I Couldn't Believe My Eyes!

[TreeGuy]

Hi folks. Ya gotta hear this.....

I've been working outside of Bragg Creek all week, and the weather has been fantastic. Today when we were driving onto our site, there were a few gophers out sunning themselves, much to the delight of the coyote due working the field. Pretty early for sure, but then, later in the day I noticed some movement at the base of an outbuilding (south facing). When I checked closer, what the heck was it but BEES! Hundreds of 'em streaming out from their hive! It was crazy.

The snow was litered with dozens of corpses of the first ones who ventured out before it was warm enough. Keeners I suppose. "You want to be a WORKER forever?":lol:

I then found some pretty active Ladybugs, and by the end of the day some of the Aspen buds were getting 'fuzzy'. Pretty cool day for Febuary 21, but bad news if/when we get another freeze. Anyway, I thought everyone might be interested in hearing about these events.:wave:

Tree

[RandyBoBandy]

Thanks for the neat story TreeGuy...BTW...I punch bees in the face!!:lol:

[300 wsm]

yup pretty warm out here in calgary, for bein late feb kinda scary but man has work ever been sweet in that sunshine!

[gunslinger]

yup i hear ya man, went to check out my new lease today and near sunk up to my knees in mud.

[packhuntr]

Wow, its springtime!! Maybe.... Nice work being so observant Tree. Thats what i also love about working in the outdoors, tough to beat the small stuff people take for granted, its a hoot. Ive also noticed some wierd behavior from our antelope in this country. The antelope have moved back up into their summer range where i work???? About 200 in this herd, and are about 80 miles as the crow flies north of where they should be. This happened about 2 weeks ago. Was talking to a buddy on the north side of the river and he said the antelope in his neck of the woods had done the same thing at about the same time???? Is it gonna be an early spring, I dunno...At any rate, thanks for the info, pretty cool.

Keep a strain on er.

[Mintaka]

.

[thumper]

Great 'spring's almost sprung' reports!
February 18th on the Kootenay Plains - a number of years ago, is the earliest I've seen Mountain Bluebirds. A sure sign of spring.

[grandslamer]

now the bee thing i can explain ive been a beekeeper since 1995.

its simple during the winter the bees hudle in a bunch called the cluster .this done to keep a consant tempature in the center where the queen and here brood(eggs and larval bees) and since a bee only lives 30 days the queen is consantly laying eggs and new bees are hatching
what happen when it starts to get warm the bees start house cleaning they take dead bees out of the hive and start fixin the place up ..
keep in mind this can happen on a mild sunny winter day also thats why hive are wraped in black insulated tarps ..the black helps absorb the heat

[Justanotherbuck2]

Thats pretty cool info on the bee life I had no Idea they would do that. Haven't seen any gophers yet, we try and get them early when they are running on top of the snow.

[packhuntr]

Ahhhh, snow gophers.....I like em too..... My old 28 inch barreled win .22 single shot is like a paint brush (red in color) in my right hand.....how can you deny something so right. Bring on those gophers!!!

keep a strain on er.

[Kelly & Beth]

what happened to the bear spotting post???

[Mike H]

Makes me worry what kinda March we're gonna get

[TreeGuy]

now the bee thing i can explain ive been a beekeeper since 1995.

its simple during the winter the bees hudle in a bunch called the cluster .this done to keep a consant tempature in the center where the queen and here brood(eggs and larval bees) and since a bee only lives 30 days the queen is consantly laying eggs and new bees are hatching
what happen when it starts to get warm the bees start house cleaning they take dead bees out of the hive and start fixin the place up ..
keep in mind this can happen on a mild sunny winter day also thats why hive are wraped in black insulated tarps ..the black helps absorb the heat

Thanks for the info. They were back at it again today, and the snow was littered with corpses. Also within about a 20' radius of the entrance, there were dozens of pea-sized yellow/amber colored dots in the snow. Do you think this is from the bees also? The Aspens could be dripping also as the sapsuckers have been at them. Hmmm.

