You know when part of your business is sold off and you've just finished re-organizing your business unit and team and stuff and then corporate comes in and restructures the entire organization? That must be what this feels like.
I love the math formulas while you were working out if frankie swarmed or not Also love how you talked through your thought process of what potentially what you could do and what you ought to do. Such a great insight into what is probably a very common problem for beekeepers
This has been a head-splitting bee math year. Every week I think "one more week and everything will be clear." As mud. Just posted an instagram of a possible laying worker problem, except there's still open brood and young queens often start out laying multiples and I don't SEE a queen, and I saw a queen cup 10 days go and that queen can't possibly be laying already and so on. Argh! Those floating math formulas hit the nail on the head.
@@mastermiketkd2617 that's where the smoke comes in, it makes them sleepy (as far as I'm aware that's what it does it makes them chill with you messing with the hive anyway)
@@mastermiketkd2617 the trick is to go slowly. First crack the lid just enough to puff smoke in. Wait a half minute to let the smoke do it's magic. Then open the hive. It's done in stages not all at once.
@C B if you buy Queen's through the mail or from a large queen breeder the paint serves three purposes. 1: It is easier to find the queen 2: Know the age of the queen 3: It's a vitality indicator. When the paint wears off the queen is likely running out of gas and needs to be replaced because commercial breed queens SUCK!
@C B I'm in CT so I use CT carniolan "mutts." Personally I've found every single queen I've had my bees raise has been better than the best queens I've purchased. If you already have bees you might want to look into rearing your own. It's not that hard.
@C B ah, yes that would make me think twice. Africanized drones fly faster than other drones (no joke) which helped promote their rapid spread...that would be an unpleasant surprise. "Open bee hive, firehose of bees come out, close bee hive, rethink rearing own queens"
Years ago when I was training for a new high stress job, I was given some advice by an older fellow that I still follow today. The job was 90% monitoring and basic stuff, and 10% sheer panic. The advice was, “When everything goes pear shaped, you can race around trying to save the situation and chance making things worse, or step back, roll a smoke (metaphorically), assess, then pick up the pieces and return things to normal.” You have done the right thing by leaving the hives to sort themselves out and you can fix and adjust as the situation(s) become clear. Great stuff James, thanks for sharing.
Watching you guys play with your bees makes me so jealous. I have to wear a full suit in the middle of summer. Cuz everytime I get stung I swell up a lot. Like whole leg or whole arm.
It’s been swarm season since May for me! Just when I think all is well, the back yard is full of bees. The last three were too high to get to,, but that’s ok. I’m at 10, in addition to a resource hive with both sides full. I don’t want to expand anymore, so adios girls! I think you did the right thing stepping back and letting the bees do what they do. I’ve had to make that decision too and it usually works out. That queen looked mated to me. She just needs time to start laying. Good luck with all the queens in the making! The math equations floating up while you were deciding your next move was brilliant. Love your videos! 🐝😊
I really enjoyed your thought process of the Frankie hive! (editing was cute too lolol). As someone who doesn't take care of bees, nor have any knowledge really outside of watching bee keepers on RUclips, I do hope that your calculations are right! I think in the end you made the right choice and that the hive will fix itself :) Great video again!
Always have a capture box with Lure in it , high up near the apple trees and a Metal pan and rod nearby to bang near the box if you see a swarm flying. They will go towards the metal ringing sound.
Jim, this is an excellent 'think out loud' lesson in 'what do you do when' videos which is quite often left out of most. I will use it often to teach newbees. Thank you. I do join in other comments that another empty drawn frame would benefit the queens ability to lay instead of casting another swarm (pollen/honey bound). See you next week for the follow-up!
Great video! 12 days straight without any rain, 10 days above 90 degrees, feeding water and bee pro. Watching daily for swarming as bees are very active and clustering on outside of hive to fan themselves.
A video about the ‘queen farm’ of your buddy would be super interesting. I just wonder how he can have so much queens and what kind of business is that?. Anyway thanks a lot for your videos! I appreciate your hard work doing these. It is super fun and interesting to watch. Greetings from Europe
GREAT video buddy! ...it is very useful to see the process behind the decision making... Love the video effects too... Please tell us what is going on with the stone building ;-)
Yes Agreed. Virgin Queen. That broken cell tells the tale. And its been at least 16 days since she emerged which explains lack of brood. There has been a full brood break with the swarming of old queen. You should be back in action in that hive by next week! Good Luck! BTW Every single time I have ever purchased queens (over the last 5 seasons) they let her lay, the brood emerges and they supercede her. I think they know the genetics just arent right for the area. They always make a new one.
Another great video! I caught somebodys bees the other day in a swarm trap. The queen was marked with this years color (blue). I'll bee posting that video soon. Should have checked my trap sooner. Ended up with a mess lol.
Nice job. When you catch a swarm trying to leave and in the air, you can usually take a couple of objects that will clang loudly and beat them together and settle them back on a limb. It works more often than it doesn't, sometimes they'll settle up pretty high though. Sometimes walk away splits work great, other times not so much. I've had trouble with them two years in a row.
