1) How far will a swarm travel if the queen honey bee has her wings clipped? 4:56 2) I had read that I should leave the queen in her box for a week or so, is that correct? 16:31 3) I installed a package in a Layens hive, plenty of dead bees on the bottom, will the bees remove them, or should I? 23:51 4) Picking up two nucleus colonies next week. The roads are very bumpy, just really bad roads. How disturbed will the bees get during the trip? How long after we pick them up can they stay safe in the nucleus box? 27:00 5) Could you please show and explain what kind of records you keep, how you keep them and how they are helpful to you? 31:31 6) I'm planning for my honey harvest and plan to have 20 hives. I wanted to ask about removing the bees. Can I remove the supers and leave them out over night, or right after dark collect them? 36:47 7) Can you please compare and contrast the different mite treatments available and explain why you choose the Oxalic Acid Sublimation method? 41:18 8) As honey is a huge heat sink, is leaving on too much honey problematic, how do you find the sweet spot of enough vs too much? 57:00 9) Can you tell me what's going on with this colony based on my description? 59:55 10) Do virgin queens swarm with large numbers and do their mating flight(s)? 1:02:08 11) After installing a package in my Layen's Hive on Friday, my Hyfegate ended up with water in it. Is this condensation from the bees? 1:06:25 12) Do you think that scraping off the drone comb from the bottom of the frames will have any effect on the hive? 1:11:51
As a new beekeeper Fred, it would be nice to see a "split" demonstration, queen cups and supersedure cells and "see" what you see in the hive to understand the management decisions you made in the moment. Your photography is so incredible, a visual inspection is worth a thousand words. We learn so much from your channel and appreciate all of your tips and insight. Thank you.
Hi Fred, great info as always. I haven't heard much about it except for you showing it? Queen temp from betterbee to simulate a queen. I had to make a split a few days ago with the queen, two weeks in a row with queen cells, 2 splits. I put 1 queen temp in and ordered a mated queen coming this Wednesday. Interesting, the bees instantly surrounded the fake queen. It will be a week with the fake queen. What a great product. I guess I could refreeze the queen temp and get another week or so out of it? Do you have any experience using these?
thanks for answering my questions, Fred.....I actually came out the next day and picked up the burrwax and have brought it back to the house, and I'll figure out later if I want to render it down to a brick of beeswax or just save it as a souvenir of my first month of actual beekeeping. I also checked both brood boxes while I was out there, and there is absolutely no comb on any of the frames, so I guess as you say, they will have to use more resources to make more comb. perhaps after anotehr week or two I'll see some progress.
You should see comb construction when weather is warm enough to facilitate that activity. If it's cold, they tend to slow comb construction down. Get a hot spell, keep the 1:1 syrup on and they can build comb remarkably fast. Cold weather works against them in so many ways.
Bee escape tip. When placing a bee escape under your finished supers place an unfinished or new super just under the bee escape to keep the bees occupied.
Clipped queens are totally fine. I have had a few before and it makes it so much easier to get the swarm out of the bush instead of a 30 foot tree. I think I may clip from now on actually!
I also use the same bee escape. When they get clogged I scrape off the wooden parts and carefully use a propane torch to burn off the wax and propolis from the screen. I find they work best when there is some kind of nectar flow going on. If there is no flow I will open feed about 100 meters away from the hives to create one. I believe when nectar is coming in the storage bees come down to the bottom of the hive to meet the foraging bees, and then go back up to store the honey. This vertical movement is what makes these bee gates work so well. One year I forgot I had a vented inner cover on one hive and I got back to the hive a day late to find a robbed out super.
Wow, lesso learned there Fred! I've been using a DeWalt heat gun for wax melting and hive reconditioning this year, heats up to 1,100 degreed f. Needs to be plugged in, but a great tool and no open flame.
Most of my clipped queens would just be walking on the ground in front of the hive. But since all my hives are in my yard I just make the split there or put her back in until im ready to deal with it.
Thank you for following science!! It’s not the coward direction, It’s the smart direction! I’m so tired of hearing peoples opinions that they think are facts
thanks for addressing my birch tree swarm w virgin queen,...now placed in a 5 frame nuc in traps location,w comb building,and better comb to help,not seen eggs yet but its too early,partly rainy all week,they seem to be settling in ,pollen coming a little,took the trap down and put away,eventually it will be placed back up the deer stand,....my reasoning is since she swarmed into my baited trap,rather than return to the parent colony, as should happen w a virgin mating flights,....hopeful the weather gets better and a recheck will show her in lay, thank you for helping me understand this behavior,sorry for the long reply, i think others in my local groups are as naive as i am so your input is really helpful ,and your info on formic pro, mite washes,and yes record keeping, which i need to start doing ,
I purchased 2 nucs last spring, they built up all year, they overwintered successfully, I grafted from them, they are both still laying and building well in their second year, and they are both clipped... I now clip all my queens.. I don’t want them flying away. They haven’t been superseded in my yard, and in fact the ones I haven’t gotten to clipping have gotten superseded more. Probly because they can fly away..
Ordering Hop Guard II from Dancing Bee in Canada as you speak. Tried Formic Pro last year but uneasy with all of the obvious discomfort to the bees. I'll keep you posted. Jim
Yes, in our beekeeper's association, many reported problems with formic acid treatments. Very strong stuff! I have it on the shelf in case I encounter a terrible varroa infestation... I hope not to need it.
I'll swap you some of that weather! Heat index of 100° down here in FL this week. Looks like we finally sorted out the colony we requeened. The bottom board screen had a spot they could get under and trap themselves. Got that stapled down after releasing the bees and 3 days later we have eggs! Queen must've wandered down there. At least our smaller hive got the chance to catch up. It'll probably be bigger before long
Mr. Dunn, I wish you could have seen how relieved I was when I heard your answer about the queen cups and the drone comb. Thanks again for all of your help. As a side note, I decided that I wanted to recover the wax from that drone comb, so I loaded it into a disused steamer which I had already used for a previous wax recovery. I was prepared for terrible smells from the steamed drones. As it turned out, the wax melted off and into the water below, and the smell of the cooked drones was actually sort of appealing, a bit like fresh tamales. I hate wasting stuff, so I will see if any of my local critters will be interested in eating those freshly cooked packets of protein. If only I still had chickens.
Hi Fred, I found my Clipped Queen 10-15ft from the hive on the floor with a dozen bees around her attending to her. Main swarm body was 15-20ft away in a juniper. Oh and by the way the Wing was clipped on 1 side less than half of the wing.
@@FrederickDunn No, I guess they landed when they realized there was no queen with them, I dumped them in a 5 frame box and looked through it and didn't see any queen. So I started looking for the queen around the yard and spotted the little cluster on the floor. I picked her up and placed her in the nuc with the swarm then placed them in their new resource hive.
The queens markings will last much longer if you use Testors acrylic hobby paints. Do not use Testors enamel paints. In a video Michael Palmer used Testors acrylic and used a single blade of grass as a paint brush. Allow additional time for drying,
Thanks as usual for your videos and the time invested to foment better keepers. I'm glad you mentioned the slatted rack I got a couple to do some test on ventilation and glad to see another good way to use it. Fred I live here in Katy TX, suburb next to Houston. I will be receiving my two packages of bees next week; I'll be using to separate configurations with my two hives to test on temperature and humidity. Questions: 1. Do I install both packages one after the other? Should I wait until next day to do the second one? Specially as they will be located 1-2 feet apart. 2. According to Mountain Sweet Honey, they treat with OA the night before shipping the bees, I'll do another treatment 10 days after installation counting with 3 days for the queen to be released and days before capping. Most videos that I see recommend 3 OA treatments every 5-7 days as the standard AO treatment. I saw your video on OA treat but didn't hear you mention repetitions. 3. According to local beekeepers the flow already started and will last until July 4th. I have my hives setup with a deep with 2 bettercombs in the middle where I will setup the queen for release and the rest f the frames with foundations, 1.5 gallons of 1:1 with HoneyB Healthy and Amino B.and 1/2 pound of Mannlake pro patties. When the time comes to add another deep (70-80% full) should I add a queen excluder and a medium super along with it? I reason that the Queen will have space to lay eggs but not sure if the bees will travel to the super to add honey or simply fill the second deep. As always, thank you for your time and support. Javier Delgado
I really enjoy that investigation and the opportunity to visit with bee keepers. I was able to do a few of those last year and am looking forward to more this year. Pure pleasure :)
@@FrederickDunn I manage 4 other colonies for two other farms. I love going over there and showing them things and sharing my knowledge. All beekeepers need to help each other out.
My first spring, and my bees are doing great. I requested assistance at the club meeting we had before on line started,(a mentor) and got 0 responses. I think a change in leadership would be a big help to us new beeks.
I had a new package that they killed the queen after like a week after she was released from the queen cage. So I added like 6 queen cells into it that were fully capped. So its nice to have that many queen cups everywhere to make another hive queen rite.
Hey Fred, if you ever get to MI on vacation or otherwise, I'd love to have you take a look at my hives. I know that's a haul from PA but upper MI is beautiful. I'm located in central lower MI.
Dear Mr. Dunn, I have become a fan recently and I realized we are in the same state! I have contacted someone from my city's beekeeping guild, but they rarely do classes or tours. I was wondering do you do tours or presentations/classes? If not I understand. I just thought it would be so cool! 😎 Edit: I have never done beekeeping before but I have been doing so much research lately and I have taken a huge interest in it. I think my biggest obstacle would be over my fear of insects in my face, and that's why I want to get hands on experience. I'm not going to let my fears get in my way. Your videos have been very helpful too so thank you for making them!
I do quite a few visits and public speaking engagements in my area when I'm invited and have time :) I don't provide tours here at my home, instead I try to share as much as possible on RUclips. I do have future plans of providing a one-room schoolhouse style beginner beekeeping course right here, but current construction costs have pushed that way down the road. But for now, we don't do any tours here.
