Didn't rea;ize we could vote more than once a day...I'll check back later...

lol, I just did it 10 times.

Hi Bobby
When you open 2 windows or doors again each other so that you create some wind.(I believe the right word is draughty) they can find the window very good and they will be gone in a minute.
Flies don't like draught.
greetings Aafke

Aafke, I  your words.. Drafty! 

Done!! This is fun and exciting....hope they win.

Nice video Carol..I love the sounds they make when food is delivered and how grabby they get.  Thanks. 

dale, so far I found this on Yahoo: It happened in 2006 and your right 2005 posts are gone!

I can see all the posts from 2005, They start at message #23678 and continue through message #37950. However, no matter what I type in the search box, it will not find a post from 2005.

I couldn't even find any Skye posts from 2005, not even the ones about the evening she was released with her transmitter while a crowd watched from the Kodak visitors lot.

Thanks, yahoo.  

Ok yeah if your doing a search, no 2005's came up. I didn't try just looking for the whole year posts. Thanks and pfft Yahoo.

What are the effects of a Backyard Hive in an urban or suburban environment? (on the neighbors, the dogs, the kids)

Q. I am in the process of learning more about beekeeping, as I am thinking about starting a hive. I live in the Phoenix area and would be keeping a hive in my backyard. Apart from swarming, I am curious about how much the bees would "travel." I notice that in the summer when swimming in the backyard we have the occasional bee around our pool (which tend to sometimes hover around our heads). I also have a dog. My question is how much, in keeping a hive in the backyard, would a person would notice bees
flying around the backyard (how many bees, and how much it would bother the
neighbors)? Thank you!

 

A.
These are great questions that should be considered when thinking of beekeeping in your backyard.
Here is the best way to determine the impact of the "bee presence" in your particular environment.
The bees are on a mission, there is no reason for them to loiter around your backyard or your neighbors yard. The bees want to get to the most efficient nectar flow in the area. There will be a path, or a spray of bees emitting from the hive entrance. Usually this is about ten feet in front of the landing board. This path is the main visual part of the hive that is noticable. The stream or path of the bees disperse in many directions about ten feet away.
To plan the hive location, look for a place in the yard where you can position the hive entrance so it is pointed away from where people walk or where neighbors have a view into your yard.
If the nectar flow happens to be your neighbors crab apple tree, the bees will go for that tree and there will be a lot of bees on the neighbors' tree. But there should be bees on flowing trees, so I don't think the neighbors will think it is out of place. When the neighbors' tree stops flowing, the bees will go somewhere else and the neighbors will rarely even see a bee, unless they have other flowering plants.
When neighbors will notice your bees is when they have left soda cans out on the patio. They might notice that there are 15 bees around the coke can rather then 1 or 2 bees.
If the neighbors do notice the hive, usually they are happy to hear how much the bees have helped out your garden and fruit trees, how great the honey is from the local area and when you bring them a jar of honey and a comb for their kids they are quite content.
I have also found that if you explain that you have a different type of hive, like a bird house its a "garden pollinator hive" this helps. "Oh yes, I have this little "garden pollination hive", it's not a real bee hive, it is mostly used by organic gardeners and people that have apple trees" This line usually works, to calm their fears.
The big factor in your environment is the swimming pool. As with collecting nectar, the bees will also go to the nearest source of water. If the bees go to the swimming pool, they will fall into the water and could be a sting factor to kids in the pool. The remedy for this is to put a water source right next to the hive. Bees also love fountains. Give them a fountain and they won't even think of the pool
Dogs will usually avoid the bees. Some dogs bite bees and do get stung in the mouth and drool a lot. Some aggressive bees might go after the dog if he/she is running messing around the hive, and then they learn to keep away.
If your bees do swarm, it will be a big visual moment. This moment is usually short lived, maybe only a few minutes. Then the bees will be in a tree nearby in a clump and in a day or so the bees will be off into the wild blue yonder.
I hope this helps and you can join in the fun!