Great video Jim! I agree with your conclusion that the swarm seen is probably from Back Left. Your inspection of that hive does support that conclusion. And the other hive you checked - yeah I think you nailed that one too. That's a new queen, probably unmated but about to mate. So many drones in your hives and it looks like they are needed. Because if your hives are in this state I am guessing there are other hives within mating range that are also in this state. Hope so as you will need their drones and it would be nice if your drones got used up before fall when they will be kicked out. A week should be enough to get the queen you saw today mated and hopefully laying - but sometimes bee math says they may be slow to start laying after they finish mating. Makes sense to me - she has to develop eggs to a certain point before she can lay any. But that's only one to three days I think. Can anyone correct my bee math?
When every single split was made within one week and none of them are queen right yet, it has to be a timing/weather thing. I’ve had like 95% success on walk away splits up til now. I just need to give them more time. This weekend we’re getting a big storm, but I’ll check again after that passes.
@@vinofarm I remember. That's why I think it likely there are more colonies in other apiaries nearby who have the same problem. Bad weather effects everyone.
With as many hives as you have YOU NEED to have SWARM-TRAPS setup. If as you suspect the swarm you saw were leaving the apple trees there is a good chance they’d been clustered in the apple trees for 1 or 2 days. I catch a lot of swarms and maybe 20% will cluster then move on the same day, but most will remain clustered for 2 or 3 days until the scouts find a suitable new home. If you have few swarm traps in the apples trees they will happily take up residence in one of them. I’m in Adelaide, South Australia - winter here now -, but last season one of my hive swarmed and I watched them go and cluster in a tree in a neighbour’s back yard, two doors away; neighbours weren’t home, so I couldn’t get to them. They stayed clustered for 3 days, while some of their scouts were checking out the swarm trap in my back yard; came home the afternoon of 3rd day cluster was gone and swarm trap was full. Another time, one afternoon, I saw a swarm move into my back yard from the north and clustered in one of my apricot trees, didn’t have time to shake them into a box because I was on my way out, so I set up an empty 10 frame hive close to them, next morning I watched scouts checking it out, then they all moved in, shortly after they all moved out; I figured wrong size box so I replace 10 frame box with 8 frame box; the following morning I watched them all break cluster and take up take up residence in box, I should’ve videoed them and posted it on RUclips. I caught 3 other swarms in my back yard last season. Word must be out amongst bee community that my place is bee friendly because there are times when I can hear a swarm coming and I then watch them flying in from the east or north, while my hives are nice and settled. Other times I’ve watched my hives swarm; it’s like a waterfall of bees pouring out of the entrance and taking to the air with their characteristic swarming buzz: I love that sound, the sound of energized, excited bees.
Splitting in July. It can be done but don't make a habit out of it. I had a swarm yesterday too. Mine walked into an empty box with drawn frames. Virgin queens run like jackrabbits. A fresh emerged queen is long but will shrink as she hardens up. DO NOT BE TEMPTED TO MARK THEM until mated and laying. A virgin in a hive is just another bee to the colony until she's mated. She fends for herself until then. If you saw a virgin with a retinue it's not a virgin ok? Now...a colony runs the queen around to slim her down for flight...swarm. If you have a hive full of runny bees like it's the bee olympics...its about to go. One day you open up.a hive and it spills out at you. You pull a frame and it's runny to where bees are dripping off like water. That's a swarm about to happen. Next time you lose a swarm spray a box lid awith one spritz of swarm commander and put it up on a ladder or the roof with the rest if a hive. Spritz once at the entry. You may "find" it I do it a lot.
Hi Vino farm am a big fan, I think although you made a split with few swom cells but should of made 3-4 split with one frame that have 1-2 swom cell bees on what ever that frame have in 5 nuc box, and when they come back mated in 2-3 weeks you can add more bee to it, you increase your chances of mated queens and recover your losses and make more, you doing a great job am learing a lot from you too , i enjoy your channel too.
Seems like summertime hives should be two boxes minimum then an excluder, unless you are trying to encourage new queens being made. The population explosion happens so fast that it seems to be easy to miss. Spring looks like the biggest challenge, trying to balance warmth in the hive, room to store resources when they become available, room to start laying, but not too much room for the bees to maintain for hygienics and safety.
This year youtube is pretty packed with videos of people doing post-flow splits with all the bearding bees who blames them but... Splits in a dearth is asking for trouble. You have to feed them and... oh my.
I work with the rensonmethod every week i check my rensonchamber for swarmcells and remove them so they dont swarm and with the rensonmethod bees are living longer and less brood to take care for so you have more honey
Jim hope you don't mind me saying that if it was my hive I would take the frames with the queen cells and move to a narrow box and put a frame feeder in it and put that box on top of a strong hive separated by a double screen board (Snelgrove board, see Bob Binnie). The Snelgrove board will allow heat to rise from the strong hive and keep the new thinly populated hive going. Then put a new frame/s (drawn comb or foundation) in the old hive. And of course I would catch that queen mark her and clip one wing and put her in a queen cage then shake all the bees on the ground and put an inclined board so that the bees would walk back in the hive to be with their queen. Then you would for sure stop a swarm.
