# Dumbest thing you ever bought for beekeeping ?



## WBVC (Apr 25, 2013)

But...could you hear the bees?


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## GLOCK (Dec 29, 2009)

WBVC said:


> But...could you hear the bees?


no. But that was 5 years ago . A lot of changes since then i can hear them easily now days.


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## rookie2531 (Jul 28, 2014)

GLOCK said:


> no. But that was 5 years ago . A lot of changes since then i can hear them easily now days.


Did you buy this to hear them from your favorite chair?

So did your hearing improve or did you just teach the girls to speak up.


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## philip.devos (Aug 10, 2013)

I didn't think Darth Vadar would have parted with that. :lookout:

Phil


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## Mbeck (Apr 27, 2011)

My kids got a cheap version of one of those a couple of years ago. It was fun to play around with, never felt the need to listen to bees.


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## Hogback Honey (Oct 29, 2013)

Oh, that is pretty bad GLOCK. My worse purchase was "cam locks", for locking down the lids, never did figure out how they were supposed to work.


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## Vance G (Jan 6, 2011)

In my mad rush to try to become commercial in the seventies, I bought a hundred pollen trap and collected a ton of pollen I could not sell. I lost the cost of the traps and a huge chunk of honey crop off those hives.


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## odfrank (May 13, 2002)

>I bought a hundred pollen trap

Why do we always go overboard? Seemed to be a theme in the seventies. My friend made No Swarm Cluster Frames out of masonite for all his hives and really goofed them up. I few years (not the '70s) ago, I made many boxes with 7/11 foundation instead of trying three or four. How many of us made way too many Cobana Ross rounds supers?


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## Kamon A. Reynolds (Apr 15, 2012)

I bought bee gloves and a bee brush 9 years ago. They got me stung. I now use the brush for queen cells


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## bevy's honeybees (Apr 21, 2011)

Pail perch when I don't have a bottling tank. Dumb. I thought I could drain pail into a bowl but that does not work.


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## rfgreenwell (Feb 14, 2010)

Landing boards...so many landing boards, cut them and repurposed for shims eventually.


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## Charlie B (May 20, 2011)

Plastic queen excluders. That's what I get for being cheap.


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## Vance G (Jan 6, 2011)

Don't you ever have to combine buckets? I want a need one or two but am too cheap to buy one. I keep thinking I can make them.


bevy's honeybees said:


> Pail perch when I don't have a bottling tank. Dumb. I thought I could drain pail into a bowl but that does not work.


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## David LaFerney (Jan 14, 2009)

A one ounce bottle of urine for like $20.00 Oh, wait... that was deer hunting.


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## kilocharlie (Dec 27, 2010)

How about the dumbest thing I *DIDN'T* buy? That would be pollen substitute feed patties my first year, unless you count not buying my own piece of property outside of the city and in good bee country before starting in beekeeping. Neither non-purchase was a good decision.

At this point, the worst purchase was the fencing-mask-type English veil jacket. I should have gotten the big sombrero-type hat/veil combo on a full jumpsuit. Oh, well - It will come.


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## Michael Palmer (Dec 29, 2006)

The Jentner graft-less system. Grafting is too easy. Used it once and put it the museum.


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## Mr.Beeman (May 19, 2012)

A bee brush. It does work great as a hand broom though.


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## snl (Nov 20, 2009)

bevy's honeybees said:


> Pail perch when I don't have a bottling tank.


You can send it to me!


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## bevy's honeybees (Apr 21, 2011)

Vance G said:


> Don't you ever have to combine buckets? I want a need one or two but am too cheap to buy one. I keep thinking I can make them.


Yes that will work. I haven't needed to use it in that way yet but will keep it in mind. 

My last extraction, I realized a large Tupperware bowl I have (32 cup, with lid) where the 5 gal pail fits perfect and can tilt slightly while retaining a seal. I now use that after bottling each pail.


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

Michael Palmer said:


> The Jentner graft-less system. Grafting is too easy. Used it once and put it the museum.


Same here!

