Hey everyone, I know it’s been a while. I have been very busy with life, barn finishing and working on a Bee Barn 2.0 video series. The way the world has been lately, getting materials and finding parts for the hives has been tedious. I’m nearly finished with the hives and should have all the bees transferred into their new homes by October 8 or 9th. Then I’ll be editing the video series. (I’ve been shooting as I build.) The plan is to have a reveal/intro video for BeeBarn 2.0 before the end of October. Then I will edit and post a weekly 4-5 part build series on how I made them. As the season slows down, I will have more time to edit so there should be more regular RUclips content right through the end of the year. All is good! The bees are great! These hives are awesome… and I’m making them even better. Stay tuned! Updates have been ongoing here: instagram.com/vinofarm
Sounds grrrreat!! Lol I've been looking forward to the build series. I am going to incorporate them in to my apriary. I only have seven hives so it shouldn't be to hard.... see you soon!
We had similar issues with our standard langstroths this year. A really warm spring for the bees moving quickly and had a swarm, caught it and turned it into a new hive, then had that hive swarm and split to another hive. Great honey flow and not enough supers meant the bees outgrew their space!
Liked that you cut back on the number of your hives to better match the resources in your environment. But keep in mind if your hives swarm a lot there will be an increase of total colonies in your area! Excited to keep watching your process!
@@vinofarm next up: designing half supers that you destack from 20ft high 😅 Come to think of it, did anyone try stacking supers above a certain height? Going against the convention of extracting honey during the saeson
I just built and moved my colonies into new bee barns. They are still in normal deep frames, so I will have to make that transition in the spring. But I'm quite sure this is going to make a huge difference in winter survival. Last winter was rough with the extreme up and down swings in temperature, and every time we came out of a cold snap I was minus 2 or 3 colonies. This insulation should greatly lessen the effects of the ups and downs. Looking forward to a worry free winter season. Thank you so much for sharing your innovations.
I was about to start building my version of the bee barn but I’ll wait to see your changes and then adapt from there. I’ll share my build and data with you as it comes in.
Hi Jim, I have fallen in love with your Bee Barn design. I am in the process of building at least 3 barns over this fall/winter (I am in Ottawa,Ontario Canada). I am looking forward to your update since June 24(?), 2022. I have to admit that I am riding your coat tails and hoping to have the same success as you have. Can't wait for your update.
Vino, you are a very enthusiastic and hardworking person. Here in Russia, saying that there are three hangers that you can look at tirelessly, it's like a fire burns, how water flows and how others work. I watch your videos and enjoy your work. Good luck to you and we have a good video. (I don't know English, the translation was made by artificial intelligence, so sorry for the translation as it is)
Removed my top entrances this year and have liked that so much better. One day maybe I will get the hubby to take on a build project and make me a bee barn. Would be fun to play with that. Looking forward to seeing your improvements. Must have gotten a ton of honey from them all this year. Nice to see you even though I am behind in watching them.
I’m really hoping for a 10 part mini-series, with each episode at least 30 minutes long, on the design, construction, deployment and winterizing of Bee Barn 2.0.
“I missed you yesterday you’re stripey “. Queen: ”yeah I’ve been trying to get out and back but somebody keeps interrupting and getting in the way “ lol Very interesting videos thx
I put bottom box on top to put the three pound box of bees in then I set the feeder on the frames below, and set the queen on top of the frames and put the lid on, come back in a day and you will find all well,, you will not have to shake up the bees at all
I know you are probably very busy but I have been waiting with some anticipation to see bee barn 2.0. Almost. Ant wait. I love your work and it’s inspiring me to build similar hives
A swarm in May is worth a load of hay. A swarm in June is worth a silver spoon 🥄. A swarm in July isn't worth a fly. Old English rhyme about bee swarms.
I'm in Phoenix, AZ. Inspired by your videos (and a few other sources) I decided to try insulating my hives, to keep out the heat. I am trying different configurations of insulation, and all of them are showing significant improvement. We are in the middle of dirth right now and the bees are still able to make honey and brood, I think because they aren't having to consume resources to cool the hive in 110F weather. Keep up the good work and good vids. Thx.
Love the design, I use layens. But the uninterrupted space is awesome for the bees. I LOVE WATCHING tjme draw wax. It's magic. I take it you're busy too on the farm.
Overall length is about 15 3/4”. The blocks are there to hold the foundation in place. The whole process is very tedious and somewhat dangerous on a table saw. Please be careful.
I decided to not wait on next video and just built what I had materials for. We have already had a few freezing nights. Mine will just hinge and latch around my established double deep hives. I have 2 hives and my insulation boxes are almost finished.
