These days, more than ever, I appreciate your RUclips channel. I’m informed, educated, and soothed. What more can anyone ask for? Thank you a million times over.
Ha Mr Dunn sorry about the snow the video was great, but u always do good videos, I am looking forward to the inspection u do on this hive, hope u show every aspect of it, Our flow has started here in Virginia already, it starts around April 15 so the word is have your suppers on the hives by the 1st. all my bees are doing good at this time as far as I know I have not checked the queen that I forgot to release giving her the 11 days like u said. The weather is not been nice here with the flow either it just rains and very cool the flow does not last long here either we have the may flow and then it is over in june we have no fields. being in the city has many disadvantages for the bees the main flow and the almost only flow is what trees we have here. it is a shame but houses has taken over. Anyway again great video thanks for doing them u have a great day God Bless you and your family
Thanks for sharing your expertise once again Fred. I wish you had shown us your entrance removal tool about two weeks ago. That would have given me time to make the tool before I struggled to remove a reducer that was really stuck. What a mess. Your photography of landing board activity is superb. Very much appreciated.
Hi Fred I in joy watching you guys and what you are doing with your bees, I use to have about 25 to 30 hives my self as a hobby,not anymore got to old i live in New South Wales Australia and I like to see what what the other people do with their colonies it’s all good,keep up the good work and god bless. I’ve had a name change from my wife to mine
I tell ya their little legs are loaded with pollen,busy beez. Just a bee enthusiast here. As always your videos are so interesting and informative Love your videos Mr Dunn.🐝🐝🐝🐝
I WANT TO DO BEEKEEPING BUT I JUST DON'T KNOW HOW MUCH I COULD MAKE MONEY FROM THIS .............. I AM VERY THANK YOU FOR THESE VIDEOS THAT YOU DOWNLOAD
Hello Mr Fred.. Could you please make a video about your newest saskatraz package to show if the queen is laying eggs and how it should look by now.. I received and installed mine at the same time as you and just want to be sure that everything is going like it should and what to expect. Thank you so much
Unfortunately, I can't do that right now, we have snow coming in. BUT, when the weather warms back up, I will be doing a follow up walk through with the bees and the hive. Some new mods.
@@FrederickDunn that's understandable..I really appreciate it and hope the weather cooperates soon.. I will be waiting for your video... Thanks again and have a great day
If you do miss the swarm precursor activity what are the odds of catching the swarm if you setup a box say 10-20 feet away with the usual swarm catch preparation done in it?
Very generally speaking, they tend to scout for new locations that are hundreds of yards away from the parent hive. BUT, in some cased, they have actually just moved into another empty hive in the same apiary. No solid rules, but just in the interest if genetic diversity, they instinctively fly some distance away.
After a few years I figured out which trees the bees go to. There are two pear trees and I got tired of lopping off limbs so I put boxes in them on tree stands. Keeping them empty is the hard part.
I cant ever catch one of my swarms in a trap box my buddy catches most of all his 10 feet from his hives I catch alot in trap boxes but none of mine when they swarm they scout the boxes but leave idk
Hello Frederick. I ordered that Copper mesh yet it does not want to stay in the flow hive entrance, so I ordered the wire mesh and it was too think and could not cut it or fold it. What wire/screen mesh to you use that you can cut and fold and use as a ventilating entrance reducer? Grateful always.
Love your videos Fredrick. Here in Michigan the weather has varied greatly from day to day. Yesterday it was 70 degrees, today 60 degrees and then later this coming week back down to below freezing at night. I have left my entrance reducer on along with the mouse guard. The reducer is the bigger opening, about 2 inches. My concern is that because it gets cold at night the bees would get too cold. Also that if I removed the mouse guard cold mice would find their way in. Any advice? Thanks!
Hi Eddie, if you don't have upper venting, the landing board openings aren't so much of a "cold weather" concern as the bees will simply reduce the amount of air the circulate up. This time of year, I don't have any issues with mice attempting to get into a heavily occupied hive. I have seen them on camera springing across the lawn at night, but not showing interest in landing boards.
When you say "abundance of drones", is there a visual percentage to guess-timate? Like half a screen or 20% of bees visible? Is there a tell to recognize drone cells? Thank you!
