I purchased model B1 from Boris and love it so far. Just like you said in your video, you are not reliant on others for help with lifting. I added a hanging scale to my model so I can get a weight on each hive I lift. Great for logging honey super weight for each hive when I harvest.
Great tool for saving your back. I can't wait for the bees to get busy with nectar. Lot of trees budding out and plenty of pollen coming in now. Swarm season is coming fast. ❤🐝
I am sure your are going to enjoy the new hive lifter. From what I can tell Mike Berry likes his. Hope you have a great season with great tasting honey at the new location. Be sure and keep us updated!
Thanks Nathan, we have had a few warm days here in central NH and the bees have been out ; ] We still have enough snow for xc skiing on the ground, 8" solid base. I think we are 4-5 weeks behind you. The shot angles are good at demonstrating how you move the lifter around. I have a friend that has expressed interest in a lifter, and I will tell him to watch this video. Keep the spring videos coming. peace, B
Thanks Brice. We don't get a lot of snow and my kids get SOOOO excited when we do. Places that have it all winter can't wait for it to leave (especially if you could skip mud season).
@@DuckRiverHoney once the flowers start blooming, then I get very busy gardening and such so I cherish the snow. Mud season and maple sugar season is just around the corner. Then come bees ☺
Great job on the hitch hauler! When I first seen it I thought about the “one more thing” of having to take it out of the Reese hitch to access the bed with the lifter but...noticed quickly that the lifter clears the hitch hauler just fine! Looking forward to more videos of you moving hives with that lifter...the potential purchase has been on my mind. Thanks again for the time you invest in these videos!
You give good information on the bee yard. And you are so lucky we got 6 to 8 inches of snow & more coming later this week. Keep it up and going please.
Envy your earlier bee season but I've a few tasks to complete - today was burning down the burn pile, putting out some dry pollen and cleaning out a few flower beds as God blessed us with a 60 degree day here in Pennsylvania and the rest of the week will be rain, snow, winds AGAIN! Still need to paint up a queen castle, straighten up the extra bee equipment and make preparations for teaching 5 new beekeepers starting in March. Looking forward to your first inspections and swarm captures.
Thanks Nancy, I’ve got a bunch of chores waiting as well. Unfortunately painting equipment is on that list. I did get an airless sprayer though…I detest painting.
@@DuckRiverHoney LOL the bigger the operation the bigger the toys! I'll stick tp 25 hives or so and a paint brush but with some spare equipment I may not need to paint for a while except for that castle.
Nice hive lifter. Enjoyed the tour of your new bee yard. Looks like a very nice place. Hopefully you can capitalize on that sourwood. Thanks for the video.
I really like the looks of your hive lifter. I’m going to do something to save my back and continue to do this while I’m not getting any younger. I’ll be looking at it seriously in the near future. I enjoy your videos. Keep up the good work!
Thanks Troy. I think at some point I may scale it back to a hobby and move to horizontal hives, but I hope to keep doing this for a few more decades before then. The lifter will really help in that.
Nice. I had exactly what you worry about last year. 1 of my 2 yards had a European foulbrood breakout. The other yard never experienced any signs, though I'm sure it's lurking. Have a great day
That hive lifter looks great for those occasions when you need to lift multiple supers at once. If my operation gets big enough i may get one to help putting empty honey supers under nearly full ones. I noticed in other videos that you have quite attractive labels for your honey jars. Perhaps you could make a video about designing and producing those labels.?
Hello Nathan, I'm looking seriously at the B1 Hive Lifter. How do you like yours since purchase? You might have the B2 Model or at least added the additional vertical stabilizers. Someone below mentioned the hitch hauler. Is that just a standard insertable platform that many have for coolers or a harvested deer? Could you have gotten away with the manual model. I have 40 colonies.
I’ve got the B3 and like it. The B2 and B3 are bigger, but they can do more than the B1. Check specs carefully. I rebuilt a junky old hitch haul. I could’ve started from scratch as I ended up just using the tube that inserts into the receiver and junking the rest.
Suggestion: If you use plastic outer covers, be careful using rachet traps. You really need to remove the plastic outer cover, strap using only the inner cover. I broke a couple of plastic outer covers using rachet straps. The problem is worse in cold weather.
You might clear the leaf litter away from your hives as a firebreak just in case, bett to have then a little scorched than to have them go up in smoke, believe me honey is combustible. (from personal experience).
Good to see you back at it. Saw bee's bringing in a bit of pollen today. Another few weeks and it will be on here. Cant wait. How did your hives do over the winter. Are you still planning on expanding?