Preparing To Keep Bees

Honey bees can be kept almost anywhere there are flowering plants that produce nectar and pollen. Choose a site for bee hives that is discrete, sheltered from winds and partially shaded. Avoid low spots in a yard where cold, damp air accumulates in winter.

Be considerate of non-beekeeping neighbors. Place hives so that bee flight paths do not cross sidewalks, playgrounds or other public areas. In dry weather, bees may collect water at neighbors' swimming pools or water spigots. Avoid this by giving your bees a water source in your yard such as a container with floating wood or styrofoam chips. The floating objects prevent bees from drowning.

Stings

Anyone who keeps bees will inevitably get stung. Consider this before you invest in a beekeeping hobby. You can greatly reduce stinging if you use gentle, commercially reared queens, wear a veil, use a smoker and handle bees gently. Experienced beekeepers can handle thousands or even millions of bees daily and receive very few stings.

A bee sting will cause intense local pain, reddening and swelling. This is a normal reaction and does not, in itself, indicate a serious allergic response. With time, many beekeepers no longer redden or swell when they are stung (however, it still hurts!). An extremely small fraction of the human population is genuinely allergic to bee stings. These individuals experience breathing difficulty, unconsciousness or even death if they are stung and should carry with them an emergency kit of injectable epinephrine, available by prescription from a physician.

2nd egg now at Travelers....after 4 or 5 days   

An injured peregrine falcon, nursed back to health at a Napanee wildlife centre, was set free into the skies over Kingston again yesterday amid fears one of its main sources of food is being poisoned.

Sue Meech, director of the Sandy Pines Wildlife Centre, brought the female raptor back to the city to release it near where it was injured in late March in a confrontation with an Ontario Street apartment building.

She warned the bird's future health could depend on stopping whoever has been putting out the chemical Avitrol to rid the downtown of one of the falcon's favourite meals -- pigeons.

Meech said two pigeons suffering from the effects of the chemical have been brought to her centre.

"If people have only brought in two that are still alive there are probably a hundred out there that have been killed," she said.

She explained Avitrol is not designed to kill pigeons but to confuse them so they will fly around in circles emitting distress calls.

"It's supposed to scare all the other pigeons away," she said, "(but) if it's not mixed properly or if a pigeon eats too much then the pigeon dies.

"It's a horrible death."

She said the danger to the falcon would come from eating pigeons contaminated with the chemical. "They die," she said.
Meech's fear for the falcon's future was tempered by the pleasure of watching it fly away on two healthy wings yesterday.

The bird was brought to the waterfront next to the Pump House Steam Museum in a cardboard box covered by a small blanket. Once the covering was removed, the falcon swept low over the grass and soared up into the sky.

Another of those watching was Carolyn Teeple, who first saw the falcon coming towards her building at 135 Ontario St. in late March and thought it was landing on her 15th floor balcony.

When she went to check on it, it appeared to want to take off again but couldn't.

"After a while I went out with two oven mitts and a big towel to see if it was injured but it just went down into the crevice between the deck and the glass railing."

"So I started phoning. I was a little bit annoyed because I went through the phone book and phoned everybody I could find."

She said a half hour later what appeared to be the bird's mate came along, sat for a few minutes, and then flew off again.

The bird remained trapped and obviously injured for about two hours, she said.

Connie Black, a Kingston volunteer for the wildlife centre, was called to rescue the falcon after the wildlife centre learned of the situation from the Kingston Humane Society.

"We suspect it was chasing another bird and it probably struck the building and landed on (Teeple's) balcony," said Black.

"It managed to get itself stuck between the concrete and the glass. Luckily I managed to pull it out of the gap."

She said the bird had struggled for at least two hours to free itself.

"It looked worse than it really was. The whole one wing was scraped so there was a lot of blood and there was bruising on the body as well."

Black, who is licensed to care for migratory birds, took the falcon home and then transported it to the wildlife centre the following morning.