I had the same issue, swarms happened when I was caught off guard with my job demanding a lot of my time. Fortunately I caught 2 swarms to make up for it. Both hives are on fire. Can’t wait to see beebarn 2.0…. Great video
I would love to see a video showing how your Varroa mite treatment is done in a Bee Barn. Most instructions assume a double deep box. What is your strategy?
I learned to put a couple holes in my follower boards in my lazutin hives. And to keep it full of frames. Building my fourth hive. I got 2 colonies in one hive right now. And may have a swarm in the trap. I left the swarm trap insulated. Colony survived in it last winter. It gets cool there at night even in summer. I only get up north 3 times a year to check hives. I did a walk away split with queen cells on 4th july. Hoping to put colony in new hive labor day.
I think you can still use your current beebarn and eliminate swarm. Since it's not ideal add another brood box for expansion, and honey supers are not where newly emerged bees go, you can move couple fully capped frames to a separate hive. Couple frames from every hive you can make a full hive that can raise it's own Queen. This hive will be full production for the honey flow and backup for next year.
I could easily make a lot of splits like that to prevent swarms, but I don’t want to make more hives. Swarms are something that will happen, but I will be more prepared next spring!
@@vinofarm thank you, not trying to rush you or anything 😆 , I know the feeling of being too busy, Can’t find time to make videos for my RUclips channel as well, been a crazy summer
Your insulated design is stellar but I think you need to revisit space needed to let colony feel it’s not cramped. I bet you could put seven boxes of supers WITH upper ventilation to decrease work needed to dry out that nectar. Sometimes we need to experiment with the amount of space needed and let the bees decide
Hi i watch your films occasionally, thank you. You opened a hive and showed a bit of mould in the top box under the burlap. I am a retired mechanical technician, and one thing i was taught with pneumatic and hydraulics is that in order to have FLOW, you need an in and out. So some ventilation (top opening)will aid in getting rid of the mould. Of course the outlet at top needs to be smaller than bottom opening. Heat convection will make the flow go from bottom to top. Just a point to ponder. Cheers
If you had viewed the relevant videos, you would have learned the mould was caused by condensation at cold spots (with a small top ventilation opening).
@@vinofarm Thank you so much for the swift reply! I've been watching your beekeeping videos for a couple weeks, in between the lectures for the heroes to hives college course. I'm a huge fan of the way you do things, and I'm looking forward to making hives similar to yours this winter so that I can hopefully start my beekeeping journey next spring!
Temperature hot hives can make bees more swarmy. Bob Bennie vents his boxes by placing a shim on the back of a super to let heat out. Obviously not something to do in dearth bc robbing. But it might make them less swarm prone. Big hives make a big crop. Keep them in the box!
I have sensors in my hives. The temps did not spike. The swarms happened on chilly stretches. We've mainly been in the 60s and 70s for the past two months. It was a crazy black locust flow I had never seen before. The highways and roadsides were COVERED in white locust flowers for about a week. I thought I had given them plenty of super space, but they hauled it in so fast the brood frames got filled and they left without even using the supers. It all happened in a couple days.
Gidday Jim from New Zealand. Mate I can't remember whether you add empty supers on top or under your other supers but we always undersuper our hives so that the girls always have space above them and it works really well. Not wanting to split and increase hive numbers? No worries!!! Do an internal Demaree Split. You maintain huge populations, maintain the honey production, no swarming and have very strong colonies going into winter. Not trying to tell you how to such eggs but that's how we do it and we don't get backfilling in the brood nest or swarming. Love the Bee Barn Journey and may be building one this season if I can find the time. Kindest regards Daz and Mandi
There were completely empty, fully drawn supers on the hives. They still left. I can’t really do a Demaree with my boxes, but I was putting drawn (empty) frames in the brood boxes. It was a perfect storm of massive buildup and a gigantic black locust flow. They all went within a couple days of each other and I just missed them.
@@vinofarm Those Bee Barns are certainly a great set up and yes the Demaree wouldn't work unless you had a box to accommodate those frames. However, very impressed with your Bee Barn. Keep up the great work
Also the bees that swarmed.... will help repopulate the declining wild population. So actually swarming isn't bad in my view if you have the buffer ability to sustain whilst they swarm.
Honest question here, but since honey bees aren't native to the US, isn't it better if wild native bee population increases vs. honey bees? If so, then aren't honey bee swarms a bad thing?
