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BLUE LIGHTS and NUCS #2419568
02/26/18 02:47 PM
02/26/18 02:47 PM
Joined: Jan 2015
Posts: 2,402
Dale County, AL
G
Groundhawg Offline OP
10 point
Groundhawg  Offline OP
10 point
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Joined: Jan 2015
Posts: 2,402
Dale County, AL
BLUE LIGHTS and NUCS

My friend Pate, my Dad, and I are all beekeepers. Our bees are housed in traditional Langstroth hives. These are the boxy kind of hives you most often see and are efficient for raising bees and collecting honey. Another type of hive is the old, dome-shaped beehive that lent its name to the beehive state and the beehive hairdo. Likely you have seen pictures of these though they are no longer used in America due to government health regulations. Bees will build a hive in any convenient place. In addition to holes in trees, swarms have been found living in old drums, attics, farm equipment, mail boxes, and even old tires. The Bible even speaks of getting honey out of rocks (Deut. 32:13; Psalm 81:16), probably meaning that the bees had made hives in the cracks of rocks in the desert. The Bible also tells us of what may be one of the strangest of all places where a hive was found.
Judges 14 tells several stories about Samson. Samson had a habit of falling for the wrong women. One of these stories was about the time he had decided he wanted to marry a certain Philistine woman. As he was going to make the arrangements Samson was attacked by a lion, bad news for the lion! Samson killed it with his bare hands. Later he returned to take the woman for his bride and stopped to see the carcass of the lion: and, “behold, there was a swarm of bees and honey in the carcass of the lion. And he took thereof in his hands, and went on eating, and came to his father and mother, and he gave them, and they did eat: but he told not them that he had taken the honey out of the carcass of the lion.” (Judges 14:8-9)

Nucs, or nucleus colonies, are small honey bee colonies created from larger colonies. The term refers both to the smaller size box and the colony of honeybees within it. The name is derived from the fact that a nuc hive is centered on a queen, the nucleus of the honey bee colony. The nucleus box, also called a nuc, is a smaller version of a normal beehive, designed to hold fewer frames. The nuc box is smaller because it is intended to contain a smaller number of honeybees, and the smaller space makes it easier for the bees to control the temperature and humidity of the colony, which is vital for brood rearing. When using a Langstroth hive, a nuc is created by pulling two to five frames from an existing colony. These frames and the nurse bees clinging to them form the basis for the nuc colony.

This past Friday was spent visiting and “working” with my friend and bee mentor, Pate, we had strived to control some of his well established hives from swarming by dividing, splitting, combining, adding queens to hives and manipulating frames in several hives. During the day we discussed how I might split some of my hives this early (the end of February) without having queens to place in the new hives. There was really no good solution as it is just too early in the year to expect the hives to raise a new queen.

I had resigned my self to not being able to separate or split any hives due to not being able to get any new queen bees short of buying and having them shipped from Hawaii where queens can be raised all year. Well I had forgotten that I was with a master beekeeper, a successful businessman, father, grandfather and retired Lieutenant Colonel who has spent his life finding solutions and solving problems. As we were winding down, cleaning, and replacing tools and equipment, Pate suggested that I take a small 3 frame nuc which he had raised and nursed through the winter and use that queen and her daughters to split one of my hives and combine them with frames of bees from one of my “mother hives.” I was hesitant to take this gift as I knew the time and effort required to raise and develop a queen into a thriving miniature hive, even a small nuc box of three full frames of bees.

Well after the third time I had refused to accepted the nuc and the forth time Pate had offered, I reluctantly accepted the box of bees. We taped the entrance closed and strapped the top shut. Though there were several bees loose and clinging to the outside of the box we decided that the best way to transport the bees to my apiary was to just place the nuc on the passenger seat in the cab of my truck. This was really not dangerous to me as the worker bees outside the box were really only concerned with being united with their mother queen and sisters in the nuc box. Keep that thought in mind as I finish this story.

