AWESOME , I've finally watched enough of your videos from start to finish of single hive management.I'm doing it come spring ,breaking some doubles down and see how they do,I can't wait
The bees are speaking to you. You are listening. Nice spot where you point out how best to let'em sort things out with the supersedure. Probably nice to be back in the saddle..... ☺
Hello. Dave here from Washington state. Curious as to what your main nectar flow is. Ours is blackberry and white clover. I study your operation and I thank you for your information. Enjoy the day.
looking forward to next vid, always great info. when and what are your criteria for harvesting a box of honey, hopefully you can cover this in next vid so I can decide what I should look for. I am hobby beek in southern QC with 3 honey producing hives and ~8 new startups. Experimenting with some new Homemade AZ hives , no heavy lifting.
Our main flows begin in Mid April with dandelion and end the first week or second week of June. We don't have anything until a light flow in late August and some little bit in the fall. I can't manage my hives like you do (unfortunately) because it seems you have a long nectar flow in through the fall.. Am I correct assuming you have flows basically throughout the season?
Thanks for posting these videos. I keep three hives and the bees always seem to backfill the cells in the brood boxes, even when there is plenty of space in the supers. What do I need to do to get the bees not to backfill and clog the brood box? I am open to suggestions from all.
This year the only one of my 5 hives that produced full supers was one with a top entrance, which maybe encourages returning foragers to deposit their load in the space nearest the arrival point, i.e. the supers.
Canadian Bee Keeper is probably too busy this time of year to come here and answer all questions. This video is older but if anyone can answer....I would love to know..."how could you tell a queen is virgin"?
It would seem, once you add supers, going through each hive frame by frame is no longer feasible? From that point to removal of all supers, only spot checking a few hives?
Hi Ian, thanks for the great insights. Do you ever have an issue with colonies that are slow in capping cells over ? If so, do you have any manipulation you can suggest to get them to hurry it up ? Thanks again.
Hi Ian, do you notice that with a hive that has multiple honey supers on it, in the first super above the excluder, in many cases, the middle 3-4 frames never get filled with honey and are pretty much bone dry (except for the upper corners), as if the bees look at that area as part of the brood nest, even though the queen can't cross the excluder to lay?
john mizak Yes, occasionally if that queen is excessively dominant and the hive has ample space uptop. I try to manage them a bit tighter so that all space is used
I run a single deep brood nest just like you do, forgot to mention that earlier. Maybe I need to tighten things up by not giving new supers too quickly, but like you, I don't want to leave honey in the field so I try to keep way ahead of them. Thanks for the reply!
Thanks for the reply Ian. I'm really trying to understand whether next week corresponds to the end of the honey flow-period or 5-boxes high is as high as you want to go before harvesting from a management point of view.
Hi Ion, I had the same situation where supersede the queen before two weeks and the virgin queen did not make it, so the hive is queen less, What should I do with this hive? Re-queen or just moves the bees to other hives? my first year and have no experience!
Awesome video! Are the majority of your frames already drawn out from previous seasons or are the bees quick to draw out new comb during a heavy honey flow? Does it reduce your honey crop if the bees are having to draw new comb? Cheers Liam!
Liam Presswood primarily I use comb from last years. I have quite the inventory built up. I will place one or two foundation per box to build out more if needed
Ian, when supering do you always add an empty to the top or put the empty directly above the brood and move the existing super on top to get them to move thru the new super?
Ian Great video do the workers protect the replacement cell`s ? why isn't the existing Queen killing the queens in the cell`s ? I understand if she is in swarm mode Can you explain how that works ? I see that kind of stuff & just want to fix it some how definatly dont have the calm you do !
Brad K Kimberlin A colony under supercedure mode will not tear down cells unless that queen has the spunk to do so. In many ways, the will of the colony is what I leave alone.
If the colony is trying to supercede their queen, they will try to protect the new cells to prevent the old queen from destroying them, however, I'm sure that occasionally the old queen is successful at killing the queens in the cells.
Do you use deep frames for everything? Also what kind of farm crop do you guys produce up there that the bees can pull nectar from. Thanks from delaware
Hi Ian. Your beekeeping videos are fantastic. You have great teaching instincts IMHO! Appreciate what you do. Thanks!
Great video - keep em coming really enjoying your content,stright to the point and very informative, thanks from New Zealand
Your videos continue to be both interesting and extremely informative. Thank you.
AWESOME , I've finally watched enough of your videos from start to finish of single hive management.I'm doing it come spring ,breaking some doubles down and see how they do,I can't wait
I finally understand the process and how to manage them thanks to Ian sharing his knowledge with us.Thanks Ian
Another Kiwi bee-keeper who appreciates your content
Wow amazing! So cool to find that cell at the end. And knowing what it means
Ahhh...beeeesss....my world is perfect again...well done!
The bees are speaking to you.
You are listening.
Nice spot where you point out how best to let'em sort things out with the supersedure.
Probably nice to be back in the saddle.....
☺
Such excellent info.. really enjoying learning from a pro!
Can you do a video on how you build out comb from foundation for honey storage?
Hello. Dave here from Washington state. Curious as to what your main nectar flow is. Ours is blackberry and white clover. I study your operation and I thank you for your information. Enjoy the day.
Would there be any benefit to having 2 brood boxes?
looking forward to next vid, always great info. when and what are your criteria for harvesting a box of honey, hopefully you can cover this in next vid so I can decide what I should look for. I am hobby beek in southern QC with 3 honey producing hives and ~8 new startups. Experimenting with some new Homemade AZ hives , no heavy lifting.