@@pawpawstew huh.... you know I forgot about that ..... good question I want to know the answer to as well. I am over in Europe so its slightly different here, we have wild honey bees too
@@601salsa We do have wild bees in Europe that are not honeybees as well, and our solitary bees are also having trouble surviving and competing with our domesticated bees - because if there's a dearth of something and ours have trouble, we feed them, but wild bees don't have that advantage and solitary bees don't have food stores to draw on. The balance that used to exist before humans domesticated honeybees isn't really there anymore.
Seems like things are BEE-utiful once again. Very curious about Bee Barn 2.0. I also wonder if there will be some changes that might be applicable for us in warmer climates (like me in Central Florida; though by no means am I a beekeeper)!
Jim, Just thought of another question, maybe you answered it in your first 'Bee Barn' video, but I was just curious why you went with a combination of the deep and medium frames, rather than a double deep frame? TIA
@@vinofarm Thanks for the information, I need to find out what our brood season is down here in North Carolina. I am only going to build one or two hives so I just want to make sure that they have enough room.
2nd year queens will fill up the hive with brood and swarm, you see that now, right? "What did we learn today", strong colonies make swarms. Average colonies make honey. Three ways to prevent swarming and make honey(the purpose we keep bees for), 1 remove the queen(lots of honey made), 2 remove the bees(not much honey), 3 remove the brood(split five weeks before the flow is the most popular approach to making honey). You appear to want new queens so I would have removed the queen and leave behind 1 cell only. Healthy 2nd year queens left to their own devices swarm is what we need to learn.
Where do the queens go to mate? Do they only mate once in their life? 🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝 Can’t they mate with the drones in the hive? I don’t know anything by the way.
Queens only mate during a limited time frame shortly after hatching. It may be on different days, depending on weather and drone availability. Queens fly a longer distance from the hive than drones for mating so they don't mate with drones from their own hive to avoid inbreeding.
I've followed your videos for quite some time. I helped my uncle with beekeeping for a few years as a teen, I'm now in my 40's and decided to get a hive and get back into it a bit as a relaxing hobby. I chose Italian Carniolans, southeastern US. I'd never dealt with this breed before, my uncle kept some form of European darker colored bee, I was a teen, not too sure. I don't care what anybody says, the breeds act very differently. These carnies are so very gentle. I've had them in the hive for about six weeks now, keeping them fed, started them in one deep box and just gave them a second one about 10 days ago. They have built up so very fast. As I said, super gentle. I haven't been stung a single time seriously. Once gently, but that was because the bee got caught in the fold of my elbow when I bent my arm, but when I opened it, this bee literally corkscrewed itself out without injecting venom and went on about its business, I know there was no venom because the instant the bee left there wasn't even any irritation. Anyway, just wanted to say that your videos have reminded me of a lot of things, and taught me some new things, that have helped make sure I didn't make a number of mistakes. So, thank you.
I been doing bee's for eight years all I have to say is swarms happen. Yeah it sucks. Had three queen's one year flew to another bee yard 8 mile away. The owner was 😂 because he needed new stock for his yard and worst new they where mine. On year six one of his hive swarmed into an old bee hive I had in my Barn and the 🤣 thing is he wanted her back. I never laughed so hard in my life.
Side Note this happened on year three with my queen's.he told me if they fly into his yard their his unless I proved it in court. Took three years to return his advice.
I used to try but I really don’t want more colonies. I am going to try harder to keep them from swarming this spring, but I honestly don’t mind swarms if they happen.
@@vinofarm I appreciate you responding. The Lyson set ups are pricey. As to your frames. It would not take much to set up a Go fund me page for your first 1000 or 10000 frames. Presell them. Have them made in Viet Nam , India, or China. or better yet here, if you could find a reasonable maker.
Hey there, Your videos are a lot of fun. You make the bee yard look very nice and appealing. Keep up the good work. Thank you also for your support and when you comment to questions ppl have. Also liked how lively that queen looked when you showed her and she was moving pretty fast; the first one you showed. I'm also curious if you are still experimenting with different shrubs, and plants around the bee yard? A couple years ago one of your videos was about the shrubs around the colony box area.
Jim, I am just getting started with beekeeping, by starting I mean watching videos, reading books, and signing up for a class. I found your videos while doing a search and I am really interested in the "Bee Barn"; as a woodworker, as well as someone who cannot resist the urge to modify products to perform better, I think that I will probably try to replicate these barns. I just have a quick, probably stupid, question: you keep referring to your hives as 'maple', 'cherry', 'cedar', etc., so what does that mean? Is it the wood the boxes are constructed from, or is it just your naming convention for data keeping? Thanks
@@vinofarm Thanks for getting back to me, of course the answer was in one of the few videos I have not watched yet. That video will be the next one that I watch.
