just fine for many
years. DDT was outlawed and they started using I believe seven to spray their sweet corn. They grow
sweet corn in the same area and when they started using seven
spraying that sweet corn every week. When that touches a bee, it kills it right then. And they sprayed
them this week and killed every bee that was out flying over the fields. The next week they sprayed
again, killed every bee that was out. And the next week, and they had corn planted at different times,
say a week or two weeks apart, so there was a spring there, a good part of the summer.
And by the time the summer was over, the bees were all gone, all killed. And the people came time with
the apples to bloom. No bees to pollinate them. They hauled bees for 1,000 and more than 1,000 miles
to those apple orchards to pollinate their apples. Right. That cost them. Got apples. Another thing,
almonds. In the bee magazines, they advertise for bees in California.
Bring your bees out in January to pollinate our almonds. They will pay, oh, $20 more or less for each
hive of bees. You move into their almond groves to pollinate their almonds. Here in this country, your
clover seed, you have a field of clover and want to get a seed crop, you must have bees there.
And up in the northern part of the state, especially in Michigan, where they grow more apples, they
pay to have bees moved in there or else keep bees in their orchards. I see. Now around this part of
the country, there's more bees than apples, so you don't have to be concerned about who's going to pollinate
your apples. Right. Now you say... Blueberries, they're blueberries. They move in bees, pay to have
bees moved in their blueberry orchards.
What about the corn and crops like that? Do they have to be pollinated or does the wind do that well
enough? Corn has a dry, powdery pollen that the wind will carry it. I see. Apples have a sticky pollen
that cannot be carried by the wind. Zucchini pollen cannot be carried by the wind. But grasses, corn,
many things have a pollen that the wind will carry from one plant to the other and requires no bees.
But the bees will work on
corn tassels to get the pollen to bring in to help feed the larvae. And they store larvae so that next
spring they will have the pollen to raise bees before it blossoms. Why are those bees there hanging
on the side of the frame? Oh, they're just clustering, nothing to do, and they're away from the hive
and they're lost. They're lost. I see.
OK. Well, could you continue going through there and explaining what you see? And we'll just follow
along for a few more minutes here. Now, I notice you have only a bee veil on there. Do you just not
worry about bee stings anymore? If I had a mean colony of bees, I would probably put my sleeves down. Yeah.
These aren't stingers. Right. Of course, I can change my mind any time about them. They start stinging.
Yeah. Right. Well, I've noticed here lately they've been pretty calm when I've gone in. And I suppose
it's the way you handle them also. Well, the weather, this is a bad day to work from. This is a good
day to get them to sting. Right. Because they're unhappy with the rainy weather. Right. You see, this
hive has quite a bit of honey. This lighter colored is honey.
Here's more. Is there any brood in that one? These bees are kept over that's called brood. Now if I
go the other direction I'll probably find a better frame with brood. Of course we have two high bodies.
We probably find more brood in the bottom one. Yeah you will. And the honey in this top one. Yeah I've
noticed they get very aggressive when I go into that bottom frame.
That bottom high body. Oh boy, that's a good one. This one's full. Now this has larva, a little larger
larva. These eggs were laid a few days before the first frame I took out. And over here I hope to find
one that has a lot of capped larva, maybe not more than the first one. I think you'll probably find
the majority of the capped, well I don't know, you might find it in there too, but in the bottom high
body is where I've been
This still just about all larvae. They look empty from the distance, but get up close. She's a good
one. Oh, I see her. Oh. You want to see a queen? Yes. Oh, my, yes. Let's, uh. Well, I will show you
a queen. I didn't expect to find a queen that easily. She won't fly off of there, was she? She better
not. Tell me where she is. Right here. Yeah. See, she's a little bigger than the other bees. She's a
different color. Find her out again. Now she's going through the other side.
Uh oh. We'll turn around and hope she made it over here. There she is. Yeah. Where? Right there.
There she is. Point her out there with you. Point her out, Ann. I've got... Your finger points her out
there. Oh, there she is. Yeah. See her turn around? Uh-huh. Usually more bees cluster around her and
hard to see her, but... She's a good one there, huh? Now, if she isn't too excited, she'd find an empty
cell. She would back down into that cell, back into it,
and deposit an egg in the bottom. But all of these have eggs in them that I can see. That is beeswax.
They just built down there in some empty space they had. But there is a queen. She's a nice one. Well,
that's good. I'm glad we got to find her. You say you think they swarmed. If they swarmed, that would
mean she's a young one. And she looks like a young one. I believe they did swarm. I really do. They get old.