My bees have been bringing in nectar for a little while now I'm going to go through and see how much Honey I have and at least one box full I'm going to extract some of it to see how much it is to see how many 5 gallon buckets I will need
@@FrederickDunn Fred. Beeweaver are even out of their Italian carny queens. I've never seen NO queens available this early in the season. That cold snap must have hit hard.
Dunn, I am a new beekeeper from Bellingham Washington state. I had installed my first-ever bee package, as should. Later that day around 12 I had seen some scavenger bees coming out to find food and water. But other bees would come out of the hive make and fly around it and land back. At first, I thought that was robbing bees but after doing more research I had concluded that those bees are nursing bees learning to fly. Do bees do that? How many days will that training flies last? Thank you For your amazing videos.
Hey Fred, I think you said that Formic pro is replacing that MAQs, I’m not sure if that’s correct. My impression was that Formic pro is a different release on that outside paper than the MAQs, I checked mine at seven days (I know you’re not supposed to, but I’m a curious beekeeper) to see the difference and they’re a little moister than MAQs were in my area at 7 days. Anecdotal, Evidence. I switched due to the extended shelf life. I have used it on my 2 hives for 4 years and never lost a queen (knocking on wood), I have used both forms in Spring, summer if able ( I couldn’t due to temps here in Colorado last year), and Fall. I treat both at same time.
Formic Pro is a new formulation of Mite Away Quick Strips... you may still be able to get both. www.betterbee.com/pest-management-and-medications/fpro10.asp
Just found you and looking forward to catching up with all you have shared to date. Can you direct me to one of your podcasts where you discussed the different hive box designs? I built a Langstrop long and was thinking it was the best way to go but am finding so many different opinions now.
HI David, I'll share what my personal preference is between the Long Langstroth and the Layens... it's the Long Lang... simply because of overall compatibility of equipment, feeder accessibility, honey harvesting, and the list goes on. I will continue to evaluate both, but with the horizontal format, my currrent preference is the Long Lang.
I thought the bees had superceded the queen because when I saw her in March this year she was quite small, and there was no brood nest. I assumed she was still a virgin. To my surprise a couple of weeks later. In early April I found 3 frames of brood and an unmarked queen that was quite a bit bigger. No drones. How did this virgin get mated. Well a week ago I went to find and mark her and realised it was my queen from last year with her blue paint spot almost cleaned off, leaving that trace of a blue ring.
And there it is! That grooming of the marking. Glad you figured it out Fred, I've seen that frequently, particularly with hygienic stock that practices excessive grooming. Did you remark the queen with blue?
@@FrederickDunn yes I did. Made a great big mess of it too. The pen blonde out a bid drop of paint, and when I moved her up to the grate in the marking tube so the fibers would wick off the excess, she squiggled and I now have a blue angel. That was 2 weeks ago. I tipped back the hive to check for swarm cells 1 week ago in case they tried to superceded her. I have to check again tomorrow before I reach 16 days. Full inspection.
I am pretty sure your nucs traveling down a bumpy road will be fine. I transported nucs 1400 miles across 8 states. There were bees loose in my car. They ship hives across the states everywhere. You will be fine. Just do not leave bees in a car to overheat. Keep moving switch drivers whatever. But It took me 2ish days to get my bees home.
Hello Mr. Dunn, I have a question about requeening. I will be starting soon with 2 Beeweaver nucs. The Beeweaver philosophy is to remain treatment free for varroa mites and I was told requeening every year is the way to control them. Also, a recent beekeeping class I took emphasized requeening annually to prevent “hot hives” because virtually all feral bee colonies in Texas are Africanized bees. I don’t understand yet when requeening to prevent varroa mites should be done, (early spring?), and is it actually possible to avoid treating for varroa by requeening. You explain things so well, I would really appreciate your thoughts about this.
Going into winter with a new queen is probably the best time of year to accomplish that. So, after your nectar flow is over, and you're winding down for winter, that's a good time to re-queen if that's your method. I let my own beeweaver queens go for two years, but there is lots of support for going into winter with new queens.
Hi Fred, I have a question. Four days ago, I opened up my hive to do a maintenance check, there were many bees bring back recourse with roughly 60 bees with pollen per minute. There were plenty of brood, and eggs. Today I was looking at the entrance and saw many many bees coming in and out, it definitely wasn’t robbing, but what worried me was that there were very few bees with polon coming in(like 5 per minute). 5 hours before this it was cold, and over cast and weren’t any bees out side. What does this mean? Ohh! also when I opened it I saw a supper sedure cell, it was empty,but I onLy saw one. They have plenty of room to build out, and are very high in population. Could this of been a practice cell. They definitely hadn’t swarmed because their population is very high.
An empty supercedure cell is very rare... are you sure they didn't swarm? Evidence of the queen still present? Did you look for eggs while you were in there? I am very suspicious of that supercedure cell, and it could explain a lot. Look for eggs and you'll know more.
@@FrederickDunn when I was in there I was just cleaning up the wax between the frames, because it causes all my inspections to be more difficult then necessary. There was also a medium frame in the deep box, that had crossed comb on the bottom that I had previously avoided because of brood on it , but this timeI just took it out. I cut off the wax on the bottom of the frame, and put it in the medium box. That is when later(after the box was closed) that I realized that there was what probably was an unfinished supersedure cell. Or queen cell, I forgot where it was in the frame. I did see eggs, and I did also see the smallest larva I’ve ever seen
you said if you have queen cells but can not find the queen then put the cells in two hives and split. What if the queen cells are all in one area on one frame? This is my case with a new nuc that I have installed into a 10 frame. Tons of bees, been through it 2 days and can not find a queen. They have older larve but no small ones or eggs. Looks like it has been all back filled and no place to lay. About 5 capped cells, two were capped when I got it 2 days ago. All cells are right close together. I am at a loss what to do.
I would put them into the new hive for a split, then do a follow up inspection and make sure there aren't eggs being laid in one of the hives. If you can, leave a frame of brood with eggs or newly hatched larvae in the original hive and they will still recover. I wish you all the best... if there are no resources, queen cells or eggs in the original hive, right after the split, I'd order in a new queen and install her there.
@@FrederickDunn when I was finally able to get back in the hive today (3 days of rain) I still not see any new eggs but I had another frame with 2 queen cells. One was capped and the other was close. I took it and another frame with resources and moved them to a nuk. Then I left the other frames in the hive with resources and the other capped queen cells. Hope it all works out The neck is sitting in a new spot and put a branch at the entrance. They are coming out now and doing some orientation flights so hoping they stay with the nuc.
I have a question... first bees, a package installed on the 23rd of April and they are even starting to build comb into the rapid round feeder tube (I removed it and the queen has laid eggs in it) on the top with approximately 7 frames of comb built yesterday. I was thinking of adding the next deep box with 10 frames; however, the weather forecast is showing freezing nights for at least the next 4 days. I’m concerned that they won’t have enough bee power to heat that much room since they have only just yesterday started capping brood and are still running on packaged bees with no population growth of newly hatched bees. So I replaced the yellow foundation frames on the outside of the box with some acorn heavy wax frames because they seem to like those a lot more and am putting off adding the box until warmer weather. Do you think that will work ok or should I do something else (add the deep box but put wrapping around them to help with heating??). So many options and I just don’t have enough experience to know what would be best for my bees. Thank you so much for sharing yours or anyone else that might have suggestions. . I don’t have Facebook so this channel very, very much appreciated!
Hi again! So I have issues with moisture build up inside my flow hives. Is there anything I can do to help them dry out quicker? Thanks again, you’re a bee saver! For more information; it’s been in the low 40’s to mid 80’s and rainy off and on the last few weeks.
There should not be any moisture build up in that hive. Keep the back vent in the open position if it's a FH2, pull the tray and empty any collected water in that. If it's going to be heavy rains for several days, turn the tray upside down. Where is the moisture collecting? It's really no different from any other Langstroth hive configuration.
@@FrederickDunn currently it’s just water droplets on the sides. It’s currently sunny and 75 so it’s drying out quickly. Thanks for the idea of turning the tray upside down!
Thinking about BeeKeepPal... It does not provide an output of the data you have put in. It would be better if there was a CSV file that you could print and keep in a notebook or migrate to another database program when we move to another phase of technology. They need an out put file or you may someday lose all your records.
I don't personally do that, I know that some say it's easier for harvesting and deeper cells are more productive than more short/standard depth cells. It's really just personal preference in my opinion.
Hi Fred. I live in your area, out near the PA/NY state line. I am a new beekeeper this year. I just installed 2 packages last weekend in my Langstroth hives. When the bees have the deep brood boxes 70% full, would you recommend adding deep or medium supers? I was going to add a deep and leave it for winter. But, your comment about too much honey made me second guess that. Any advice is appreciated.
Hi Ed! Yes, in our area, a single deep, then one honey super is enough to get them through winter, everything above that is good for harvesting once the bottom two are full. Let them fill out that deep about 80% then add the medium. I hope you'll join the NWPA Beekeeper's Assn! Right here in Erie County, and lots of great members :)
@@FrederickDunn thank you! It's great seeing your very informative videos, especially since you live in the same area as I do. I plan on joining that organization very soon. It had been suggested to me by others. I just haven't gotten around to it, yet. Thanks again. And keep up the great work!
Hi Fred! Do you paint your flow hives? I have a flow hive classic and they recommend 2 coats of exterior paint. I would like to preserve the wood look if I can. Can you recommend anything?