Least on the positive side, though if you lost the swarm, is, least it is joining the wild, and you still have that hive since some bees are still in it, and making queens replace the one that left, with some bees. Just trying to think positive here. Sorry, this comment is two weeks late.
Yes. There’s one in the woods, but I could probably have more in other locations. I think seeing that first attempt show absolutely no success made me hesitant to put more effort into swarm traps. Or maybe I’m just lazy.
Queen issues can be so friken stressful >.< I recently replaced one (she was an emergency or supersedure queen) that was most likely lost during her mating flight. Came back after a week and didn't find any eggs until the very last frame of the hive. I was kinda freaking out more and more until that point heheh :) The reward though is seeing the new queen took over and knowing they will be alright :) I know its a bit silly, but I'm kinda proud of my bees, they had a rough start (I'm a huge newbie at all this) but they're pulling through. I'm also trying to follow your example, sharing my mistakes (and successes) so others learn.
Your girls look really good, congrats! I remember how stressed I got about every little problem when I first started keeping bees, but over time you realize they are quite resilient. Good luck!
I have the same thing happen to 3 hives and i just requeened a hive for the second time couple days ago all was good in the spring then all of a suden queenlees hives lots of people are haveing tthr samr isues this year
I believe it’s the 5G. It throws off their gps. A lot of ppl are having this problem. They’re (the scientists) discovering the issue...little too late.
Your "Frankie" hive queen has no or little place to lay doesn't matter if she swarmed or not. If she is a new queen she too may swarm if she has no place to lay being pollen/honey bound.
Frankie hive - check the swarm cells for pinprick holes (indicating the emerged queen has killed the queens in them) - if not, split the frames with the queen cells off to a nuc, and leave that queen in the existing hive? Also, I think that queen cell has been torn down, not emerged - emerged cells look nice and neatly "decapitated" - that cell looks like it has been ripped down? But who knows ..... :)
Vino do you not have the time to peek into your bees once a week and make sure they aren’t swarming. This is what I do and I have had bees want to swarm but none have come to close. Also keep posting on Instagram it is fun to follow you there.
Look man... ive been waiting patiently for a while to see you go into the Russian hive. You can imagine my excitement when at the beginning of the video you teased me by mentioning the Russians. Then you didn’t do it. I know, I know... you didn’t actually SAY you were going into the russians, but you said it with your eyes. (Go back and watch the video again before you tell me I’m wrong.) Let me wrap this up by saying, and I don’t think I’m alone in this, we wanna see some Russian ladies! The new barn looks amazing by the way!
Hi Vino Farm, Just a quick question. How long should you typically close up the entrance of the split for? As I'm in Australia and planning to expand my hives when spring comes. Thanks again,
Your hive appears to be pollen bound. Need to freeze a couple of those full bee-bread frames and save for January and give them some empty frames so she has room to lay.
I just had my one split died out, either swarmed or absconded. However I will be splitting again Thursday, what method do you like, also do you have split videos??
I wonder how far away you'd have to place an empty hive from your bee yard for them to swarm into it, or if they'd swarm into an empty one placed inside your bee yard.
What about the Russian hive? They were on the possible swarm list, did you check them? Given the information on the video, I think Frankie swarmed and back left is going to swarm. Did you check for the queen in the Back Left hive? How about eggs and larva? Usually when they swarm they leave behind capped brood to become the nurse bees for the new queen. Frankie's capped brood looked like it was already emerging which could mean the swarm happened earlier than you might think. The Queen you saw could be a virgin or a newly mated queen about to start laying. Frankie hive also looked pollen bound. I loved the thinking it through equations, I do the same thing and when it's a really challenging situation I chart my observations on paper. I think the wonky weather this year has caused many queen issues, I know it has for me. Love your videos, thanks.
Back Left was definitely the swarm. Frankie was an earlier swarm I never noticed. I had not thought of the issue of being ‘pollen bound”. I need to go take some of that out and give her an empty frame.
0:32 bye bye bees 🐝 👋 Isn’t that frustrating when you just miss them? They will generally bivouac somewhere within a few hundred yards of the original hive while they hunt for a new home, although sometimes they may move to bivouac at a secondary location. It can take anywhere from a few hours to a few days to find the final location. They actually use waggle dancing on the surface of the swarm to debate new hive locations and once there is consensus, away they go. Bees are so amazing.
So I am a new-bee, I only have one hive. I think I've watched every one of your videos. So you took some frames from this hive that just swarmed... is there enough time left in this bee season for them to still catch up and over winter as a full-sized hive?
They went into a 4 frame box. (One side of a resource hive.) The goal is to build them to 8 frames (4 over 4 frames) to fill up their side of the resource hive. There should be plenty of time for that. The main hive has 3 or 4 good queen cells an entire super filled with honey and plenty of population. They should both be OK.
I'm never really "worried" about swarms. It's not great to lose part of a hive and a good queen, but the resulting queens have proven to be great the following year. It's all fine.
