What are Your other Hobbies

[Barry McFadden]

Like a lot of others here I enjoy photography as well....mostly close up as opposed to landscapes ... and I like manipulating the pictures in Photoshop... if anyone cares to have a look at some of my work you can see it here.. http://mcfaddenphotography.weebly.com/

[Frederick Skelly]

Jim, Barry - Great pics!

Barry, some of your landscapes (especially those of fall folliage) knocked my socks off! I really enjoyed your "manipulations", especially the one where you sre playing cards with multiple copies of yourself!

Fred

[Jim Becker]

Jim, if you suddenly start grading papers and assignments as a hobby, shoot me a private message. Don't you get stung by the bees?

I don't think that I could be helpful in grading doctoral level epidemiology exams and papers. I've been stung three times; but only two times by "our" bees and then only because I wasn't paying attention. Honeybees are not generally aggressive...my other half (and most beeks) don't wear gloves most of the time, although veils are not really optional. You don't want to get tagged on the face, for sure...

[Jim Becker]

Like a lot of others here I enjoy photography as well....mostly close up as opposed to landscapes ... and I like manipulating the pictures in Photoshop... if anyone cares to have a look at some of my work you can see it here.. http://mcfaddenphotography.weebly.com/

You do really nice work, Barry. I do post primarily in LR because that's all that's needed for most of what I shoot, but pull up PS when I need additional manipulation or to "remove" something from a photo. My current setup is a Nikon D750 with a variety of lenses; the equestrian pieces are primarily with a 70-200. For macro, I recently acquired a Sigma 105 f2.8 macro and it's "sharp as a tack"...although I have to deal better with depth of field as I get more into macro.

[Rich Riddle]

Jim,

What is a beek? And don't the bees get angry when you steal the honey? I remember cartoons where they would chase the culprit into a pond. Do you have to worry about Africaization (right word?) of your colony? Any resource you have for beginning bees would be appreciated. We might like them on the farm since the folks who posted about livestock scared us away from them. And I am a simply adjunct professor. You would just be grading psychology papers and exams. We could call it, "Becker's psychological philosophy."

[John K Jordan]

Jim,

What is a beek? And don't the bees get angry when you steal the honey? I remember cartoons where they would chase the culprit into a pond. Do you have to worry about Africaization (right word?) of your colony? Any resource you have for beginning bees would be appreciated. We might like them on the farm since the folks who posted about livestock scared us away from them. And I am a simply adjunct professor. You would just be grading psychology papers and exams. We could call it, "Becker's psychological philosophy."

Jim, you are braver than I am. I always wear gloves.

Rich, the Africanized bees will chase you but they are not in TN around here and should not be further north. If you use a smoker properly, (most) hives are extremely gentle. Occasionally we run into a "hot" hive and if too obnoxious it might be time to requeen. If I open a hive without a smoker for "just a peek" a couple of dozen MAY zip out and try to attack/chase me away. This is not usually a problem except in the middle of the summer when there is very little nectar available.

Note that foraging (gathering nectar) and swarming bees (a big gob of bees hanging on something) don't sting unless stepped on or pinched. If annoyed by a bee, don't swat at it. Just makes them mad. The best thing to do if possible is walk into some thick vegetation with lots of leaves and stand there and the bee(s) will give up and leave. Shut and protect your eyes - you do not want to get stung there. If stung elsewhere, scrape away the stinger with a fingernail or knife immediately. FOR ANYONE WHO DOESN"T KNOW: The absolute best thing for treating bee, hornet, wasp stings is The Extractor by Sawyer, available from Amazon or from the camping section at Walmart. This is a suction syringe device which actually pulls the venom out of the sting instead of just treating the symptoms. I keep one on the tractor, utv, barn, shop, house, truck, and with bee supplies. Bee stings don't bother me much (except in the face), but using the Extractor, yellow jacket (hornet) stings went from hours of extensive and severe swelling to a small red spot.

For help with getting started with beekeeping, just ask. For some reason once you get them started, beekeepers don't know how to quit! Me, I'm mixing up more sugar water for feeding some starter colonies today, feeding, checking on supers, inspecting for health. Honey here is not abundant this year - last year I got 28 gallons from mostly one hive.

Since this is a photography and beekeeping thread , here are some I think I posted before. I've used Photoshop exclusively for decades starting when I had a real job.







Macro photos of bees are fun - the bee is moving, the plant is moving, I'm moving, and the depth of field is almost zero.








JKJ

[Frederick Skelly]

You know guys, I really don't NEED another hobby. But the more all of you post about beekeeping, the more interesting it sounds.