USN 00-04 veteran here in Orange County, CA. If youve answered these questions in a previous video please direct me there. I built an owl box 15’ up in a tree and bees moved in a year ago. The other day the box fell down and didnt break the box or comb. However, after a few 90F days the comb fell down inside the box. Now Im able to see some 1/2” long maggots crawling around the fallen comb of the owl box hive. I just bought a used hive with built out comb on top of full plastic acorn frames and want to move the bees into it but not the maggots of course. A few people have told me to find the queen and move her into the new hive and others say to wire brood comb into the frames. The only non-plastic empty frames that came with the hive are medium supers. Can I have the deep brood box full of drawn comb acorn frames on the bottom and wire in their owl box comb into a medium super on top of that? Can I put the medium frames with wired in owl box comb into the deep? How do I keep the bees from going back into their old hive? Should I set up the new to me Langstroth hive in a new area of my lot or put it exactly where the owl box is for now and then move a few feet a day until its exactly where I want it (20’ away Southeast facing with afternoon shade)? Currently the new hive is sitting next to the owl box hive and the bees are cleaning the comb of leftover honey, would they move in on their own? I just ordered a veil, jacket, and tools and all should arrive before fathers day 🤗. Thanks for all your videos, lots of great content.
Yes, you can put the medium frames with the comb rubber banded in, and place those in the deep box with the full deep frames on either side of them for alignment. The bees will continue to draw comb down from the bottom bar of the medium wood frames and that will likely be drone comb. Put the deep box right where the old one was and begin your incremental moving practices. Every night, move the hive 2 feet (not an exact science), until they arrive where you want to keep them. Clean out the old owl box and remove it entirely for now. Keep us posted, and thanks for serving! I was the Senior Instructor in Building 520 at the NTC. :) great place to finish a career :)
@@FrederickDunn thanks for the quick reply. What do I do about those maggots Im seeing? Is there a way to tell if those are wax moths? Should I try and save any of the honey filled comb that fell in the bottom of the box? I want to make sure they have enough resources. Once the colony is established in the new hive can I cut the drone comb and put it in the medium super on top of the deep brood box? Would that affect later honey production in that super? I was an ET with a METEM C school (meteorological equipment maintenance) and got to CA via San Diego Naval Base Coronado. After I was discharged I was hired by a contractor on that base and others including the SeaBee base there. If you havent already you should do some seabee pyrography on some hive boxes. I always liked their division artwork with bees on all the buildings there.
Ok, so ive had a really exciting anxious fathers day. Got my veil, jacket, smoker, gloves, hive tool and everything. Went out there to the hive to get started and couldnt get my smoker lit wearing gloves, so i took it off and was stung immediately. Got the stinger out quickly and kept going away from the hive to light the smoker. Then i inspected to find the queen but couldnt, however there were lots of swarm and supersedure cells so its possible the queen died or swarmed when/after the owl box fell to the ground. I was able to see some pupae in some cells, but there was hardly any brood in there and didnt see eggs. There was a lot of small pieces of comb that were hard to get rubberbanded into the frame (i had empty deep frames after all). Once i put the banded frames in the new hive i brushed all the bees from the lid of the owl box towards the new hive, a lot flew and did circles around me which got me sweating a little bit. The box i tipped on its side and banged it a bunch to get the bees out (was this the smart or crazy move?). Then put the new hive in the exact location as the old one and moved the owl box 30’ away facing the opposite direction and left the lid off. I was working on top of my other deep box and a lot of bees went down into that one so at the end i just put that on top of the deep with the banded comb in the center. Most of the bees were buzzing heavily around the new hive in the old location so i left the lid off for now until they settle down and hopefully go inside. Later, before dark Ill put the top board and telescoping lid on. Hopefully I either have a queen that will soon be superseded or the swarm cell queen will just decide to stay. In my amateur opinion it seems like theres hardly any bees in there, but maybe most of them are out foraging. The comb I transferred had a good mix of resources relative to the comb size. All the comb i cut wouldnt even fill 2 deep frames, but stacked up in the bottom of the owl box were 5 2’x2’ sheets of comb. What can I do to help the bees stay in their new hive? Should I squish any of the queen cells or let them figure it out? Hopefully they dont swarm back to their old owl box and i especially hope they dont swarm off of my property.
Also as a point of interest, the comb in the owl box was orientated north to south, which was diagonal across the box. And after it fell down and landed at a different angle they started new comb orientated north to south on top of the old combs remnants on the lid.
A month old virgin queen would basically be considered a loss. It's always important to have them available to perform mating flights from around the 11th day of age to the 25th day of age and that's about it. There could always be those exceptions. They will fly even in "bad weather" as will the drones. I've observed drones returning to landing boards during steady rainfall. Their instincts are very strong. This is actually how you can end up with a drone laying queen, one that didn't perform adequate, or any mating flights within 30 days of age.
You always do such an amazing job teaching Frederick. I have a problem going on with my new Flow Hive Frederick that I need your guidance on. When I constructed my brood boxes (2 of them), I made the mistake of sealing and staining them in separate pieces. I don't know why I did not. Now that the bees are busy in the hive, one of the long sides of the brood box is warping outwards. Do you have a suggestion for me? I was thinking of using a ratchet strap to pull it inward and let it set for a few week. What would you do my friend? (I hope your response helps others as well.) Thank you so much.
Hi Brad, if you're talking about the top or bottom corners of your joints, they do have a tendancy to separate as the materiel is thinner, particularly at the top. I drip Titebond III wood glue in the open joint and bar clamp it closed. You can do that even with the bees in the hive and they don't seem to care. Titebond is consiered food safe and has almost no odor to annoy the bees. I hope that helps. Side note, I also use bar clamps to align boxes even when the hive is full and HEAVY... maybe I should do a video about that some day :)
@@FrederickDunn Yes, it is on the top on the bottom box. I have two deep boxes--remember I modified my frames to be 18.5" deep. I tried using Titebond III but could not get it to stay in the cracks to order Dap wood filler that sets like stone. But the issue remains that one side, down the entire long side of the bottom box, it it warped outwards 1/8th of an inch. It concerns me being that the hive is only two weeks old. Yet I made that mistake of staining while unassembled. (lesson learned.) Are you referring to get a large enough clap to go from one side to the other on the short end? Could you send a link of what you are referring to. I think I need to do something and not sure a ratchet strap is going to help. Thank you so much.
@@FrederickDunn I'm going to order a couple of these clamps and glue it first then clamp. I'm ok with a little warp a long as I can stop it or correct it. Grateful. www.acehardware.com/departments/tools/hand-tools/bar-clamps/2406445?store=15720&gclid=CjwKCAjw7diEBhB-EiwAskVi11J3iaU0c0aLhd7m2rFw5Ov18E7ljcubrcSSox8jiDGZ50_CfXzc8RoCoEwQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds
Hi I was wandering is there a way of telling if split has newly mated queen or laying worker just from observing landing board activity? Hive is 2 days from 3 weeks being queenless. VQ should emerge over week ago. We had few warm days and amount of incoming pollen is increasing. Thank You Robert Kajor,Essex,UK
Hi Fred, we just placed a horizontal Langstroth hive in a community farm in TN, and we are planning to organize teaching program using this hive for kids and adults who are interested in beekeeping. Do you have any advice regarding how to organize the classes and equipment requirement for the class (protective equipment etc.)? Do we need liability insurance and should we ask the attendees to sign waivers in case of bee stings? Any feedback and suggestion will be appreciated.
Thre is definitely some liability in teaching with live bees, not clear about the community farm and what their existing liability coverage is. You would really need to consult an insurance professional, or business advisor with this issue. As for course organization, coming up with your own curriculum designed to fit the skill level and time alotted for instruction would be the starting point. Making up instructor guides for each lesson with plenty of room for instructor notes as teh course progresses would be very helpful as you grow the program. Beekeeping isn't static aside from the biology of the bees, so there are always amendments to be made to your curriculum. To save myself from any legal liability, I have to say that you should probably get coverage. You only need one medical emergency to ruin whoever is in charge. Many health insurance policies require the covered individuals to sue the land-owners first before they will provide coverage, so it can be a super sticky situation. It's something I'm' going to have to work out here before I can begin teaching backyard beekeeping, which is my future business model :) I would suggest having several different hive configurations so that you can demonstrate them while going over how beekeeping is done. Many of your students may go a different route and it's important for them to know what to expect when various components are being discussed. :)
@@FrederickDunn Thank you very much for your detailed answer regarding liability and course structure. We are a bit cautious and we are currently trying to figure out with the land owner about the insurance. We will also reach out to the University of Tennessee as well to get their advice as they have community outreach programs for beekeeping. We are looking forward to hear more about your future business model!
Hi Mr. Dunn, What about the Blue restrictive entrances? You were going to install them all around this year did you try them or change your mind? Thank you!! EDD , Decatur, GA.
I have them in half of my hives at the moment. We need some with, and some without in order to get a good test. I'm using them, and they are called HyfeGate and look good so far! :)
Have you used powdered sugar as a mite treatment? If so how did it go? If not what are your thoughts on it and would you try it? I’ve seen a few videos (not many at all) and they claim it works great. Interested in your thoughts about it.
Absolutely doesn't work as a mite treatment, all of the tests to see if that worked came up that same as not treating at all, or with insignificant grooming advantages.
Picking my bees up this weekend. However the beekeeper doesn't allow any pickup until after 530pm. Will I have any issues moving them to their new location before sunset?
I don't know how far you are from where you're picking your bees? But if it's still daylight when you get them home, I would go ahead and install them. Unless weather conditions are terrible. Just don't try to do that after sunset as they will be confused and will simply crawl all over everything.
Hi Fred you are very informative. I am very new to beekeeping. Iam building my hive right now as I write this. I am searching my area to get drawn comb to put in hive. Question is . Where or what do I do if I can't get any drawn comb?
Just feed a first year colony the first year and they will draw out a lot of comb. Drawn comb is your most valuble resource. You have many more options to you if you have a lot made. Never let wax moths destroy it.
@@FrederickDunn My third year beeweaver queen is laying wall to wall solid brood pattern. She is AMAZING. I let that hive make cups and I requeen other hives with her daughters. She is a champion. Her daughters make my biggest hives.
Thanks Craig... ALWAYS follow all label instructions. I forget that lots of people fail to do that. It's very strong stuff and must be respected and used properly. Thanks for bringing that up. Same with OAV... precautions must be followed, it's potentially very harmful to people.