@@vinofarm I have seen it work. They used a cowbell and a hammer to strike the cowbell. Regular beat, a little too slow to dance to... Perhaps it only works if they are not en route to a final home.
Julie Enslow I could see it working, theoretically, if they were on their way out of the hive the first time. But each time I’ve tried it, they were airborne on their “second stage” flight. I don’t think it would work then.
I thought bee space was 5/16 to 3/8, why are bees still building underneath the foundation? I build my hives with 3/8 spacing all over. I don't have bees myself. Am I preventing proper bee traffic?
The lip on the bottom boards raises the bottom of the frames up off the floor. You do get some comb down there sometimes, but I think it's good for ventilation and also gives them space when (and if) they decide to make swarm cells. Those usually hang on the lower part of the frame.
Swarms are nothing to worry about. If your colony swarms, you get a brand new queen and a brood break. You may lose some honey production, but the colony will be fine.
For some of us that RUclips recommends this stuff, perhaps explains a few things....like define swarm and swarm cell. I have no idea why this was recommended... Resource hive?
He doesn’t explain this stuff anymore because it’s his... fourth? Fifth? Year of beekeeping and pretty much all of his viewers are those who started watching earlier on/went back and watched the first few seasons. I recommend you do the same (watch the first couple of seasons) because he explains things as he goes along and also it’s nice to watch him develop his system/setup over the years as he gains more experience
I've heard about it, tried it and it's never worked for me. If it does work, there is probably a critical timing to it. If you see them actually leaving the hive for the first time, it might be more effective. If they're already airborne headed to their final destination, it won't work. That's what I saw in this video.
I think back left needs a new name- they sound like the new kid on the block but they made it through winter so I think they are worthy of a name. Maybe something like Garnet? As I think shes a carneolian queen?
Well, the Back Left queen lived up to her name and LEFT. So I guess it was appropriate. If we get a successful re-queening in there, I'll try to come up with something new.
You know when part of your business is sold off and you've just finished re-organizing your business unit and team and stuff and then corporate comes in and restructures the entire organization? That must be what this feels like.
Ha ha... At least I didn't outsource them abroad. I'm trying to expand, but still keep the jobs in the beeyard!
I love the math formulas while you were working out if frankie swarmed or not
Also love how you talked through your thought process of what potentially what you could do and what you ought to do. Such a great insight into what is probably a very common problem for beekeepers
How do you open up hives and you don't get stung.
This has been a head-splitting bee math year. Every week I think "one more week and everything will be clear." As mud. Just posted an instagram of a possible laying worker problem, except there's still open brood and young queens often start out laying multiples and I don't SEE a queen, and I saw a queen cup 10 days go and that queen can't possibly be laying already and so on. Argh! Those floating math formulas hit the nail on the head.
@@mastermiketkd2617 that's where the smoke comes in, it makes them sleepy (as far as I'm aware that's what it does it makes them chill with you messing with the hive anyway)
@@mastermiketkd2617 the trick is to go slowly. First crack the lid just enough to puff smoke in. Wait a half minute to let the smoke do it's magic. Then open the hive. It's done in stages not all at once.
Amazing advice: do nothing! I follow it every day!
Yay! An update! :> I look forward to this more than you know
And you also learned you should mark your queens so you can know who is whom
Until the paint wears off!
C B Yes, the paint does wear off or get cleaned off by the attendants.. Sometimes it’s entirely gone within a year.
@C B if you buy Queen's through the mail or from a large queen breeder the paint serves three purposes.
1: It is easier to find the queen
2: Know the age of the queen
3: It's a vitality indicator. When the paint wears off the queen is likely running out of gas and needs to be replaced because commercial breed queens SUCK!
@C B I'm in CT so I use CT carniolan "mutts." Personally I've found every single queen I've had my bees raise has been better than the best queens I've purchased. If you already have bees you might want to look into rearing your own. It's not that hard.
@C B ah, yes that would make me think twice. Africanized drones fly faster than other drones (no joke) which helped promote their rapid spread...that would be an unpleasant surprise. "Open bee hive, firehose of bees come out, close bee hive, rethink rearing own queens"
The frankie monolog was absolutely wonderful. good job. I have 28 queens coming the 15th. its gonna be busy
Work has stunk this week, so a Vino Farm Bee Video (or any Vino Farm vid, really,) is perfect!
Years ago when I was training for a new high stress job, I was given some advice by an older fellow that I still follow today. The job was 90% monitoring and basic stuff, and 10% sheer panic.
The advice was, “When everything goes pear shaped, you can race around trying to save the situation and chance making things worse, or step back, roll a smoke (metaphorically), assess, then pick up the pieces and return things to normal.”
You have done the right thing by leaving the hives to sort themselves out and you can fix and adjust as the situation(s) become clear.
Great stuff James, thanks for sharing.
Watching you guys play with your bees makes me so jealous. I have to wear a full suit in the middle of summer. Cuz everytime I get stung I swell up a lot. Like whole leg or whole arm.
