I'm with ya Mindy! Gonna try it for a while and my cousin Dot is doing it too. I told her about it last night on the phone and she liked the idea.

Oh good now I have someone else to keep me motivated on this experiment. Welcome Jan and Dot.

If I get some honey I may give it a try. Got to put a little camera on one of the bees I'm feeding to see where he goes....

Let me know if you manage that and for your information that bee is a she not a he. The guys don't do anything but get waited on hand and foot until they mate and die in the process or get kicked out come autumn. The girls do it all in a honey bee society.

I knew that, I was just testing It has been ages since I talked bees. Thank you for reminding me.

I'm still alert enough to talk bees especially since my oldest brother talked about them when I called him today He's got his first beehive and is worse than a mother hen

He is excited, isn't he?? I'm so glad. My Grandfather used to raise them. He taught me not to be afraid of them. So I can walk right up to them and they don't get upset and I don't either. I love bees...

He's very excited about his bees. When he was a little boy he used to go sit and watch Daddy's bees. Those bees were aggressive ones that would sting anyone who came within a certain distance of the hive. They went after Mom everytime she went to work in the garden. But they never stung him. He does the same thing with his bees, goes and sits near the hive watching them. He has them in a shady spot that is handy to the garden so when he gets hot that's where you will find him taking a break. He doesn't know much about beekeeping so when he has questions he calls us to answer them. He's throwing a fit to have us put another super on even though he's not planning to rob the honey. Just so they will have more room.

Just Love your brother. i sure miss mine. He is really enjoying his bees that's for sure...

I love this one to bits. He's gone on vacation this week so I didn't get to stop and visit him today when we were in the area.

Mindy, I worry about them, the honeybees. Ran out of sugar water and they went over to fountain. I am worried about them drowning in there too. I rescued a couple. Are they supposed to be this thirsty???

If they went to the water fountain instead of the hummingbird feeder I'd say they don't need the sugar syrup now. They do need water and lots of it right now until it cools down again. They use water to cool the hive through evaporation. They try to keep the hive temperature around 93ºF so when it's really hot outside the hive you can imagine how hot it is inside. DH gave ours extra ventilation by propping the outside cover a little bit to let the heat escape out the top. They still require extra water but the extra ventilation helps them out some.

I don't know where the hive is. these bees are in trouble. Only God can help them. I can feed them and keep the water there but I don't know where their hives are. I'll do what I can. Thank you dear. I do understand better.

You are welcome Charleen. Providing them with extra water is about all you can do since you don't know where they live.

Ok everyone I have an idea for some extra articles down the road. I would like your input on this question

If you could ask these beekeepers questions what would you ask him/her?

Clyde comes from a long line of beekeepers and keeps bees near the downtown area of a small town.

Harvey just started keeping bees last year and lives in a subdivision near a large city.

Doris is a woman who helps her husband work the bees.

I'm not sure yet they will let me interview them for these articles but want to be prepared with questions if they say yes.

In every case I would ask how they got started and what they didn't know when they did.

Thank you Jamie. Got your questions down.

I'd for sure ask ~ what's one important thing they have learned about beekeeping that they could give for advise to anyone who wanted to start beekeeping? and what is their favorite part/worst part about it?

I guess you can't start a colony without the queen. I'm sure we had most of them here for awhile. But they have slowed down and we are starting to get some much needed rain...

Thank you Christine good questions

Charlene without a queen you don't get any new bees. Keep in mind that a honey bee worker only lives about 6 weeks during the season because she works herself to death. So without new babies your hive would soon die out.