Great to see a real deal beekeeper, not something like that Texas lady, nice job on detailing your approach to what you are doing. Couple things from my beekeeping experience, at this present time, you have too much space in that hive, since you were detailing thru it, it wouldn't been a bad idea to drop one box and keep the bees constricted in one box, thus being able to manage the brood better, this time of the year is critical to constrict the bees only to the frames they cover for a better outcome on queen laying brood, especially that now you are in a save zone and pretty much out of the winter, keep few frames of honey/pollen on each side of the brood frames and you will be surprised what the queen will do for you if you apply that format. Non the less, I am not here to criticize you, but to bring forth some options that some of us that beekeeping in cold weather have as tools to beekeep successful. I wish you a great season and lots of honey. Dan
FYI, I saw your Queen at the 13:32 time mark. I wrote this comment after I paused the video, so you may have said something about it later. I will watch the rest of the video to find out.
Thank you so much. She is there at that time stamp. When I started making videos I tried to find my queen each time but I reverted back to seeing evidence of her and packing it up and moving on lol. You guys have great eyes!
Hi Nikki glad to see you back.Up here in NE WI the temps were up/down.30deg then down to -20.I myself lost three hives out of four because of the temperature.About a month ago temp was in upper 30's and the bee's were out flying.Then a cold front came through and within 3hrs it was below zero.I'm thinking that's when it happened.I ordered two more packages.My other hive is doing ok for now.I really enjoy your videos you show alot of what's going on inside the hive.Thank You.
Good to see you back! Those girls look good. Will be strong this year if all goes well. I have 2 out of 3 left, lost my nuc to robbing, starving in Early November. I was going to try a split last week, but saw the forecast for this weekend and decided not to. I have 2 packages coming next weekend from Barnyard Bees, hope the cold snap didn’t delay delivery…. We got all the way down to 31 degrees Friday night…. Lasted almost 7 hours below freezing! Terrible Cold for March in my part of Texas🥶🥶🥶🤠🤣🐝🐝🐝👍
I'm sorry to hear about your lost hive. I lost one for the exact same reason. I am a huge fan of Barnyard Bees and I got giddy when he commented on a few of my videos recently. 😁 Ohio is in a cold spell currently. We had some snow/ice mixture two days ago and are now in the 20's and windchill in the single digits. I'm very ready for warm weather. Good luck with your splits!
You may know this already, but dry horse dung makes the very best smoker fuel. It stays lit, and it smells pleasant especially to the bees. I'm getting back into beekeeping after many years away and even though I live in Montana, I will have to find a relieable source. Shouldn't be to difficult -- just a note on a cork board at my local farm/ ranch supply store. Wanted -- a small grocery sack of dry horse dung. I will pick up and your phone number. Tell them you are a beekeeper and they will be happy to let you gather all you need for several years. They may be even astonished a by-product of horse waste is of value to somebody. (It's also useful in compost piles for your gardening endeavors) Cheers, Bob
I also garden and knew it was a great fertilizer but did not know it was good to use in a smoker. I'm going to have to try it. I love trying new things. I live in a rural area so it probably won't be too hard to find locally. Thanks for the suggestion, I appreciate it. Anything that makes things easier are things I love!
@@sweetbeefarms Horse manure is basically ground up and digested hay and grain and whatever treats these horse persons lavish on their beloved equine friends. I used to see a lot of "cowgirls" just turn to butter when we'd talk about horses. I worked at a ranch supply store over most of last year. Farmers and ranchers are a different type of person than most people. I do a lot of gardening and discovered I was a "farmer" from talking to a bunch of these folks. Some actually keep bees as well. Cheers, young lady. And best wishes, Bob
Great video. They look pretty good so far. I like my j hook too. I also have the same type of crowbar type of hive tool so a bit of advice is when you stick the curve into the hive between frames turn it to the side instead of pulling up and it breaks away the frames easier. Hope it helps until you find your jhook.
Wondering what happened to you girl! Glad you're back! Would love to see splits and treating in the future 😁. It looks like my hives have survived so I'll be pretty busy this season!
I'll be starting out this spring as a new beekeeper, with 2 Nuc's with a Buckfast and Saskatraz queen. I live in northern Wisconsin with about 2 feet of snow on the ground still. 😮 So it's going to be May early June before I can pick them up. Anyways love watching your video's, and looking forward to more. 🙂
Hey I'm glad you're back Nikki. I'm sorry one of yours didn't make it. All mine did but the climate is just a little different. I kind of am the same way abt wintering hives but it's less risky for me I think. Great video and welcome back!!