Love your channel and all the experience you share. The selfish part of me is restless to see 2.0 as I am currently building my own bee yard for next summer - but I understand you holding back until you've got it right and the time needed to complete and edit the videos. That said I'm eagerly waiting. I have my guesses on some of the changes and it will be fun to see if we match up on things.
I can’t wait to see what 2.0 brings….!!! My interpretation of your bee barn is certainly performing well too. I am coming into swarm season here in Anchorage, AK. It has been “hot” and very dry. I am hoping for some rain to slow them down a little bit. I just added Hive Check #7 to my playlist if you want to check it out.
Hey everyone, I know it’s been a while. I have been very busy with life, barn finishing and working on a Bee Barn 2.0 video series. The way the world has been lately, getting materials and finding parts for the hives has been tedious. I’m nearly finished with the hives and should have all the bees transferred into their new homes by October 8 or 9th. Then I’ll be editing the video series. (I’ve been shooting as I build.)
The plan is to have a reveal/intro video for BeeBarn 2.0 before the end of October. Then I will edit and post a weekly 4-5 part build series on how I made them. As the season slows down, I will have more time to edit so there should be more regular RUclips content right through the end of the year.
All is good! The bees are great! These hives are awesome… and I’m making them even better. Stay tuned!
Updates have been ongoing here:
instagram.com/vinofarm
Oh good, I was starting to worry about you. 🙂
Also, you have inspired me to insulate my entire apiary this year. Looking forward to see how that works this winter.
Thanks for the update 🙏🐝🐝
Yaaay! :D Missed you, can't wait to see your new vids. Glad you are back and in full swing.
Sounds grrrreat!! Lol I've been looking forward to the build series. I am going to incorporate them in to my apriary. I only have seven hives so it shouldn't be to hard.... see you soon!
We had similar issues with our standard langstroths this year. A really warm spring for the bees moving quickly and had a swarm, caught it and turned it into a new hive, then had that hive swarm and split to another hive. Great honey flow and not enough supers meant the bees outgrew their space!
Liked that you cut back on the number of your hives to better match the resources in your environment. But keep in mind if your hives swarm a lot there will be an increase of total colonies in your area! Excited to keep watching your process!
Likely competing with all those feral colonies that have swarmed away in years past. Gosh, what's a beekeeper to do? Creating your own competition...
Designed the BeeBarn to help reduce back strain when shuffling supers... now has supers stacked to head height. :)
I can lift supers easy. It’s the BENDING to lift deep brood boxes over and over that was killing me.
@@vinofarm next up: designing half supers that you destack from 20ft high 😅
Come to think of it, did anyone try stacking supers above a certain height? Going against the convention of extracting honey during the saeson
I just built and moved my colonies into new bee barns. They are still in normal deep frames, so I will have to make that transition in the spring. But I'm quite sure this is going to make a huge difference in winter survival. Last winter was rough with the extreme up and down swings in temperature, and every time we came out of a cold snap I was minus 2 or 3 colonies. This insulation should greatly lessen the effects of the ups and downs. Looking forward to a worry free winter season. Thank you so much for sharing your innovations.
your bee excluders cramped the brood area and naturally they will swarm you needed to give them at least 2 more supers to lay in.
Missing the updates Jim. How's the hives and honey production going?
He posted an update pinned here in the comments section, fyi
I was about to start building my version of the bee barn but I’ll wait to see your changes and then adapt from there. I’ll share my build and data with you as it comes in.
its just a layens hive really nothing new
Hi Jim, I have fallen in love with your Bee Barn design. I am in the process of building at least 3 barns over this fall/winter (I am in Ottawa,Ontario Canada). I am looking forward to your update since June 24(?), 2022. I have to admit that I am riding your coat tails and hoping to have the same success as you have. Can't wait for your update.
This spring/summer is proving to be awesome for honey production in Central MA. Glad yours are getting in on the action.
Vino, you are a very enthusiastic and hardworking person. Here in Russia, saying that there are three hangers that you can look at tirelessly, it's like a fire burns, how water flows and how others work. I watch your videos and enjoy your work. Good luck to you and we have a good video. (I don't know English, the translation was made by artificial intelligence, so sorry for the translation as it is)
Haven’t seen an update in a while. Hope you are doing well and had a productive summer.
You aren't the only one.
Good reading all is good with the Bee's been wandering. I always buy pure unfiltered local honey. LOVE it.