Hi Ronda, I suppose 3 years is a long wait for this reply... but drones can represent 20% of a hive population depending upon the time of year. This time of year, October, it's less than 1%
Great video! Is there any point in time that you don't use a reducer of some kind at all? Or always reduce at some level. I'll be installing my first two nucs soon (one into the flow hive 2 and another into a traditional langstroth). The traditional one came with a wood reducer with two options.
There have been heavy nectar flows when robbing risks are at an all time low, that's when I tend to remove the entire entrance reducer for my strongest colonies. Definitely makes a difference.
Your best way to find out what nectar and pollen sources are near you would be to check allergy reports. Depending on where you live, you can bo to BeeScape.org and find out more about local forage. Where I live, right now we have dandelions and some of the fruit trees are just now blossoming. Next will be white clover.
I did splits on may 1 and 2. There are queen cells getting capped. Barely made it in time to stop the swarms. How do you clean the bee poop off your camera? ;)
I did another split today. Not many left that can swarm on me. Two big ones might. Have two stacks of boxes where the bees just won't die. They cast a swarm or two every year. Have boxes up in the trees and I usually catch any swarms that I make. My bees are rude and get my lens dirty. It wipes off... lol.
sorry for the out of the blue question, but are you worried about the asian ''murder hornets' ? do you have a take on the situation? i would like to hear your opinion:]
They are not in my part of the country yet, and they are potentially a very serious issue. If they do make it this far I'll be one of the hunters and will be sharing videos as always. They are currently in a very focused area, but could spread out fast.
I make entrances that can be opened up to 4 inches. To me that is enough even for the most active times. The entrance in this video should be opened up to 3 to 4 inches.
Thank you for sharing what you do with your bees. Yes, these entrances were opened to exactly 4 inches. There are no set rules regarding entrance reduction as not every colony is the same in strength or disposition.
I don't know if you intend it this way, but do you realize that when you roll screen or mesh up like that, you eliminate most airflow through it? That creates so much friction and turbulence as the air tries passing through the multiple layers, that it isn't much better than a solid barrier, unless there is a pressure differential across it, such as a wind blowing directly on it, and even then it just gently filters through. It may slightly increase the airflow, but if the goal is to allow airflow across the entire entrance, it won't be anything like an open entrance. Even just a single layer of screen stretched flat makes a very noticeable difference in air exchange in still air when compared to an open window with no screen, and when rolled up it creates a labyrinth the air has to push through. If you want maximum airflow but a limited opening, you would need to have it flat, possibly even do a "screened porch" so that you have a large surface of screen for the air to circulate through, rather than just the width of the entrance. That would actually be an interesting project, basically a frame that sets on the landing board, with say, a 4 inch tall front aspect, and screen across the entire front, vertical from the front edge of the landing board, and across the top over the landing board, but 4 inches above it. Then you make your entrance as a cutout in the screen, but as soon as the bees land, they are inside the screen porch. This would allow the bees to fan on the entire landing board, but inside the screen, allowing much more airflow, but a reduced entrance that can be guarded. Might also reduce robbing and Beatles and wasp attacks, because they would tend to end up on the screen rather than the entrance. Anyway, I just keep seeing the rolled up and compressed layers of screen, and wanted to say that they block most airflow.
Those are all great thoughts and suggestions. Air passes through remarkably easy, even with rolled screen. One advantage for the bees is that they can easily propolize the screen if they elect to. It's better than a solid entrance reducer and yet still manages to impede driving rain and wind that we often get here. If you dangle a thread in front of the rolled screen, you'll get a really good visual of the air movement. How did you test your rolled screen air reduction? Thanks for sharing.