Live near (2miles) a Norfolk Botonical Garden in Virginia, I plan to put our 1st Flow Hive@ on our balcony. Gardens are 2 miles away. Urban Virginia Neighborhood. Is this too far for my future bees to fly? There are a few plant at the botonical gardens that's poison. do bees know not to go to the plants?
Diversity of forage is the key. I've not had many stories come my way concerning toxic plants impacting the honey bees. Remember that they will travel in every direction and may surprise you with what they end up bringing home :)
Do I have a problem, i just came from the bee yard and i have 5 dragonflies flying around the hives. I have read they eat bees so how do you get rid of them?
We get entire squadrons of them here, particularly at the end of summer. There really is nothing you can do about that. I've never actually seen a dradonfly eating a honey bee, but it could certainly happen. I think they would target drones.
Our average low is about 9F. About every 3-5 years we get -17 to -20 at night for about 5-7 days. I see plenty of hives but never a flowhive. I’m just starting to educate myself on bee keeping. I like the idea behind the flowhive and it is interesting. I just want to make sure if I give it a go I want to do it right. Thanks.
I cut all my queen's and no one has been rejected by the colony. My first queen I got 4 year's ago is still laying as much as she did the first year. Maybe it's because I only have Buckfast bee's.
If bees are considered livestock, should a queen have a colored dot and a number, and if so why the majority US queens lack this to avoid Genetic defaults etc,
It's just a matter of what each individual apiary owner wants to track and document. Many do assign specific identification buttons to the thorax. Others don't identify them at all. Queen breeders definitely mark them individually and track their traits and strengths.
Hi Fred this is Sam and I’m located in NW Montana (Marion) this is my first hive and I picked up my nuc last Saturday I brought it home set it next to my hive super. When I opened the nuc I was surprised to find a nuc stuffed with bees not a spare inch now I’m worried they will swarm before I have a chance to add a medium super, do you have any advice?🐝
My only advice is to hive those frames as soon as you can and provide the new frames for them to work into. If you have frames full of honey, put those to the oustide and have the new space right next to your brood frames. All the best to you!
I have them in a 10 frame brood box but we had 3” of snow last night I hope to check the colony in the next few days hopefully the weather will get warmer 🙂
Hi Fred. I just registered for the free version of BeeKeepPal. I'm unable to find the app on the Play Store and website says the app is coming soon. How did you manage to get the app on your phone?
On my phone, I just went to the BeeKeepPal website and clicked download. On my tablet, I went to their site, opened my Dashboard and clicked on save to home screen. So what's on my phone, PC, and tablet, is just the "Save to Homescreen" function. You can do that with any web page. I hope that helps.
Hey Fred, another great episode. I made a 5 frame NUC 3 weeks ago with a mated queen and I guess they didn’t accept her. 2 weeks ago they made queen cells and they were capped. Last week the queen cells were uncapped. Checked on them yesterday and still no queen, i figured it was still a bit early for her to return but now I have a laying worker. I have never had this issue but will the laying worker kill the mated queen if she returns? Any advice would be appreciated.
Are you certain it's a laying worker and that you just may not be seeing a queen that's laying? There are lots of variables in this situation, so it's hard to give guidence here. If there are recent uncapped queen cells, there should be enough Queen pheromone to prevent laying workers from producing eggs. This is why I'm curious about how you determined that.
@@FrederickDunn well i saw spotty brood, drone brood and multiple eggs in cells but not many so i assumed. Im more leaning toward a poorly mated queen.
Yes, I know about those and they don't work for me here as they hold moisture and provide a place for debris to collect. In feral colonies, the bees keep their floor absolutely clean. I personally don't see an advantage to that practice. But each climate may be different and Phil may be having better results where he resides.
I tried some splits last week. Not confident - too many bees to find queens, and had a hard time seeing eggs (but I selected brood of all ages and that might have had those little tiny eggs in them). I also had some queen cells, uncapped, and one with a larvae, so I moved that with the split as well. I plan to check them (it’ll be 7 days from the split), and look for capped queen cells. If I don’t find them, and there are no longer larvae (means that I didn’t move a queen), what do I do if the split didn’t take? I worry about constantly taking brood from my strong hives to fix mistakes, and my husband is frustrated because he says, “make bees or honey, and I haven’t gotten a single drop from these hives, yet!”. However, I can’t just leave them go it without a queen right? - I already have one laying worker hive from earlier this Spring (I think the queen died in the winter sometime).
Ok, if you're having problems with a weak colony that doesn't seem to every pick up and get going, I personally would consider combining that week colony on top of a strong established one. I show that method in this video: This will your husband happy and will hopefully result in a colony that brings lots of forage :) ruclips.net/video/Dr8QUVi-15s/видео.html
Look closely at the frames with very young brood and eggs on them. Squint your eyes and scan the frame, watch for a clear space behind her as she moves along... once you've spotted a few, you'll see them faster and easier. When you find her, put a white dot on her thorax :) let it dry completely and then return her to the frame.
fred met a guy at bee supply section hdwr store,he was cool,said been doin it 14 yrs i asked him about mites he said taktik,a treatnent he uses ...not sure if acceptable practice,soaked chemical on wood strips twice a yr,not sure if i spelled taktik correctly,... so im going to look it up,sounds illegal to me,...ill update more later as i find...info UPDATE,guess its banned in usa,...google had some infornative articles,on its use efficacy, and potential risk to humans... 😨
I wish I would have split my hive instead of letting them swarm on their own. But they had 3 queens so I figured I would let nature happen. Poor bees are still 30 feet up a tree. Have been through 2 massive rain and wind storms and still there cold and wet on day 3. Feel really bad for them. Just go to my bait hive instead of making me watch you slowly die in a tree. This queen is from barnyard bees too, just watching her freeze. Wonder how long they will stay. Maybe they will stay and they will just make a comb tree house bee hive.
I hope they will warm up and fly to your trap soon! You can look at them with a thermal camera and tell from their warmup when they plan to depart. It's really interesting!
They flew off into the woods today. I followed but they were even higher. So bye bye swarm. They flew past all my traps too. Hollow dead tree by the looks of it. So 4 days they stayed.
Sorry in advance FRED but. To those who got or get butthurt over wing clips and so on SUCK IT UP CUPCAKES. I can promise you are not perfect either. Keeps do as they wish to fit how they keep. If you dont like it dont do it. so many offended cupcakes anymore
I'm with you Brendan, I don't see why beekeepers with different approaches can't just tolerate one another and then find your own methods and practices. For some reason, people take it personal if someone elects to practice beekeeping in another way, or with other equipment. Australia is a great place :)
1) How far will a swarm travel if the queen honey bee has her wings clipped? 4:56
2) I had read that I should leave the queen in her box for a week or so, is that correct? 16:31
3) I installed a package in a Layens hive, plenty of dead bees on the bottom, will the bees remove them, or should I? 23:51
4) Picking up two nucleus colonies next week. The roads are very bumpy, just really bad roads. How disturbed will the bees get during the trip? How long after we pick them up can they stay safe in the nucleus box? 27:00
5) Could you please show and explain what kind of records you keep, how you keep them and how they are helpful to you? 31:31
6) I'm planning for my honey harvest and plan to have 20 hives. I wanted to ask about removing the bees. Can I remove the supers and leave them out over night, or right after dark collect them? 36:47
7) Can you please compare and contrast the different mite treatments available and explain why you choose the Oxalic Acid Sublimation method? 41:18
8) As honey is a huge heat sink, is leaving on too much honey problematic, how do you find the sweet spot of enough vs too much? 57:00
9) Can you tell me what's going on with this colony based on my description? 59:55
10) Do virgin queens swarm with large numbers and do their mating flight(s)? 1:02:08
11) After installing a package in my Layen's Hive on Friday, my Hyfegate ended up with water in it. Is this condensation from the bees? 1:06:25
12) Do you think that scraping off the drone comb from the bottom of the frames will have any effect on the hive? 1:11:51
As a new beekeeper Fred, it would be nice to see a "split" demonstration, queen cups and supersedure cells and "see" what you see in the hive to understand the management decisions you made in the moment. Your photography is so incredible, a visual inspection is worth a thousand words. We learn so much from your channel and appreciate all of your tips and insight. Thank you.
Coming up when the weather warms to a decent temp... inspections and splits. Thanks for your patience and thanks for watching :)
Hi Fred, great info as always. I haven't heard much about it except for you showing it? Queen temp from betterbee to simulate a queen. I had to make a split a few days ago with the queen, two weeks in a row with queen cells, 2 splits. I put 1 queen temp in and ordered a mated queen coming this Wednesday. Interesting, the bees instantly surrounded the fake queen. It will be a week with the fake queen. What a great product. I guess I could refreeze the queen temp and get another week or so out of it? Do you have any experience using these?
Love the models! You have amazing viewers! Thank you for taking the time to make this series. I learn so much!
Glad you like them! and yes, I'm very impressed by my viewers and their generosity! :)
My new hobby is not only watching your amazing videos, but also to read Comment.
Fred the usa is lucky to have you. From a vet
thanks for answering my questions, Fred.....I actually came out the next day and picked up the burrwax and have brought it back to the house, and I'll figure out later if I want to render it down to a brick of beeswax or just save it as a souvenir of my first month of actual beekeeping. I also checked both brood boxes while I was out there, and there is absolutely no comb on any of the frames, so I guess as you say, they will have to use more resources to make more comb. perhaps after anotehr week or two I'll see some progress.
You should see comb construction when weather is warm enough to facilitate that activity. If it's cold, they tend to slow comb construction down. Get a hot spell, keep the 1:1 syrup on and they can build comb remarkably fast. Cold weather works against them in so many ways.
Bee escape tip. When placing a bee escape under your finished supers place an unfinished or new super just under the bee escape to keep the bees occupied.
