Black Bee of France.

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madasafish

madasafish

Queen Bee
***
Joined
Apr 10, 2010
Messages
11,232
Reaction score
2,884
Location
Stoke on Trent
Hive Type
Langstroth
Number of Hives
6 to 8 Langstroth jumbos, a few Langstroth and National nucs.
Last night (Friday on BBC2 at 9pm) France : The Wild Side had a 5 minute section on keeping Black Bees in France - in log hives.

Superb program well worth watching in total. If in a a hurry, the bees section starts from 43.08 minutes.

Well worth watching on I Player..

Stunning photography for the program.

Direct link to program:
http://tinyurl.com/jw2lgv9

(starts at the bee section)

Edit

Look: no gloves...
 
Last edited:
Very interesting section on the Black bee, would of like a little longer on that subject, as you say worth watching the whole thing chris
 
Yes this was very interesting particularly the part where they drove the bees up to a wired box by drumming on the log to apparently remove the queen to encourage them to requeen the hive. Not too sure about how that's actually achieved but never seen bees driven like that.
 
That was absolutely beautiful! Fascinating way to keep bees.

I can't wait for the questions - 'when performing an A/S, how many sticks should I use?'

Thanks!
 
lovely insulating tree trunks, but then capped with a thin conductive stone!!!!

how natural, how daft...
 
Unfortunately cannot watch it as I am outside the UK. Is any one aware of any other source that shows this type of beekeeping or the programme itself? Is any one aware of anything similar on utube - in particular I am intrigued about tapping the side of the trunk to shift the bees?
 
Yes, that intrigued me too
 
Jimy Dee said:
Is any one aware of anything similar on utube - in particular I am intrigued about tapping the side of the trunk to shift the bees?
Click to expand...

Look up "drumming" bees. I seem to recall there being something about it on another forum. I think there are youtube videos for "tanging" too - that's calling down a swarm by hitting a saucepan with a wooden spoon (or something similar).
 
Repeat starting in 5 minutes (8pm UK time) for those overseas with satellite but no catch-up service ...
 
lukestew said:
never seen bees driven like that.
Click to expand...

Skeppists used to drive bees from one skep to another to clear bees from comb. No need for sticks, just good strong arm muscles to repeatedly beat the sides of a skep! Never done it myself, but have seen it done. Brilliant not worthy
 
itma said:
Repeat starting in 5 minutes (8pm UK time) for those overseas with satellite but no catch-up service ...
Click to expand...

Thanks ITMA , nice to be thought of down here .
I do not think he has many hives stolen , knowing the weight of chestnut trunks .
 
bontbee said:
Skeppists used to drive bees from one skep to another to clear bees from comb. No need for sticks, just good strong arm muscles to repeatedly beat the sides of a skep! Never done it myself, but have seen it done. Brilliant not worthy
Click to expand...

I think they used driving hooks, didn't they? Older chap at my association turned up with a pair of these once.
 
Peter Springall at Bromley talked of driving bees from one skep to another by holding it upside down between his knees, balancing an empty one above and taping on the full one. He would also do this with a super full of bees however he was convinced that the bees left some kind of alarm scent in the abandoned box which needed to be cleaned before bees would go back into it.

Mike.
 
I was rather disappointed overall with the program, at least half the program simply showed footage of common species that you could see almost anywhere, albeit there was some good photography but it did no justice to some of the rarer and more interesting species to be found in France.

The bees? Well I have to go to a house with bees in the chimney this morning to "have a look". It's only a couple of km away otherwise I wouldn't go, but perhaps I could try tapping the flue, what do you think?

Chris
 
Chris Luck said:
I was rather disappointed overall with the program, at least half the program simply showed footage of common species that you could see almost anywhere, albeit there was some good photography but it did no justice to some of the rarer and more interesting species to be found in France.

The bees? Well I have to go to a house with bees in the chimney this morning to "have a look". It's only a couple of km away otherwise I wouldn't go, but perhaps I could try tapping the flue, what do you think?

Chris
Click to expand...

I heard some use CO2 to get bees unconscious and they fall to the bottom.. I don't want to try it ever. But if that can help in some situations which other solutions are hard to accomplish maybe as last resort.
 
Hi all,
Watched the programme too. I shall definitely try some tanging and drumming in future if all else fails!
 
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