It’s been swarm season since May for me! Just when I think all is well, the back yard is full of bees. The last three were too high to get to,, but that’s ok. I’m at 10, in addition to a resource hive with both sides full. I don’t want to expand anymore, so adios girls! I think you did the right thing stepping back and letting the bees do what they do. I’ve had to make that decision too and it usually works out. That queen looked mated to me. She just needs time to start laying. Good luck with all the queens in the making! The math equations floating up while you were deciding your next move was brilliant. Love your videos! 🐝😊
Quality product here sir. Really enjoy the bee knowledge with entertaining banter. So cool. Thanks!
Yahoo new video to watch early Friday morning as I start my sourdough bread making.
9:23 had me rolling on the floor 😂😂
That math formula had me laughing so hard but I totally agree with what your doing! Cant wait to see what happens with the hives
I am beyond excited to see how this plays out!!!
Can’t wait for the next update🤗
Your innovations are amazing!!! 🙌🏻💗😲
Completely oblivious to beekeeping till I started watching a few of these videos, now I’m hooked!
Great vid! Thanks for sharing. The editing, especially with the formulas, was entertaining!
As usual, very informative and entertaining. Keep up the good work and looking forward to the updates next week
I really enjoyed your thought process of the Frankie hive! (editing was cute too lolol). As someone who doesn't take care of bees, nor have any knowledge really outside of watching bee keepers on RUclips, I do hope that your calculations are right! I think in the end you made the right choice and that the hive will fix itself :) Great video again!
4D Chess moves with bees. Love it.
Always have a capture box with Lure in it , high up near the apple trees and a Metal pan and rod nearby to bang near the box if you see a swarm flying. They will go towards the metal ringing sound.
Sorry you are left to ponder on Frankie. But you have 100% convinced me to mark my queens
Jim, this is an excellent 'think out loud' lesson in 'what do you do when' videos which is quite often left out of most. I will use it often to teach newbees. Thank you. I do join in other comments that another empty drawn frame would benefit the queens ability to lay instead of casting another swarm (pollen/honey bound). See you next week for the follow-up!
Great video! 12 days straight without any rain, 10 days above 90 degrees, feeding water and bee pro. Watching daily for swarming as bees are very active and clustering on outside of hive to fan themselves.
Start marking your Queens again ;)
New subscriber here! Your videos are really a bright spot in my day :) Thank you for this channel!
So many baby queens to come
I had my first colony swarm on me this season. I was curious about how you handled situations like this. Thanks for posting!
If there is no eggs in the box, and one queen I would not move anything ... I think you made the right move .
A video about the ‘queen farm’ of your buddy would be super interesting. I just wonder how he can have so much queens and what kind of business is that?. Anyway thanks a lot for your videos! I appreciate your hard work doing these. It is super fun and interesting to watch. Greetings from Europe
The queen farm is just a local bee breeder and supplier. I'll talk about him again if I decide to go get queens there.
GREAT video buddy! ...it is very useful to see the process behind the decision making... Love the video effects too... Please tell us what is going on with the stone building ;-)
yarrow on the left - super good plant ;)
Yes Agreed. Virgin Queen. That broken cell tells the tale. And its been at least 16 days since she emerged which explains lack of brood. There has been a full brood break with the swarming of old queen. You should be back in action in that hive by next week! Good Luck! BTW Every single time I have ever purchased queens (over the last 5 seasons) they let her lay, the brood emerges and they supercede her. I think they know the genetics just arent right for the area. They always make a new one.
Interesting. I've had about 50/50 luck with introduced queens surviving. You're right that they usually supercede her, so it's not a total loss.
WOW! HOW MANY HIVES DO YOU HAVE NOW??!! I remember not too long ago when you started with your first hive--congrats.
Another great video! I caught somebodys bees the other day in a swarm trap. The queen was marked with this years color (blue). I'll bee posting that video soon. Should have checked my trap sooner. Ended up with a mess lol.
Nice job. When you catch a swarm trying to leave and in the air, you can usually take a couple of objects that will clang loudly and beat them together and settle them back on a limb. It works more often than it doesn't, sometimes they'll settle up pretty high though. Sometimes walk away splits work great, other times not so much. I've had trouble with them two years in a row.
Great video Jim! I agree with your conclusion that the swarm seen is probably from Back Left. Your inspection of that hive does support that conclusion. And the other hive you checked - yeah I think you nailed that one too. That's a new queen, probably unmated but about to mate. So many drones in your hives and it looks like they are needed. Because if your hives are in this state I am guessing there are other hives within mating range that are also in this state. Hope so as you will need their drones and it would be nice if your drones got used up before fall when they will be kicked out. A week should be enough to get the queen you saw today mated and hopefully laying - but sometimes bee math says they may be slow to start laying after they finish mating. Makes sense to me - she has to develop eggs to a certain point before she can lay any. But that's only one to three days I think. Can anyone correct my bee math?
When every single split was made within one week and none of them are queen right yet, it has to be a timing/weather thing. I’ve had like 95% success on walk away splits up til now. I just need to give them more time. This weekend we’re getting a big storm, but I’ll check again after that passes.