Clipped queens are totally fine. I have had a few before and it makes it so much easier to get the swarm out of the bush instead of a 30 foot tree.
I think I may clip from now on actually!
I'm doing them all this year as I find them during normal inspections. I have my white pen in my pocket ready to go also.
@@FrederickDunn Dadant has been extremely slow getting my white pen to me so I have just been marking with green. Sigh lol
I also use the same bee escape. When they get clogged I scrape off the wooden parts and carefully use a propane torch to burn off the wax and propolis from the screen.
I find they work best when there is some kind of nectar flow going on. If there is no flow I will open feed about 100 meters away from the hives to create one. I believe when nectar is coming in the storage bees come down to the bottom of the hive to meet the foraging bees, and then go back up to store the honey. This vertical movement is what makes these bee gates work so well.
One year I forgot I had a vented inner cover on one hive and I got back to the hive a day late to find a robbed out super.
Wow, lesso learned there Fred! I've been using a DeWalt heat gun for wax melting and hive reconditioning this year, heats up to 1,100 degreed f. Needs to be plugged in, but a great tool and no open flame.
Most of my clipped queens would just be walking on the ground in front of the hive. But since all my hives are in my yard I just make the split there or put her back in until im ready to deal with it.
Gotta watch for the virgin emerging.
Thank you for following science!! It’s not the coward direction, It’s the smart direction! I’m so tired of hearing peoples opinions that they think are facts
thanks for addressing my birch tree swarm w virgin queen,...now placed in a 5 frame nuc in traps location,w comb building,and better comb to help,not seen eggs yet but its too early,partly rainy all week,they seem to be settling in ,pollen coming a little,took the trap down and put away,eventually it will be placed back up the deer stand,....my reasoning is since she swarmed into my baited trap,rather than return to the parent colony, as should happen w a virgin mating flights,....hopeful the weather gets better and a recheck will show her in lay, thank you for helping me understand this behavior,sorry for the long reply, i think others in my local groups are as naive as i am so your input is really helpful ,and your info on formic pro, mite washes,and yes record keeping, which i need to start doing ,
I purchased 2 nucs last spring, they built up all year, they overwintered successfully, I grafted from them, they are both still laying and building well in their second year, and they are both clipped... I now clip all my queens.. I don’t want them flying away. They haven’t been superseded in my yard, and in fact the ones I haven’t gotten to clipping have gotten superseded more. Probly because they can fly away..
Thanks for sharing that information John!
Ordering Hop Guard II from Dancing Bee in Canada as you speak.
Tried Formic Pro last year but uneasy with all of the obvious discomfort to the bees.
I'll keep you posted.
Jim
Yes, in our beekeeper's association, many reported problems with formic acid treatments. Very strong stuff! I have it on the shelf in case I encounter a terrible varroa infestation... I hope not to need it.
I'll swap you some of that weather! Heat index of 100° down here in FL this week. Looks like we finally sorted out the colony we requeened. The bottom board screen had a spot they could get under and trap themselves. Got that stapled down after releasing the bees and 3 days later we have eggs! Queen must've wandered down there. At least our smaller hive got the chance to catch up. It'll probably be bigger before long
Mr. Dunn, I wish you could have seen how relieved I was when I heard your answer about the queen cups and the drone comb. Thanks again for all of your help. As a side note, I decided that I wanted to recover the wax from that drone comb, so I loaded it into a disused steamer which I had already used for a previous wax recovery. I was prepared for terrible smells from the steamed drones. As it turned out, the wax melted off and into the water below, and the smell of the cooked drones was actually sort of appealing, a bit like fresh tamales. I hate wasting stuff, so I will see if any of my local critters will be interested in eating those freshly cooked packets of protein. If only I still had chickens.
Hi Fred, I found my Clipped Queen 10-15ft from the hive on the floor with a dozen bees around her attending to her. Main swarm body was 15-20ft away in a juniper. Oh and by the way the Wing was clipped on 1 side less than half of the wing.
With another cluster 15 to 20 feet away, I think you may have two queens there! They wouldn't remain clustered for long without one. :)
@@FrederickDunn No, I guess they landed when they realized there was no queen with them, I dumped them in a 5 frame box and looked through it and didn't see any queen. So I started looking for the queen around the yard and spotted the little cluster on the floor. I picked her up and placed her in the nuc with the swarm then placed them in their new resource hive.
You’re welcome to bring your camera and inspect our hives in Minnesota. We’ll be waiting. 👍
Hi Fred. I met my first “know it all” beekeeper today while picking up a saskatraz queen. 😂 They exist!
Thanks Fred, thus was a great listen on my way home from work!
You are always welcome Dan! Were you using the Podcast? Or did you just play the RUclips? :)
@@FrederickDunn RUclips
Good video Fred!! Enjoyed the O/A v.s. Formic information 👍
Great video as always. Thank You
Thanks for watching!
The queens markings will last much longer if you use Testors acrylic hobby paints. Do not use Testors enamel paints. In a video Michael Palmer used Testors acrylic and used a single blade of grass as a paint brush. Allow additional time for drying,
Thanks as usual for your videos and the time invested to foment better keepers.
I'm glad you mentioned the slatted rack I got a couple to do some test on ventilation and glad to see another good way to use it.
Fred I live here in Katy TX, suburb next to Houston. I will be receiving my two packages of bees next week; I'll be using to separate configurations with my two hives to test on temperature and humidity.
Questions:
1. Do I install both packages one after the other? Should I wait until next day to do the second one? Specially as they will be located 1-2 feet apart.
2. According to Mountain Sweet Honey, they treat with OA the night before shipping the bees, I'll do another treatment 10 days after installation counting with 3 days for the queen to be released and days before capping. Most videos that I see recommend 3 OA treatments every 5-7 days as the standard AO treatment. I saw your video on OA treat but didn't hear you mention repetitions.
3. According to local beekeepers the flow already started and will last until July 4th. I have my hives setup with a deep with 2 bettercombs in the middle where I will setup the queen for release and the rest f the frames with foundations, 1.5 gallons of 1:1 with HoneyB Healthy and Amino B.and 1/2 pound of Mannlake pro patties. When the time comes to add another deep (70-80% full) should I add a queen excluder and a medium super along with it? I reason that the Queen will have space to lay eggs but not sure if the bees will travel to the super to add honey or simply fill the second deep.
As always, thank you for your time and support.
Javier Delgado
Your questions are fairly involved so I will print this out and add it to the discission for next Friday :)
@@FrederickDunn thank you, looking forward to it.
Hi from NEPA!
I love the fact you would take the time to go inspect someones hive.
I really enjoy that investigation and the opportunity to visit with bee keepers. I was able to do a few of those last year and am looking forward to more this year. Pure pleasure :)
@@FrederickDunn I manage 4 other colonies for two other farms. I love going over there and showing them things and sharing my knowledge. All beekeepers need to help each other out.
My first spring, and my bees are doing great. I requested assistance at the club meeting we had before on line started,(a mentor) and got 0 responses. I think a change in leadership would be a big help to us new beeks.
Beeflix: a reality show full of action and suspense
I had a new package that they killed the queen after like a week after she was released from the queen cage.
So I added like 6 queen cells into it that were fully capped. So its nice to have that many queen cups everywhere to make another hive queen rite.
I'm with you Carlos, leave them with lots of options and let them decide the genetics they want to support.
Hey Fred, if you ever get to MI on vacation or otherwise, I'd love to have you take a look at my hives. I know that's a haul from PA but upper MI is beautiful. I'm located in central lower MI.
I would enjoy that! Thanks for the invite Blaine! :)
Dear Mr. Dunn, I have become a fan recently and I realized we are in the same state! I have contacted someone from my city's beekeeping guild, but they rarely do classes or tours. I was wondering do you do tours or presentations/classes? If not I understand. I just thought it would be so cool! 😎
Edit: I have never done beekeeping before but I have been doing so much research lately and I have taken a huge interest in it. I think my biggest obstacle would be over my fear of insects in my face, and that's why I want to get hands on experience. I'm not going to let my fears get in my way. Your videos have been very helpful too so thank you for making them!
I do quite a few visits and public speaking engagements in my area when I'm invited and have time :) I don't provide tours here at my home, instead I try to share as much as possible on RUclips. I do have future plans of providing a one-room schoolhouse style beginner beekeeping course right here, but current construction costs have pushed that way down the road. But for now, we don't do any tours here.
My bees have been bringing in nectar for a little while now I'm going to go through and see how much Honey I have and at least one box full I'm going to extract some of it to see how much it is to see how many 5 gallon buckets I will need
Hi Fred!
I am definitely going to check out bee keep pal.
I like it! It impresses my kids when they see me mastering phone-tech :)
@@FrederickDunn With your 17 engineering degrees I am pretty sure you could build a containment vessel for a reactor with your phone.
@@FrederickDunn Fred. Beeweaver are even out of their Italian carny queens. I've never seen NO queens available this early in the season. That cold snap must have hit hard.
@@weasleoop my VSH packages have been delayed month due to the cold snap.
Dunn,
I am a new beekeeper from Bellingham Washington state. I had installed my first-ever bee package, as should. Later that day around 12 I had seen some scavenger bees coming out to find food and water. But other bees would come out of the hive make and fly around it and land back. At first, I thought that was robbing bees but after doing more research I had concluded that those bees are nursing bees learning to fly. Do bees do that? How many days will that training flies last?
Thank you For your amazing videos.
Yes, they are just doing orientation flights, it's very common for new bees as well as foragers when they are moved to a new location.
@@FrederickDunn Thank you
Hey Fred, I think you said that Formic pro is replacing that MAQs, I’m not sure if that’s correct. My impression was that Formic pro is a different release on that outside paper than the MAQs, I checked mine at seven days (I know you’re not supposed to, but I’m a curious beekeeper) to see the difference and they’re a little moister than MAQs were in my area at 7 days. Anecdotal,
Evidence. I switched due to the extended shelf life. I have used it on my 2 hives for 4 years and never lost a queen (knocking on wood), I have used both forms in Spring, summer if able ( I couldn’t due to temps here in Colorado last year), and Fall. I treat both at same time.
