Reply to: New Week - New Danger- Extinction in Four Years

[RichardCranium]

Just think of the jobs that we can create as human pollinators.

The term is 'gigolo' and I'm not sure how much money you'll make.

[RichardCranium]

Of course we know that Bees are not aliens.

That's spiders. They're aliens.

[Cyberman]

Just think of the jobs that we can create as human pollinators.

[BoredBloke]

As I said earlier in the thread - lets train wasps to do it and lets see bee keepers pinching their honey! As they are new to the job we could call them newbees

IGMC

[MPwannadecentincome]

New Labour won't be extinct in four years.

oh sh*t

[AlfredJPruffock]

The bees are not dying out - they are going home.

Aha - HAB wins this weeks CrackerJack pencil.

Well done that man.

Of course we know that Bees are not aliens.

Well - not all of them.

[Doggy Styles]

New Week, New Danger, New Labour

New Labour won't be extinct in four years.

[MPwannadecentincome]

I thoujght from the title this was going to be

New Week, New Danger, New Labour

[Drewster]

Or you could just step on it - it's only a bee and it's not like they are rare or anything!

Well that is actually a reasonable solution.........
The death of a single Worker Bee has (statisitically) no impact on the survival of the Hive or indeed the Bee Population.
Generally speaking she is infertile.
Her individual foraging is negligible.
Unless she is a he (Drone) in which case:
He doesn't do any foraging
(Statistically) the loss of his genes is irrelevant

"All" Bees basically die because they "can't get home" ie Foraging Workers don't make it back.......
Drones, Queens and Guards (pre-Foraging Workers who defend the Hive (and as you know die if they sting stuff) are numerically only a tiny number......

[BoredBloke]

Or you could just step on it - it's only a bee and it's not like they are rare or anything!

[Drewster]

Does anyone else here feed bees when you find them conked out on the ground? Been doing it for years and it's always very heartwarming, and entertaining for the children (for about 30 seconds anyway). I get a drop of honey on a bit of paper or something and stick the bee next to it. They stick their nozzle out and start lapping it up. Takes about ten minutes and then they sort of stagger away a bit and fly off.

I don't know whether this is actually a good idea or not. Maybe they fly round the corner and drop dead from a massive sugar rush. I might have to Google that.

Well it does depend.......
If you feed a (obviously) Native Bee with non-Native/Imported Honey there is a likelyhood/risk of foreign diseases and tulip from far distant shores getting back to her Hive and potentially causing the end of civilization as we know it.........

but whats that compared to "heart warming"....

Seriously - athough it is a pretty low risk you would be better doing it with English/British Honey or just a plain sugar solution (white "Tate & Lyle" is possibly surprizingly better than more "natural" brown or unrefined sugar.)

[dang65]

Ah, right, apparently you're supposed to dilute it a bit, though this tip on a gardening forum seems a bit long winded:

Take a sheet of paper kitchen towel, fold it into 1/8 size. Daub a bit of honey on one side then dampen with water to dilute honey & spread the sweetness across the paper towel, and to leave it *damp* Place next to exhausted bee. The bee will feed on the sweetness & regain strength. I've used this many times and it works. Particularly good if you get a queen emerge early and she ends up in your house/greenhouse exhausted at the end of the day. Put a disposable plastic 'glass' over her & the sweet/damp paper (with air hole(s) made in the 'glass' and it will keep her safe overnight with food to give her energy for the next day.

There's a whole thread about it here.

[dang65]

Does anyone else here feed bees when you find them conked out on the ground? Been doing it for years and it's always very heartwarming, and entertaining for the children (for about 30 seconds anyway). I get a drop of honey on a bit of paper or something and stick the bee next to it. They stick their nozzle out and start lapping it up. Takes about ten minutes and then they sort of stagger away a bit and fly off.

I don't know whether this is actually a good idea or not. Maybe they fly round the corner and drop dead from a massive sugar rush. I might have to Google that.

[Drewster]

Mead is made from honey, not the wax and crap in the hive. That would be called "hive crap wine".

Mead takes two years to be drinkable. That's slow.

If you just want cheap and fast fermented alcohol: a demijohn, a bag of sugar, a sachet of champagne yeast and an electric still is far more efficient that keeping bees or buying honey!

Yeah! Mead is made from best Honey. Bee Keepers who can sell Honey but have tons of Dross and Tulip left after straining out the valuable Honey just throw it away and turn thier expensive Honey into less valuable Mead (and/or <cough> Brandy - which it is illegal to make/sell).

I agree 2 years is slow........ but once you start the cycle you have loads of the stuff and it is only a by-product so leaving demi-johns burbling away isn't a problem.....

I don't want cheap and fast fermented alcohol..... I have a a load of Dross and Tulip left after straining out my (valuable and easily saleable) Honey.

[BoredBloke]

21/12/2012 End of days.

The Mayan's were bee keepers... coincidence? I think not.

Nicky G

Obviously if it came from Nicky G it would have to be related to the great comet wouldn't it - They sell mobiles don't they so it might be true. We'd all thought he meant some large space rock but in actual fact the great comet is similar to the nifty currys and the pretty spectacular Vodaphone.