[susan rudnicki]

OK! Did not know you, have we met? Glad you got them—way too far for me

[susan rudnicki]

Tee called me later to say someone named Ramon came last night and got these bees. He does not know Ramon’s last name Susan

[susan rudnicki]

Jossip Benko was kind enough to take this hive after I alerted him to the difficulty. Susan

[susan rudnicki]

Thanks Rob—I am so grateful you are putting up these cautionary messages. Just yesterday, doing a water meter box cutout in crowded Manhattan Beach, the local neighbor who is keen to keep bees— “when do you get the honey and how do you do it?” —- exemplified for me the sometimes unrealistic expectations the public has about the craft of keeping bees. All they focus on is the reward in honey, and not the getting knowledge to get to that later point. A friend of mine, who is not a beekeeper, offered a thought-cartoon to contemplate—“yeah, they just want a hive with a spigot on the front to turn and the honey comes out!”

[susan rudnicki]

Ah, did not know that about selecting the time Thanks!

[susan rudnicki]

They are adopted to Sean.

[susan rudnicki]

Hi, Rob—would you rather I not post these things here? It could complicate things, as I think about it….

[susan rudnicki]

Lucas—They have been adopted. Boxed swarms begin to die fairly fast, so they should be adopted within 24 hrs of my receiving them. Always call me at the posted number. This digest only comes out once a day, sometimes quite late, so you are getting old news.

[susan rudnicki]

A tip that I have used with new swarms in new boxes—I think Ray told me about this—buy a plastic queen excluder, cut with heavy scissors a piece of the screeen to fit over your entrance space and tape in place with duct tape. Leave it for a week. This allows the workers to come and go but prevents the queen leaving. By that time, the drawn comb and eggs will keep the colony at home, and you can take it off. Remember, the drones also can’t go through the excluder, so check it all the time to make sure drones are not piling up behind your piece of screen and clogging it. Some swarms have drones in them, some not many.

[susan rudnicki]

Yes, I have heard of it, but have not experienced it myself. I can never know the situation of these boxed swarms delivered to me by Sam and Wendy. They are NOT beekeepers—they know little about bees. They have a business removing swarms for callers for a $125 fee, they do it during daylight hours (not my pick of timing, since you lose scout bees and the cluster is not as quiet) They gather the bees and box them and I know there have been times when the swarm was queen-less—either because they lost her or the queen was gone when they took the swarm. Everyone must remember this—I don’t guarantee you get a queen and when other people do the work, it is more likely to go wrong.

[susan rudnicki]

Thanks for saying this so clearly and straightforwardly. I am getting some feedback from former mentees who have not kept up communication or management, and now there are serious stinging issues.
I am not “handing off” swarm boxes in the way I used to, to just anyone calling, because I have found out the hard way how worrisome and unsafe this can be. I now ask for information on the effort the adoptee has made to become educated, what equipment they have and who will support them in their beekeeping.
Susan

[susan rudnicki]

Both colonies are adopted!

[susan rudnicki]

Anthony—would you please post a contact number? Thanks

[susan rudnicki]

I have a large disc of wax—will call you Susan

[susan rudnicki]

Hi, Ruben—thanks for granting me your opinion that I make good points. However, neither HL nor myself said there was a “professor handing out degrees” or “degrees in beekeeping” There is a level of competence and knowledge that we are trying to emphasize, because there have been too many mistakes that were very serious. “We have all made mistakes, and will continue to make mistakes” as you say, can encompass a lot of issues, but there have been times when animals have been killed (one of my mentees in Venice, whose bees killed the old dog next-door after prolonged hive neglect ignoring my efforts to contact him) and when the rescue of bees caused attention from lawyers. The latter was the precipitating incident that shut down the BBK rescue line.
Sometimes the problem is “the issues that come up” are not seen by the newbee for what they represent, in terms of seriousness.

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