Same.. eager for updates.. regardless if it's positive or negative. I'm a big Vino fan. He's not afraid to try new things.
Removed my top entrances this year and have liked that so much better. One day maybe I will get the hubby to take on a build project and make me a bee barn. Would be fun to play with that. Looking forward to seeing your improvements. Must have gotten a ton of honey from them all this year. Nice to see you even though I am behind in watching them.
I’m really hoping for a 10 part mini-series, with each episode at least 30 minutes long, on the design, construction, deployment and winterizing of Bee Barn 2.0.
“I missed you yesterday you’re stripey “. Queen:
”yeah I’ve been trying to get out and back but somebody keeps interrupting and getting in the way “ lol
Very interesting videos thx
I put bottom box on top to put the three pound box of bees in then I set the feeder on the frames below, and set the queen on top of the frames and put the lid on, come back in a day and you will find all well,, you will not have to shake up the bees at all
I know you are probably very busy but I have been waiting with some anticipation to see bee barn 2.0. Almost. Ant wait. I love your work and it’s inspiring me to build similar hives
See pinned comment!
When will the next video drop? Its been a WHILE....
A swarm in May is worth a load of hay.
A swarm in June is worth a silver spoon 🥄.
A swarm in July isn't worth a fly.
Old English rhyme about bee swarms.
So glad to hear your news about coming back!!
I'm in Phoenix, AZ. Inspired by your videos (and a few other sources) I decided to try insulating my hives, to keep out the heat. I am trying different configurations of insulation, and all of them are showing significant improvement. We are in the middle of dirth right now and the bees are still able to make honey and brood, I think because they aren't having to consume resources to cool the hive in 110F weather. Keep up the good work and good vids. Thx.
Yes!
Would love to see how that works out… heat is a problem here but not nearly as much… no super cold winters either
In your heat you might benefit more from reflective insulative paint. I just did a video on Thermocels.
Very exciting can't wait to see 🙈
Love the design, I use layens. But the uninterrupted space is awesome for the bees. I LOVE WATCHING tjme draw wax. It's magic. I take it you're busy too on the farm.
Hoping for an update
Hey Mr. Jim the frames what is the length and the middle pieces what's the measurements wanting to try to make the frames for spring thanks sir
Overall length is about 15 3/4”. The blocks are there to hold the foundation in place. The whole process is very tedious and somewhat dangerous on a table saw. Please be careful.
Thanks Mr. Jim
Ive built 2 barns. Getting ready to put a colomy in them this week. Looking forward to the updates
From where must you get your supplies. Sounds like Scandanavia?
I sure do miss your videos. Happy Holidays...
we're into Oct..... any update on the bees? really missing your videos and content....
See pinned comment. Bees are awesome. Busy building. Stay tuned.
Have you made DIY plans for the bee barns you've got? I'd love to see how well they perform in my area!
So how do you move bees from a standard hive to your new Bee Barn hive
Watch the first 5 minutes of this video: ruclips.net/video/A92PyLp7rJ4/видео.html
Water absorbing plant crystals handle moisture issue immediately.
I decided to not wait on next video and just built what I had materials for. We have already had a few freezing nights. Mine will just hinge and latch around my established double deep hives. I have 2 hives and my insulation boxes are almost finished.
I had the same issue, swarms happened when I was caught off guard with my job demanding a lot of my time. Fortunately I caught 2 swarms to make up for it. Both hives are on fire. Can’t wait to see beebarn 2.0…. Great video
Miss seeing your RUclips clips. Hope everything is ok. How was your honey harvest
When is the next update?
Any chance you're going to the 2023 Hive life conference in Tennessee this year. If so I would love to see you and talk to you
I’m not planning on it at the moment.
@@vinofarm ok well still love your videos
Hi, Do you have "Varroa" in your country? Thanks
NEED MOAR! NOW!
Hope the bees are still doing good!
Why not replace the weak queen with one from a mix & replace the mix with the queen cells?
I would love to see a video showing how your Varroa mite treatment is done in a Bee Barn. Most instructions assume a double deep box. What is your strategy?
U are populating your area with bees. Thats good stuff!
I learned to put a couple holes in my follower boards in my lazutin hives. And to keep it full of frames. Building my fourth hive. I got 2 colonies in one hive right now. And may have a swarm in the trap. I left the swarm trap insulated. Colony survived in it last winter. It gets cool there at night even in summer. I only get up north 3 times a year to check hives. I did a walk away split with queen cells on 4th july. Hoping to put colony in new hive labor day.
Successful hives swarm.
