How to prep the BBQ for the Summer

[Acura NsX Pilot]

Got this in an email, found it online so I could link the photos.

Wow.

"So I'm using my bbq this weekend... so I thought I'll clean it up. I have noticed there are bees coming from under the cover, so I thought I'd kill them. I thought I was pretty smart, designed to easily maneuvered under the cover of darkness. So, then I release the weapon of buzz destruction. OMFG! The sound from under the cover was incredible!!! You could hear it 3m away, easy. Then I ran like the clapperAs, coming back a few minutes later to see the death toll. There was at least a 20mm deep mass grave. I continued to remove the cover and light the bbq to give it a clean when I noticed some fatty looking substance on the top of the shelf lining. A bit weird, I clean it before I put it away for winter, and no way was there fat there, so I began to wonder. I slowly removed the rest of the cover only to find the HQ. We think the queen flew away... either that or a small child has wings and has been living in the hive, coz that thing was huge!"

 

[gdae]

Am I the only one who would have tried to contrive a way to capture the bees, move them to a hive, and put them to work for me?

 

[Acura NsX Pilot]

Am I the only one who would have tried to contrive a way to capture the bees, move them to a hive, and put them to work for me?

All that honey wasted is what I said. All you needed was alittle smoke

 

[tosugrad]

What kind of bees make a nest like that??

 

[FogCityNSX]

That was terrible

 

[queenlives]

What kind of bees make a nest like that??

i'm only a 3rd year hobbyist beek, so can only speak on what i know: that comb formation is fairly normal for european honey bees in a non-structured colony / hive environment.

terrible shame to waste such a healthy colony by killing them... an experienced beek (even me) could have removed them in ~30 minutes and relocated them to a more suitable location. properly relocated, they would have likely continued contributing to the local ecological system.

 

[ChopsJazz]

terrible shame to waste such a healthy colony by killing them... ...properly relocated, they would have likely continued contributing to the local ecological system.

Those were my thoughts exactly when I saw the pictures of the outcome.

 

[Acura NsX Pilot]

Its human nature to kill and destroy what we dont understand and are afraid of

 

[ChopsJazz]

Its human nature to kill and destroy what we dont understand and are afraid of

Yes it is. I was painting a house in the LA area and found a rattlesnake. Before I could shoo it away, some jerk came by and shot it. The next day he bragged about how he was going to make a hat band out of it.

 

[Understudy]

terrible shame to waste such a healthy colony by killing them... an experienced beek (even me) could have removed them in ~30 minutes and relocated them to a more suitable location. properly relocated, they would have likely continued contributing to the local ecological system.

I think it may also depend on the area though. Here on the NW side of Tucson in particular we have a pretty large bee population that continues to flourish. Most reports I've ever seen say that nearly 100% of the local bees are africanized too. Having been out several times with a local bee expert it is astonishing how many are really present in our local area. Our particular location used to be a haven for bee activity hence some of the subdivisions like Honeybee Canyon & Honeybee Ridge. This area of the Tortolita Mountains has really neat rock formations that lend themselves to bees. I've even seen multiple bee colonies in saguaros too. Especially this time of year you'll see huge swarms fly right overhead or even through major streets.

I'm all for protecting nature's ecosystems but sometimes there are already enough that a few won't be missed. I've even transported my fair share of rattlesnakes (including several from my yard) and discourage others from killing them when possible. However, even those are quite prevalent and do pose some danger to humans too so the killing of a few won't severely jeopardize things.

 

[queenlives]

I think it may also depend on the area though. Here on the NW side of Tucson in particular we have a pretty large bee population that continues to flourish. Most reports I've ever seen say that nearly 100% of the local bees are africanized too. Having been out several times with a local bee expert it is astonishing how many are really present in our local area. Our particular location used to be a haven for bee activity hence some of the subdivisions like Honeybee Canyon & Honeybee Ridge. This area of the Tortolita Mountains has really neat rock formations that lend themselves to bees. I've even seen multiple bee colonies in saguaros too. Especially this time of year you'll see huge swarms fly right overhead or even through major streets.

thx for the feedback.

given the op comments that went with this thread around the internet - and the fact that the op could actually get close enough to kill them and take their picture and the dead would be in a neat pile pretty well eliminates the ahb angle... had those been ahb's, the neighborhood would likely have evacuated itself early-on or they would have been taken out before building that extensive comb.

i'm glad the ahb are not in our area in any noticeable numbers... i've seen tests that show a normal honeybee will pursue an attacker (say, a beek) for ~100 yards; ahb's have been shown to pursue for >1,000 yards.

worse than a former spouse, some would say

thx again for the comments, i hadn't given much thought to ahb population in tuscon area.