It would be a great advantage if there were a superior entering hole. Also good ventilation provided.
Our main flows begin in Mid April with dandelion and end the first week or second week of June. We don't have anything until a light flow in late August and some little bit in the fall.
I can't manage my hives like you do (unfortunately) because it seems you have a long nectar flow in through the fall.. Am I correct assuming you have flows basically throughout the season?
Thanks for posting these videos. I keep three hives and the bees always seem to backfill the cells in the brood boxes, even when there is plenty of space in the supers. What do I need to do to get the bees not to backfill and clog the brood box? I am open to suggestions from all.
This year the only one of my 5 hives that produced full supers was one with a top entrance, which maybe encourages returning foragers to deposit their load in the space nearest the arrival point, i.e. the supers.
Canadian Bee Keeper is probably too busy this time of year to come here and answer all questions. This video is older but if anyone can answer....I would love to know..."how could you tell a queen is virgin"?
so how often do you check the brood box when your going round your yards for swarming etc
It would seem, once you add supers, going through each hive frame by frame is no longer feasible? From that point to removal of all supers, only spot checking a few hives?
Hi, my question is why do you keep the boxes with 9 frames instead of 10 ? Thank you
Hi Ian, thanks for the great insights. Do you ever have an issue with colonies that are slow in capping cells over ? If so, do you have any manipulation you can suggest to get them to hurry it up ? Thanks again.
Patrick Walsh tighten them ip
Thank you.
how would you be able to tell if they were trying to swarm just by looking at the bottom ?
How are the Saskatchewan queens doing? Thinking of getting a few next year
justinmk79
This is the Saskatraz yard
a Canadian Beekeeper’s Blog thanks. I would say they are good.
Why you don't use excluders with entrance or extra entrance between 2nd and 3rd super?
Looking forward to some of yours swarm trap videos. 😀
Hi Ian, do you notice that with a hive that has multiple honey supers on it, in the first super above the excluder, in many cases, the middle 3-4 frames never get filled with honey and are pretty much bone dry (except for the upper corners), as if the bees look at that area as part of the brood nest, even though the queen can't cross the excluder to lay?
john mizak
Yes, occasionally if that queen is excessively dominant and the hive has ample space uptop.
I try to manage them a bit tighter so that all space is used
I run a single deep brood nest just like you do, forgot to mention that earlier. Maybe I need to tighten things up by not giving new supers too quickly, but like you, I don't want to leave honey in the field so I try to keep way ahead of them. Thanks for the reply!
So nine frames produce the same or more than ten?
Looking good! What is driving you to start extraction now, rather than waiting for fuller boxes? Do you have a second crop in mind?
Jason Elliott extraction has been projected a week from Thor time I videoed this, projecting full boxes
Thanks for the reply Ian. I'm really trying to understand whether next week corresponds to the end of the honey flow-period or 5-boxes high is as high as you want to go before harvesting from a management point of view.
Jason Elliott
Yes, this stack relates to timeline to when I start pulling. Hopefully I get a second shot at it aswell
So, your brood chamber is just a single box if I seen this right?
Single brood box and then queen excluder and then supers.
J & B Homeliving
That’s the final preparation yes
Thank you
Hi Ion, I had the same situation where supersede the queen before two weeks and the virgin queen did not make it, so the hive is queen less, What should I do with this hive? Re-queen or just moves the bees to other hives? my first year and have no experience!
Ardi Ahmeti
If you have time, get a Queen going
Thanks
Awesome video!
Are the majority of your frames already drawn out from previous seasons or are the bees quick to draw out new comb during a heavy honey flow? Does it reduce your honey crop if the bees are having to draw new comb?
Cheers Liam!
Liam Presswood primarily I use comb from last years. I have quite the inventory built up. I will place one or two foundation per box to build out more if needed
a Canadian Beekeeper’s Blog thanks for the reply. Do you store extracted supers wet or dry and Indoors or outdoors?
Liam Presswood wet indoors
Ian, when supering do you always add an empty to the top or put the empty directly above the brood and move the existing super on top to get them to move thru the new super?
Michael Adamson top supering always
Amazing honey crop!. I hope mine get half that, I would jump for joy.
Hi Jeff Brad from South Central you getting any honey production started yet ?
Ian
Great video do the workers protect the replacement cell`s ? why isn't the existing Queen killing the queens in the cell`s ? I understand if she is in swarm mode Can you explain
how that works ? I see that kind of stuff & just want to fix it some how definatly dont have the calm you do !
Brad K Kimberlin
A colony under supercedure mode will not tear down cells unless that queen has the spunk to do so.
In many ways, the will of the colony is what I leave alone.
Brad K Kimberlin
But I still try to manipulate that will to swarm out through strategies you’ve seen throughout the series of videos I’ve provided
Thank`s Iv gone back & rewatched your stuff & put it into practice as my friend say`s ( its all good till its not ! )
If the colony is trying to supercede their queen, they will try to protect the new cells to prevent the old queen from destroying them, however, I'm sure that occasionally the old queen is successful at killing the queens in the cells.
Do you use deep frames for everything? Also what kind of farm crop do you guys produce up there that the bees can pull nectar from. Thanks from delaware
Why you don't use excluders with entrance or extra entrance between 2nd and 3rd super?