I think you can still use your current beebarn and eliminate swarm. Since it's not ideal add another brood box for expansion, and honey supers are not where newly emerged bees go, you can move couple fully capped frames to a separate hive. Couple frames from every hive you can make a full hive that can raise it's own Queen. This hive will be full production for the honey flow and backup for next year.
I could easily make a lot of splits like that to prevent swarms, but I don’t want to make more hives. Swarms are something that will happen, but I will be more prepared next spring!
Love the videos, can’t wait for the V2.0
Any ideas when it will be ready ?
I’m building now and will be transitioning all the hives this fall. Videos will follow. Life is busy.
@@vinofarm thank you, not trying to rush you or anything 😆 , I know the feeling of being too busy, Can’t find time to make videos for my RUclips channel as well, been a crazy summer
@@vinofarm Looking forward to how you break the thermal bridge. Love your videos. Not trying to rush you. You do a truly great job with the videos.
“The creator can be seen in all the works of His hands, but none more clearly than the wise economy of the honey bee.” - (Reverend) L.L. Langstroth
Your insulated design is stellar but I think you need to revisit space needed to let colony feel it’s not cramped.
I bet you could put seven boxes of supers WITH upper ventilation to decrease work needed to dry out that nectar.
Sometimes we need to experiment with the amount of space needed and let the bees decide
Vino Do you have Plans for your NEW Hive Design?
Have you kept up on the swarm trap you did a couple of years ago?
Never caught a thing except mice. I could try again, but I’m not looking to expand right now.
Amazing hives 💪👌
مساء الفل 🌹🌹🌹🌹 والجمال كله 🌷🌷🌷🌹 جميل جدا ورائع 🥊🥊🥊
Hi i watch your films occasionally, thank you. You opened a hive and showed a bit of mould in the top box under the burlap. I am a retired mechanical technician, and one thing i was taught with pneumatic and hydraulics is that in order to have FLOW, you need an in and out. So some ventilation (top opening)will aid in getting rid of the mould. Of course the outlet at top needs to be smaller than bottom opening. Heat convection will make the flow go from bottom to top. Just a point to ponder. Cheers
If you had viewed the relevant videos, you would have learned the mould was caused by condensation at cold spots (with a small top ventilation opening).
Side note, the link for your square veil is not working, and I'm wondering if there is a different one that you can post?
This is not the exact one I use, but I own it as a backup and it is almost the same. amzn.to/3UyTRuu
@@vinofarm Thank you so much for the swift reply! I've been watching your beekeeping videos for a couple weeks, in between the lectures for the heroes to hives college course. I'm a huge fan of the way you do things, and I'm looking forward to making hives similar to yours this winter so that I can hopefully start my beekeeping journey next spring!
Temperature hot hives can make bees more swarmy. Bob Bennie vents his boxes by placing a shim on the back of a super to let heat out. Obviously not something to do in dearth bc robbing. But it might make them less swarm prone. Big hives make a big crop. Keep them in the box!
I have sensors in my hives. The temps did not spike. The swarms happened on chilly stretches. We've mainly been in the 60s and 70s for the past two months. It was a crazy black locust flow I had never seen before. The highways and roadsides were COVERED in white locust flowers for about a week. I thought I had given them plenty of super space, but they hauled it in so fast the brood frames got filled and they left without even using the supers. It all happened in a couple days.
Hope everything is OK Jim. You've not posted for a while. Best wishes from the UK.
He is reacting, so things seem to be looking good.
Gidday Jim from New Zealand.
Mate I can't remember whether you add empty supers on top or under your other supers but we always undersuper our hives so that the girls always have space above them and it works really well.
Not wanting to split and increase hive numbers? No worries!!! Do an internal Demaree Split. You maintain huge populations, maintain the honey production, no swarming and have very strong colonies going into winter.
Not trying to tell you how to such eggs but that's how we do it and we don't get backfilling in the brood nest or swarming. Love the Bee Barn Journey and may be building one this season if I can find the time.
Kindest regards
Daz and Mandi
There were completely empty, fully drawn supers on the hives. They still left. I can’t really do a Demaree with my boxes, but I was putting drawn (empty) frames in the brood boxes. It was a perfect storm of massive buildup and a gigantic black locust flow. They all went within a couple days of each other and I just missed them.
@@vinofarm Those Bee Barns are certainly a great set up and yes the Demaree wouldn't work unless you had a box to accommodate those frames. However, very impressed with your Bee Barn. Keep up the great work
Hello. What's the depth of your brood frames? Thanks
About 16”
I wonder if he is ever going to be using his flow hive that he built and what started his beekeeping journey
Love your work mate 👍 can't for 2.0
6 for 6? LETS GO!! CONGRATULATIONS 🎉🎈🍾🎊
Love that new design buddy!!