Hey Nikki.. I just did my first inspection on my two of three hives that survived my first winter of beekeeping.. In both, they have stored a LOT of granulated sugar in comb.. I do feed sugar.. you didn't mention yours doing that.. nor has anyone else I've watched.. will they clean it out?? I'm concerned this will compomise the queen's laying.. Any thoughts???
I'm sorry about the loss of your hive. However, 2 out of 3 hives is good for your first year. It is possible that your bees are storing the granulated sugar in the cells or it may also be crystallized honey that you are seeing. Honey will crystallize sometimes if stored in cold temps. The cluster may not have been able to keep that part of the hive warm enough to prevent it from crystallizing. Either way, your bees can eat it and they will clean it out. You kinda have to let them. It's very difficult to spin out. Are there at least a couple empty frames for her to lay in? They will clean it out pretty quickly.
I notice when you use the hive tool that you don’t care for to move the frame your picking up the frame a little by prying it upwards, have you tried putting the curved part down with the main part of the tool horizontal and move the tool to the right or left to pry the frames apart instead of lifting right away? That may prevent rolling bees by pushing frames apart instead of up maybe.
Thinking about getting started in beekeeping, why did the bees eat the sugar you provided instead of the honey, if there’s that much honey left why put any sugar in at all?
Great video. Thanks for what you do . I was wondering where you got your jacket . I have a fencing style but hate it . Have been trying to find one like yours. Thank you
Thank you so much. My jacket is from Forest Beekeeping Supply and it's their ventilated jacket. You can buy directly from their site or on Amazon. I am not a fan of the fencing veils either. I have a hard time keeping them off my face, even with a baseball cap on. The jacket in my video is by far my favorite.
I'm sorry you lost those 4 but having 10 come through is pretty good. I have some local beekeepers that had 10 or more hives and lost them all this winter.
@@sweetbeefarms well that comes with the territory, thank you for seeing the humor in my jokes we have to smile and look at the brighter side of all things
I have a few that came through winter pretty strong and I want to split. I'm waiting for some decent weather though. We have some nice days here and there but not enough of a warm stretch to do splits.
@@sweetbeefarms I’m in Idaho so weather isn’t such to do autopsy just yet. I’ll bet it’s mites. It happens to be my two biggest colonies going into fall. I treated for them as much as I could. The survivor hive looks fantastic. I’ll do a split with them. Plenty of honey stores in dead outs
Have missed your videos, glad to see you back !!!
Your Bees look good. They will take off very strong in a few more weeks.
Thank you. I'm ready for that weather in a couple weeks. We are back to snow today in Ohio.
Hey Dave! Did the cold snap effect March 17-21 package bees shipments? Saw it got down pretty cold up there. Hope all is well with you and yours! 👍🐝🐝🐝
Great to see a real deal beekeeper, not something like that Texas lady, nice job on detailing your approach to what you are doing.
Couple things from my beekeeping experience, at this present time, you have too much space in that hive, since you were detailing thru it, it wouldn't been a bad idea to drop one box and keep the bees constricted in one box, thus being able to manage the brood better, this time of the year is critical to constrict the bees only to the frames they cover for a better outcome on queen laying brood, especially that now you are in a save zone and pretty much out of the winter, keep few frames of honey/pollen on each side of the brood frames and you will be surprised what the queen will do for you if you apply that format.
Non the less, I am not here to criticize you, but to bring forth some options that some of us that beekeeping in cold weather have as tools to beekeep successful.
I wish you a great season and lots of honey.
Dan
Thank you so much Dan. I always love and appreciate suggestions. I learn new and better ways all the time.
FYI, I saw your Queen at the 13:32 time mark. I wrote this comment after I paused the video, so you may have said something about it later. I will watch the rest of the video to find out.
You guys have great eyes! You are correct. When I watched it back, she is definitely there.
Great video. I am excited to get into my hives. You can see your queen at 13:30.
Thank you so much. She is there at that time stamp. When I started making videos I tried to find my queen each time but I reverted back to seeing evidence of her and packing it up and moving on lol. You guys have great eyes!
Know THAT'S a good looking bee hive.
Thank you! I'm pretty happy with how they've come through winter.
Hello. I am watching the video you just made of the first inspection this year and I liked it a lot..very clear and informative…thank you..
Thank you so much!