Formic Pro is a new formulation of Mite Away Quick Strips... you may still be able to get both. www.betterbee.com/pest-management-and-medications/fpro10.asp
Just found you and looking forward to catching up with all you have shared to date. Can you direct me to one of your podcasts where you discussed the different hive box designs? I built a Langstrop long and was thinking it was the best way to go but am finding so many different opinions now.
HI David, I'll share what my personal preference is between the Long Langstroth and the Layens... it's the Long Lang... simply because of overall compatibility of equipment, feeder accessibility, honey harvesting, and the list goes on. I will continue to evaluate both, but with the horizontal format, my currrent preference is the Long Lang.
@@FrederickDunn Frederick, thank you I appreciate your reply and opinion. Looking forward to this new venture.
No clip here! Thanks again for the info!👍👍
I thought the bees had superceded the queen because when I saw her in March this year she was quite small, and there was no brood nest. I assumed she was still a virgin. To my surprise a couple of weeks later. In early April I found 3 frames of brood and an unmarked queen that was quite a bit bigger. No drones. How did this virgin get mated. Well a week ago I went to find and mark her and realised it was my queen from last year with her blue paint spot almost cleaned off, leaving that trace of a blue ring.
And there it is! That grooming of the marking. Glad you figured it out Fred, I've seen that frequently, particularly with hygienic stock that practices excessive grooming. Did you remark the queen with blue?
@@FrederickDunn yes I did. Made a great big mess of it too. The pen blonde out a bid drop of paint, and when I moved her up to the grate in the marking tube so the fibers would wick off the excess, she squiggled and I now have a blue angel. That was 2 weeks ago. I tipped back the hive to check for swarm cells 1 week ago in case they tried to superceded her. I have to check again tomorrow before I reach 16 days. Full inspection.
You should put a queen and two cups of bees in that small house that would be cool
Hmmmmmm..... umm... I'll just keep it for display and education :) But technically, the holes are large enough for bees to pass through.
I am pretty sure your nucs traveling down a bumpy road will be fine. I transported nucs 1400 miles across 8 states. There were bees loose in my car. They ship hives across the states everywhere. You will be fine. Just do not leave bees in a car to overheat. Keep moving switch drivers whatever. But It took me 2ish days to get my bees home.
I need to drive all the way down to BeeWeaver one of these years! And visit various apiaries on the way down :)
@@FrederickDunn It is a very nice place Fred. Thier store and yard is awesome. I wish I lived closer.
Question: do you have any recommendations on thermal cameras? Are there any budget options that you think might be worth purchasing?
I use the Flir C2, there is a less expensive attachment for phones... but that's all I use.
@@FrederickDunn I have a Flir C2 because of Fred. Lol I love it.
Bee weaver in mind
Hello Mr. Dunn, I have a question about requeening. I will be starting soon with 2 Beeweaver nucs. The Beeweaver philosophy is to remain treatment free for varroa mites and I was told requeening every year is the way to control them.
Also, a recent beekeeping class I took emphasized requeening annually to prevent “hot hives” because virtually all feral bee colonies in Texas are Africanized bees.
I don’t understand yet when requeening to prevent varroa mites should be done, (early spring?), and is it actually possible to avoid treating for varroa by requeening. You explain things so well, I would really appreciate your thoughts about this.
Going into winter with a new queen is probably the best time of year to accomplish that. So, after your nectar flow is over, and you're winding down for winter, that's a good time to re-queen if that's your method. I let my own beeweaver queens go for two years, but there is lots of support for going into winter with new queens.
@@FrederickDunn Thank you for replying.
Hi Fred, I have a question.
Four days ago, I opened up my hive to do a maintenance check, there were many bees bring back recourse with roughly 60 bees with pollen per minute. There were plenty of brood, and eggs. Today I was looking at the entrance and saw many many bees coming in and out, it definitely wasn’t robbing, but what worried me was that there were very few bees with polon coming in(like 5 per minute). 5 hours before this it was cold, and over cast and weren’t any bees out side. What does this mean?
Ohh! also when I opened it I saw a supper sedure cell, it was empty,but I onLy saw one. They have plenty of room to build out, and are very high in population. Could this of been a practice cell. They definitely hadn’t swarmed because their population is very high.
An empty supercedure cell is very rare... are you sure they didn't swarm? Evidence of the queen still present? Did you look for eggs while you were in there? I am very suspicious of that supercedure cell, and it could explain a lot. Look for eggs and you'll know more.
@@FrederickDunn when I was in there I was just cleaning up the wax between the frames, because it causes all my inspections to be more difficult then necessary. There was also a medium frame in the deep box, that had crossed comb on the bottom that I had previously avoided because of brood on it , but this timeI just took it out. I cut off the wax on the bottom of the frame, and put it in the medium box. That is when later(after the box was closed) that I realized that there was what probably was an unfinished supersedure cell. Or queen cell, I forgot where it was in the frame. I did see eggs, and I did also see the smallest larva I’ve ever seen
@@FrederickDunn should I open up the hive today, and look for eggs?
you said if you have queen cells but can not find the queen then put the cells in two hives and split. What if the queen cells are all in one area on one frame? This is my case with a new nuc that I have installed into a 10 frame. Tons of bees, been through it 2 days and can not find a queen. They have older larve but no small ones or eggs. Looks like it has been all back filled and no place to lay. About 5 capped cells, two were capped when I got it 2 days ago. All cells are right close together. I am at a loss what to do.
I would put them into the new hive for a split, then do a follow up inspection and make sure there aren't eggs being laid in one of the hives. If you can, leave a frame of brood with eggs or newly hatched larvae in the original hive and they will still recover. I wish you all the best... if there are no resources, queen cells or eggs in the original hive, right after the split, I'd order in a new queen and install her there.
@@FrederickDunn when I was finally able to get back in the hive today (3 days of rain) I still not see any new eggs but I had another frame with 2 queen cells. One was capped and the other was close. I took it and another frame with resources and moved them to a nuk. Then I left the other frames in the hive with resources and the other capped queen cells. Hope it all works out The neck is sitting in a new spot and put a branch at the entrance. They are coming out now and doing some orientation flights so hoping they stay with the nuc.
I have a question... first bees, a package installed on the 23rd of April and they are even starting to build comb into the rapid round feeder tube (I removed it and the queen has laid eggs in it) on the top with approximately 7 frames of comb built yesterday. I was thinking of adding the next deep box with 10 frames; however, the weather forecast is showing freezing nights for at least the next 4 days. I’m concerned that they won’t have enough bee power to heat that much room since they have only just yesterday started capping brood and are still running on packaged bees with no population growth of newly hatched bees. So I replaced the yellow foundation frames on the outside of the box with some acorn heavy wax frames because they seem to like those a lot more and am putting off adding the box until warmer weather. Do you think that will work ok or should I do something else (add the deep box but put wrapping around them to help with heating??). So many options and I just don’t have enough experience to know what would be best for my bees. Thank you so much for sharing yours or anyone else that might have suggestions. . I don’t have Facebook so this channel very, very much appreciated!
I wouldn't add foundation that isn't drawn out. It would be too cold for them to draw out comb on it. Just wait till warmer.
@@weasleoop thank you!
Hi again! So I have issues with moisture build up inside my flow hives. Is there anything I can do to help them dry out quicker? Thanks again, you’re a bee saver!
For more information; it’s been in the low 40’s to mid 80’s and rainy off and on the last few weeks.
There should not be any moisture build up in that hive. Keep the back vent in the open position if it's a FH2, pull the tray and empty any collected water in that. If it's going to be heavy rains for several days, turn the tray upside down. Where is the moisture collecting? It's really no different from any other Langstroth hive configuration.
@@FrederickDunn currently it’s just water droplets on the sides. It’s currently sunny and 75 so it’s drying out quickly.
Thanks for the idea of turning the tray upside down!
Thinking about BeeKeepPal... It does not provide an output of the data you have put in. It would be better if there was a CSV file that you could print and keep in a notebook or migrate to another database program when we move to another phase of technology. They need an out put file or you may someday lose all your records.
What are your thoughts on only using nine frames in a ten frame hive. Any benefits?
I don't personally do that, I know that some say it's easier for harvesting and deeper cells are more productive than more short/standard depth cells. It's really just personal preference in my opinion.
Hi Fred. I live in your area, out near the PA/NY state line. I am a new beekeeper this year. I just installed 2 packages last weekend in my Langstroth hives. When the bees have the deep brood boxes 70% full, would you recommend adding deep or medium supers? I was going to add a deep and leave it for winter. But, your comment about too much honey made me second guess that. Any advice is appreciated.
Hi Ed! Yes, in our area, a single deep, then one honey super is enough to get them through winter, everything above that is good for harvesting once the bottom two are full. Let them fill out that deep about 80% then add the medium. I hope you'll join the NWPA Beekeeper's Assn! Right here in Erie County, and lots of great members :)
@@FrederickDunn thank you! It's great seeing your very informative videos, especially since you live in the same area as I do. I plan on joining that organization very soon. It had been suggested to me by others. I just haven't gotten around to it, yet. Thanks again. And keep up the great work!
Hi Fred! Do you paint your flow hives? I have a flow hive classic and they recommend 2 coats of exterior paint. I would like to preserve the wood look if I can. Can you recommend anything?
Eco Wood Finish... that's what I'm using this year. Look into it and you'll be amazed. I like the dark natural wood appearance.