@@FrederickDunn science! Lol Pressure drop across screens is a factor that has to be planned for in hvac and industrial systems etc, and a second layer in close proximity doesn't just double the restriction, it adds much more because the air isn't able to return to smooth flow before hitting the second one, and so it's a turbulent flow hitting the second layer, so even less air makes it through, and each additional layer further drops the pressure and reduces the flow. This is exactly the principle used in a muffler, or in pneumatic systems to slow air flow. In fact, you know the fluffy, furry "Dead Cat" microphone wind socks? They work by slowing the air down one layer of fibers at a time, so that it is not moving by the it reaches the microphone. Here's an extract from a paper on the subject ;) "Screens have a major drawback in that they reduce the rate of ventilation because of their resistance to airflow. As air flows through the screen a static pressure drop occurs across it. This pressure loss is usually specified in the literature by a pressure-loss coefficient, K, which is a function of the porosity of the screen and of the Reynolds number. Numerical simulations show that the pressure loss coefficient of a woven screen may also be dependent on the texture of the weave when the spacing between two adjacent threads of the screen is small in comparison with the thread diameter. The simulations show that the velocity field immediately downstream from the screen is strongly dependent on the weave texture." Now, as I said, if you are getting the results that you desire, then there is nothing wrong with it, but it isn't the same as an open entrance, and just because it's screen doesn't mean it lets air flow freely.
Thank you. I'm a first year beekeeper with 7 inherited hives and your videos have really helped me a lot.
That is fantastic feedback, I'm so glad things are going well for you!
I really wish you’d do more videos outside with your hives, they’re so informative and entertaining!
Thank you :)
These days, more than ever, I appreciate your RUclips channel. I’m informed, educated, and soothed. What more can anyone ask for? Thank you a million times over.
Thank you! :)
Ha Mr Dunn sorry about the snow the video was great, but u always do good videos, I am looking forward to the inspection u do on this hive, hope u show every aspect of it, Our flow has started here in Virginia already, it starts around April 15 so the word is have your suppers on the hives by the 1st. all my bees are doing good at this time as far as I know I have not checked the queen that I forgot to release giving her the 11 days like u said. The weather is not been nice here with the flow either it just rains and very cool the flow does not last long here either we have the may flow and then it is over in june we have no fields. being in the city has many disadvantages for the bees the main flow and the almost only flow is what trees we have here. it is a shame but houses has taken over. Anyway again great video thanks for doing them u have a great day God Bless you and your family
As always you produce great videos Fred!
Thanks Don :)
After watchign a few of your videos, I just had to subscribe to your channel! You've got some great content.
Thanks :)
Thanks for sharing your expertise once again Fred. I wish you had shown us your entrance removal tool about two weeks ago. That would have given me time to make the tool before I struggled to remove a reducer that was really stuck. What a mess.
Your photography of landing board activity is superb. Very much appreciated.
What an amazingly clever tool! Thanks.
Glad you like it!
Great tip Frederick. I'm going to pick up a roll of that copper stuff. I can see the handiness of using it in my bee yards. Thanks for sharing.
Its in with the roof flashing.
it's nice stuff to have for sure. I may be going overboard with the copper this year :)
Hi Fred I in joy watching you guys and what you are doing with your bees, I use to have about 25 to 30 hives my self as a hobby,not anymore got to old i live in New South Wales Australia and I like to see what what the other people do with their colonies it’s all good,keep up the good work and god bless. I’ve had a name change from my wife to mine
I tell ya their little legs are loaded with pollen,busy beez. Just a bee enthusiast here. As always your videos are so interesting and informative Love your videos Mr Dunn.🐝🐝🐝🐝
Wonderful videography. Interesting to see size comparison of drones to guards/workers. They seem fuzzier.
Thanks John. :)
I WANT TO DO BEEKEEPING BUT I JUST DON'T KNOW HOW MUCH I COULD MAKE MONEY FROM THIS .............. I AM VERY THANK YOU FOR THESE VIDEOS THAT YOU DOWNLOAD
Neat little puller, Mr.Dunn very non invasive . Those are certainly busy girls .
Thanks James!
I use wine corks as reducers and they have worked very well
Good new this year I’ve got two hive and hoping to finally get a hive threw winter
Me too. I'm a 2nd year newbee. Last year my hive was annihilated by hive beetles
Great video. I will open some of mine as well
I hope your bees are doing great Jake!
Hello Mr Fred..
Could you please make a video about your newest saskatraz package to show if the queen is laying eggs and how it should look by now..
I received and installed mine at the same time as you and just want to be sure that everything is going like it should and what to expect.
Thank you so much
Unfortunately, I can't do that right now, we have snow coming in. BUT, when the weather warms back up, I will be doing a follow up walk through with the bees and the hive. Some new mods.
@@FrederickDunn that's understandable..I really appreciate it and hope the weather cooperates soon.. I will be waiting for your video...