I’m at 0% deathloss right now, all 23 made it. 3 or 4 are pretty weak and 7 to 10 are monster big. Still planning to expand, if I’m going to have two yards they may as well be full.
Would it be possible for you to make a video showing the details of the hive stands in the first part of your video? I like the thought of the thinner metal legs that can be smeared with some sort of grease to keep ants out.
@@DuckRiverHoney I would also really enjoy seeing a video of the hive stand build. The fire ants are a constant problem for my hives. How thick is the angle iron that you are using? Thank you for all the fantastic videos on swarm trapping! I just set out three here in South Texas using the techniques in your videos.
Nathan I have been a sub since you started your channel. Your videos are great to watch. Our apiary seems to be in similar size but I'm wondering how much money you invested in your sideline operation. The container honey house, equipment, lifter...all seems wayyy out of reach for me. I'm hoping to finally be in the green this season if all goes well.
Thanks! I figure I’ll probably break even next year. A lot depends on the weather this year. Container wasn’t something I really wanted, but I had to have a spot. Hive lifter, yeah I wanted that to scale. It’ll allow me to checkerboard supers easily, undersuper, use bee escapes, etc. Equipment that makes a big difference in labor reduction or efficiency is something I’ll spend money on. I can probably use that lifter for 5 years and still sell it for 70% of what I paid. That’s pretty cheap rent.
Not trying to be smart, but I'm assuming with most of the hives around 100 pounds or so, wouldn't it be easier to just have another guy help you lift the hives into the truck or trailer?
That’s a joke 😂. Yes, it’d be cheaper in the short run to hire a guy. BUT, I don’t have a guy to hire, and I work full time so my schedule is spotty at best. So I bought the hive lifter. Figure I can use it for 20 or 30 years and then still sell it for something.
Interesting lift! I have been trying to decide about one of those vs making a easy lift type for the back of my truck. What are your thoughts on that lift? What was the costs? Would you recommend one? Likes dislikes? Glad to see your season has started we are still under about 6’ of snow up here in Alberta Canada. I too am transitioning from hobbies to sideline so i am very interested in what you have going on! PS: really like your swarm trapping series.
Hi James, to be honest I’m thrilled with it at this point, but I can’t do a review on it without a lot more use. I don’t move hives a lot, so I probably couldn’t justify it for that purpose, but it’ll do honey supers too. Opens some doors for me without any labor.
@@DuckRiverHoney i can see where it would be useful for supers! I’m using a 2way pallet design (trying to keep expansion in mind) and this would be much cheeper than a forklift at this point as there is not a endless supply of $$ at this time! It does look a bit tippy, and I’m concerned as we do not have really good level ground at my hive locations. I sent them a email this morning looking for a bit of information on them.
I’m setting up my hives with this thing in mind. It’s all about putting together a system that works efficiently, ie all the parts complement each other.
Hey Nathan I talked to you at the hive life conference this year we talked about the cattle business a little bit. I've been looking at that same lifter for the last 6 months been talking to Mike Berry about it. I'm getting really close too buying one I was wondering is it put together really good as far as the pivot points where the bolts go through the aluminum lift arms and did you find it pretty stable when you were running the hives on that rough ground? Those hives look to be at lease 200 lb would you say?
Hi Charles, the lifter seems well built, it uses a lot of common hardware which I like. My frame arrived bent a bit and I had to bend it back so it ran straight. Also my lifters were a little far apart so I drilled an extra hole and tweaked it a bit. To be honest I don’t like having to work on something as soon as I get it, but the frame issue could’ve been done in shipping and it was an easy fix. The lifter works GREAT and I’m very happy with how it handled my biggest / heaviest hives. Some of those were monsters and it didn’t hesitate.
@@DuckRiverHoney Nathan did you just get that machine and how long did it take you to get it with all these shipping problems as we seem to have especially what's going on up in Canada right now
@@DuckRiverHoney Nathan you were talking about drilling the holes for the Left arms, if your boxes are standardized langstroph boxes that thing should fit those boxes perfectly. Are you saying that little metal clips that fall into the hand holds didn't go into them deep enough to grab the boxes properly?
Yep, it came with the lifter arms about 1/4” further apart than I would want them. There’s room for argument there though. Too tight and it’d be hard to line up and some boxes may be over spec.
Mine is the bigger / faster one. Very similar though. I talked to Mike about it some and decided it would do what I need. Lifting a HEAVY triple medium mature hive up on a tailgate with precision and ease is pretty awesome. Honey supers will be my most common use.
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I purchased model B1 from Boris and love it so far. Just like you said in your video, you are not reliant on others for help with lifting. I added a hanging scale to my model so I can get a weight on each hive I lift. Great for logging honey super weight for each hive when I harvest.
