Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I don't know how many others are also bee keepers, but has anyone every had experience using dead bees a fish food?
I'm sure they eat them in small quantities in the wild. Maybe chopped up?

i dont see why not bees like most other insects are prime for protiens, also i use a bee fly every now and then when fishing for trout they work pretty good, even seen a few panfish (bluegil, sunfish, etc) take a bee off the top of the water a few times..

about bee keeping... is it hard to get into? what would i need to start it, im trying to get into homesteading/microfarming. and bee's are a good source of honey yummy, and also will help polinate my plants for me..

Now here's one thread I can contribute to! I am a beekeeper and teach beekeeping. I don't think adult bees will be very good food. Chitin is difficult to digest... even the chickens usually ignore bees and that is really sayin' something. Pupae on the other hand, for sure!!

Beekeeping is more difficult today than 20 years ago for sure, but it's fun, rewarding, and as local as you get. Plus bees need attentive beekeepers to keep them: back yard beeks like us are the future of bees and beekeeping!

Why is it more difficult now? I wan to get started, but have no clue how.

Beekeeping is becoming more difficult because the bacteria, pests, and diseases are becoming more and more resistant to the medications used to combat them. I don't know the differences between Ohio and East Texas, but I do know of a strain of Italian honey bees that seems pretty close to immune over here. I got 2 swarms from Weaver's apiaries in Navasota TX that were called buckfast where the keepers have kept their bees without meds for a long time. One of the swarms didn't like their hive or they didn't accept the queen, but I still have the other one going strong after 3 years with no medicine from me. I tried adding 2 nucs from sue bee honey's field guys, but they didn't last 6 months.

Yep. Mainly due to Varroa, a parasitic mite, but several other pathogens/diseases combined with pesticide misuse, habitat loss, loss of genetic diversity, and frankly misinformation with the explosion (on balance a good thing) of interest in beekeeping.

Got some bees this morning! My first hive and really excited!

Had a few dead bees and tried feeding them to the koi but they were not interested

Gabe

Welcome to beekeeping Gabe! They're great teachers... you'll find yourself noticing when your local plants bloom, what color their pollen is, and if you're like me spending a little time each day sitting on a chair in front of the colony with a pint watching "the bee channel"

Good on you, Gabe!

I am keen to get into beekeeping, as well, but was trying to clear the decks of a few other projects before getting started. Well, my hand may have been forced because today my son pointed out a swarm of bees literally just hanging from a weeping mulberry tree in our garden, at around shoulder height. I am guessing that there is a way to coax them into a hive.

On another matter, last year a lost a few Rainbow Trout fingerlings at a time when I noticed there were lots of bees hanging around the tank. I have wondered ever since if bee stings can affect fish, especially fairly small ones?

I wondered about this with my catfish because early on I was loosing some and it seemed they were the ones hanging out by the lilly pads. The bees would go to the edges of the lilly pads to drink. I still don't know if the fish were eating them but it seemed suspicious at the time. Once I covered the tank so the bees couldn't get in, there were fewer deaths. Some of the fish that died after the tank was covered died from what appears to be Enteric Septicemia of Catfish which doesn't always show indications that the fish is ill so it may have been this instead of the bees. I may never know, wish I'd done an autopsy to check their gut. Hope this makes sense.

Scotty, I never thought to examine the fish's gut contents at the time, either, although it seems a pretty obvious thing to do in retrospect.

You can just shake the swarm into a suitable hive and they'll set up shop! Free bees! YouTube has a skillion "hiving a swarm" or "capturing a swarm" videos... know that swarms are NOT defensive: they're a baby beehive looking for a home and have no brood or honey to defend.

Bees for sure need lots of water especially in hot weather, and since they orient by scent, strongly-scented water like AP is attractive. Never seen it harm ponds/turtle tanks/etc, but I suppose possibility of disease transmission can't be ruled out. Bees are generally highly sanitary: a colony is one of the most sterile environments found in nature.

Disease is one possibility but I was thinking more along the lines of the fish getting stung when they try to eat one. Most of the fish that were lost were small at the time they died.

dead fish and birds in Sweden,brazil,.Austrila,state of LA,maryland,Arkansa and its spreading

have they determined if this was caused by bees or even if they are linked together?