Subject: Re: Maple Syrup Houses and Bees

From: [email-masked] (Pollinator)
Date: 20 Jan 1995 21:35:20 -0500

[email-masked] (-verville d.f.) asks:
>Last year I put a hive on an organic farm.
>This farm also produces maple syrup.
>Starting in March the sugar house will be going
>24 hours a day.
>If the weather permits fly days, 
>will the bees seek out the syrup and become a problem?  
> (Maple flavored honey?) :>
>Would it be wiser to move the hive now
>and then put it back after?

   If you have warm days before any real nectar sources are available, and
the sugar house is open, the bees will be a royal pain in the neck, and a
lot of them will drown/cook in the evaporating pan.  I've had them come in
great numbers when I'm making syrup.  As soon as the willows start to
yield nectar, the bees will stop, but that is usually about the end of the
maple flow too.

[email-masked]
Eastern Pollinator Newsletter, PO Box 1215, Hemingway, SC   29554

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From: [email-masked] (J PETHERICK - OCCUP HEALTH)
Date: 23 Jan 1995 22:37:08 GMT

>and then put it back after?

Well, speaking from my experience with my father's bees and maple syrup 
operation:

No, they won't be a problem - unless your hive is right beside the sugar 
shack.

If the daytime temperature goes high enough to allow bees to fly, the sap 
run usually stops.  Even if they do start to fly, it's usually simply 
cleansing flights.

During the past seven years, I've never seen any bees around the sugar shack 
or in any of the sap pails.  The hives are located about 400 yds from the 
sugar shack at about treetop level (my father built a platform to keep the 
hives away from bears, allow him to carry supers directly into second floor 
of barn and provide enough light, air, etc).  The bees sometimes can be a 
nuisance during washing up, though - since this is usually when warm 
enough for flights, the sap run having gone "buddy" or stopped. 

John Petherick,
Lakehead University