That’s a neat idea
Interesting hive handler.....
Have good honey production in your new hive location.
I salute you with respect Adrian
Thanks Adrian
Great tool for saving your back. I can't wait for the bees to get busy with nectar. Lot of trees budding out and plenty of pollen coming in now. Swarm season is coming fast. ❤🐝
Thanks Michael. We’re behind in brood rearing but I did see a lot of drone larvae today.
I am sure your are going to enjoy the new hive lifter. From what I can tell Mike Berry likes his. Hope you have a great season with great tasting honey at the new location. Be sure and keep us updated!
Thanks Dwight!
Thanks Nathan, we have had a few warm days here in central NH and the bees have been out ; ] We still have enough snow for xc skiing on the ground, 8" solid base. I think we are 4-5 weeks behind you. The shot angles are good at demonstrating how you move the lifter around. I have a friend that has expressed interest in a lifter, and I will tell him to watch this video. Keep the spring videos coming. peace, B
Thanks Brice. We don't get a lot of snow and my kids get SOOOO excited when we do. Places that have it all winter can't wait for it to leave (especially if you could skip mud season).
@@DuckRiverHoney once the flowers start blooming, then I get very busy gardening and such so I cherish the snow. Mud season and maple sugar season is just around the corner. Then come bees ☺
That's a cool gizmo!
Great job on the hitch hauler! When I first seen it I thought about the “one more thing” of having to take it out of the Reese hitch to access the bed with the lifter but...noticed quickly that the lifter clears the hitch hauler just fine! Looking forward to more videos of you moving hives with that lifter...the potential purchase has been on my mind. Thanks again for the time you invest in these videos!
Thanks Oakes. I don’t move hives a lot, but it’ll come in handy for honey supers.
You give good information on the bee yard. And you are so lucky we got 6 to 8 inches of snow & more coming later this week. Keep it up and going please.
Thanks Kent, bet you’re ready for some green instead of white.
@@DuckRiverHoney yes & no I make alot of money snow plowing
LOL
Your hive lifter looks like it worked great. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks!
Just saw what I was looking for in the description, thx!
Good deal, thanks
Envy your earlier bee season but I've a few tasks to complete - today was burning down the burn pile, putting out some dry pollen and cleaning out a few flower beds as God blessed us with a 60 degree day here in Pennsylvania and the rest of the week will be rain, snow, winds AGAIN! Still need to paint up a queen castle, straighten up the extra bee equipment and make preparations for teaching 5 new beekeepers starting in March. Looking forward to your first inspections and swarm captures.
Thanks Nancy, I’ve got a bunch of chores waiting as well. Unfortunately painting equipment is on that list. I did get an airless sprayer though…I detest painting.
@@DuckRiverHoney LOL the bigger the operation the bigger the toys! I'll stick tp 25 hives or so and a paint brush but with some spare equipment I may not need to paint for a while except for that castle.
Nice hive lifter. Enjoyed the tour of your new bee yard. Looks like a very nice place. Hopefully you can capitalize on that sourwood. Thanks for the video.
Thanks!
That B3 has a much better loft motor than the B2. Glad it’s working out for you. I know I love mine.
Thanks Mike, pretty cool to not stress over moving a big colony by myself.
I really like the looks of your hive lifter. I’m going to do something to save my back and continue to do this while I’m not getting any younger. I’ll be looking at it seriously in the near future. I enjoy your videos. Keep up the good work!
Thanks Troy. I think at some point I may scale it back to a hobby and move to horizontal hives, but I hope to keep doing this for a few more decades before then. The lifter will really help in that.
Nice. I had exactly what you worry about last year. 1 of my 2 yards had a European foulbrood breakout. The other yard never experienced any signs, though I'm sure it's lurking. Have a great day
Thanks!
That hive lifter looks great for those occasions when you need to lift multiple supers at once. If my operation gets big enough i may get one to help putting empty honey supers under nearly full ones.
I noticed in other videos that you have quite attractive labels for your honey jars. Perhaps you could make a video about designing and producing those labels.?
I appreciate it. I may do a marketing video, once I feel like I’ve figured it out.
Different habitat; sounds great - Snakes?
Probably a better habitat for copperheads, possibly timber rattlesnakes. We’ll see.
Yay! Bee season begins!
Finally!
Hello Nathan, I'm looking seriously at the B1 Hive Lifter. How do you like yours since purchase? You might have the B2 Model or at least added the additional vertical stabilizers. Someone below mentioned the hitch hauler. Is that just a standard insertable platform that many have for coolers or a harvested deer? Could you have gotten away with the manual model. I have 40 colonies.