"I just made it comfortable and let it rest because she was exhausted. This was the first peregrine I ever handled and I hear they are supposed to be quite feisty but she had been fighting so long she wasn't feisty any more at all."

Meech said the bird had been beating her wings on the stone to try to free herself and badly scraped the leading edge of one wing. The wound was cleaned and the bird was eventually introduced to the wildlife centre's aviary where she soon took flight again.

One exciting aspect to the temporary confinement came when the falcon laid an egg.

"She probably has laid several before she came in and hopefully she will be laying some more now," Meech said. "Then she will be raising some young ones in the city."

But only if she doesn't come in contact with Avitrol, she said.

"As long as people don't put that poison down and the bird doesn't eat a poisoned pigeon then we should be okay."

http://www.thewhig.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2531195  Pics and release video

STOUGHTON —

The swan has loved, lost and loved again. Now, he’s an expectant father.

The male mute swan of Pinewood Pond in Stoughton is guarding a new nest with a new mate, the latest development in a wildlife love story that has captivated neighbors.

“It is just so beautiful and so loving to see,� said Carol Neville, the neighborhood’s head swan-watcher.

Neighbors of the 25-acre pond mourned right along with him last spring, when his former mate suffered a fatal animal attack. He tried in vain to save her eight eggs, and kept to himself in heartbroken solitude.

Then came Autumn Grace.

She swooped in sometime in October. She was shy at first, and neighbors worried when they noticed she and the male swan weren’t spending much time together.

Recently, though, Neville has spotted the two facing each other, eye to eye, with their beaks pointing downward. The positioning of their bodies and heads forms a heart shape.

Neighbors got their hopes up a few weeks ago, when they saw the male building a nest, and Neville confirmed the good news during the recent heavy rains.

She’d seen the swans diving into the pond, known in some circles as Harrison’s Pond, and worried that something was wrong. It turns out the couple was diving for reeds to elevate the nest above the rising waters.

Neville isn’t sure exactly how many eggs are in the nest but said she’s counted at least two or three.

Wildlife experts have told her to expect baby swans between late May and mid-June.

Until then, she and her neighbors will watch the male stand guard. He’s on sentry duty, chasing away ducks and geese.

Neville is happy to see him back to his old self, and hoping the offspring stay safe from snapping turtles and passing cars. He has been through enough heartbreak.

Photographer Brian Moore, 70, caught the mallard ducklings on camera with their mother after they hatched in the village of Hazelbury Bryan on Saturday.

The duck was sitting on 21 eggs, all of which were successfully hatched. Mr Moore said on Saturday he hoped the birds would not be killed by predators.

But an RSPB spokeswoman confirmed the ducklings died on Sunday night. It is thought they might have been eaten.

Their home was a duck house on a lake in the garden of Mr Moore's son.

Before news of the ducklings' demise emerged, Mr Moore described the birds as a "miracle" and said: "I've never seen 21 ducklings before.

"There are a lots of buzzards around here, foxes and crows, and we are hoping they don't get taken by predators."

A blue tit with an unusually long bill has been spotted at a RSPB nature reserve in Lochwinnoch, Renfrewshire.

The bird, which has an overgrown upper-bill, has been visiting the reserve's feeders for several weeks.

Overgrown bills are uncommon in wild birds and would normally prevent them from feeding.

The blue tit has, so far, shown no signs of difficulty but experts believe the deformity will grow and affect its ability to feed and preen.

Kirsi Peck, from the RSPB's wildlife inquiries team, said: "A bird's beak is rather like a human fingernail and grows at a slow rate throughout its life.

"Normally, the two sections work against each other while the bird feeds ensuring that they stay the correct shape and size.

"But in this case, it looks like something has happened to the upper mandible causing it to grow excessively.

"It's likely to continue to grow, and unfortunately, it will eventually affect the blue tit's ability to feed and preen. It's really quite amazing that it's doing so well at the moment."

Beauty left the nest at 5:24
Archer pops in 10 minutes later
Still there at 6:03

hmm

Umm