 

[Understudy]

The africanized honeybees are absolutely more aggressive and defend in larger numbers, but their overall reputation seems quite overblown by media hype. I've personally been quite close to several colonies and balls of bees without issue and watched the bee expert literally walk right up to them multiple times without incident. It's really fascinating to learn about them from someone who spends pretty much all his time working in that field. For instance, he mentioned their technique of literally headbutting people that get too close to a colony as a warning signal. I've witnessed this firsthand and also heard of others experiencing this which led to us finding another colony.

I don't know if it's the same throughout the states but if a business knows of a bee issue on its property and doesn't remove it or take proper precautions down here it can be a huge liability. There are many bee removal services which stay EXTREMELY busy with calls. Most of the calls are when bees are in transit and land temporarily and given 24 hours or so typically leave on their own. There were a couple of huge colonies that I went to see him remove and one in particular which he said was in his top five of all time. It was the only time that I ever saw him fully suit up in his garb, but the inaccessability of the colony and multiple exits coupled with the size of the colony made him take every precaution. He told me a few ways to identify a foraging bee in flight from a colony location. Overall it was a great education into a realm I previously knew nothing about.

FWIW, I'm far from a bee expert but the comb in that picture looks very similar to some that I've seen created by africanized bees too. Often times irrigation boxes at golf courses are great habitats for these bees since it's an expansive, secluded area with a minimal entrance point.

 

[queenlives]

The africanized honeybees are absolutely more aggressive and defend in larger numbers, but their overall reputation seems quite overblown by media hype. I've personally been quite close to several colonies and balls of bees without issue and watched the bee expert literally walk right up to them multiple times without incident. It's really fascinating to learn about them from someone who spends pretty much all his time working in that field. For instance, he mentioned their technique of literally headbutting people that get too close to a colony as a warning signal. I've witnessed this firsthand and also heard of others experiencing this which led to us finding another colony.

I don't know if it's the same throughout the states but if a business knows of a bee issue on its property and doesn't remove it or take proper precautions down here it can be a huge liability. There are many bee removal services which stay EXTREMELY busy with calls. Most of the calls are when bees are in transit and land temporarily and given 24 hours or so typically leave on their own. There were a couple of huge colonies that I went to see him remove and one in particular which he said was in his top five of all time. It was the only time that I ever saw him fully suit up in his garb, but the inaccessability of the colony and multiple exits coupled with the size of the colony made him take every precaution. He told me a few ways to identify a foraging bee in flight from a colony location. Overall it was a great education into a realm I previously knew nothing about.

FWIW, I'm far from a bee expert but the comb in that picture looks very similar to some that I've seen created by africanized bees too. Often times irrigation boxes at golf courses are great habitats for these bees since it's an expansive, secluded area with a minimal entrance point.

yep, the media typically hypes for attention, bees included. last week there was a newscast on tv that said, "see why this bee colony attacked this car". yep, the colony had just swarmed and was resting on the car - who knows why... they're bees.

sounds like you've had some interesting observer experiences - very cool. headbutting is a natural behavior among (at least) honeybees... they're not keen to have you around their hive, so they give you a few warnings to move you along.

(edit) as for bees / nuisance issues, my experience is these are typically local / county regulated regulated / enforced. our 2 hives are located in the backyard of our residence so they don't create an "attractive nuisance" that might draw people in to the yard if they were out front and accessible. (i would have preferred them out front in our citrus grove, but was advised against it.)

for those who are interested in reading studies / fact-based info on africanized honey bees, here are a couple of reliably sourced sites:

http://www.sdnhm.org/research/entomology/ahb.html
http://anrcatalog.ucdavis.edu/pdf/8068.pdf

understudy, you sound like someone who is a good candidate for becoming a beek....