Good video. I open feed about 75 yds from my bee yard but it is setup like yours it out of their line of sight. They have to go around and over objects to get to the feed and it works well with no robbing. Thanks again
Good vid, I open feed on the hive thats being targeted, the robbers fill up on sugar water and leave thinking they have taken all the honey. I only do this cause all the normal anti robbing techniques have failed me lately this batch of robbers I have are fanatical all weather raiders, never seen anything like it in 15yrs of beekeeping.
We open feed. Only place the feeders 20 to 30 yrds from hives in backyard. They fly straight to the feeders. As long as you keep feed in them we dont have robbing problems. And also keeps yellow jackets and baldfaced hornets away from hives.
@@LittleBitsHoneyBeesjoemay it doesnt matter. We have queen castles. Nucs old and new splites. As long as you keep feed in the feeders they dont bother the other boxs.
Wow you really have come a long way since you first started making videos. How many nucs are in that yard? The videos are really helpful to new people such as myself. Thank you
Another great video Joe! Congrats on the million views! Thanks for all the videos and all you've taught me. Congrats to the queen winner. I'd still like to see a video series where you tinker with the Case or Hopkins method of queen rearing.
Did you ever find out about that robbing screen vendor? It sounds interesting if there's someone selling like a mini budget robbing screen that'd be interesting.
I have two hobby hives that got robbed in the middle of winter. One survived. I am surrounded by beekeepers who have at least one hundred hives between them. On honey collection day they head for our place in huge swarms to see if they can “help”. Have to work in an air tight room with them all at the window. What worries me with the tote method is that everybee in the neighbourhood will be at my totes sucking up the sugar faster than I can fill it. At the moment I top feed sugar, but there are always bees hanging around the vents and cracks checking it out. My poor girls are living with very restricted entrance holes and they still have trouble.
Well I made a rookie mistake. I set up a new 5-frame nuc on June 29th. The following Wednesday I placed them into an 8 frame. Keep in mind this is ALL THE BEES I HAVE. So I placed a hive top feeder on them to make sure they build up. I watched them and they have been carrying in pollen from natural sources. Well, two days later, I observe them multiple times daily....I just like watching them, I saw robbing. Bees flying around like they don't know how to get into the hive and bees being attacked by three or more out on the landing board (I have a screen entrance reducer down to single file in and out of the hive). I removed the hive top feeder and placed a pollen feeder 50 yards straight away from the hive and an open syrup feeder 80 yards away on the other side of the house and garage. I hope this will help. I had no idea there were honey bees nearby enough as to find my hive and try to rob it. Luckily my colony was strong enough to defend itself and I hopefully caught it in time. Also, I had placed nickels on each of four corners of my telescoping lid to aid in ventilation for my hive. Come to find out there was enough room for robbing bees to get into the hive top feeding box through only that much of a gap. I'm learning plenty I'd say LOL.
Hey Joe when you say feet everyday do you mean all day every day? I put out 5 gallons in the morning and it's gone in 2 hours I put it out all day within a week they're backfilling The Brood chamber with nectar.
Can you please do a video on you making feeder. I understand what you are saying in video but just want to make sure I get it right. Thank you very much for videos
I live in South Central Texas. Some times one of my hives will become so wild that I have to leave the yard to put on a full suit. The guard bees will come out with no provocation and follow for 50 yards or more. With some hives I can work lightly without smoke 💨 and only have to use a vale and gloves . But if the wild hive gets involved I have to leave , suit-up and light up the smoker. Could it be that Africanized bees took over the suspect hive? I have had two out of six turn mean in the last two years. Last year I bought all new queens to replace the old queens after killing the old ones. One of the hives had laying workers and I took the hive apart 50 yards away, shook/brushed the frames clean and put them back into new boxes one frame at a time back in the yard. I put the new queen cage into the new box and when the worker bees returned to the hive they tried to ball the new queen’s cage so I didn’t take out the plug until 5 days later. When the workers calmed down I let them eat through the candy plug. They accepted her and the hive has thrived. Now I have one hive that is so mean that I cannot go into the yard unless I suit up and bring the smoker. Is it likely that occasionally a wild hive can take over my mild hive and make it go viral? Watch all of your videos and have learned a lot from you but, nothing has been mentioned about a hive being “ taken over “ by wild bees.