I’ve got the B3 and like it. The B2 and B3 are bigger, but they can do more than the B1. Check specs carefully. I rebuilt a junky old hitch haul. I could’ve started from scratch as I ended up just using the tube that inserts into the receiver and junking the rest.
What a cool tool..
It’s pretty handy, thanks
cool new bee toy, 1400 is a lot of honey though
It is, but what’s the resale value after 10 years of use? Assets aren’t an expense, labor and depreciation are.
The fish got poisoned? SO I wonder why doesn't the mountain laurel poison the bees? hmm very interesting!
Pretty neat!
Tasting for difference will be very interesting.
That’s the fun in it!
Suggestion: If you use plastic outer covers, be careful using rachet traps. You really need to remove the plastic outer cover, strap using only the inner cover. I broke a couple of plastic outer covers using rachet straps. The problem is worse in cold weather.
Good tip, I don’t have any plastic covers. Thanks
Good tip, I don’t have any plastic covers. Thanks
Hey- like your videos. You need a clickable link to your Amazon store!
Thanks Jerry! I got that link fixed. I’ll have to keep a better eye on that stuff.
Since your moving bees in the middle of the day, what happens to all the field bees that are out foraging
It was in the low to mid 30’s, so the bees weren’t out foraging.
@@DuckRiverHoney gotcha
I got to get me one of these!!!!
It’s handy
You might clear the leaf litter away from your hives as a firebreak just in case, bett to have then a little scorched than to have them go up in smoke, believe me honey is combustible. (from personal experience).
I bet. You’re in Australia I’m guessing? Did you get hit with the huge fires a few years back?
@@DuckRiverHoney Son lost one yard and part of another, if he wasnt out doing pollination he would have lost a lot more.
No hernia today. :)
😂
Are bears ever a problem in your apiaries?
Thinking of where your new apiary is and wondering.
We don’t have bears here, except rumors of a sighting every few years. Young males are known to wander hundreds of miles.
Good to see you back at it.
Saw bee's bringing in a bit of pollen today. Another few weeks and it will be on here. Cant wait.
How did your hives do over the winter. Are you still planning on expanding?
I’m at 0% deathloss right now, all 23 made it. 3 or 4 are pretty weak and 7 to 10 are monster big. Still planning to expand, if I’m going to have two yards they may as well be full.
love the shims too
Simple, just door shims, but it works. I also use them to narrow down entrances on small nucs.
Great work mate 👍
Thanks Aidan, where are you from?
@@DuckRiverHoney Hey Nathan, we're on the east coast of Australia, subtropics, headed into autumn here. Love your approach mate, keep at it.
Guessing you’re somewhere in Queensland? I’d love to visit Australia someday.
I just got the B3 and the solar panel was missing. Boris is going yo fix it. I see yours is not on you lift. Why did you take it off?
I didn’t order the solar panel.
@DuckRiverHoney solar panel is part of B3 not an add on.
@sugarhollowhoney it may be now.
What is the name of the lift? Where did you get it? I’ve got shoulder issues and that may be something I have to have here soon.
Hive Lifter B3 is what I got, from the Bee Breeding Center. www.beebreedingcentre.com/product-page/hives-lifter-model-3
I bought the other style from Boris, have not used it yet, still snow on the ground up here in New Hampshire >
Did you get the one that looks more like a regular hand truck? I really like the lift and reach on this one.
Another item added to the list of expenses. One day I’ll stop buying😂
There’s always something else…. This was a big one for me, keeps me from needing another guy.
Do you have bears? When I first started back in 2019, I had bears attack my first hives within 3 weeks, and have had to invest into solar fencing.
We don’t, unless it’s a very rare young male passing through.
Would it be possible for you to make a video showing the details of the hive stands in the first part of your video? I like the thought of the thinner metal legs that can be smeared with some sort of grease to keep ants out.
HA! Yeah I can do that. It’s a waste of time, and I put a LOT of time into those. They actually have grease cups welded on them.
@@DuckRiverHoney I would also really enjoy seeing a video of the hive stand build. The fire ants are a constant problem for my hives. How thick is the angle iron that you are using? Thank you for all the fantastic videos on swarm trapping! I just set out three here in South Texas using the techniques in your videos.
Thanks Jorge, I’ve used mostly 1/4” scrap angle. I’ll do a video showing them soon.
Do you have to deal with bear problems, looks like prime habitat for bears. If so, post a video of your bear deterring system.
Nice lift too
No bears John, though there have been rumors.
Watch out for equipment contamination between yards too
Yep, I don’t share hive tools. Suits do travel though.
