The really boring and totally pointless snippets thread IV

[ian16th]

68th anniversary of the attestation of the 16th Entry of Boy Entrants into the Royal Air Force.

[1DC]

A strong breeze from the SW on the Humber and we could have it all weekend. A nice day though so i shall find myself a job outside.
Yesterday I heard my first cuckoo. Last year i didn't hear any but prior to that we always had two who usually arrived about a week apart.

How many swarms do you get each year UP?

[4mastacker]

Must be summer. Only way to get to sleep is to lie on top of the bed with the bedroom windows open. At least there's no traffic noise to disturb.

Talking of traffic, local plod has been around the area dishing out lots of speeding fines cos the boy racers thought the empty roads were good enough reason for them to act like prats in their pimped up chavmobiles.

[G-CPTN]

From Wiki:-

Swarming is a honey bee colony's natural means of reproduction. In the process of swarming, a single colony splits into two or more distinct colonies.
Worker bees create queen cups throughout the year. When the hive is getting ready to swarm, the queen lays eggs into the queen cups. New queens are raised and the hive may swarm as soon as the queen cells are capped and before the new virgin queens emerge from their queen cells. A laying queen is too heavy to fly long distances. Therefore, the workers will stop feeding her before the anticipated swarm date and the queen will stop laying eggs. Swarming creates an interruption in the brood cycle of the original colony. During the swarm preparation, scout bees will simply find a nearby location for the swarm to cluster. When a honey bee swarm emerges from a hive they do not fly far at first. They may gather in a tree or on a branch only a few metres from the hive. There, they cluster about the queen and send 20 - 50 scout bees out to find suitable new nest locations. This intermediate stop is not for permanent habitation and they will normally leave within a few hours to a suitable location. It is from this temporary location that the cluster will determine the final nest site based on the level of excitement of the dances of the scout bees. It is unusual if a swarm clusters for more than three days at an intermediate stop.
Swarming creates a vulnerable time in the life of honey bees. Swarms are provisioned only with the nectar or honey they carry in their stomachs. A swarm will starve if it does not quickly find a home and more nectar stores. This happens most often with early swarms that leave on a warm day that followed by cold or rainy weather in spring. The remnant colony, after having produced one or more swarms, is usually well provisioned with food. But, the new queen can be lost or eaten by predators during her mating flight, or poor weather can prevent her mating flight. In this case the hive has no further young brood to raise additional queens, and it will not survive. A cast swarm will usually contain a young virgin queen.
Generally, a weak bee colony will not swarm until the colony has produced a larger population of bees. Weak bee colonies can be the result of low food supply, disease such as Foulbrood Disease, or from a queen that produces low quantities of eggs.
The scout bees are the most experienced foragers in the resting swarm cluster. An individual scout returning to the cluster promotes a location she has found. She uses the waggle dance to indicate its direction, distance, and quality to others in the cluster. The more excited she is about her findings, the more excitedly she dances.
If she can convince other scouts to check out the location she found, they take off, check out the proposed site, and choose to promote the site further upon their return.
Several sites may be promoted by different scouts at first. After several hours and sometimes days, a favorite location gradually emerges from this decision-making process. In order for a decision to be made in a relatively short amount of time (the swarm can only survive for about three days on the honey on which they gorged themselves before leaving the hive), a decision will often be made when somewhere around 80% of the scouts have agreed upon a single location and/or when there is a quorum of 20-30 scouts present at a potential nest site. (If the swarm waited for less than 80% of the scouts to agree, the bees would lack confidence in the suitability of the site. If they waited for more than 80% of the scouts to agree, the swarm would be wasting its stored honey.)
When the scouts bees agree where to nest, the whole clustered swarm takes off and flies to it. A swarm may fly a kilometer or more to the scouted location, with the scouts guiding the rest of the bees by quickly flying overhead in the proper direction. This collective decision-making process is remarkably successful in identifying the most suitable new nest site and keeping the swarm intact

[Wodrick]

Morning all,
Hovering around the guess of 27c, not too far inland (11km) a private Wx station is reporting 33.

We have just finished cleaning up blood splatter. Punto has damaged his tail, came in with it bleeding and wagging, it was everywhere.

Henry not right, not eating, back to the vet at 15.15.

Dogs arghhhhh.

[Karearea]

^ Hope the dawgs are restored to good order and condition easily.

[Wodrick]

Punto will be ok he heals quite quickly, Bit concerned about Henry we will see what Mrs Vet thinks.

[Ex-Ascot]

68th anniversary of the attestation of the 16th Entry of Boy Entrants into the Royal Air Force.

42 years and two months. Party down south on the 70th Ian? Actually hopefully we will be in Greece so you will have to go up there. Raki on us and you can sit in my chair. Pubs there open on Monday. We do not see why they can't open outdoor pubs here.

10 km journey today into the village and back to get our travel pass for next week's town trip. The school staff room was being used for this admin. Put on masks, washed hands at the entrance, went in nobody there. Went to the village tribal and police offices, nobody there. Not even one copper. Big presidential speech today about our virus plans. They may have all been sitting in front of the village TV somewhere. Some of the mud huts have satellite TV dishes on them but probably stolen and just for street cred.

[Pontius Navigator]

4ma, our community speed watch has been suspended but quite amazing but traffic speeds in the village are definitely lower. I think it is the morning Mums school rush that means it is quieter.

[ian16th]

68th anniversary of the attestation of the 16th Entry of Boy Entrants into the Royal Air Force.

42 years and two months. Party down south on the 70th Ian?

There was one in the UK in 2002 for the 50th, I was planning to attend, but my inconsiderate son decided to get married that weekend.

SWMBO decided which event I attended.