@@vinofarm
I remember. That's why I think it likely there are more colonies in other apiaries nearby who have the same problem. Bad weather effects everyone.
@@vinofarm
Sounds right to me!
Great video, as usual. An added bonus is that there will probably be an update in a week or so.
Time to mark your queens!!!
Phrase of the week. “ LET IT PLAY OUT” 👍👍
Thank you great video
I love these videos I want to build up a bee farm one day 😭
With as many hives as you have YOU NEED to have SWARM-TRAPS setup. If as you suspect the swarm you saw were leaving the apple trees there is a good chance they’d been clustered in the apple trees for 1 or 2 days.
I catch a lot of swarms and maybe 20% will cluster then move on the same day, but most will remain clustered for 2 or 3 days until the scouts find a suitable new home. If you have few swarm traps in the apples trees they will happily take up residence in one of them. I’m in Adelaide, South Australia - winter here now -, but last season one of my hive swarmed and I watched them go and cluster in a tree in a neighbour’s back yard, two doors away; neighbours weren’t home, so I couldn’t get to them. They stayed clustered for 3 days, while some of their scouts were checking out the swarm trap in my back yard; came home the afternoon of 3rd day cluster was gone and swarm trap was full.
Another time, one afternoon, I saw a swarm move into my back yard from the north and clustered in one of my apricot trees, didn’t have time to shake them into a box because I was on my way out, so I set up an empty 10 frame hive close to them, next morning I watched scouts checking it out, then they all moved in, shortly after they all moved out; I figured wrong size box so I replace 10 frame box with 8 frame box; the following morning I watched them all break cluster and take up take up residence in box, I should’ve videoed them and posted it on RUclips.
I caught 3 other swarms in my back yard last season. Word must be out amongst bee community that my place is bee friendly because there are times when I can hear a swarm coming and I then watch them flying in from the east or north, while my hives are nice and settled. Other times I’ve watched my hives swarm; it’s like a waterfall of bees pouring out of the entrance and taking to the air with their characteristic swarming buzz: I love that sound, the sound of energized, excited bees.
Splitting in July. It can be done but don't make a habit out of it.
I had a swarm yesterday too.
Mine walked into an empty box with drawn frames.
Virgin queens run like jackrabbits. A fresh emerged queen is long but will shrink as she hardens up. DO NOT BE TEMPTED TO MARK THEM until mated and laying. A virgin in a hive is just another bee to the colony until she's mated. She fends for herself until then.
If you saw a virgin with a retinue it's not a virgin ok?
Now...a colony runs the queen around to slim her down for flight...swarm.
If you have a hive full of runny bees like it's the bee olympics...its about to go.
One day you open up.a hive and it spills out at you. You pull a frame and it's runny to where bees are dripping off like water. That's a swarm about to happen.
Next time you lose a swarm spray a box lid awith one spritz of swarm commander and put it up on a ladder or the roof with the rest if a hive. Spritz once at the entry. You may "find" it I do it a lot.
I think this means it’s getting critical that you start marking all your queens.
Loved the equation graphics part. lol
good video
Russians, frankie, back left... love the naming conventions... seriously. :)
Hi Vino farm am a big fan, I think although you made a split with few swom cells but should of made 3-4 split with one frame that have 1-2 swom cell bees on what ever that frame have in 5 nuc box, and when they come back mated in 2-3 weeks you can add more bee to it, you increase your chances of mated queens and recover your losses and make more, you doing a great job am learing a lot from you too , i enjoy your channel too.
Seems like summertime hives should be two boxes minimum then an excluder, unless you are trying to encourage new queens being made. The population explosion happens so fast that it seems to be easy to miss.
Spring looks like the biggest challenge, trying to balance warmth in the hive, room to store resources when they become available, room to start laying, but not too much room for the bees to maintain for hygienics and safety.
This year youtube is pretty packed with videos of people doing post-flow splits with all the bearding bees who blames them but...
Splits in a dearth is asking for trouble. You have to feed them and... oh my.
😅 Ah the joys of figuring out what the bees are doing or have already done. 🤔
Think like a bee. Be the bee.
I work with the rensonmethod every week i check my rensonchamber for swarmcells and remove them so they dont swarm and with the rensonmethod bees are living longer and less brood to take care for so you have more honey
Jim hope you don't mind me saying that if it was my hive I would take the frames with the queen cells and move to a narrow box and put a frame feeder in it and put that box on top of a strong hive separated by a double screen board (Snelgrove board, see Bob Binnie).
The Snelgrove board will allow heat to rise from the strong hive and keep the new thinly populated hive going.
Then put a new frame/s (drawn comb or foundation) in the old hive.
And of course I would catch that queen mark her and clip one wing and put her in a queen cage then shake all the bees on the ground and put an inclined board so that the bees would walk back in the hive to be with their queen. Then you would for sure stop a swarm.
Another great video. I love the editing when you're figuring it out. Fantastic! Are you using Final Cut or Premier?
Least on the positive side, though if you lost the swarm, is, least it is joining the wild, and you still have that hive since some bees are still in it, and making queens replace the one that left, with some bees. Just trying to think positive here. Sorry, this comment is two weeks late.