Also the bees that swarmed.... will help repopulate the declining wild population. So actually swarming isn't bad in my view if you have the buffer ability to sustain whilst they swarm.
Honest question here, but since honey bees aren't native to the US, isn't it better if wild native bee population increases vs. honey bees? If so, then aren't honey bee swarms a bad thing?
@@pawpawstew honey bee swarms should cull naturally by cold weather in many areas. We still do need more support for solitary bees, though.
@@pawpawstew huh.... you know I forgot about that ..... good question I want to know the answer to as well. I am over in Europe so its slightly different here, we have wild honey bees too
@@pawpawstew yes; the bed problem American is facing is with her native wild (solitary) bees. Having these bees in the wild… 🤷🏼♀️
@@601salsa We do have wild bees in Europe that are not honeybees as well, and our solitary bees are also having trouble surviving and competing with our domesticated bees - because if there's a dearth of something and ours have trouble, we feed them, but wild bees don't have that advantage and solitary bees don't have food stores to draw on. The balance that used to exist before humans domesticated honeybees isn't really there anymore.
At least two swarms got away. They are sneaky.
Seems like things are BEE-utiful once again. Very curious about Bee Barn 2.0. I also wonder if there will be some changes that might be applicable for us in warmer climates (like me in Central Florida; though by no means am I a beekeeper)!
Whatever I make will be useable anywhere, with minor tweaks. The concept of a super insulated hive with deep brood boxes would work in hot or cold.
What is the coldest it gets back there Here in Montana we get -40 Is sometimes colder
-15F to -20F is the coldest I’ve seen here.
This season looks like it will produce a bumper crop for you. Curious how many pounds you’ll get. NE Ohio it’s been crazy.
I just watched you inspect 5 hives and found the queen on the first frame you pulled on each hive you checked. Show me how you did that.
I used the Final Cut Pro technique.
@@vinofarm lol
Thanks for the update!
Jim,
Just thought of another question, maybe you answered it in your first 'Bee Barn' video, but I was just curious why you went with a combination of the deep and medium frames, rather than a double deep frame?
TIA
It’s the “Goldilocks” brood space size for my location. Others might want double deep or larger. We have a 4 month brood season and 7 month winter.
@@vinofarm Thanks for the information, I need to find out what our brood season is down here in North Carolina. I am only going to build one or two hives so I just want to make sure that they have enough room.
Hope all is well.
Have you thought about adding an upper entrance into your supers above your excluder? Why or why not?
No upper openings for two main reasons:
1. Heat loss
2. Robbing
2nd year queens will fill up the hive with brood and swarm, you see that now, right? "What did we learn today", strong colonies make swarms. Average colonies make honey. Three ways to prevent swarming and make honey(the purpose we keep bees for), 1 remove the queen(lots of honey made), 2 remove the bees(not much honey), 3 remove the brood(split five weeks before the flow is the most popular approach to making honey). You appear to want new queens so I would have removed the queen and leave behind 1 cell only. Healthy 2nd year queens left to their own devices swarm is what we need to learn.
Thanks for the update....... GO BALBOA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Is the side of the super long frame just like a regular side with a growth spurt (narrowed in the center)? Loving the videos.
Where do the queens go to mate? Do they only mate once in their life? 🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝 Can’t they mate with the drones in the hive? I don’t know anything by the way.
Queens only mate during a limited time frame shortly after hatching. It may be on different days, depending on weather and drone availability. Queens fly a longer distance from the hive than drones for mating so they don't mate with drones from their own hive to avoid inbreeding.
@@apveening thanks 🙏👍 How can they keep laying for two years or more only mating that once?
@@2listening1 Bee sperm keeps, but it isn't unknown for old queens (usually 3+ years) to run out and only laying drones.
@@apveening That’s bewildering! Thanks.
Bottom board temps got too warm consistently. Pay attention to the inner bottom board surface temp. You’ll see.
3 months and no updates,
hope everything is good, the farm is preparing for winter i think.
Lots of updates. Just not on RUclips yet. All is good. Stay tuned.
Hope 🙏 everything’s okay ☮️❤️ (3 months no video)
The bee barns look wonderful. Do have any plans that we can purchase to make our own?
I've followed your videos for quite some time. I helped my uncle with beekeeping for a few years as a teen, I'm now in my 40's and decided to get a hive and get back into it a bit as a relaxing hobby. I chose Italian Carniolans, southeastern US. I'd never dealt with this breed before, my uncle kept some form of European darker colored bee, I was a teen, not too sure.
