So, my bees swarmed today. That was an adventure. My friend and I were able to retrieve the swarm from pretty high up in a tree on my property. Bees will swarm when a hive decides to split, usually because the space they're living in is getting too cramped for the number of bees that the local resources can support. In this case it's because we hadn't added additional boxes to expand the space for the hive soon enough, oops.
We've started to trap swarms (even if in accessible areas like this), by placing a beehive with wax in it VERY CLOSE to the ball of bees. They almost 100% will move into the box, because it's a hospitable place for them to live.
The other option is to try to find the queen and place her in a hive, or many beekeepers will knock the whole ball into a box, or vacuum them out of the tree.
Knocking them out of the tree = MAD BEES, and you hope the queen is in the box. Only 50/50 for us, and mad bees.
Finding the queen = PITA.
Vacuum = dead bees and mad bees.
This is the least intrusive option we have found, but takes time... (and a ladder). #beekeeping#swarm#capture
Whoop whoop! The newest addition to the server rack is installed and running great!
After noticing so many beautiful #RaspberryPi 4's of mine laying around, I figured I'd put them to some good use as a #cluster and running a self-hosted #webserver , instead of paying money for a service to do it every month...
So I wonder if #Swarm will ever allow you to post your check-ins to #Mastodon for those of us who moved on from shit bird. I've noticed that most of the people on my friends list on there don't seem to use it anymore. Maybe it's a passing fad.
So y’all remember #Swarm app (spin off from #FourSquare)? When you check in and earn #coins, it animates them falling/flying/splashing around the screen.
The number of coins in the #animation correlates to the number earned for that checkin.
Usually a checkin gets just a few coins. Sometimes bonuses will net 100+.
I had two checkins today with insane bonuses resulting in 600+ coins each. The app choked horribly trying to #render the animation!!
My transit app has a silly competition where you compete for bus and train points by riding various lines. And maybe it isn’t so silly because I’m obsessed with it. I’m in 4th place! I’m taking all these losers down!!
I wish there was a way to “reserve” a ride and let the drivers know how many people might be at each stop. But that would mean investing more in the public app. (a reserve system could use reliable riders to amplify system delay notifications— and have fun games)
@futurebird I feel ya on that one. Back in the day when foursquare first started #swarm, they had an add-on that would automatically check you in if you were near a business. I was dutifully checking in posting photos, and making comments. And losing weekly because how could I compete with folks who never even had to take their phone out of their pocket....
Well, heck, you can cause bees to #swarm using sound. Study: "Using a modified speaker attached to a hive, a sinusoidal 650 Hz vibration signal was generated, in order to obtain a signal similar to the one produced by queen bees. When the signal was applied to four hives containing very small colonies with unmated queens, all the four colonies swarmed."
#Swarm capture of some bees abandoned by a commercial beekeeper. Not sure if this has a queen, seems to be the only group which might. In theory other bees will "drift" over to this other hive, but I have yet to see that happen. #beekeeping
Excitement for the day. A #swarm of #bees manifested on the field outside my house in the afternoon sun. Called a local swarm collector and he came to take a look. There's 35000 bees in that clump and he's gonna help re-home them
update on the #bee swarm. the #swarm collector managed to collect the bees cleanly at 0500 this morning and said he'll drop by with a jar of #honey as thanks 😀 everyone's a winner!