Their wings get a little tattered and a little different. How long do queen bees live? Queen bee will
live for two or three years. Two, three, four years. Oh, I see. Where these bees live for six weeks
this time of year. Now the ones that hatch in October, they will live through November, December, January, February,
Maybe March. Because they're not active, right? They'll live for five or six months. Some say they're
a little different to kind of be fed differently. I don't know. But this queen will stop laying and
say November. She says, well, they know what's the use to raise a lot of bees in November when there's
no nectar in December, none in January, none in February. But as soon as the days start getting longer
in January,
That microphone down there. I don't know if it'll pick you up. That's okay. Just go ahead and no no
no just I was gonna clip it on That's an interesting question about how they make another queen yes,
that's a good one see these eggs in here These eggs are fertilized eggs Which means what any egg in
there can be grown into queen? Oh?
If you lost this queen and dropped her out here, they'd look around the hive. They'd say, wait, we don't
have a queen. We don't have a queen. We got to raise a queen. They can take one of these small larvae
here and grow it into a queen. They will build a bigger cell. They will feed it differently. And that
difference in feed makes the difference in length of life we mentioned a while ago. They feed the queen
royal jelly.
royal jelly and instead of living six weeks she will live two years three years by being fed this young
this royal jelly when she's growing up that shows the importance in the food you eat now another reason
I might say that indicates this is sworn I only see worker bees and one queen and no oh yeah I do see
one very few
I saw a drone out here on the ground. Very few drones. The drones are the male bees. Here, Ann, now
you take this one. If it stings you, I got a $5 bill. You don't want to earn $5. It won't sting, Ann.
Get the one on the hive, too. It won't sting. Come here. Come here, Betsy. It won't sting. Show them
how much braver Mother is. It won't sting, Mother. Take it any way. You don't have to be careful. Now
step back with it. You have a drone.
be there in your hand. They don't sting. Why do they not sting? They have no stinger. That's right.
You can play with them. They only have one purpose and that is to mate with a young queen when they
raise a young queen. And the other time all they do is eat, right? All they do is eat. He doesn't fly
either. They fly. They come out every day. Mother, you be careful there. Oh, get back there. I'll keep
him, Mother. Just keep him.
come out and fly sun shining nice day yeah they fly around there you go yeah there he flew there he
flew I thought you said they didn't fly well I guess they do they come out in the middle of the day
they have a flight they just but I've got to get this queen out flew around yeah you better go back
there with her queen she's a six dollars worth that's right that's right go put her back she's my queen
yeah she's worth six or more even up to seven and eight dollars yeah only if it's a fertilized egg well
a queen when she mates is fertilized and she lays fertilized eggs she mates with a drone and then she
is inseminated like a woman
if it's fed the proper food. All eggs are the same when she lays them. Yeah. It just depends on the
food that she's fed. Now, why are all these bees are flying around like this? Well, we're getting them
kind of disturbed. Well, they attack. And now, there are a lot of movies out, you know, with killer
bees and swarms and all. Will these bees just come out en masse and attack you or someone else around?
If these were killer bees, so-called African bees,
You would not be standing out there talking about them. You wouldn't be any ways near. Is that just
because they have a bad temper? They have a much worse temper than these bees. I see. I might say that
these are Italian bees. Right, right. They originated in Italy.
They were brought over from Italy several years ago. Right. We also have Caucasian bees. What's the
difference in the kind of bees? Little difference in color. Some of them swarm more than others. Are
Italian bees generally the best kind of bee to have? Most of the bees in this country are Italian bees.
We've got to get this hive back together. They're getting stirred up quite a bit. Yeah. Now, how much...
Uh-oh, there's smokers out there just about... Now, how long did you say it would be before maybe one
of those supers is filled up? Might be quite a while. Might not get filled up this summer. That's right.
It depends on
Availability of nectar. Right. Now, assuming one did get filled up, could I rob them? That is, could
I take that and extract that honey with no fear of them dying of starvation? Or should I go ahead and
leave that super on there for them to eat this winter? They would probably have enough honey in these
two hide bodies. Safer if you have two hide bodies in the super. Then you don't have to be concerned
about them.
You'll have plenty of food. Right. Now, honey will not promote bacteria, will it? No, bacteria won't
live in honey. Now, that's just a chemical property of the honey itself, right? That's right. And then
get one frame down here. It may have come off the edge. Oh, OK.
Are those African bees, are they especially good honey makers? I've heard that they are really good
honey makers. Is that true? Not for two or three reasons. One reason, they build up, get enough bees
to make honey, they swarm. They are great swarmers. Really? Yeah. Yeah, they... There we got them back.
Okay. You can put the rest of those... Not a good idea to leave them open too long. Right.