Baymule’s Farm

ducks4you said:

Ya KNOW, when we are talking BEES, most of them the sting us are HONEYbees, and THEY are European.
Our native bees are much more reluctant to sting, EXCEPT for BUMBLEBEES, which are huge and nasty.

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i've rarely (maybe once in the past 20 years) been stung by them and have worked very closely to them many times. when i've been stung it was because i did something to them like grabbing them by mistake. they are much milder than hornets or wasps... but all of them are going to be upset if you start doing something to their nest.

flowerbug said:

i've rarely (maybe once in the past 20 years) been stung by them and have worked very closely to them many times. when i've been stung it was because i did something to them like grabbing them by mistake. they are much milder than hornets or wasps... but all of them are going to be upset if you start doing something to their nest.

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Truth. Especially those big fuzzy bumblebees. Bees are only interested in collecting pollen, doing good deeds basically, while predatory wasps and hornets have a whole different mind set. All of these species will defend their nests, but bees are far less likely to claim real estate close to human dwellings. Wasps and hornets, on the other hand, seem driven to make my home their home. They are demons from some dark universe and are no friends to bees either. It seems unfair that bees are threatened, while wasp and hornet populations are unscathed

ducks4you said:

BEES

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I remember having only once being stung by a bumble bee.

I was gathering flowers on a chilly morning after some rain, overnight. Placing quite a few stems in my arms, the bumbler must have felt trapped in the flowers and I was strung on the chest. It would be difficult to blame him/her; I was creating quite a bit of havoc in its environment.

I do understand that there are several species across N America that we refer to as bumble bees.

Re: the meat-eating wasps ... or, perhaps I should say those having carnivorous offspring ... I have seen them wrestle down honey bees and carry them off. But, let us remember that some wasps have parasitic offspring on tomato worms, for example. And, they probably wrestle down lots of other garden pests – certainly aphids.

Steve

I have been stung twice by two different, not family related bumblebees.
The 2nd time I came too close to their nest which they built UNDERGROUND!
I called out the beekeepers that removed the honeybees from DD's house and they said they couldn't remove them.
They suggested flooding them out. I ran an hours worth of water into where I believed the nest was.
Never saw any thereafter.
Btw, there is an odor where a bee plants it's stinger and you are likely that aNOTHER bee will smell it and sting you in the same spot. A lot like lightning.

ninnymary said:

You have accomplished soooo much Bay!

I want to get a cattle panel that's 16' x 4' to make a garden trellis. I probably need more like 3' wide so my husband will have to cut it. Can't find them any narrower than 4' around here. Question, should I cut some of the bottom grid off so I can have legs to be dug into the dirt? Or should I use metal t posts around 4' to hold it up? I think cutting some grids off may make it too short. But metal t posts may not look so good in my garden. You know how I feel about "purdy" haha.

Mary

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They make a hog panel that is 39" tall... can you get by with a couple extra inches wide?

Last week my granddaughters and I moved ewes and lambs back across the driveway to the middle field. Then we sorted out Cooper from the heavy bred ewes and put them in the front field. We built a temporary night pen around the cow panel shelter. Sheba is elected to be their guardian.

The dirt pad is hard and I thought spreading some waste hay might make it more comfortable for the girls. So I took a wagon load of old hay to their shelter and it covered half, I brought another wagon load to spread on the other half. I was cleaning up the shed so I could set another bale of hay in it.

Peek-a-Boo!



Fat girls inspected, fat girls approved.



I brought another wagon load and put it on the shady side and they decided to snack on it.




Jet is first up, due 3-26 on a 145 day chart. My sheep tend to go several days later.
The fun is about to begin! 14 fat girls, yall cross your fingers that they all have twins.

baymule said:

Last week my granddaughters and I moved ewes and lambs back across the driveway to the middle field. Then we sorted out Cooper from the heavy bred ewes and put them in the front field. We built a temporary night pen around the cow panel shelter. Sheba is elected to be their guardian.

The dirt pad is hard and I thought spreading some waste hay might make it more comfortable for the girls. So I took a wagon load of old hay to their shelter and it covered half, I brought another wagon load to spread on the other half. I was cleaning up the shed so I could set another bale of hay in it.

Peek-a-Boo!

View attachment 64649

Fat girls inspected, fat girls approved.

View attachment 64650

I brought another wagon load and put it on the shady side and they decided to snack on it.

View attachment 64651


Jet is first up, due 3-26 on a 145 day chart. My sheep tend to go several days later.
The fun is about to begin! 14 fat girls, yall cross your fingers that they all have twins.

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They all look so comfortable in there.

ducks4you said:

Ya KNOW, when we are talking BEES, most of them the sting us are HONEYbees, and THEY are European.
Our native bees are much more reluctant to sting, EXCEPT for BUMBLEBEES, which are huge and nasty.

Click to expand...

What do you expect they are after all European 🤔 😉

It is significant. Usually "invasive" species, not matter where they are from, take over and push out the natives.
The USA has come to depend on honeybees and we are losing them to diseases that they cannot handle.

Thank you farmerJan for the suggestion. I went ahead and got a cattle panel. My husband cut some of the grid off so it has "feet" and he also drove in some 1/2" pipe that he had. It worked great.

Mary