USN 00-04 veteran here in Orange County, CA. If youve answered these questions in a previous video please direct me there. I built an owl box 15’ up in a tree and bees moved in a year ago. The other day the box fell down and didnt break the box or comb. However, after a few 90F days the comb fell down inside the box. Now Im able to see some 1/2” long maggots crawling around the fallen comb of the owl box hive. I just bought a used hive with built out comb on top of full plastic acorn frames and want to move the bees into it but not the maggots of course. A few people have told me to find the queen and move her into the new hive and others say to wire brood comb into the frames. The only non-plastic empty frames that came with the hive are medium supers. Can I have the deep brood box full of drawn comb acorn frames on the bottom and wire in their owl box comb into a medium super on top of that? Can I put the medium frames with wired in owl box comb into the deep? How do I keep the bees from going back into their old hive? Should I set up the new to me Langstroth hive in a new area of my lot or put it exactly where the owl box is for now and then move a few feet a day until its exactly where I want it (20’ away Southeast facing with afternoon shade)? Currently the new hive is sitting next to the owl box hive and the bees are cleaning the comb of leftover honey, would they move in on their own? I just ordered a veil, jacket, and tools and all should arrive before fathers day 🤗.
Thanks for all your videos, lots of great content.
Yes, you can put the medium frames with the comb rubber banded in, and place those in the deep box with the full deep frames on either side of them for alignment. The bees will continue to draw comb down from the bottom bar of the medium wood frames and that will likely be drone comb. Put the deep box right where the old one was and begin your incremental moving practices. Every night, move the hive 2 feet (not an exact science), until they arrive where you want to keep them. Clean out the old owl box and remove it entirely for now. Keep us posted, and thanks for serving! I was the Senior Instructor in Building 520 at the NTC. :) great place to finish a career :)
@@FrederickDunn thanks for the quick reply. What do I do about those maggots Im seeing? Is there a way to tell if those are wax moths? Should I try and save any of the honey filled comb that fell in the bottom of the box? I want to make sure they have enough resources. Once the colony is established in the new hive can I cut the drone comb and put it in the medium super on top of the deep brood box? Would that affect later honey production in that super?
I was an ET with a METEM C school (meteorological equipment maintenance) and got to CA via San Diego Naval Base Coronado. After I was discharged I was hired by a contractor on that base and others including the SeaBee base there. If you havent already you should do some seabee pyrography on some hive boxes. I always liked their division artwork with bees on all the buildings there.
Ok, so ive had a really exciting anxious fathers day. Got my veil, jacket, smoker, gloves, hive tool and everything. Went out there to the hive to get started and couldnt get my smoker lit wearing gloves, so i took it off and was stung immediately. Got the stinger out quickly and kept going away from the hive to light the smoker. Then i inspected to find the queen but couldnt, however there were lots of swarm and supersedure cells so its possible the queen died or swarmed when/after the owl box fell to the ground. I was able to see some pupae in some cells, but there was hardly any brood in there and didnt see eggs. There was a lot of small pieces of comb that were hard to get rubberbanded into the frame (i had empty deep frames after all). Once i put the banded frames in the new hive i brushed all the bees from the lid of the owl box towards the new hive, a lot flew and did circles around me which got me sweating a little bit. The box i tipped on its side and banged it a bunch to get the bees out (was this the smart or crazy move?). Then put the new hive in the exact location as the old one and moved the owl box 30’ away facing the opposite direction and left the lid off. I was working on top of my other deep box and a lot of bees went down into that one so at the end i just put that on top of the deep with the banded comb in the center. Most of the bees were buzzing heavily around the new hive in the old location so i left the lid off for now until they settle down and hopefully go inside. Later, before dark Ill put the top board and telescoping lid on. Hopefully I either have a queen that will soon be superseded or the swarm cell queen will just decide to stay. In my amateur opinion it seems like theres hardly any bees in there, but maybe most of them are out foraging. The comb I transferred had a good mix of resources relative to the comb size. All the comb i cut wouldnt even fill 2 deep frames, but stacked up in the bottom of the owl box were 5 2’x2’ sheets of comb. What can I do to help the bees stay in their new hive? Should I squish any of the queen cells or let them figure it out? Hopefully they dont swarm back to their old owl box and i especially hope they dont swarm off of my property.
Also as a point of interest, the comb in the owl box was orientated north to south, which was diagonal across the box. And after it fell down and landed at a different angle they started new comb orientated north to south on top of the old combs remnants on the lid.
Hi Fred how long after a queen emerging can she be viable for mating if we had bad weather for 4 5 weeks
A month old virgin queen would basically be considered a loss. It's always important to have them available to perform mating flights from around the 11th day of age to the 25th day of age and that's about it. There could always be those exceptions. They will fly even in "bad weather" as will the drones. I've observed drones returning to landing boards during steady rainfall. Their instincts are very strong. This is actually how you can end up with a drone laying queen, one that didn't perform adequate, or any mating flights within 30 days of age.
@@FrederickDunn OK thanks for the reply was told that they would wait for good weather but I wasn't sure this was right
You always do such an amazing job teaching Frederick.
I have a problem going on with my new Flow Hive Frederick that I need your guidance on. When I constructed my brood boxes (2 of them), I made the mistake of sealing and staining them in separate pieces. I don't know why I did not. Now that the bees are busy in the hive, one of the long sides of the brood box is warping outwards. Do you have a suggestion for me? I was thinking of using a ratchet strap to pull it inward and let it set for a few week. What would you do my friend?
(I hope your response helps others as well.) Thank you so much.
Hi Brad, if you're talking about the top or bottom corners of your joints, they do have a tendancy to separate as the materiel is thinner, particularly at the top. I drip Titebond III wood glue in the open joint and bar clamp it closed. You can do that even with the bees in the hive and they don't seem to care. Titebond is consiered food safe and has almost no odor to annoy the bees. I hope that helps. Side note, I also use bar clamps to align boxes even when the hive is full and HEAVY... maybe I should do a video about that some day :)
@@FrederickDunn Yes, it is on the top on the bottom box. I have two deep boxes--remember I modified my frames to be 18.5" deep.
I tried using Titebond III but could not get it to stay in the cracks to order Dap wood filler that sets like stone. But the issue remains that one side, down the entire long side of the bottom box, it it warped outwards 1/8th of an inch. It concerns me being that the hive is only two weeks old. Yet I made that mistake of staining while unassembled. (lesson learned.) Are you referring to get a large enough clap to go from one side to the other on the short end? Could you send a link of what you are referring to. I think I need to do something and not sure a ratchet strap is going to help. Thank you so much.
@@FrederickDunn I'm going to order a couple of these clamps and glue it first then clamp. I'm ok with a little warp a long as I can stop it or correct it. Grateful.
www.acehardware.com/departments/tools/hand-tools/bar-clamps/2406445?store=15720&gclid=CjwKCAjw7diEBhB-EiwAskVi11J3iaU0c0aLhd7m2rFw5Ov18E7ljcubrcSSox8jiDGZ50_CfXzc8RoCoEwQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds
Hi
I was wandering is there a way of telling if split has newly mated queen or laying worker just from observing landing board activity?
Hive is 2 days from 3 weeks being queenless. VQ should emerge over week ago. We had few warm days and amount of incoming pollen is increasing.
Thank You
Robert Kajor,Essex,UK
Note also to southern KEEPERS. Why you take the comb and such back as FRED said also in the south that is like saying "HEY SHB Home here please"
Absolutely Metthew, we don't need any SHB moving in around our colonies :)
Hi Fred, we just placed a horizontal Langstroth hive in a community farm in TN, and we are planning to organize teaching program using this hive for kids and adults who are interested in beekeeping. Do you have any advice regarding how to organize the classes and equipment requirement for the class (protective equipment etc.)? Do we need liability insurance and should we ask the attendees to sign waivers in case of bee stings? Any feedback and suggestion will be appreciated.
Thre is definitely some liability in teaching with live bees, not clear about the community farm and what their existing liability coverage is. You would really need to consult an insurance professional, or business advisor with this issue. As for course organization, coming up with your own curriculum designed to fit the skill level and time alotted for instruction would be the starting point. Making up instructor guides for each lesson with plenty of room for instructor notes as teh course progresses would be very helpful as you grow the program. Beekeeping isn't static aside from the biology of the bees, so there are always amendments to be made to your curriculum. To save myself from any legal liability, I have to say that you should probably get coverage. You only need one medical emergency to ruin whoever is in charge. Many health insurance policies require the covered individuals to sue the land-owners first before they will provide coverage, so it can be a super sticky situation. It's something I'm' going to have to work out here before I can begin teaching backyard beekeeping, which is my future business model :) I would suggest having several different hive configurations so that you can demonstrate them while going over how beekeeping is done. Many of your students may go a different route and it's important for them to know what to expect when various components are being discussed. :)
@@FrederickDunn Thank you very much for your detailed answer regarding liability and course structure. We are a bit cautious and we are currently trying to figure out with the land owner about the insurance. We will also reach out to the University of Tennessee as well to get their advice as they have community outreach programs for beekeeping. We are looking forward to hear more about your future business model!
Hi Mr. Dunn, What about the Blue restrictive entrances? You were going to install them all around this year did you try them or change your mind? Thank you!! EDD , Decatur, GA.
I have them in half of my hives at the moment. We need some with, and some without in order to get a good test. I'm using them, and they are called HyfeGate and look good so far! :)
Have you used powdered sugar as a mite treatment? If so how did it go? If not what are your thoughts on it and would you try it? I’ve seen a few videos (not many at all) and they claim it works great. Interested in your thoughts about it.
Absolutely doesn't work as a mite treatment, all of the tests to see if that worked came up that same as not treating at all, or with insignificant grooming advantages.
@@FrederickDunn interesting. That’s good to know! The idea sounds like a good one so it’s too bad it doesn’t actually work. Thanks for your videos!
Here for accountability!
Picking my bees up this weekend. However the beekeeper doesn't allow any pickup until after 530pm. Will I have any issues moving them to their new location before sunset?
