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The narrow ones are from Ecrotek. The wider ones are from Hornsbys

I’ll be keeping the feed up to them from now on.

I haven’t noticed that yet. I’ll keep an eye out for it.

Greetings. I just take the queen from the mini mating nucs. I sell some queens and use some for my own hives. The mini mating nucs run continuously all year, even through the winter. I don’t intend to make them into a full sized hive. If they get too strong I split them.

It sure is. Hopefully it turns around in the autumn. Until then I’ll be feeding bees

Well spotted. I was looking for a golden queen

Overall my approach is to raise queens from hives that don’t show any signs of chalkbrood. For individual hives I will usually just let it run its course and intend to requeen them when I get an opportunity. As far as treating the problem the only thing that I think might help is feeding with Hivealive but that’s not a recognised uses for that product

I’m mixing white sugar from the supermarket with water at a ratio of about two parts water to one part sugar.

@@bennybeekeeper thank you

It’s a very tough summer, that’s for sure. Do you feed your bees at all?

@ yeah I do feed them. Always wary of them not storing too much in supers, while also trying to keep numbers up in case a flow does come.

@ yeah it’s a tricky balance. I’ve come to the conclusion that there’s no more honey this season and I’ll be feeding everything from now on to maintain bee numbers. I’ve seen it happen enough that hives will stop raising brood in these conditions and they’ll be weak going into winter.

@ yeah I’m leaning the same way I think. What is the round contraption on the top of that middle brood frame?

It’s a BeeHero transmitter. You can look it up if you’re interested but it basically measures temperature in the hive to judge the strength of the hive

Thanks for the prayers. Keep it up. Thanks for watching

I'm watching this again being reminded of my second year when my surplus honey for 15 hives was 16 pounds.

Cheers

It works ok, it’s just a lot of heavy lifting. I’m nearly to a scale where I’ll need some sort of a feeding system to handle bulk amounts of feed

@@bennybeekeeper I'm in USA so not sure where you would get things. But here you can buy a "gas nozzle" for that. I think the big boys use a pump but if you can bring the Ute close enough maybe just gravity would work. There is also a Hand pump kind but I have not looked too far into it. I think I saw it on Temu for cheap

Hi. What is the little round thing clipped onto frame 6 in your brood box? Love you videos. 2nd year beekeeper here. Learning so much from you. Toowoomba Qld.

@@bennybeekeeper Bob Binnie has this video that you might find interesting on his pump on the truck. ruclips.net/video/LA7mMu_AuXk/видео.html

Thanks for watching!

Thanks!

I’ve seen a couple on the road near my hives recently. I’ve been keeping an eye out for them

I’m glad you are enjoying the channel!

Askew

Yes she did mate and lay perfectly fine. The wing must have been sitting out on an angle randomly for some reason.

It’s a small piece of wax foundation attached to the skewer with melted wax

Yes the bees do chew the polystyrene. Mainly around the entrance. Black bees seem to do it more than golden Italians. I’m not too worried about it. If they want the entrance a bit bigger I don’t mind. As long as the box still functions. They mainly chew when the population gets bigger. One of the principles of running mating nucs is to not let them get too strong

@@bennybeekeeper i see i see...expanding populations is definitely a big problem with the styrofoam hives, thanks for the response

I do sell some locally but I haven’t got any at the moment

thanks how do people contact you

BeeHero sensor

Thanks

Well you must be past the shortest day of the year for you so the excitement will build from now on!

Feels like spring today with 45F but don't be fooled, back to below freezing end of the week. Girls enjoyed it just the same.

@bennybeekeeper yes! I have In door apiary too check it out no kidding I'm all over it don't stop man !!!

Thanks

Yes and to see that you can get cells drawn out in nuts this size Is amazing also!

Thanks for the kind words and you are welcome to ask questions. The spacing is 35mm. The first comb is 20mm from the inside of the front wall. Then the rest of the box is spaced at 35mm

⁠yes it’s handy to be able to make a few queens.

@@bennybeekeeper thank you and looking forward to watching you’re fantastic work and your innovations

Yes it's great to see them grow so quickly and move them into bigger homes.

That’s great to get so much comb drawn out. I’ve probably doubled the amount of comb I had at the beginning of the season at a guess. I’d like to do some splits but I’m out of lids and bases. Probably should build some instead of watching the cricket 😆

I've got a bunch of bottoms and a few tops and a bunch of drawn comb for my needs for 2025 but at 75 not sure I want to expand very much. Maybe will sell a few nucs to use my surplus bees.

⁠I was hoping to get to 100 hives this season to get a bit more money at the Almonds this year. But I’ll have to get a move on if I’m going to get to that number

Thanks for that. I tried it recently with a mated queen and it didn’t work. The queen was killed. For that reason I’ll mainly use this method with queen cells.

Yes the bees at this site are doing well. I was expecting a bit of a dearth during the summer but the rain has been a great blessing

Yes they are working hard while the conditions are good.

Hello!

Unfortunately it’s part of the job. They spray with fungicide while the trees are flowering which is the same time as they need the bees there. I did get my hives out before the sprayer got close to them this time, but I have had them sprayed in previous years.

I get them for free from local stores that sell animal vaccine. The stores receive deliveries in them and dump the boxes. These boxes are also used to transport seafood so you may be able to get them from a fish market or butcher

Will do

@ Thankyou 😀

Thanks for watching.

I buy them off eBay

@bennybeekeeper thank you

It’s the middle of summer here. It’s hot and dry.

And how much f0 .thank you

I don’t know any buckfast breeders in Australia

@@bennybeekeeper thank you benny .

When they get 2 or 3 crosses away from pure Italian they get a black and yellow striped abdomen and are known to be aggressive.

Thanks