You are right the skin is broken by the bird and the bees are attracted. To solve your picking problem you will need to get up before the bees and pick in the early morning. Al

It's hard to say without more information. It's normal to see dead bees and some mites on the bottom this time of year but it really doesn't tell you much. Normally natural mite fall is measured over a specific period of time (24 hours, 48 hours). If you know know how many mites fell in a given period of time it would tell you more (and would even be better if you had a bit of history. ie. last month you counted 10 mites in 24 hours, before treatment it was 100 in 24 hours, etc.) Without testing (natrual drop, sugar rolls, etc.) before and after treatment you can't really be sure the treatment worked. Apistan may have had little effect (there is widespread resistance to it) though the combination may have worked. Unfortunately there is little you can do right now (unless you live in the south) as most of the reatments require warmer temperatures. I would plan on monitoring the mite fall and plan on treatment in the spring if necessary. -Tim

George, "The times, they are a'changing" First my lecture: you probably should'va asked this question before you became committed to keeping bee (i.e., buying two packages). My first recommendation to you is purely defensive (cya); you should read your city ordnances dealing with keeping honeybees and make sure you're fully capable of being in compliance with these city ordnances. If your city laws don't expressly address the keeping of bees, the next thing angry neighbors go after is enforcement of the nuance animals laws - research those. The next thing is put out your hive boxes in your yard now or very soon (empty) - see what happens to them. See if they're molested or even noticed. Don't overly call attention to the fact that you're even keeping bees. A neighbor's negative mental images of bees running wild is much worse than the reality of it. There is one funny story I'll relate (one I've told before in this forum, many months ago). From an English beekeeping friend of mine. Short(er) version: a beekeeper was doing well with his neighbors except for one lady who caused him unending problems with the local authorities. She simply would not tolerate his keeping such dangerous animals in their neighborhood. So after the second call to police to complain, he "fixed" the problem. The next time the police came out on one of her calls, he invited the officer over to the hive to "investigate" the gentleness of his bees. Needless to say, the copper was a little apprehensive but the beekeeper assured him there was absolutely no chance of him being stung. Upon opening the hive, and seeing it completely empty, the police didn't respond to her calls of nuance animals any further. After a few weeks, the beekeeper was able to discretely move his bees back home and all was well.

Actually, your "bumble bees" sound very much like wood bees to me.... are you sure that they are bumble bees for sure? We have some wood bees that act exactly like the bees you are talking about. They will dive bomb you, hoover in mid air and look you right in the face LOL and never bite you. They can be intimidating (or try to be until you find out that they are going to bite you). Look at your neighbor's house -- particularly the wood eaves ... do you see little round holes under the eaves? The wood bees drill holes in the wood. I guess they have homes in the wood. I usually don't see these bees in the winter. But in the spring and summer they come out like crazy. They even have "in-air" confrontations with other wood bees (fun to watch them). Judy