Ive learned so much, thank you for the videos. My question is, I have 6 hives, in my back yard. I only have half acre. The furthest I can get from my hives is 40 yards. If make them go to the other side of my house, its maybe 20 yards, and in my front yard. My thought id to put a 5 gallon feeder in front of my house in a corner where my garage meets my house. Do you think itll work?
If you have to feed to prevent robbing, and if you can't stop the feeding, how do you keep it manageable? I guess I'm worried about the extra cost and how to manage it?
In the summer I only feed 1/4:1 nectar is only 16 to 18 percent sugar. I am feeding 25%. You need to be looking for sugar on the cheap all year and stock up. There ia a cost to feeding. I feed 5 tons a year.
Hi Joe, any Ideas about what I should do with a problem Hive. This one was Massive and due to previous bad weather in Late April, I did not check for queen cells earlier and the Queen left with the primary swarm which i caught and rehoused them. Then 5 days later it swarmed again which i also caught and housed. 3 Days later it swarmed again with another daughter which I also caught and rehoused. All of them are OK and laying eggs and have brood, BUT THE ORIGINAL HIVE NOW HAS MORE DRONES (who stayed behind for the food) THAN WORKERS, & who are eating all the honey and nectar and not being stopped from entering the hive even though the queen is mated and busy building up the colony. I may have accidentally put in wax drone foundation as we have had a supply problem in the UK for all foundation and some has melted and warped in the extreme heat we have had in late May - July which they then change to drone cells. I am going over to plastic frames/foundation eventually in answer to global warming because the seasonal weather has changed these last 3 years. But how do I get rid of the majority drones, so many it is hard to spot the queen and mark her and she is having to lay in odd areas because there are too many drone cells full of pollen.
Put a queen excluder on the front of the hive find the frame with the queen on it leave it in the hive. put a box or something on the ground to make a platform even with the bottom board. Shake all the rest of the frames on platform. The platform is so the nurse bees can walk back into the hive. After a day or two the drones will find a new home.
put them in a box with an entrance reducer and at least 200 yards away. If you can't go that far do the same but not in line of site of hives and put no more than two at a time in the box.
don't put a full box of them back on the hive, just put in a couple then two or three hours later put a couple more. You get to much smell of open honey they will start robbing.
@@LittleBitsHoneyBeesjoemay My other option could be setting the extracted boxes (about 40) on top of a trailer at an open lot about 600 yards away. The bee yard and the open lot is separated by all woods forcing the bees to go over the treetops. I wonder if that is too far or is that even better.
There is no way to know, what size hives and what kind of flow is on. You just have to put 3 or 4 gallons out and keep an eye on it until you get an idea how much they drink a day.
I had six for 200 nucs and it was not enough. If they are packing on the rim and falling off you don't have enough. This is the reason I went to totes more surface area for the bees to feed.
"Frenzy feeding like a bunch of sharks", yes, that is a good description of it. 🤣
Good video. I open feed about 75 yds from my bee yard but it is setup like yours it out of their line of sight. They have to go around and over objects to get to the feed and it works well with no robbing. Thanks again
Good vid, I open feed on the hive thats being targeted, the robbers fill up on sugar water and leave thinking they have taken all the honey. I only do this cause all the normal anti robbing techniques have failed me lately this batch of robbers I have are fanatical all weather raiders, never seen anything like it in 15yrs of beekeeping.
We open feed. Only place the feeders 20 to 30 yrds from hives in backyard. They fly straight to the feeders. As long as you keep feed in them we dont have robbing problems. And also keeps yellow jackets and baldfaced hornets away from hives.
you might get away with that as long as all the hive are big and strong.
@@LittleBitsHoneyBeesjoemay it doesnt matter. We have queen castles. Nucs old and new splites. As long as you keep feed in the feeders they dont bother the other boxs.