Thanks again and have a great day
Wow,,the Pollen says eat me,,🤣,,Thanks Mr Dunn more of these please,🇱🇨👊👍🖤
I honestly don't know where they are putting it all, can't wait to open this hive when the warm weather comes back :)
Frederick Dunn
- bees fulls screen and pictures itisss gooood
Cheers for the video, Fred :)
Glad you enjoyed it
If you do miss the swarm precursor activity what are the odds of catching the swarm if you setup a box say 10-20 feet away with the usual swarm catch preparation done in it?
Very generally speaking, they tend to scout for new locations that are hundreds of yards away from the parent hive. BUT, in some cased, they have actually just moved into another empty hive in the same apiary. No solid rules, but just in the interest if genetic diversity, they instinctively fly some distance away.
After a few years I figured out which trees the bees go to. There are two pear trees and I got tired of lopping off limbs so I put boxes in them on tree stands.
Keeping them empty is the hard part.
I cant ever catch one of my swarms in a trap box my buddy catches most of all his 10 feet from his hives I catch alot in trap boxes but none of mine when they swarm they scout the boxes but leave idk
Hello Frederick. I ordered that Copper mesh yet it does not want to stay in the flow hive entrance, so I ordered the wire mesh and it was too think and could not cut it or fold it. What wire/screen mesh to you use that you can cut and fold and use as a ventilating entrance reducer? Grateful always.
HI Brad, I use Aluminum window screen. It remains somewhat "springy" and fills that gap nicely. :)
Also love your vids might buy bees from Mann lake next year we’ll see
Love your videos Fredrick. Here in Michigan the weather has varied greatly from day to day. Yesterday it was 70 degrees, today 60 degrees and then later this coming week back down to below freezing at night. I have left my entrance reducer on along with the mouse guard. The reducer is the bigger opening, about 2 inches. My concern is that because it gets cold at night the bees would get too cold. Also that if I removed the mouse guard cold mice would find their way in. Any advice? Thanks!
Hi Eddie, if you don't have upper venting, the landing board openings aren't so much of a "cold weather" concern as the bees will simply reduce the amount of air the circulate up. This time of year, I don't have any issues with mice attempting to get into a heavily occupied hive. I have seen them on camera springing across the lawn at night, but not showing interest in landing boards.
I use Polystyrene to reduce my entrances, have been using it since the 1980s - if the bees require extra width, they can chew out when necessary
They do chew it that's for sure. I've had them chew through polystirene covers.
When you say "abundance of drones", is there a visual percentage to guess-timate? Like half a screen or 20% of bees visible? Is there a tell to recognize drone cells? Thank you!
Hi Ronda, I suppose 3 years is a long wait for this reply... but drones can represent 20% of a hive population depending upon the time of year. This time of year, October, it's less than 1%
Are you using so much copper because of anti microbial properties or just because it looks great up against green?
Both, it's a win win :)
Fred ,what length do you cut the wire mesh?
That is completely up to you, I try to get it to roll up with 4 or 5 layers... I'm cutting them around 10 inches.
Much appreciated!
Great video! Is there any point in time that you don't use a reducer of some kind at all? Or always reduce at some level. I'll be installing my first two nucs soon (one into the flow hive 2 and another into a traditional langstroth). The traditional one came with a wood reducer with two options.
There have been heavy nectar flows when robbing risks are at an all time low, that's when I tend to remove the entire entrance reducer for my strongest colonies. Definitely makes a difference.
What sources are nectar flow? Googled it & reply was vague. Thanks
Your best way to find out what nectar and pollen sources are near you would be to check allergy reports. Depending on where you live, you can bo to BeeScape.org and find out more about local forage. Where I live, right now we have dandelions and some of the fruit trees are just now blossoming. Next will be white clover.
a lot of very fuzzy bees!
Hi Kym, this is definitely a great beekeeping year so far! :)
I did splits on may 1 and 2.
There are queen cells getting capped. Barely made it in time to stop the swarms.
How do you clean the bee poop off your camera? ;)
My bees would never poo on my camera.... they have manners... glad you caught that swarm prep in time :)
I did another split today. Not many left that can swarm on me. Two big ones might.
Have two stacks of boxes where the bees just won't die. They cast a swarm or two every year. Have boxes up in the trees and I usually catch any swarms that I make.