[Alisoncc]

68th anniversary of the attestation of the 16th Entry of Boy Entrants into the Royal Air Force.

Congratulations young Ian.

Alison

[Ex-Ascot]

Ian:

There was one in the UK in 2002 for the 50th, I was planning to attend, but my inconsiderate son decided to get married that weekend.
SWMBO decided which event I attended.

The Royals often split engagements. You should have pointed this out.

Just had a phone call from CID. They have been stuffed with investigations following our armed robbery due to virus restrictions. Lock-down finished a day ago and they are straight back onto it. Want to take us to the hospital tomorrow for blood tests. Mrs Ex-Ascot's blood was on a knife they cut her with and dropped. They are then going to Gabs on Sunday to trace phone calls from a phone stolen from the same ringleader in September. We have information from the coppers in the village that the case officer is close to promotion. We think that a good result here could swing it for him. Nice guy, happy to help, but not get beaten up again.

[handsfree]

UP you are in trouble Sir. Your anecdote on bee swarming was neither boring nor pointless.
You're on a warning too G-CPTN. Much more of this kind of stuff and readers brains will become too big for their
heads.

A drafty day but fair and warmish. I've just put weed and feed down onto the lawn. Not too sure where it all went in
the wind.

I actually got to leave the house on Wednesday. Sadly only to visit the hospital for a fistulagram/plasty. Worth the discomfort though
as the dialysis is now back to proper functioning. Talking to the Intervention Radiologist (man with the knife) he said they had been
having a pretty quiet time as all elective surgery was cancelled and they were only doing emergency stuff. In fact my waiting time from
an ultrasound scan to being called to the Butchery was 10 mins.

Off now to move the sprinkler to water the weed and feed in.

[G-CPTN]

You're on a warning too G-CPTN.

I had questions to ask - then decided to do my own research.

It is amazing how organised the movements are planned.
It is easy to assume that they simply bumble along, when in fact things are determined intelligently.

[Wodrick]

Over 30c now, just lost a crown, retrieved same.

Henry has had another jab, he is very subdued.

Best the Dentist can do is Monday afternoon.

[Undried Plum]

Tango Nov,

That's a good description of swarming.

I'd add that when they swarm they usually cluster on an object such as a fence-post a few yards from their home hive. The queen is in the centre of the cluster. The bees are stuffed full of honey and are in a very jolly mood. They can't sting because they can't bend their thorax and anyway they wouldn't want to as they're in holiday mood. You can pick up handfuls of them with bare hands and they won't sting. They're like tiny teddy bears, almost cuddly.

I once impressed a lot of people in central Edinburgh's Frederick Street when a swarm had formed on an illegally parked car (not my own!). I begged a box from an adjacent shop and scooped a dozen double-handfuls of bees, including the queen, and took them home. The queen was marked, so not a feral colony. Nasty bitches, as it turned out, so I killed the queen and re-queened the colony. Within a year they were a really nice bunch.

The normal procedure to capture a swarm is quite simple. Place a cardboard box on the ground, open end down, and prop up one end with a stick or a matchbox or summat. The scouts will soon find it and go into confab with the community and decide that it's a great place to live. The whole lot will take up residence in the box shortly before sunset. At dusk you simply carry the box to your newly made or recently recycled hive and pour them in like popcorn.

[larsssnowpharter]

Well, Undried Plum. You have made me feel even more guilty of an act of beecide I committed many years ago and I felt bad enough at the time! I was flying in a gliding competition in the UK when stationed in RAFG and, to keep costs down had taken my caravan to accommodate me and my crew.

At the end of the comp, I went to hitch up the van to discover a bee colony had set up house in the bottle storage thingy at the front of the van. I had a booking on a ferry and was in a hurry.

I made frantic calls to the RSPCA and was told I was likely committing a crime if I destroyed them.

"Can't you just give me the number of a local beekeeper, " I asked. They were less than unhelpful.

I put on my hat, gloves and a pair of tights over the hat in imitation of beekeeper inform and hitched up the van. On the drive, I checked my unmanifested pax and sadly noted their decreasing numbers during the journey. However, a few hardy chaps made it all the way!

Still feel bad about it all.

[4mastacker]

One of me canal colleagues keeps bees at various hives in the Vale of Belvoir. It's absolutely riveting listening to him talking about 'his kids' and describing the workings of the hive. A very complex and fascinating subject.

On the subject of speeding cars, what about this tool? Does he think he'll get away with it?

[Undried Plum]

a bee colony had set up house in the bottle storage thingy at the front of the van.

Yup, that's what they do while the Surveyor bees are out doing surveys of their next home. Usually at somewhere between waist-height and chest-height to a human.

"Can't you just give me the number of a local beekeeper, " I asked. They were less than unhelpful.

Bastards.

In Scotland the rozzers have a postcode database of bee keepers. I am one. I typically get four or five callouts per summer, usually for wasps.

Wasps and bees, as species, are as different from eachother as are badgers and tigers, or perhaps octopusses and elephants. I know nothing about about wasps and I walk away from those cases.

I put on my hat, gloves and a pair of tights over the hat in imitation of beekeeper inform and hitched up the van.

Good improvisation.

Actually, the reason why most of us beekeepers wear white stuff is because most bees instinctively think that we yumans are bears coming to steal their honey and **** the hive in a general way. Most polar bears don't eat much honey, not very often anyway. Bees somehow know that, so they don't mess with us much when we wear tropical whites.

Something similar happened in Africa to the natives in the 19th and 20th centuries.

[OFSO]

Mrs OFSO's ex kept bees, and she was pleased to read of another person's enthusiasm. I know nothing, but did rescue a fine large specimen and escort him to the window yesterday. Bee not ex.