Grandslammer, my uncle used to have bees so I have a small bit of knowledge about them. These are not the stereotypical 'Bumble Bees', but the smaller domestic type species.

They have colonized in a 24" area beneath a pretty nice log cabin (change house for the tennis courts....:rolleye2: ). Very sheltered, and from the best that I can determine, almost no frost under there. Two years ago when I first ran into them, the homeowner said they had been there since they bought the place in 1992, and there were literally THOUSANDS of 'em!

I'm assuming that the originated as a break-away domestic colony and holed up here. Either way, it is an undisturbed colony since at LEAST 1992. Pretty cool, and there should be a pretty damn big comb in there. Yummmmmm!

Oh yeah, the gophs were out again today, and the coyotes in the field looked so full from eating them yesterday that they just layed in the field all day!:lol:

Tree

[Kelly & Beth]

Me and kelly got married march 7 05, we moved that day as well. It had melted lots that year by then cause I remember when we were moving we had to cover our whole walkway with pallets cause there was so much water in our yard. Could be another year like that.
beth

[TreeGuy]

Me and kelly got married march 7 05, we moved that day as well. It had melted lots that year by then cause I remember when we were moving we had to cover our whole walkway with pallets cause there was so much water in our yard. Could be another year like that.
beth

That my friend sounds like the most stressful day in the history of MANKIND!:lol:

Tree

[Kelly & Beth]

oh forgot to mention that on the way to get married we were returning the uhaul trailer as well and it passed us at the bridge right before highway 20 and 12 junction on bentley side. That was no fun and then it made us really late, had to get tire fixed on truck as well as the uhaul had to sit in some old ladys yard for about a month before they did anything about that.

[grandslamer]

Thanks for the info. They were back at it again today, and the snow was littered with corpses. Also within about a 20' radius of the entrance, there were dozens of pea-sized yellow/amber colored dots in the snow. Do you think this is from the bees also? The Aspens could be dripping also as the sapsuckers have been at them. Hmmm.

Grandslammer, my uncle used to have bees so I have a small bit of knowledge about them. These are not the stereotypical 'Bumble Bees', but the smaller domestic type species.

They have colonized in a 24" area beneath a pretty nice log cabin (change house for the tennis courts....:rolleye2: ). Very sheltered, and from the best that I can determine, almost no frost under there. Two years ago when I first ran into them, the homeowner said they had been there since they bought the place in 1992, and there were literally THOUSANDS of 'em!

I'm assuming that the originated as a break-away domestic colony and holed up here. Either way, it is an undisturbed colony since at LEAST 1992. Pretty cool, and there should be a pretty damn big comb in there. Yummmmmm!

Oh yeah, the gophs were out again today, and the coyotes in the field looked so full from eating them yesterday that they just layed in the field all day!:lol:

Tree

chances are real good they are honey bees ..they tend to swarm when the queen runs out of places to lay eggs usaly due to a honey flow which is when a major crop such as canloa or alphafa blooms.
the bees bring in so much nectar that they plug thhe hive and the queen take about half the hive and leaves to find a new home and from where u said itsa perfect place ..there may be a hive there for as long as u live ..
if u want to get rid of them contact the alberta beekeepers association ..they will find a beekeep in your area that is trying to build up and he will removethem for free

and to keep on the bear subject talk to your local beekeeper they can tell you which yard of there bees are being attacked and usally help get u permmission

[Kelly & Beth]

Someone had posted that they seen a bear out by gp and now that post is disapeared, wondered why?

[mud slug]

kelly&beth the post is "bears starting out" by grizz it's under the hunting thread

[Kelly & Beth]

i thought it was this one :o

[Dr. Phil A]

To the bee keeper guy..

Are they also not coming out for a biffy break? Someone keeps bees on my folks place and one warm November day they were out leaving long lines of yellow behind them on the snow. Farther away from the hive the more dead ones there were but some of the closer ones came out did their business and went back in. Poor pup that was along decided that biting them was a good thing to do so when I took him back to the house his face was all swollen up.