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Adam Rose Silver Bee
Joined: 09 Oct 2011 Posts: 589 Location: Manchester, UK
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Posted: Fri Jun 03, 2016 9:13 pm Post subject: Following the Wild Bees |
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I have just finished reading Following the Wild Bees, by Thomas Seeley. It has just been published. I was on the waiting list with amazon.
It's a brilliant distillation of many years experience of bee hunting. The Chapter listing is as follows:
1. Introduction
2. The Bee Box and Other Tools
3. Bee-Hunting Season
4. Timing Bees to Estimate Distance to Home
5. Making Moves Down a Beeline
6. Finding the Bee Tree
7. On Not "Taking Up" the Bee Tree
Each chapter has a mixture of practical advice, amusing story telling, and quite a lot of theory. Obvious Tom Seeley has had to become an expert bee hunter in order to do his research. Most chapters have a number of "Biology Boxes" which are precise, condensed summaries of a lot of his research ( I didn't know that as well as a waggle dance, bees also do a tremble dance, for example ).
I read the book in about a day. I really enjoyed it and would recommend it. It makes me want to try bee hunting, although I would worry that I don't have the carpentry skills or the bee-marking skills to be successful, and I am also wondering where I would find enough forested or semi-forested land without managed bees to make it worthwhile.
Adam. |
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ingo50 Scout Bee
Joined: 30 May 2014 Posts: 311 Location: Newport, Gwent, Wales, UK
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Posted: Sat Jun 04, 2016 3:43 am Post subject: |
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I have not yet purchased the book, on my Xmas list. Good reviews on other fora and websites. I just wonder however if it will encourage bee seekers to mess with feral colonies which IMHO should be admired from a distance and left alone as they are a ecological resource and have genetic vigor. Law of unwanted consequences maybe. |
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Adam Rose Silver Bee
Joined: 09 Oct 2011 Posts: 589 Location: Manchester, UK
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Posted: Sat Jun 04, 2016 5:44 am Post subject: |
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Possibly, but a number of factors would suggest this won't be a problem. The whole ethos of the book works against that, particularly the last chapter 'On Not "Taking Up" the Bee Tree'. But also it's not easy, it takes a long time, you have to be pretty well prepared, success is not guaranteed, and the bees you find may be very inaccessible. So I think anyone who does it would be doing it for the right reasons. |
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Quality Top Bar Hives by Andrew Vidler
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Conserving wild bees
Research suggests that bumble bee boxes have a very low success rate in actually attracting bees into them. We find that if you create an environment where first of all you can attract mice inside, such as a pile of stones, a drystone wall, paving slabs with intentionally made cavities underneath, this will increase the success rate.
Most bumble bee species need a dry space about the size a football, with a narrow entrance tunnel approximately 2cm in diameter and 20 cm long. Most species nest underground along the base of a linear feature such as a hedge or wall. Sites need to be sheltered and out of direct sunlight.
There is a spectacular display of wild bee hotels here
More about bumblebees and solitary bees here
Information about the Tree Bumblebee (Bombus hypnorum)
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Barefoot Beekeeper Podcast
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4th Edition paperback now available from Lulu.com
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