Nathan I have been a sub since you started your channel. Your videos are great to watch. Our apiary seems to be in similar size but I'm wondering how much money you invested in your sideline operation. The container honey house, equipment, lifter...all seems wayyy out of reach for me. I'm hoping to finally be in the green this season if all goes well.
Thanks! I figure I’ll probably break even next year. A lot depends on the weather this year. Container wasn’t something I really wanted, but I had to have a spot. Hive lifter, yeah I wanted that to scale. It’ll allow me to checkerboard supers easily, undersuper, use bee escapes, etc. Equipment that makes a big difference in labor reduction or efficiency is something I’ll spend money on. I can probably use that lifter for 5 years and still sell it for 70% of what I paid. That’s pretty cheap rent.
@@DuckRiverHoney Best of luck this upcoming season. Keep up the good work.
I appreciate it!
Not trying to be smart, but I'm assuming with most of the hives around 100 pounds or so, wouldn't it be easier to just have another guy help you lift the hives into the truck or trailer?
Yes it would William. Can you be here at 6:30 AM next Sunday morning? That’s when I need to move them. I appreciate the offer to help!!!
That’s a joke 😂. Yes, it’d be cheaper in the short run to hire a guy. BUT, I don’t have a guy to hire, and I work full time so my schedule is spotty at best. So I bought the hive lifter. Figure I can use it for 20 or 30 years and then still sell it for something.
Interesting lift! I have been trying to decide about one of those vs making a easy lift type for the back of my truck. What are your thoughts on that lift? What was the costs? Would you recommend one? Likes dislikes? Glad to see your season has started we are still under about 6’ of snow up here in Alberta Canada. I too am transitioning from hobbies to sideline so i am very interested in what you have going on! PS: really like your swarm trapping series.
Hi James, to be honest I’m thrilled with it at this point, but I can’t do a review on it without a lot more use. I don’t move hives a lot, so I probably couldn’t justify it for that purpose, but it’ll do honey supers too. Opens some doors for me without any labor.
@@DuckRiverHoney i can see where it would be useful for supers! I’m using a 2way pallet design (trying to keep expansion in mind) and this would be much cheeper than a forklift at this point as there is not a endless supply of $$ at this time! It does look a bit tippy, and I’m concerned as we do not have really good level ground at my hive locations. I sent them a email this morning looking for a bit of information on them.
I’m setting up my hives with this thing in mind. It’s all about putting together a system that works efficiently, ie all the parts complement each other.
@@DuckRiverHoney Lets keep in touch! It’s exciting to see someone trying the same thing i am and the different perspective on the same issues!
Hey Nathan I talked to you at the hive life conference this year we talked about the cattle business a little bit. I've been looking at that same lifter for the last 6 months been talking to Mike Berry about it. I'm getting really close too buying one I was wondering is it put together really good as far as the pivot points where the bolts go through the aluminum lift arms and did you find it pretty stable when you were running the hives on that rough ground? Those hives look to be at lease 200 lb would you say?
Hi Charles, the lifter seems well built, it uses a lot of common hardware which I like. My frame arrived bent a bit and I had to bend it back so it ran straight. Also my lifters were a little far apart so I drilled an extra hole and tweaked it a bit. To be honest I don’t like having to work on something as soon as I get it, but the frame issue could’ve been done in shipping and it was an easy fix. The lifter works GREAT and I’m very happy with how it handled my biggest / heaviest hives. Some of those were monsters and it didn’t hesitate.
@@DuckRiverHoney Nathan did you just get that machine and how long did it take you to get it with all these shipping problems as we seem to have especially what's going on up in Canada right now
I’ve had it since late Jan or early Feb. I paid for it right before Hive Life.
@@DuckRiverHoney Nathan you were talking about drilling the holes for the Left arms, if your boxes are standardized langstroph boxes that thing should fit those boxes perfectly. Are you saying that little metal clips that fall into the hand holds didn't go into them deep enough to grab the boxes properly?
Yep, it came with the lifter arms about 1/4” further apart than I would want them. There’s room for argument there though. Too tight and it’d be hard to line up and some boxes may be over spec.
That lift is very similar to the one Mike Barry uses. I wonder if it's the same model.
Mine is the bigger / faster one. Very similar though. I talked to Mike about it some and decided it would do what I need. Lifting a HEAVY triple medium mature hive up on a tailgate with precision and ease is pretty awesome. Honey supers will be my most common use.
You fancy beekeeper with your fancy equipment. Lol how are you supposed to hurt your back if you are not lifting with your body. 😊
Don’t worry, I worked all my hives last Sunday and my back was still sore. 😆 the lifter doesn’t prevent SORE, it prevents INJURY.
nifty