Sun, Nov 22 2009
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Backstroking bees Area beekeeper Roy Hall has been raising the insects since 1993, and they have some pretty curious habits. By RENEE FITEPress Special Writer Every two to three days he checks on a colony.
“If the hive is well capped-over with wax, it’s time to take the frame out,” he said. His queens didn’t do so well last year, which he attributes to being lost in the mail from California. “They were found in a bid in Muskogee,” he lamented. But this year his queen delivery from Georgia arrived in two days like the Express Mail usually does. “They’ve been very, very good queens, all but one survived,” he said. At $18 each, the queens are usually treated like royalty. He buys a few every year for his 15 or 20 hives that also survive. Since 1993 he’s been all about bees. “I picked up several swarms this year, from calls to the OSU Extension office of people with problems,” Hall said. On the fence by the Phillips 66 on the 51 Bypass, he finally sprayed water from a small bottle to damped the bees so he could collect them into a brood box. He fed them sugar water to sustain them until they could survive in their new hive. “I do not fed sugar water to producing bees,” he said, “and the other bees won’t let them in to get it.” If the swarm is on a branch, he cuts the branch off and shakes the bees into the brood box without much trouble, he said. Bees are starting to come back, Hall said, “I’ve been talking to OSU Extension, we’ve both been hearing about a lot more bee tres this year, than in a while.” Bee friendly and safe gardening options are important to Hall, who encourages other to consider them. 
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