That's why I say there is more than one way to do things and what works for you might not work for me and vice versa.
Wow you really have come a long way since you first started making videos. How many nucs are in that yard? The videos are really helpful to new people such as myself. Thank you
Great information. That explains why my bees are following the top hive feeders when I refill them. I am switching to tubs!
Another great video Joe! Congrats on the million views! Thanks for all the videos and all you've taught me. Congrats to the queen winner. I'd still like to see a video series where you tinker with the Case or Hopkins method of queen rearing.
Did you ever find out about that robbing screen vendor? It sounds interesting if there's someone selling like a mini budget robbing screen that'd be interesting.
I have two hobby hives that got robbed in the middle of winter. One survived. I am surrounded by beekeepers who have at least one hundred hives between them. On honey collection day they head for our place in huge swarms to see if they can “help”. Have to work in an air tight room with them all at the window. What worries me with the tote method is that everybee in the neighbourhood will be at my totes sucking up the sugar faster than I can fill it. At the moment I top feed sugar, but there are always bees hanging around the vents and cracks checking it out. My poor girls are living with very restricted entrance holes and they still have trouble.
Thanks Joe, I was going to go line of sight, now they will have to cross 2 big hedges. Great vid as always.
Thanks Joe! Another great video.
Well I made a rookie mistake. I set up a new 5-frame nuc on June 29th. The following Wednesday I placed them into an 8 frame. Keep in mind this is ALL THE BEES I HAVE. So I placed a hive top feeder on them to make sure they build up. I watched them and they have been carrying in pollen from natural sources. Well, two days later, I observe them multiple times daily....I just like watching them, I saw robbing. Bees flying around like they don't know how to get into the hive and bees being attacked by three or more out on the landing board (I have a screen entrance reducer down to single file in and out of the hive).
I removed the hive top feeder and placed a pollen feeder 50 yards straight away from the hive and an open syrup feeder 80 yards away on the other side of the house and garage. I hope this will help. I had no idea there were honey bees nearby enough as to find my hive and try to rob it. Luckily my colony was strong enough to defend itself and I hopefully caught it in time.
Also, I had placed nickels on each of four corners of my telescoping lid to aid in ventilation for my hive. Come to find out there was enough room for robbing bees to get into the hive top feeding box through only that much of a gap. I'm learning plenty I'd say LOL.
Great content .strait to the point ,,
Hey Joe when you say feet everyday do you mean all day every day? I put out 5 gallons in the morning and it's gone in 2 hours I put it out all day within a week they're backfilling The Brood chamber with nectar.
I never let the feeders go dry.
when you pull the honey frames out give them starter strips so they take the sugar and draw you new wax.
@@LittleBitsHoneyBeesjoemay I tried that last year and all the bees did was backfill The Brood Nest they wouldn't draw out new comb for nothing.
I don't know what to say never had any trouble getting the bees to draw comb.
Can you please do a video on you making feeder. I understand what you are saying in video but just want to make sure I get it right. Thank you very much for videos
I live in South Central Texas. Some times one of my hives will become so wild that I have to leave the yard to put on a full suit. The guard bees will come out with no provocation and follow for 50 yards or more. With some hives I can work lightly without smoke 💨 and only have to use a vale and gloves . But if the wild hive gets involved I have to leave , suit-up and light up the smoker.
Could it be that Africanized bees took over the suspect hive? I have had two out of six turn mean in the last two years. Last year I bought all new queens to replace the old queens after killing the old ones. One of the hives had laying workers and I took the hive apart 50 yards away, shook/brushed the frames clean and put them back into new boxes one frame at a time back in the yard. I put the new queen cage into the new box and when the worker bees returned to the hive they tried to ball the new queen’s cage so I didn’t take out the plug until 5 days later. When the workers calmed down I let them eat through the candy plug. They accepted her and the hive has thrived.
Now I have one hive that is so mean that I cannot go into the yard unless I suit up and bring the smoker.
Is it likely that occasionally a wild hive can take over my mild hive and make it go viral?
Watch all of your videos and have learned a lot from you but, nothing has been mentioned about a hive being “ taken over “ by wild bees.