Have you considered putting out a few swarm traps with any of your empty equipment? That may help if you put them out during swarm season.
Yes. There’s one in the woods, but I could probably have more in other locations. I think seeing that first attempt show absolutely no success made me hesitant to put more effort into swarm traps. Or maybe I’m just lazy.
Even though the swarm trap is on edge of the woods bees prefer not to to go through woods at all to get to there hive.
Since they like the apple trees, that seems like a nice spot for swarm traps...they tend to swarm to the same area time and time again
@@bluzervic I would tend to agree. Perhaps a swarm trap in the apple trees would net success!
Queen issues can be so friken stressful >.< I recently replaced one (she was an emergency or supersedure queen) that was most likely lost during her mating flight. Came back after a week and didn't find any eggs until the very last frame of the hive. I was kinda freaking out more and more until that point heheh :) The reward though is seeing the new queen took over and knowing they will be alright :)
I know its a bit silly, but I'm kinda proud of my bees, they had a rough start (I'm a huge newbie at all this) but they're pulling through. I'm also trying to follow your example, sharing my mistakes (and successes) so others learn.
Your girls look really good, congrats! I remember how stressed I got about every little problem when I first started keeping bees, but over time you realize they are quite resilient. Good luck!
Yup. It’s stressful in the beginning. Especially when you only have one or two hives. Once you have a dozen, swarms are like... whatever.
Since you have several hives you might look into a Russian Scion to corral the swarms at arms reach (if they work). Can’t hurt to try.
It sure helps know what is going on when all established queens are marked.
I have the same thing happen to 3 hives and i just requeened a hive for the second time couple days ago all was good in the spring then all of a suden queenlees hives lots of people are haveing tthr samr isues this year
I believe it’s the 5G. It throws off their gps. A lot of ppl are having this problem. They’re (the scientists) discovering the issue...little too late.
@@cassandrapagan5717 You know, that's an interesting thought, LOL. You got to wonder. Hmmmm
I would love to see you try out a Buckfast, even if just in a resource hive!
They've been on my list to try for a while. I've never seen them available when I need a queen.
Your "Frankie" hive queen has no or little place to lay doesn't matter if she swarmed or not. If she is a new queen she too may swarm if she has no place to lay being pollen/honey bound.
I agree. He should have pulled some of the pollen frames and freeze them or give to a resource hive.
Frankie hive - check the swarm cells for pinprick holes (indicating the emerged queen has killed the queens in them) - if not, split the frames with the queen cells off to a nuc, and leave that queen in the existing hive?
Also, I think that queen cell has been torn down, not emerged - emerged cells look nice and neatly "decapitated" - that cell looks like it has been ripped down? But who knows ..... :)
many hives aren't queen right.... join the club. Just about everyone I know and myself had this issue this year. Lots of swarms due to a great winter.
A few swarm traps on the tree line would be handy.
You can't go wrong with lots more colony's.
8:40 I have already seen a vergin surrounded with bees like that. I highly think that's a virgin queen over there.
Bee math is real and intense 😂
Queen cell resource hive name suggestion, Nefertitia. Second T makes s h sound.
Are you in my Apiary? The rain screwed me up. Let’s go shopping 🛍
Ha. Love the math overlay. Lol'd
That swarm was from the UNO HIVE
Vino do you not have the time to peek into your bees once a week and make sure they aren’t swarming. This is what I do and I have had bees want to swarm but none have come to close. Also keep posting on Instagram it is fun to follow you there.
Look man... ive been waiting patiently for a while to see you go into the Russian hive. You can imagine my excitement when at the beginning of the video you teased me by mentioning the Russians. Then you didn’t do it. I know, I know... you didn’t actually SAY you were going into the russians, but you said it with your eyes. (Go back and watch the video again before you tell me I’m wrong.) Let me wrap this up by saying, and I don’t think I’m alone in this, we wanna see some Russian ladies! The new barn looks amazing by the way!
Might i suggest swarm traps in the apple trees just to see if the swarms find it and decide to stay there?
If the first Queen born and didn't kil the other cells you could find a swarm with more than one Queen or your hive could swarm more like 3 to 4 times
Hi Vino Farm, Just a quick question.
How long should you typically close up the entrance of the split for?
As I'm in Australia and planning to expand my hives when spring comes.
Thanks again,
Your hive appears to be pollen bound. Need to freeze a couple of those full bee-bread frames and save for January and give them some empty frames so she has room to lay.
I cannot believe how little you know about beekeeping!!!
The comment section is open, Bruce. Please tell us all how you would have done this differently.
Maybe a dozen swarm traps?
I just had my one split died out, either swarmed or absconded. However I will be splitting again Thursday, what method do you like, also do you have split videos??
Hi Vino Farm you mentioned Buckfast Bees, have you heard of Buckfast Tonic Wine? It's a real speciality in Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Buckfast bees were developed at the Buckfast Abbey. Same place they make the Tonic! (I've never tried either.)