I don't know how far you are from where you're picking your bees? But if it's still daylight when you get them home, I would go ahead and install them. Unless weather conditions are terrible. Just don't try to do that after sunset as they will be confused and will simply crawl all over everything.
you have cool friends
true
Hi Fred you are very informative. I am very new to beekeeping. Iam building my hive right now as I write this. I am searching my area to get drawn comb to put in hive. Question is . Where or what do I do if I can't get any drawn comb?
Iam from a little town Thomas ,West Virginia thank you
For pre-drawn comb to get you going with a new package for example... consider something like BetterComb... ruclips.net/video/f9WIEobHhNM/видео.html
Just feed a first year colony the first year and they will draw out a lot of comb.
Drawn comb is your most valuble resource. You have many more options to you if you have a lot made. Never let wax moths destroy it.
Thank you Mr. Frederick dunn and carlos for the replies
Year two beehive. Do I need bye a now Queen. Over winter the hive. Is she weak
You don't need new queen unless you see an inferior brood pattern, or some other evidence that she isn't doing well.
@@FrederickDunn My third year beeweaver queen is laying wall to wall solid brood pattern. She is AMAZING. I let that hive make cups and I requeen other hives with her daughters. She is a champion. Her daughters make my biggest hives.
FormicPro needs to be used with gloves and a respirator. Fumes are toxic.
Thanks Craig... ALWAYS follow all label instructions. I forget that lots of people fail to do that. It's very strong stuff and must be respected and used properly. Thanks for bringing that up. Same with OAV... precautions must be followed, it's potentially very harmful to people.
Live near (2miles) a Norfolk Botonical Garden in Virginia, I plan to put our 1st Flow Hive@ on our balcony. Gardens are 2 miles away. Urban Virginia Neighborhood. Is this too far for my future bees to fly? There are a few plant at the botonical gardens that's poison. do bees know not to go to the plants?
Diversity of forage is the key. I've not had many stories come my way concerning toxic plants impacting the honey bees. Remember that they will travel in every direction and may surprise you with what they end up bringing home :)
Plug your address into the beescape.org site. It will show you your scores of food and pesticide.
Do I have a problem, i just came from the bee yard and i have 5 dragonflies flying around the hives. I have read they eat bees so how do you get rid of them?
We get entire squadrons of them here, particularly at the end of summer. There really is nothing you can do about that. I've never actually seen a dradonfly eating a honey bee, but it could certainly happen. I think they would target drones.
Hello. I have a question about the flow hive. What is the best setup to get for colder climates? I live in an are that will see -20F. Thanks.
ruclips.net/video/CZsGV1F8xbQ/видео.html -20 is pretty extreme if that's over an extended period of time.
Our average low is about 9F. About every 3-5 years we get -17 to -20 at night for about 5-7 days. I see plenty of hives but never a flowhive. I’m just starting to educate myself on bee keeping. I like the idea behind the flowhive and it is interesting. I just want to make sure if I give it a go I want to do it right. Thanks.
Opinions on Vino Farms new bee hive design?
In my opinion it is way overkill on the insulation.
I still need to watch that video! I've seen the thumb-nail and it looks like someone is spending a lot of time in the woodshop!
Hi Seth, Jim has a history of going heavy on insulation... probably can't hurt :)
@@FrederickDunn hey Fred he most definitely does.
Thought the idea of freezing the bees with liquid Nitrogen was an interesting idea to check for Hygiene Your thoughts ...
That is indeed the standard test. Widely accepted, and you observe the work they have done in removing the dead pupae in a 24 hour period.
I cut all my queen's and no one has been rejected by the colony. My first queen I got 4 year's ago is still laying as much as she did the first year. Maybe it's because I only have Buckfast bee's.
Bee Stock definitely has a lot do to with their swarm potential.
If bees are considered livestock, should a queen have a colored dot and a number, and if so why the majority US queens lack this to avoid Genetic defaults etc,
It's just a matter of what each individual apiary owner wants to track and document. Many do assign specific identification buttons to the thorax. Others don't identify them at all. Queen breeders definitely mark them individually and track their traits and strengths.
Hi Fred this is Sam and I’m located in NW Montana (Marion) this is my first hive and I picked up my nuc last Saturday I brought it home set it next to my hive super. When I opened the nuc I was surprised to find a nuc stuffed with bees not a spare inch now I’m worried they will swarm before I have a chance to add a medium super, do you have any advice?🐝
My only advice is to hive those frames as soon as you can and provide the new frames for them to work into. If you have frames full of honey, put those to the oustide and have the new space right next to your brood frames. All the best to you!
I have them in a 10 frame brood box but we had 3” of snow last night I hope to check the colony in the next few days hopefully the weather will get warmer 🙂
The way I use a smoker or sugar spray is more to protect the bees, not for my benefit.
Tried doing sugar spray for one inspection day. After my experience not doing that again😅
The new intro is intense.
Thanks Joe! Those bee were all business! :)
Hi Fred. I just registered for the free version of BeeKeepPal. I'm unable to find the app on the Play Store and website says the app is coming soon. How did you manage to get the app on your phone?
On my phone, I just went to the BeeKeepPal website and clicked download. On my tablet, I went to their site, opened my Dashboard and clicked on save to home screen. So what's on my phone, PC, and tablet, is just the "Save to Homescreen" function. You can do that with any web page. I hope that helps.
Hey Fred, another great episode. I made a 5 frame NUC 3 weeks ago with a mated queen and I guess they didn’t accept her. 2 weeks ago they made queen cells and they were capped. Last week the queen cells were uncapped. Checked on them yesterday and still no queen, i figured it was still a bit early for her to return but now I have a laying worker. I have never had this issue but will the laying worker kill the mated queen if she returns? Any advice would be appreciated.
Are you certain it's a laying worker and that you just may not be seeing a queen that's laying? There are lots of variables in this situation, so it's hard to give guidence here. If there are recent uncapped queen cells, there should be enough Queen pheromone to prevent laying workers from producing eggs. This is why I'm curious about how you determined that.
@@FrederickDunn well i saw spotty brood, drone brood and multiple eggs in cells but not many so i assumed. Im more leaning toward a poorly mated queen.
have you heard of an eco floor for the bee hives and have you ever tried to use it or test it. i heard it from Phil chandler: barefoot beekeeper.
Yes, I know about those and they don't work for me here as they hold moisture and provide a place for debris to collect. In feral colonies, the bees keep their floor absolutely clean. I personally don't see an advantage to that practice. But each climate may be different and Phil may be having better results where he resides.
@@FrederickDunn thanks for your opinion
🇱🇨👍🏿♥️
So cold
true
You have a meeting nuke now
I tried some splits last week. Not confident - too many bees to find queens, and had a hard time seeing eggs (but I selected brood of all ages and that might have had those little tiny eggs in them). I also had some queen cells, uncapped, and one with a larvae, so I moved that with the split as well. I plan to check them (it’ll be 7 days from the split), and look for capped queen cells.
If I don’t find them, and there are no longer larvae (means that I didn’t move a queen), what do I do if the split didn’t take?
I worry about constantly taking brood from my strong hives to fix mistakes, and my husband is frustrated because he says, “make bees or honey, and I haven’t gotten a single drop from these hives, yet!”. However, I can’t just leave them go it without a queen right? - I already have one laying worker hive from earlier this Spring (I think the queen died in the winter sometime).
Ok, if you're having problems with a weak colony that doesn't seem to every pick up and get going, I personally would consider combining that week colony on top of a strong established one. I show that method in this video: This will your husband happy and will hopefully result in a colony that brings lots of forage :) ruclips.net/video/Dr8QUVi-15s/видео.html
They aren’t weak yet - but I will combine them with the other split if I can’t get a queen made. Thanks!
I can’t even find my queens
It takes practice.
Look closely at the frames with very young brood and eggs on them. Squint your eyes and scan the frame, watch for a clear space behind her as she moves along... once you've spotted a few, you'll see them faster and easier. When you find her, put a white dot on her thorax :) let it dry completely and then return her to the frame.
fred met a guy at bee supply section hdwr store,he was cool,said been doin it 14 yrs i asked him about mites he said taktik,a treatnent he uses ...not sure if acceptable practice,soaked chemical on wood strips twice a yr,not sure if i spelled taktik correctly,... so im going to look it up,sounds illegal to me,...ill update more later as i find...info UPDATE,guess its banned in usa,...google had some infornative articles,on its use efficacy, and potential risk to humans... 😨
I provided a link in the video description that takes you to a list of all legal methods for mite control. I've never heard of what you're describing.
@@FrederickDunn its amitraz ,or similar taktic,banned in usa 🇺🇸
I wish I would have split my hive instead of letting them swarm on their own. But they had 3 queens so I figured I would let nature happen.
Poor bees are still 30 feet up a tree. Have been through 2 massive rain and wind storms and still there cold and wet on day 3.
Feel really bad for them. Just go to my bait hive instead of making me watch you slowly die in a tree.
This queen is from barnyard bees too, just watching her freeze. Wonder how long they will stay.
Maybe they will stay and they will just make a comb tree house bee hive.
I hope they will warm up and fly to your trap soon! You can look at them with a thermal camera and tell from their warmup when they plan to depart. It's really interesting!
@@FrederickDunn I saw a scout checking out my bait hive and swarm trap so here is hoping.,
They flew off into the woods today. I followed but they were even higher. So bye bye swarm. They flew past all my traps too. Hollow dead tree by the looks of it.
So 4 days they stayed.
Sorry in advance FRED but. To those who got or get butthurt over wing clips and so on SUCK IT UP CUPCAKES. I can promise you are not perfect either. Keeps do as they wish to fit how they keep. If you dont like it dont do it. so many offended cupcakes anymore
Everyone will find their own methods.
In Australia we don’t give a sh$# if you do it differently. If it works for you. Great. Why so partisan?
I'm with you Brendan, I don't see why beekeepers with different approaches can't just tolerate one another and then find your own methods and practices. For some reason, people take it personal if someone elects to practice beekeeping in another way, or with other equipment. Australia is a great place :)
Bad weather 2020