Hi Nikki glad to see you back.Up here in NE WI the temps were up/down.30deg then down to -20.I myself lost three hives out of four because of the temperature.About a month ago temp was in upper 30's and the bee's were out flying.Then a cold front came through and within 3hrs it was below zero.I'm thinking that's when it happened.I ordered two more packages.My other hive is doing ok for now.I really enjoy your videos you show alot of what's going on inside the hive.Thank You.
I'm so sorry to hear about your bees. You have worse weather than us by far. Thank you so much for the feedback!
Good to see you back! Those girls look good. Will be strong this year if all goes well. I have 2 out of 3 left, lost my nuc to robbing, starving in Early November. I was going to try a split last week, but saw the forecast for this weekend and decided not to. I have 2 packages coming next weekend from Barnyard Bees, hope the cold snap didn’t delay delivery…. We got all the way down to 31 degrees Friday night…. Lasted almost 7 hours below freezing! Terrible Cold for March in my part of Texas🥶🥶🥶🤠🤣🐝🐝🐝👍
I'm sorry to hear about your lost hive. I lost one for the exact same reason. I am a huge fan of Barnyard Bees and I got giddy when he commented on a few of my videos recently. 😁 Ohio is in a cold spell currently. We had some snow/ice mixture two days ago and are now in the 20's and windchill in the single digits. I'm very ready for warm weather. Good luck with your splits!
You better close that hive up them drones be following you back to the house lol
Your bees look good. They over wintered well. Great video, as always.
Thank you so much!
Welcome back! The bees look great I just put some syrup in my hive today. There was a small amount of brood last weekend and my fingers are crossed.
Thank you! I'm glad to be back and happy to hear your bees are doing well!
Joseph I agree the queen is definitely seen at the 13:32 mark of the video and she looks great!
You guys have great eyes. I feel like anymore once I see eggs, I'm on to the next.
@@sweetbeefarms That's really all you need. If you have eggs you have a queen.
Missed you! Glad you are back...
Thank you so much. I'm glad to be back!
That makes common sense to move honey frames next to brood during the temperature swings of this time of year! Like that idea!
You may know this already, but dry horse dung makes the very best smoker fuel. It stays lit, and it smells pleasant especially to the bees. I'm getting back into beekeeping after many years away and even though I live in Montana, I will have to find a relieable source. Shouldn't be to difficult -- just a note on a cork board at my local farm/ ranch supply store. Wanted -- a small grocery sack of dry horse dung. I will pick up and your phone number. Tell them you are a beekeeper and they will be happy to let you gather all you need for several years. They may be even astonished a by-product of horse waste is of value to somebody. (It's also useful in compost piles for your gardening endeavors) Cheers, Bob
I also garden and knew it was a great fertilizer but did not know it was good to use in a smoker. I'm going to have to try it. I love trying new things. I live in a rural area so it probably won't be too hard to find locally. Thanks for the suggestion, I appreciate it. Anything that makes things easier are things I love!
@@sweetbeefarms Horse manure is basically ground up and digested hay and grain and whatever treats these horse persons lavish on their beloved equine friends. I used to see a lot of "cowgirls" just turn to butter when we'd talk about horses. I worked at a ranch supply store over most of last year. Farmers and ranchers are a different type of person than most people. I do a lot of gardening and discovered I was a "farmer" from talking to a bunch of these folks. Some actually keep bees as well. Cheers, young lady. And best wishes, Bob
Looks great 👍 winter survival went well!
Thank you. I'm glad your winter was good!
Sounds like your doing what you should be doing. Good video , thank you.
Thank you so much!
Glad to see you.
Thank you. I'm glad to be back!
Great video. They look pretty good so far. I like my j hook too. I also have the same type of crowbar type of hive tool so a bit of advice is when you stick the curve into the hive between frames turn it to the side instead of pulling up and it breaks away the frames easier. Hope it helps until you find your jhook.
Thank you so much. I will definitely take that advice with the hive tool.
Wondering what happened to you girl! Glad you're back! Would love to see splits and treating in the future 😁. It looks like my hives have survived so I'll be pretty busy this season!
Terri, quit scaring people away. . LOL
@@CastleHives 😳😂
Thank you so much. I'm hoping to do a couple splits and I think I'll show a couple different ways to do them.
@@sweetbeefarms Awesome.. Looking forward to it!