My bees are rude and get my lens dirty. It wipes off... lol.
sorry for the out of the blue question, but are you worried about the asian ''murder hornets' ? do you have a take on the situation? i would like to hear your opinion:]
They are not in my part of the country yet, and they are potentially a very serious issue. If they do make it this far I'll be one of the hunters and will be sharing videos as always. They are currently in a very focused area, but could spread out fast.
0:20
Clumsy drone rolling through the entrance, lol.
They sure bring a lot of pollen.
I made the same tool kinda. And gave you a shout out on my video. If that's ok.
Go for it! :) and thanks!
I make entrances that can be opened up to 4 inches. To me that is enough even for the most active times. The entrance in this video should be opened up to 3 to 4 inches.
Thank you for sharing what you do with your bees. Yes, these entrances were opened to exactly 4 inches. There are no set rules regarding entrance reduction as not every colony is the same in strength or disposition.
I don't know if you intend it this way, but do you realize that when you roll screen or mesh up like that, you eliminate most airflow through it?
That creates so much friction and turbulence as the air tries passing through the multiple layers, that it isn't much better than a solid barrier, unless there is a pressure differential across it, such as a wind blowing directly on it, and even then it just gently filters through.
It may slightly increase the airflow, but if the goal is to allow airflow across the entire entrance, it won't be anything like an open entrance.
Even just a single layer of screen stretched flat makes a very noticeable difference in air exchange in still air when compared to an open window with no screen, and when rolled up it creates a labyrinth the air has to push through.
If you want maximum airflow but a limited opening, you would need to have it flat, possibly even do a "screened porch" so that you have a large surface of screen for the air to circulate through, rather than just the width of the entrance.
That would actually be an interesting project, basically a frame that sets on the landing board, with say, a 4 inch tall front aspect, and screen across the entire front, vertical from the front edge of the landing board, and across the top over the landing board, but 4 inches above it.
Then you make your entrance as a cutout in the screen, but as soon as the bees land, they are inside the screen porch.
This would allow the bees to fan on the entire landing board, but inside the screen, allowing much more airflow, but a reduced entrance that can be guarded.
Might also reduce robbing and Beatles and wasp attacks, because they would tend to end up on the screen rather than the entrance.
Anyway, I just keep seeing the rolled up and compressed layers of screen, and wanted to say that they block most airflow.
Those are all great thoughts and suggestions. Air passes through remarkably easy, even with rolled screen. One advantage for the bees is that they can easily propolize the screen if they elect to. It's better than a solid entrance reducer and yet still manages to impede driving rain and wind that we often get here. If you dangle a thread in front of the rolled screen, you'll get a really good visual of the air movement. How did you test your rolled screen air reduction? Thanks for sharing.
@@FrederickDunn science! Lol
Pressure drop across screens is a factor that has to be planned for in hvac and industrial systems etc, and a second layer in close proximity doesn't just double the restriction, it adds much more because the air isn't able to return to smooth flow before hitting the second one, and so it's a turbulent flow hitting the second layer, so even less air makes it through, and each additional layer further drops the pressure and reduces the flow.
This is exactly the principle used in a muffler, or in pneumatic systems to slow air flow.
In fact, you know the fluffy, furry "Dead Cat" microphone wind socks? They work by slowing the air down one layer of fibers at a time, so that it is not moving by the it reaches the microphone.
Here's an extract from a paper on the subject ;)
"Screens have a major drawback in that they reduce the rate of ventilation because of their resistance to airflow. As air flows through the screen a static pressure drop occurs across it. This pressure loss is usually specified in the literature by a pressure-loss coefficient, K, which is a function of the porosity of the screen and of the Reynolds number. Numerical simulations show that the pressure loss coefficient of a woven screen may also be dependent on the texture of the weave when the spacing between two adjacent threads of the screen is small in comparison with the thread diameter. The simulations show that the velocity field immediately downstream from the screen is strongly dependent on the weave texture."
Now, as I said, if you are getting the results that you desire, then there is nothing wrong with it, but it isn't the same as an open entrance, and just because it's screen doesn't mean it lets air flow freely.
@@ke6gwf Absolutely correct, more air restriction than an entirely open landing board. Thank you for sharing your hvac experience.