Honey

[Andy B]

I was just wondering if anyone has ever found wild honey, where and did you dare to pinch any under the watchfull eyes of the yellow and black beasties that guard it.

 

[Adi007]

Years ago i came across abandoned bee hives and "borowed" some honey. At night, no protection - no stings.

Good stuff ... dunno if I'd chance it again though. It was really errie walking up to humming bee hives!

 

[Keith_Beef]

Years ago i came across abandoned bee hives and "borowed" some honey. At night, no protection - no stings.

Good stuff ... dunno if I'd chance it again though. It was really errie walking up to humming bee hives!

When I was a teenager, the next door neighbour had a hive. I've always been quite calm around bees and wasps, and they don't really bother me. Maybe that explains why I've never been stung.

Once, the neighbour's bees decided to swarm. We could go right up to them, face no more that about 8" or 12" from the swarm that was hanging heavily on a branch of a spindly tree, with no danger of being stung.

Last autumn, I was out with my son (3.1/2 at the time) and we found six hives set in the woods. It was a cool day, so there wasn't much for him to see, but I think it was good for him to see where bees live, and that you can be up close to them.

I've never seen wild honey bee hives, though. But I've cleared out plenty of wasp hives from under the roof tiles!

Anybody want any? I think I'll get a few more this autumn (on a cold day).

Keith.

 

[Kath]

On the subject of swarming, we drove into a swarm last summer in the Land Rover. Terrifying experience. Didn't know what it was as this dark cloud suddenly appeared swept across and then splattered all over the screen! :yikes: Looked like we'd hit a bucket of baked beans! And the sound of them all popping was ghastly!

Had the windows and the front vents open at the time (but a Landy's never exactly air tight at the best of times!) so we were picking stunned and dying bees out of our teeth and clothes for hours. Luckily none of us got stung though.

Felt sorry for the beekeeper. We must have killed most of his bees.

 

[EdS]

Swarms - terrifying no just very intresting.

When bees swarm there are at there omst docile as the have injested as much hiney as they can carry in order to start the new colony.

 

[ChrisKavanaugh]

I came across a wild hive in an ancient oaktree. Ironically, the bees main resources were the jacaranda trees prevalent in my area for landscaping. It produced an extremely light and delightfull honey. Sadly, the hive was virtually destroyed by a marauding blackbear that risked coming down into civilization. This is not uncommon, they are often found during heat spells. I found the sad remains of a few bits of torn comb, surviving bees and miraculously, the queen. I don't go for those nature documentaries policy of non interference. I went to my supplies and grabbed a bottle of honey. I placed it in the hollow and left. My emergency ration gift was rewarde in the following weeks, watching the hive rebuild.

 

[Stuart]

I've never seen a swarm of bees

I have been in a locust swarm though it was fine untill they started spraying them with DDT

when they got a dose DDT they stopped flying around you and just flew stright into you (and locusts hurt) went on for days

they ate everything

 

[Wayne]

First Class Chris.

We humans take so much out of the enviroment, sometimes it needs a little kick start to get things up and running again. I can't think of a better use for a pot of honey.

 

[grumit]

i was cutting a field some time ago on a nice day throttle up on the tracter just looking down the line's i had cut when i saw a big black clowd of bee's coming my way so i just turned off the machine and gently did the hundred metre sprint to my shed and watched them drift slowly passed and carry on going nice to see but scarey at the time :-D

 

[Kath]

Swarms - terrifying no just very intresting.

It's terrifying if you don't know why you suddenly can't see through the windscreen at 60 mph!!

We also got chased by an angry wild swarm once (kind of accidentally lit a fire in their tree... ) amd thought we'd escaped their revenge by running into the house and slamming the door behind us, only to have the glass door shatter and the bees piling into the kitchen ... well you can figure out the rest! :-(

 

[SquirrelBoy]

Make a good film that Kath - Revenge of the Killer Bees T:

My ex brother in law got stung once and had that anafalcktick (carp spelling I know, too lazy to find a dictionary) shock thing.

The best thing he done, and prob saved his life was to RUN to the Hospital as running produces adrenalin (it what they give you I think) and that helped to hold off the effect.
When we caught up with him he was on oxygen and pretty stressed out - not a nice sight.

He lived :-D

 

[Kath]

Yikes! :yikes: Glad he's OK though!

Out of curiosity - what are the symptoms?

 

[larry the spark]

I suffer anaphylactic shock from traces of peanuts. I should carry an adrenaline injection and antihistamines (not always though..like now!) and the last time I had a reaction was on the curry mile in manchester last summer. Quite scary but not as violent a reaction as I used to have. I can remember as a kid my whole mouth lacerating, my breathing becoming very laboured and wheezy and huge swelling to the mouth and tongue. Oh and very weird feeling nausea. Always requires a trip to the hospital but for me it seems to lessen in severity with age.