You may be familiar with the writing on your passenger side mirror; “Objects in the mirror may be closer than they appear.” Well if you are in a hurry to get back to Ozark so that you can combine your hives and are traveling 60MPH on Highway 36 in the city limits where the posted speed is 45MPH, then after you round a curve and pass a small road blocked by rows of planted pines then the mirror should read; “Officers in the mirror may be closer than they appear.”

Being the, other than this one time speeding, law abiding citizen that I am and realizing my old Ford truck could not out run the supped up DARE vehicle or it’s radio, I immediately started pulling over as soon as the officer activated his blue lights. After I had stopped, more than a dozen of the bees gathered on the inside of my back window, whether they were still hunting a way to return to their home in Newville, or were attracted to the beautiful blue lights flashing I had no way of knowing. As the young officer approached my truck he motioned and requested that I roll down my window.

WAIT, I had a thought and remembered teasing my wife after she had received a ticket years ago when returning from visiting my folks in Atlanta with our, then, two small children. I had told her while the officer was approaching her car she should have reached in to the backseat and pinched one or both of the children as there was no way the highway patrolman would have been cold hearted enough to write a young mother with two crying children in the car a ticket.

By now the policeman had reached my truck and was standing next to my door and requested that I roll down my window and provide him my license. I loudly and with a bit of acting told him I would be glad to comply but I was fearful that with all the bees loose in the cab of my truck that he might be stung! “Stung, he replied, what do you mean?” I motioned and he noticed that several bees had gathered on my back window and on the passenger window which was rolled halfway down to keep the bees cool.


I advised him I could comply with his request to lower my window, or step out and meet him at the rear of my truck, or he could move to the passenger side where the window was open and I would give him my license and insurance information but I was transporting a box full of VERY mad, hostile, impatient honey bees. This might have been a wee bit of an exaggeration! I quickly explained to the officer that as long as the truck was moving and wind circulating through the vehicle that the bees were relatively calm and docile but once the truck stop it was a another story.

What I failed to mention was though it was another story it is not a different story. Either way most of the time the bees are as passive as a long eared basset hound with his head hanging out the window, ears flapping in the wind, drool and slobber running down the side of the truck they, the bees, are totally unassuming and offer no danger to the driver. Most of the time they just settle on the inside of the window content to watch the scenery change. Fortuitous for me a couple of the bees had moved to the driver’s side window and were peering manically at the patrolman. Again I offered to lower my window or exit the truck but suggested he move back because the bees between us were agitated and had worked themselves into such a frenzied and excited state that I did not know how they would react once I opened the door. Was this an untruth maybe, maybe not, as I am not a bee whisper or able to read a bee’s mind.

By now Officer, name omitted to protect his dignity, had lost his poise and thankfully for me decided that decorum was better than valor and with as stern a manner as possible in the situation, instructed me to continue on my way safely and at a much lower rate of speed. I thanked him and promptly departed with as much solemnity and respectability as I could muster. Once again realizing that while honeybees are necessary to pollinating many of our crops and flowers, and providing us with sweet honey, they could also get you out of a sticky situation from time to time – honey, bees, sticky - pun intended.

Re: BLUE LIGHTS and NUCS [Re: Groundhawg] #2419795
02/26/18 06:42 PM
02/26/18 06:42 PM
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 3,094
Birmingham, AL
W
Wade Offline
10 point
Wade  Offline
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Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 3,094
Birmingham, AL
I think you did your civic duty well. Who knows, that could have been an Africanized honey bee hive waiting to attack anyone trying to bother their new owner. Good job!


Don't give up, don't ever give up!
Re: BLUE LIGHTS and NUCS [Re: Groundhawg] #2421082
02/27/18 08:30 PM
02/27/18 08:30 PM
Joined: Jun 2004
Posts: 754
N. Alabama
W
WARPhEAGLE Offline
4 point
WARPhEAGLE  Offline
4 point
W
Joined: Jun 2004
Posts: 754
N. Alabama
Ha Ha. Good story. It would be fun to be a fly on the wall (or Bee?) to hear him telling his fellow patrolmen about that story...

