Around The Yard

Discussion in 'Crops & Gardens' started by Beth Gallagher, Oct 11, 2020.

  1. Don Alaska

    Don Alaska Supreme Member
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    Sometimes the bears have to be trained to the fences. If they touch the fence with their nose, they learn. If they push it with their bodies, the coat protects them. I think I posted about my son's experience with brown bears and salmon. If the fences will deter brownies, black bears will be stopped.
     
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  2. John Brunner

    John Brunner Senior Staff
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    Agreed. You don't have to tell me twice...I ain't no Treadwell. And I have a 10 mile charger on (8) 200 foot courses of wire (1,600 linear feet.)
     
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  3. Tony Page

    Tony Page Veteran Member
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    Where's that pioneering spirit

    " Davey - Davy Crockett King of the Wild Frontier"
    " kills him a bear when he was only three". Haha
     
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  4. John Brunner

    John Brunner Senior Staff
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    I tell you what. I am ever so grateful for those who got out there and expanded the frontier so I can complain when my a/c has a hard time keeping up and the batteries in my remote start to decline.

    I ain't no Natty Bumpo.
     
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  5. Tony Page

    Tony Page Veteran Member
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    Don't know if this is helpful just found it on the internet

    Open containers of regular (not orange or lemon) Pine Sol under your house and decks will deter bears from using them as dens as they don't like its smell. It'll keep them out of your car, too, as it masks the scent of the Chapstick in the console or that three-year-old French fry wedged under the back seat.Aug 29, 2008
     
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  6. John Brunner

    John Brunner Senior Staff
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    That's interesting. Article after article says that bears do not like the scent of pine.
    I guess their life in the woods must really suck then.
     
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  7. Mary Stetler

    Mary Stetler Veteran Member
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    My bees have been here for decades. Maybe they just have enough preps they don't want to start work yet and have netflix as opposed to sleeping in. Last year a huge number of them were found dead in the snow early spring. But they emerged like normal when they got around to it. Don't know why that happened. But they are mine so being weird is probably normal for them.
     
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  8. John Brunner

    John Brunner Senior Staff
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    Who knows what drives their behaviour. They lack introspection so cannot tell us themselves.

    Back in the mid 80s I almost died from yellow jacket stings. I tested allergic to everything but honey bees. I underwent a desensitizing regime and did it for quite a while, but stopped before full completion (the nurse told me the doctor was ripping me off, I gently poked at the issue, got no admission or relief, so I stopped.) I've been stung since by wasps and a yellow jacket a few times since and sat by the phone ready to dial 911 with my Epi Pen in hand, and had no reaction. I think I'm likely over it. So bring on the pollinators!
     
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  9. Dwight Ward

    Dwight Ward Veteran Member
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    I once went back to work on a house that had been framed and sheathed and had been standing empty for weeks. The doors and windows hadn't been installed. I grabbed the ledge of a window opening and put my hand right on a black hornet's nest. I'm guessing I was stung over a dozen times. My hand and forearm swelled up so much they looked like a kid's cartoon drawing. It was an unpleasant experience.
     
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  10. Don Alaska

    Don Alaska Supreme Member
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    I used to keep bees, but they seldom survive the winter here due to the long winters. If there is a warm up in January or February so they can make a "dump run" and rid themselves of accumulated waste, more will survive. Many times you have to manage mid-winter feeding. I used an IV bag on a very slow drip into the center of the cluster. It was too much trouble and I no longer do bees here. My eldest son has a few hives, but he too has trouble overwintering. I don't know how mason bees would do here. I have never heard of anyone trying them for pollination only. We rely on wild bees, and they seem to do fairly well as pollinators, as they fly during foul weather that would keep honeybees confined to shelter.
     
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  11. Marie Mallery

    Marie Mallery Veteran Member
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    I never thought of raising bees in cold climates, but find it interesting being a bee keeper. I bet that is a job keeping them going up there.
     
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  12. Don Alaska

    Don Alaska Supreme Member
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    Yep, it is a lot of work but Alaska and Norway have the highest graded honey in the world.
     
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  13. Marie Mallery

    Marie Mallery Veteran Member
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    Something else I didn't know, :cool:
     
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  14. Tony Page

    Tony Page Veteran Member
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    I couldn't find the photos I took of the bees clinging onto a tree branch, I went online and found this, very close to what we had.

    “What they’re doing in a cluster is waiting for the scout bees to find a place for them to call home,” Lofthouse said, “like in a tree, in a house ….”

    istockphoto-615803894-612x612.jpg
     
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  15. Dwight Ward

    Dwight Ward Veteran Member
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    I'm learning stuff here. I would have considered honeybees as wild bees. You made me look up 'mason' bees. I think they are what we call bumble bees around here and I see them most often living in holes in framing lumber or other crevices.

    Osmia bicornis
    [​IMG]
     
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