Looking back, the most trouble some purchase I made was those heated uncapping plains... Smoky cumbersome slow things... Capping scratchers work better, cheap and quick


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## the kid (Nov 26, 2006)

Tennessee's Bees LLC said:


> I bought bee gloves and a bee brush 9 years ago. They got me stung. I now use the brush for queen cells


all a bee brush does is piss them off .. gloves ??? never used them but then of ten years only used a suit 2 times ,, never used just a vail


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## odfrank (May 13, 2002)

Charlie B said:


> Plastic queen excluders. That's what I get for being cheap.


This coming from a guy who has called me cheap 1000 times.The truth comes out.


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## Riverderwent (May 23, 2013)

Toss up: two frame tangential extractor and ten frame deep brood boxes. _Suum cuique_.


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## Charlie B (May 20, 2011)

10 frame boxes. Cut all of them down to eight frame. Much better.


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## odfrank (May 13, 2002)

Charlie B said:


> 10 frame boxes. Cut all of them down to eight frame. Much better.


Was it the boxes that were dumb or the weakling who put them four stories up on the roof of an apartment building with no elevator?


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## Charlie B (May 20, 2011)

odfrank said:


> Was it the boxes that were dumb or the weakling who put them four stories up on the roof of an apartment building with no elevator?


Oh wow, are you really going to go there? When Mr. "Oh, look at me, I use jumbo hives" have recently gone to eight frame boxes? You just hate it when I'm right!


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## GaSteve (Apr 28, 2004)

Manipulation cloth. Supposed to keep bees calmer by covering all the frames except the one you're working -- worthless.

Ross Round super was a close second - not that it didn't work, just expensive and totally unnecessary for producing comb honey.


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## GLOCK (Dec 29, 2009)

I run 10 frame deeps and love them. now my fogger on the other hand is another piece of bee junk along with the FGMO.
http://i952.photobucket.com/albums/ae9/GLOCK3/BEEKEEPING%202015/P1110006_zps6e3a984d.jpg
http://i952.photobucket.com/albums/ae9/GLOCK3/BEEKEEPING 2015/P1110007_zps924a34f6.jpg


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## jim lyon (Feb 19, 2006)

Ha, ha. I've got one of those laying around too Glock. One of the more worthless items I have purchased in recent years was a Mann Lake tulle veil, wore it about an hour and took it off after about the third sting to the face. It might be good for mosquitos but dosen't compare in quality to the Dadant tulle veil.


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

Fumidil... just in case I needed it... that was a waste of money... it's still sitting on the shelf unopened decades later...


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## Mr.Beeman (May 19, 2012)

Any time you guys want to give up the "junk" foggers and FGMO, I'll take the "junk" off your hands. Just let me know when you need my address. lol


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## Bob J (Feb 25, 2013)

Another vote for a bee brush and goatskin gloves.... I now use a turkey feather for those times when I need anything at all and the gloves just sit in the box.....


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## GLOCK (Dec 29, 2009)

Mr.Beeman said:


> Any time you guys want to give up the "junk" foggers and FGMO, I'll take the "junk" off your hands. Just let me know when you need my address. lol


you pay shipping you can have it.


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## AstroBee (Jan 3, 2003)

In no particular order:

Burgess fogger
Sucrocide
frame grabber


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## georgiabees (Feb 2, 2010)

TIE
Slatted Racks
Hogg Comb Cassettes / Ross Rounds


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## Barry Digman (May 21, 2003)

This is kind of an unsettling thread as you all are bringing up things I had conveniently forgotten.  My $80 Burgess fogger purchased from Cabela's in 2003 and never used...


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## Ravenseye (Apr 2, 2006)

Goodness. If I cleaned up my "never used stuff" section of the barn, I'd have a much bigger barn.

Mine was the frame grabbers. I got stung a few years back and had a reaction. All winter long I worried that I wouldn't be able to continue keeping bees and something made me decide that a frame grabber would lessen the odds of getting stung again. Considering that the sting I reacted to was in the face (no veil on) and that frame grabbers really add a few inches to your distance from the frames, it was a pretty dumb purchase. But.....it's a tool and I have a thing for buying tools. I'm sure NO ONE here has that same problem!!!