@@vinofarm it's an acquired taste, I had a few bottles in my teenage years which was a long time ago. Stay safe and good luck from Northern Ireland.
I wonder how far away you'd have to place an empty hive from your bee yard for them to swarm into it, or if they'd swarm into an empty one placed inside your bee yard.
Hasn’t happened yet!
What about the Russian hive? They were on the possible swarm list, did you check them? Given the information on the video, I think Frankie swarmed and back left is going to swarm. Did you check for the queen in the Back Left hive? How about eggs and larva? Usually when they swarm they leave behind capped brood to become the nurse bees for the new queen. Frankie's capped brood looked like it was already emerging which could mean the swarm happened earlier than you might think. The Queen you saw could be a virgin or a newly mated queen about to start laying. Frankie hive also looked pollen bound. I loved the thinking it through equations, I do the same thing and when it's a really challenging situation I chart my observations on paper. I think the wonky weather this year has caused many queen issues, I know it has for me. Love your videos, thanks.
Back Left was definitely the swarm. Frankie was an earlier swarm I never noticed. I had not thought of the issue of being ‘pollen bound”. I need to go take some of that out and give her an empty frame.
In the back left hive @2:26/14:50, how heavy is the medium full of honey, you grunted?
They can weigh 50lbs when full. This one was probably close to that.
0:32 bye bye bees 🐝 👋 Isn’t that frustrating when you just miss them?
They will generally bivouac somewhere within a few hundred yards of the original hive while they hunt for a new home, although sometimes they may move to bivouac at a secondary location. It can take anywhere from a few hours to a few days to find the final location. They actually use waggle dancing on the surface of the swarm to debate new hive locations and once there is consensus, away they go. Bees are so amazing.
So I am a new-bee, I only have one hive. I think I've watched every one of your videos. So you took some frames from this hive that just swarmed... is there enough time left in this bee season for them to still catch up and over winter as a full-sized hive?
They went into a 4 frame box. (One side of a resource hive.) The goal is to build them to 8 frames (4 over 4 frames) to fill up their side of the resource hive. There should be plenty of time for that. The main hive has 3 or 4 good queen cells an entire super filled with honey and plenty of population. They should both be OK.
Are you worried about after swarms with the back left hive?
I'm never really "worried" about swarms. It's not great to lose part of a hive and a good queen, but the resulting queens have proven to be great the following year. It's all fine.
Jim....have you ever tried to "ting" down your swarms? My friend who keeps bees as well does it all the time and it seems to work well
Tried twice, failed twice. I am not convinced that's a thing.
@@vinofarm
I have seen it work. They used a cowbell and a hammer to strike the cowbell. Regular beat, a little too slow to dance to... Perhaps it only works if they are not en route to a final home.
Julie Enslow I could see it working, theoretically, if they were on their way out of the hive the first time. But each time I’ve tried it, they were airborne on their “second stage” flight. I don’t think it would work then.
@@vinofarm
You would know better than me who has no bees!
I thought bee space was 5/16 to 3/8, why are bees still building underneath the foundation? I build my hives with 3/8 spacing all over. I don't have bees myself. Am I preventing proper bee traffic?
The lip on the bottom boards raises the bottom of the frames up off the floor. You do get some comb down there sometimes, but I think it's good for ventilation and also gives them space when (and if) they decide to make swarm cells. Those usually hang on the lower part of the frame.
Pie equals 2 to da power of bhiveswarm
Good call. Leave it. They already swarmed.
I feel like people always talk about swarms thet captured but what about ones that don't get captured...how do you move forward?
Swarms are nothing to worry about. If your colony swarms, you get a brand new queen and a brood break. You may lose some honey production, but the colony will be fine.
For some of us that RUclips recommends this stuff, perhaps explains a few things....like define swarm and swarm cell.
I have no idea why this was recommended...
Resource hive?
He doesn’t explain this stuff anymore because it’s his... fourth? Fifth? Year of beekeeping and pretty much all of his viewers are those who started watching earlier on/went back and watched the first few seasons. I recommend you do the same (watch the first couple of seasons) because he explains things as he goes along and also it’s nice to watch him develop his system/setup over the years as he gains more experience
People say making loud noise like a metals rod hitting a bucket will make them land as they thought it is thundering during swarm.
I've heard about it, tried it and it's never worked for me. If it does work, there is probably a critical timing to it. If you see them actually leaving the hive for the first time, it might be more effective. If they're already airborne headed to their final destination, it won't work. That's what I saw in this video.
He tried it. Ineffective apparently.
How would you recommend I handle swarms if I only want 4 hives? Just let them swarm?
Split off nucs before they swarm and sell/give them away. Or just let them swarm.
I’ve learned in my fairly young experience that they make queens and all is right. Eventually.
I think back left needs a new name- they sound like the new kid on the block but they made it through winter so I think they are worthy of a name.
Maybe something like Garnet? As I think shes a carneolian queen?
Well, the Back Left queen lived up to her name and LEFT. So I guess it was appropriate. If we get a successful re-queening in there, I'll try to come up with something new.
They keep you on your toes, don't they?