I'll be starting out this spring as a new beekeeper, with 2 Nuc's with a Buckfast and Saskatraz queen. I live in northern Wisconsin with about 2 feet of snow on the ground still. 😮 So it's going to be May early June before I can pick them up. Anyways love watching your video's, and looking forward to more. 🙂
Thank you so much! Good luck this year. I hope you love it!
Hey I'm glad you're back Nikki. I'm sorry one of yours didn't make it. All mine did but the climate is just a little different. I kind of am the same way abt wintering hives but it's less risky for me I think. Great video and welcome back!!
Thank you so much! I'm glad all your bees made it. Even in your climate people still lose them so you're doing great!
@@sweetbeefarms thanks Miss Nikki! Ive learned alot from you!!
Hey Nikki.. I just did my first inspection on my two of three hives that survived my first winter of beekeeping..
In both, they have stored a LOT of granulated sugar in comb.. I do feed sugar.. you didn't mention yours doing that.. nor has anyone else I've watched.. will they clean it out?? I'm concerned this will compomise the queen's laying..
Any thoughts???
I'm sorry about the loss of your hive. However, 2 out of 3 hives is good for your first year. It is possible that your bees are storing the granulated sugar in the cells or it may also be crystallized honey that you are seeing. Honey will crystallize sometimes if stored in cold temps. The cluster may not have been able to keep that part of the hive warm enough to prevent it from crystallizing. Either way, your bees can eat it and they will clean it out. You kinda have to let them. It's very difficult to spin out. Are there at least a couple empty frames for her to lay in? They will clean it out pretty quickly.
I notice when you use the hive tool that you don’t care for to move the frame your picking up the frame a little by prying it upwards, have you tried putting the curved part down with the main part of the tool horizontal and move the tool to the right or left to pry the frames apart instead of lifting right away? That may prevent rolling bees by pushing frames apart instead of up maybe.
Thinking about getting started in beekeeping, why did the bees eat the sugar you provided instead of the honey, if there’s that much honey left why put any sugar in at all?
fun channel I'm subscribed
Welcome. Thank you so much and thanks for subscribing! ❤
Great video. Thanks for what you do . I was wondering where you got your jacket . I have a fencing style but hate it . Have been trying to find one like yours. Thank you
Thank you so much. My jacket is from Forest Beekeeping Supply and it's their ventilated jacket. You can buy directly from their site or on Amazon. I am not a fan of the fencing veils either. I have a hard time keeping them off my face, even with a baseball cap on. The jacket in my video is by far my favorite.
@@sweetbeefarms that’s exactly my problem, Thank you .
They do look hungry
How many months ago you start being a beekeeper?
I lost 4 out of 14 so far. I think the rest of them will come out of winter fine.
I'm sorry you lost those 4 but having 10 come through is pretty good. I have some local beekeepers that had 10 or more hives and lost them all this winter.
@@sweetbeefarms I am grateful that hasn't happened to me. This year was close. Lessons learned.
Who is the queen the one in the hive or the one going through the hive lol
13: 32 sec. in I think i see the Queen!?
Definitely is.
I'm finishing up work and then I'm going to check when I get home. Great eye!
Did I miss the food frame on that one
Maybe. They has quite a few frames with honey in the top box.
Do you live near shooting range?
I don't but I have a neighbor who practices on his property a lot. I live in a pretty rural area
✝️
🐝🐝🐝
I lost two out of 15 in southern pa
Two out of fifteen isn't bad. I'm still sorry that you lost those two.
@@sweetbeefarms well that comes with the territory, thank you for seeing the humor in my jokes we have to smile and look at the brighter side of all things
I couldn't agree more. That's how I like to live my life and not take myself too seriously.
@@sweetbeefarms 😘
I would like to say you are beautiful thank you for being you
Time to do some splits would say??
I have a few that came through winter pretty strong and I want to split. I'm waiting for some decent weather though. We have some nice days here and there but not enough of a warm stretch to do splits.
@@sweetbeefarms well i made three nucs off three hives yesterday i hope they will be okay, walk away splits
I have one question
Hopefully I can answer it for you
I lost two out of three
I'm so sorry to hear that. No matter how long I do this, it's always sad to lose them. Any specific cause for the loss?
@@sweetbeefarms I’m in Idaho so weather isn’t such to do autopsy just yet. I’ll bet it’s mites. It happens to be my two biggest colonies going into fall. I treated for them as much as I could. The survivor hive looks fantastic. I’ll do a split with them. Plenty of honey stores in dead outs
You really need help with your honey bees
I'll always take help. Is that an offer?