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## Matt903 (Apr 8, 2013)

About 15 years ago, I bought "combining paper." It was advertised a specially treated paper to help hives combine easier. It looked like newspaper when I got it. Kind of embarrassed to actually type in now.


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## deknow (Jul 17, 2006)

It _could_ have had pheromones or other scents...Or they may have shipped the same thing and called it "smoker starter paper"


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## snl (Nov 20, 2009)

Matt903 said:


> About 15 years ago, I bought "combining paper." It was advertised a specially treated paper to help hives combine easier. It looked like newspaper when I got it. Kind of embarrassed to actually type in now.



For Sale! 

Combining Paper! ........ used to combine YOUR money with that of the seller!! 

PM me with instructions as to where to send YOUR money to combine with MINE!

Sorry Matt, just could not resist! :lookout:


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## Barry (Dec 28, 1999)

Barry Digman said:


> My $80 Burgess fogger purchased from Cabela's in 2003 and never used...


I finally gave mine away!


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## COAL REAPER (Jun 24, 2014)

bees


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## FlowerPlanter (Aug 3, 2011)

There are several youtube videos of homemade foggers that used oxalic acid.


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## Barry Digman (May 21, 2003)

GLOCK said:


> This is a good tread for things not to buy for beekeeping .


I have a shiny white frame rack too. Like a few other items, it still seems like a good idea but it never quite makes it out of my tool bucket.


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## Paulemar (Aug 28, 2013)

Glock,

I bought 2 of the hive top feeders AND the frame holder too. I liked the feeders so much I bought 3 more that were on sale last Fall. Of course I modify them to close up all of that open area underneath. I use the frame holder all the time because I'm afraid I could roll the queen and it gives me a handy place to put an outer frame so I have more space and can avoid that. I don't feel dumb yet, at least about those two items. However, feeling dumb about something is not completely foreign to me.

Paul


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## GLOCK (Dec 29, 2009)

BARRY i don't under stand !?:scratch:


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## Barry Digman (May 21, 2003)

Glock, if I may interject here, in Photobucket there's an Edit function when you click on a photo that allows you to reduce the size of the image. I just went back and changed mine to a width of 180 and a length of 320. 

The difference is that the original took up 1.49mb, and the reduced image only 21.6kb with no loss of quality. That makes the thread look better and saves space and money.


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## jim lyon (Feb 19, 2006)

Barry, dosent photobucket allow you to edit only the width or the height and then the remaining figure is automatically calculated to keep the picture in proportion?


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## Barry Digman (May 21, 2003)

Yes, you can change one and it adjusts the other.


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## Mr.Beeman (May 19, 2012)

Find out what shipping would be and get back to me Glock.


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## bevy's honeybees (Apr 21, 2011)

COAL REAPER said:


> bees


Yep, I hear ya. I had 2 years of wasting money on buying bees. I forgive myself for the first 2 years. After that, just plain dumb.


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## Charlie B (May 20, 2011)

Here's another one. A decapping roller. What a joke. It gets clogged up after about 3 frames in.


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## snl (Nov 20, 2009)

Charlie B said:


> Here's another one. A decapping roller. What a joke. It gets clogged up after about 3 frames in.


I got one of those and after using it once, cleaned it up and presented it at the next meeting to be given as a "door prize!"


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## SWM (Nov 17, 2009)

Nicot Queen Rearing System. I bought it before I learned to graft, which is easy with a little practice. It's never been used and I would sell it cheap.


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## Charlie B (May 20, 2011)

snl said:


> I got one of those and after using it once, cleaned it up and presented it at the next meeting to be given as a "door prize!"


Great idea! :thumbsup:


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## Radford (Jul 13, 2010)

A bottle of bee be gone. I used it and it took about two to three months for the smell to get out of the shed.I put the rag in the shed when I was finished with it and forgot about it. I have not opened that bottle if 4 years. That stuff really stinks.


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## snl (Nov 20, 2009)

Charlie B said:


> Great idea! :thumbsup:


Yeah, until the next meeting when the winner tells you he knows why you gave it away!  You both get a good chuckle...and someone else gets the door prize!