If bees did that to me I wouldn't grab a smoker I'd lite up a flame thrower.
`Thank you Joe
Hello peter from Australia , what do you put in the bottom of your feeding boxes before the straw goes on could not catch what you said .thanks .
Ive learned so much, thank you for the videos. My question is, I have 6 hives, in my back yard. I only have half acre. The furthest I can get from my hives is 40 yards. If make them go to the other side of my house, its maybe 20 yards, and in my front yard. My thought id to put a 5 gallon feeder in front of my house in a corner where my garage meets my house. Do you think itll work?
I think it will work just fine
If you have to feed to prevent robbing, and if you can't stop the feeding, how do you keep it manageable?
I guess I'm worried about the extra cost and how to manage it?
In the summer I only feed 1/4:1 nectar is only 16 to 18 percent sugar. I am feeding 25%. You need to be looking for sugar on the cheap all year and stock up. There ia a cost to feeding. I feed 5 tons a year.
On the small mating swarm, would there always be drones in the swarm? Thanks Joe!
They are usually a few
Hi Joe, any Ideas about what I should do with a problem Hive. This one was Massive and due to previous bad weather in Late April, I did not check for queen cells earlier and the Queen left with the primary swarm which i caught and rehoused them. Then 5 days later it swarmed again which i also caught and housed. 3 Days later it swarmed again with another daughter which I also caught and rehoused. All of them are OK and laying eggs and have brood, BUT THE ORIGINAL HIVE NOW HAS MORE DRONES (who stayed behind for the food) THAN WORKERS, & who are eating all the honey and nectar and not being stopped from entering the hive even though the queen is mated and busy building up the colony. I may have accidentally put in wax drone foundation as we have had a supply problem in the UK for all foundation and some has melted and warped in the extreme heat we have had in late May - July which they then change to drone cells. I am going over to plastic frames/foundation eventually in answer to global warming because the seasonal weather has changed these last 3 years. But how do I get rid of the majority drones, so many it is hard to spot the queen and mark her and she is having to lay in odd areas because there are too many drone cells full of pollen.
Put a queen excluder on the front of the hive find the frame with the queen on it leave it in the hive. put a box or something on the ground to make a platform even with the bottom board. Shake all the rest of the frames on platform. The platform is so the nurse bees can walk back into the hive. After a day or two the drones will find a new home.
@@LittleBitsHoneyBeesjoemay Thank you Joe, that is great advice and sounds like it may have happened to you before. Good harvest and Bee happy.
You could put 1/2 inch hardware cloth over the holes.
Great video, what do you suggest to do with extracted supers?
put them in a box with an entrance reducer and at least 200 yards away. If you can't go that far do the same but not in line of site of hives and put no more than two at a time in the box.
@@LittleBitsHoneyBeesjoemay Thanks, can I put them back on hives for the bees to clean up?
don't put a full box of them back on the hive, just put in a couple then two or three hours later put a couple more. You get to much smell of open honey they will start robbing.
@@LittleBitsHoneyBeesjoemay My other option could be setting the extracted boxes (about 40) on top of a trailer at an open lot about 600 yards away. The bee yard and the open lot is separated by all woods forcing the bees to go over the treetops. I wonder if that is too far or is that even better.
That would be just fine . watch them close or them will tear your comb up.
Are you feeding 1 to 1 Joe?
How long do you think it will take 15 hives to finish one of those large totes of sugar water?
There is no way to know, what size hives and what kind of flow is on. You just have to put 3 or 4 gallons out and keep an eye on it until you get an idea how much they drink a day.
I’m up to 65 Nucs and I use David’s bucket feeders. How many Nucs to a feeder would you recommend. In using 2 but thinking about adding one. Thanks
I had six for 200 nucs and it was not enough. If they are packing on the rim and falling off you don't have enough. This is the reason I went to totes more surface area for the bees to feed.
Thanks
Hey Joe where did you buy them plastic screens?
The manufacture has all ready done a production run on them, they should be available soon.
@@LittleBitsHoneyBeesjoemay Thanks let me know when i can get them.