Did I mention I don't NEED another hobby?

[Rich Riddle]

It sounds as though Sir Skelly NEEDS another hobby.

[Jim Becker]

Jim,

What is a beek? And don't the bees get angry when you steal the honey? I remember cartoons where they would chase the culprit into a pond. Do you have to worry about Africaization (right word?) of your colony? Any resource you have for beginning bees would be appreciated. We might like them on the farm since the folks who posted about livestock scared us away from them. And I am a simply adjunct professor. You would just be grading psychology papers and exams. We could call it, "Becker's psychological philosophy."

John's answered most pretty well already. Professor Dr. SWMBO got started by taking a 5 month course locally. We also joined the local Beekeeper association and attend the monthly meetings. All of that plus many books and leveraging an online community called Bee Source has helped things along...

There are a number of folks here at SMC who are involved in beekeeping. It can be a very enjoyable hobby/endeavor and certainly is good for the bees and our food supply.

-----
John, she was gloved today for sure while doing a deep inspection and putting in the slat-boards we acquired. All three colonies were, um....a bit agitated from all that upheaval. Unfortunately, we're concerned about what was our best colony...some of it may have swarmed recently and it may currently be queen-less. A frame of brood and larvae was moved from the colony "next door" just in case that's what's happened.

[Bill Jobe]

Collecting wood.

[John K Jordan]

...Unfortunately, we're concerned about what was our best colony...some of it may have swarmed recently and it may currently be queen-less. A frame of brood and larvae was moved from the colony "next door" just in case that's what's happened.

I hope that will fix it. That happened to my best colony this year - it went queenless and I didn't catch it until too late and got laying workers, I used the strong hive/queen excluder method to take care of the laying workers (looked like a war zone afterwards) then requeened.

I had ordered two queens for insurance in case one was DOA. During all this I found a second queenless hive with no brood or eggs. I moved a frame with freshly hatched eggs so they could grow a queen but when I opened it to install the spare queen about 5 days later I found a bunch of eggs and hatched brood on two frames! I suspect it had a virgin queen when I inspected it who must have started laying the next day. Fortunately, I called around and found a new beekeeper desperate with a queenless hive and happily took the spare as a gift!

My five colonies seem to be cookin' now based on the activity and the number of bees on the porches in the evening. I'll feed the two weaker colonies tomorrow and do a super check and a deep inspection at the same time. What a job when it's 90 out!

Hey, did you ever use the "listening method" on suspected queenless hives? A guy showed me this once - I walk up behind and put my ear flat against the back of a brood chamber on each hive and listen. A queenright hive will have a calm but busy "buzz." A queenless hive will have a very distinctive sound, louder, more frantic and higher pitched. Of course a healthy hive you just disturbed today may also sound different until tomorrow!

It looks like SMC could use a beekeeping forum! After my adventure with capturing the colony in the 30+" sassafras tree involving a chain saw and your hive box carpentry one might argue it even relates to wood!

bee_tree.jpg

JKJ

[Bert Kemp]

Laser Engraving is my main hobby but I combine it with leather working and wood working. I make leather gun holsters, knife cases, coasters , vest patches ect that I engrave. I also make wood boxes and ornaments that I engrave.Oh I forgot to mention Motorcycle Riding, Its not a hobby but a way of life for me. I ride 30 to 40k a year the car gets used for home depot and bulk stuff at the store less then 3k a year. Been riding for 49 years.

[Art Mann]

I was a beekeeper on a small commercial scale for about 10 years. I worked the gentle bees like you could get from Walter T Kelley without gloves. However, the dark (German) bees from a captured wild swarm were wicked and required a lot of smoke to subdue. A new queen would fix that problem in a few weeks.

I can really appreciate the macro photos in the posted pictures. I have been a landscape and people photographer for a long time but I just started experimenting with a macro lens (Tamron 90mm f/2.8) in the last few weeks. Getting the right balance of shutter speed, aperture and ISO to get pictures that aren't motion blurry and have an acceptable DOF takes some practice and experimentation. My success rate right now is about 10%.

[Rich Riddle]

So the wife gave the green light for bees. I anticipate starting in 2017. Where you you beekeepers suggest starting? A website, or a book? I might be a bit too shy and timid at typing on a website.

[Frederick Skelly]

Two posts in this thread mention that changing out the queen will mellow out the hive.
1. Why is that?
2. How do you replace a queen - just pull her out and wait for a new one to grow, or what?

Told you I was getting interested. (Dang it.)
Fred