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## Vance G (Jan 6, 2011)

My bottle of fischers bee quick is right up there with totally worthless! It may not smell but it didn't move bees either. I admit bee go stinks but it works.


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## snl (Nov 20, 2009)

Vance G said:


> My bottle of fischers bee quick is right up there with totally worthless!


Not totally worthless, I used it in the truck as a deodorizer .... not bad....


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## bdouglas (Dec 18, 2014)

OK I'm curious, what was the idea of the fogger for bees????


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## snl (Nov 20, 2009)

bdouglas said:


> OK I'm curious, what was the idea of the fogger for bees????


Short version........It was _THOUGHT_ that by fogging with food grade mineral oil, that the bees while grooming it off each other would also remove mites. Many people (including myself) jumped on the band wagon........and the band wagon left us stranded ..........with foggers.


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## pmshoney (Dec 30, 2014)

dumbest things that I have bought.
1.) the cheaper shorter smokers I have 4 of them they don't stay lit very well always have to mess with them
2.) the taller smokers they worked great but I started raising queens about the time I bought the last 2 of them only to learn I hate smokers for working bees it makes finding queens hard and just makes bees run and go crazy puts them in panic mode so now I spray bees with sugar syrup they are busy cleaning them selves off and finding a queen is simple and the bees don't want to sting me they are so calm I have not used a smoker in a few yrs now
3.) wax foundation and wedge frames by far a bone head buy but everyone said oh it will do this or that over plastic foundation so I tried it bought 200 deeps worth when I learned they just slow everything down messing around with the labor intense things like cross comb and assembly and the list goes on and on they easily cost me 2 seasons and a lot less hives by seasons end that I used the wax foundation and frames to keep them short smokers going 2 more yrs and gave a lot of them away used some frames for cutouts. 
4.) Styrofoam mating nucs they are too small and costly I had 5 of them with the cost of them I cant even think of trying to have 100 or so of these things raising queens now days lol 
5.) a bee brush wow now that's a great way to get stung and kill bees .if you think you must brush bees use a wad of grass you can leave it lay at the hive and the bees will crawl out of it fly home.
6.) all the supplies to make screen bottom boards thinking mite drop was in some magical way make any difference at all with mites or that we need ed to count mites that way wow what a waist of time all we did was create some new tasks at the same time lower brood production and wipe out hives of bees in the winter months oh and make the ants life easy. Now they just take up a corner pile in supply building I will grab one in a pinch as a temporary bottom board until I get a solid board made in there place


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## pmshoney (Dec 30, 2014)

omg yes all the stuff that went with my mineral oil fogging adventure I forgot about that :scratch: why did I fall for that and sugar drop counting mites like we had nothing better to do If I would of just had $1 per hr of the time I spent back then on that stuff I could of said the heck with worring about mite counting and just bought replacement bees and came out ahead lol


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## snl (Nov 20, 2009)

pmshoney said:


> 5.) a bee brush wow now that's a great way to get stung and kill bees .if you think you must brush bees use a wad of grass you can leave it lay at the hive and the bees will crawl out of it fly home.


Now wait just a cotton pickin minute! That bee brush is great after working a yard of bees and you have bees all over you and it's lunch time. Just get that brush, and brush them off! 'bout the only use I have for it.............


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## Mr.Beeman (May 19, 2012)

bdouglas said:


> OK I'm curious, what was the idea of the fogger for bees????


Actually, the varroa AND tracheal mites are suffocated with this methodology.

The microscopic size of the particles is believed to play a very important role in the use of FGMO as an acaricide. In this form, the oil penetrates the respiratory system of mites, blocking it and causing death by suffocation. Most importantly, it appears that mineral oil applied in this form is also effective for the treatment of tracheal mites since the oil penetrates the respiratory system of the bees, exposing the mites to the effect of the oil as it does to Varroa mites. Continued dissection of bee tracheas revealed total absence of tracheal mites in test colonies. These findings are consistent with those of a beekeeper in the Canary Islands (Spain) utilizing mineral oil for treatment of tracheal mites. The beekeeper wrote indicating great degree of effectiveness of FGMO for that purpose.


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