Re: BLUE LIGHTS and NUCS [Re: Groundhawg] #2423023
03/01/18 01:49 PM
03/01/18 01:49 PM
Joined: Feb 2002
Posts: 44,211
North Alabama
W
Wiley Coyote Offline
Freak of Nature
Wiley Coyote  Offline
Freak of Nature
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Joined: Feb 2002
Posts: 44,211
North Alabama
smile good story!


I firmly believe that a double gallows should be constructed on the East Lawn of The White House. Politicians who willfully and shamelessly violate their oath to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States of America should be swiftly tried and, upon conviction, publicly hanged at sunup the day after conviction. If multiple convicts are to be hanged they can choose with whom to share the gallows or names shall be drawn from the hangman's hat to be hanged 2 at a time.




NRA Life Member
Re: BLUE LIGHTS and NUCS [Re: Groundhawg] #2423411
03/01/18 09:58 PM
03/01/18 09:58 PM
Joined: Jul 2011
Posts: 39,377
Marshall County
FurFlyin Offline
Freak of Nature
FurFlyin  Offline
Freak of Nature
Joined: Jul 2011
Posts: 39,377
Marshall County
I've often wished that I'd get pulled over while I had a hive of bees in the back of the truck. I have hives at home and at the shop and I drive from one place to the other with my jacket and veil still on. I sure get some strange looks.


If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. 2 Chronicles 7:14
Re: BLUE LIGHTS and NUCS [Re: FurFlyin] #2423467
03/01/18 10:47 PM
03/01/18 10:47 PM
Joined: Jan 2015
Posts: 2,402
Dale County, AL
G
Groundhawg Offline OP
10 point
Groundhawg  Offline OP
10 point
G
Joined: Jan 2015
Posts: 2,402
Dale County, AL
FF
Know what you mean. Also I bet you have had someone trying to get your attention while stopped at a light to tell you you have a fire in your truck bed where your smoker is sitting.

Last edited by Groundhawg; 03/04/18 10:07 AM.
Re: BLUE LIGHTS and NUCS [Re: Groundhawg] #2425067
03/04/18 09:47 AM
03/04/18 09:47 AM
Joined: Jul 2011
Posts: 39,377
Marshall County
FurFlyin Offline
Freak of Nature
FurFlyin  Offline
Freak of Nature
Joined: Jul 2011
Posts: 39,377
Marshall County
I went to Lowes once with my smoker still going in the back of the truck. I walked out of the store and there was a group of people standing about 50 feet from my truck talking. I walked by them, got in my truck and started backing out of the parking spot. One guy runs over and starts yelling at me, YOUR TRUCK IS ON FIRE, YOUR TRUCK IS ON FIRE. I stopped, put my truck in park, got out, showed him my smoker, puffed it a couple of times for effect, then got back in and drove home laughing...


If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. 2 Chronicles 7:14
Re: BLUE LIGHTS and NUCS [Re: FurFlyin] #2425087
03/04/18 10:08 AM
03/04/18 10:08 AM
Joined: Jan 2015
Posts: 2,402
Dale County, AL
G
Groundhawg Offline OP
10 point
Groundhawg  Offline OP
10 point
G
Joined: Jan 2015
Posts: 2,402
Dale County, AL
Originally Posted by FurFlyin
I went to Lowes once with my smoker still going in the back of the truck. I walked out of the store and there was a group of people standing about 50 feet from my truck talking. I walked by them, got in my truck and started backing out of the parking spot. One guy runs over and starts yelling at me, YOUR TRUCK IS ON FIRE, YOUR TRUCK IS ON FIRE. I stopped, put my truck in park, got out, showed him my smoker, puffed it a couple of times for effect, then got back in and drove home laughing...



LOL, wish I had seen that. Had any of them called the fire department? Or just watching?

Re: BLUE LIGHTS and NUCS [Re: Groundhawg] #2425759
03/05/18 09:36 AM
03/05/18 09:36 AM
Joined: Jul 2011
Posts: 39,377
Marshall County
FurFlyin Offline
Freak of Nature
FurFlyin  Offline
Freak of Nature
Joined: Jul 2011
Posts: 39,377
Marshall County
Luckily, no they hadn't called the fire department.


If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. 2 Chronicles 7:14

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