I don't care what anybody says, the breeds act very differently. These carnies are so very gentle. I've had them in the hive for about six weeks now, keeping them fed, started them in one deep box and just gave them a second one about 10 days ago. They have built up so very fast.
As I said, super gentle. I haven't been stung a single time seriously. Once gently, but that was because the bee got caught in the fold of my elbow when I bent my arm, but when I opened it, this bee literally corkscrewed itself out without injecting venom and went on about its business, I know there was no venom because the instant the bee left there wasn't even any irritation.
Anyway, just wanted to say that your videos have reminded me of a lot of things, and taught me some new things, that have helped make sure I didn't make a number of mistakes.
So, thank you.
Can't wait
I been doing bee's for eight years all I have to say is swarms happen. Yeah it sucks. Had three queen's one year flew to another bee yard 8 mile away. The owner was 😂 because he needed new stock for his yard and worst new they where mine. On year six one of his hive swarmed into an old bee hive I had in my Barn and the 🤣 thing is he wanted her back. I never laughed so hard in my life.
Side Note this happened on year three with my queen's.he told me if they fly into his yard their his unless I proved it in court. Took three years to return his advice.
@@darkart-mr8wu Beekeepers are weirdos.
@@darkart-mr8wu Karma is a lovely bitch ;)
i dont have instagram are thay going on youtube
Updates??
Сегодня посмотрел Ваши видео, которые ты снимал весь год.
Do you have a video showing how to build those
Swam traps near by to recapture?
I used to try but I really don’t want more colonies. I am going to try harder to keep them from swarming this spring, but I honestly don’t mind swarms if they happen.
@@vinofarm I appreciate you responding. The Lyson set ups are pricey. As to your frames. It would not take much to set up a Go fund me page for your first 1000 or 10000 frames. Presell them.
Have them made in Viet Nam , India, or China. or better yet here, if you could find a reasonable maker.
What happend ! Long time no video... It's been three months since you uploaded a video. Hope everything is alright.
Busy. I’ll be back soon. All is good.
Hey there,
Your videos are a lot of fun. You make the bee yard look very nice and appealing. Keep up the good work. Thank you also for your support and when you comment to questions ppl have.
Also liked how lively that queen looked when you showed her and she was moving pretty fast; the first one you showed.
I'm also curious if you are still experimenting with different shrubs, and plants around the bee yard? A couple years ago one of your videos was about the shrubs around the colony box area.
Any updates?
Jim,
I am just getting started with beekeeping, by starting I mean watching videos, reading books, and signing up for a class. I found your videos while doing a search and I am really interested in the "Bee Barn"; as a woodworker, as well as someone who cannot resist the urge to modify products to perform better, I think that I will probably try to replicate these barns. I just have a quick, probably stupid, question: you keep referring to your hives as 'maple', 'cherry', 'cedar', etc., so what does that mean? Is it the wood the boxes are constructed from, or is it just your naming convention for data keeping?
Thanks
Hi Bill, it’s just my naming convention. Explained here: ruclips.net/video/CVCMdmQFnaI/видео.html
@@vinofarm Thanks for getting back to me, of course the answer was in one of the few videos I have not watched yet. That video will be the next one that I watch.
What did you do with your flow hive
It’s sitting on a shelf in my human barn. instagram.com/p/CTqDyZsJsw0/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
Love your channel and all the experience you share. The selfish part of me is restless to see 2.0 as I am currently building my own bee yard for next summer - but I understand you holding back until you've got it right and the time needed to complete and edit the videos. That said I'm eagerly waiting. I have my guesses on some of the changes and it will be fun to see if we match up on things.
Looking forward to ver 2.0, thank you for the update. I thought you had a few nucs on the side or did you get rid of those?
6 nucs right now. (3 double resource hives). They’re bigger than regular nucs. I have two of them supered!
@@vinofarm Thx Jim.
Have not seen you since June wondering if something happened to you
Did you split or replace queens this year (and I missed the video)? They just want to swarm. It's their nature. Your new queens look beautiful!
They replaced themselves! I was planning on replacing queens this year and they did it for me.
It has been a while since last video. is everything ok?
Yes. New videos are coming. Please stay tuned.
I can’t wait to see what 2.0 brings….!!! My interpretation of your bee barn is certainly performing well too. I am coming into swarm season here in Anchorage, AK. It has been “hot” and very dry. I am hoping for some rain to slow them down a little bit. I just added Hive Check #7 to my playlist if you want to check it out.