This method really works. I've used it successfully for three years. Less inspections and effort, more production, easy reproduction. Last year I converted back in order to use queen excluders for the flow hive and it was miserable. So I'm going back to the rose method.
I am a treatment free beekeeper here in Maryland USA...I have been using all deep supers for all my hives. Each colony goes to as many as 6 deeps each. I add 1 deep as needed
Very good points, There is nothing in nature that is not complex. But then I guess it all seams very simple when you try to live in harmony with it. Thanks David.
For sure it is also a good way to go about it. In fact Tim even mentions it. But there was no space to say it all in this video. I personally like the bee management method he is referring to. Makes a lot of sense. Cheers David.
I have been using this method for the last 2 yrs....Its great! The frames are fairly easy to make if you are that way inclined. We need to look after these dear creatures the best we can. Love the web site David, you are an inspiration......Cheers Robin
Wow! I've spent about two weeks researching beekeeping so far, and this single, twelve-minute video taught me more than anything else I have found. Thank you SO much!
Having all of the same frames size and hive body size is great. I will try this method with my deep hive bodies until I go to all mediums. Great video.
I love the one size design ive always wanted a simple easy exchangeable design and love the natural take on it and beautiful house in the back ground and what a great garden for bees
Hey how are you. It is in that he does not restrict the laying of the queen. This allows for a massive increase of the number of worker bees. Larger colonies means more divisions (more colonies) and of course more honey. He also cleans out a hive every 2 years. As in melts all the wax down. This insures a very slim chance of most brood diseases developing into any serous problem. As for the house I will have to ask him, but I know he is planning to make some youtube videos soon. David. .
Nice video, clear explanation. While I am not a big fan of frame hives, I like Tim's method much better than the standard National/Lang approach. I would not want to lift too many of those boxes full of honey, though!
Nice video, very well put together I think. I've really been debating on how to setup some new hives this spring and I think I just found the answer I was looking for. If I can remember I'll have to post a video response of what my idea looks like later this summer. Thanks for posting!!
You can, I myself have done it. The only drawback is the weight and possibly not spotting queen cells. The thing is with Tim's boxes they are the right depth. You could use suppers but then you have many more boxes to go through. When inspecting the hive for queen cells you can almost look to the center. From above and below. This means you speed up swarm checking. Cells you might miss are supercedure cells. If you are strong then National brood is fine. Or a mixture of suppers and brood boxes.
I really like what I saw. Not ready to switch over yet. But will start using the logic behind it with standard Langsroth hives. It does make sense that bees like to build brood up to down. The exact opposite of how we do it.
+Encinitas Bee Company I currently use this method with Langsroth hive double deeps(brood boxes). Works perfectly but I must say each box can weight up to 40Kgs so unless you are up for the clean and jerk, switch to smaller frames.
Thank you for those insights, it sounds easy when it is explained simply, and it felt like being in the living hives with the kids playing around. I saw the "hanging Indian Kerala method" too, and it looks obvious that many diversity and styles are thriving depending of the nature of the environment. Blessing bees that are willing to give away their surplus for the good care they receive...
To answer your question, Hives are always put on a crate or blocks to stop the wet from rotting the wood. The only pests we have are rats, mice and wasps. Add a mouse guards before winter sets in, around the beginning of Autumn. At the same time you reduce entrances, against wasps. The Rats can't or often wont bother with hives that are in good condition. Usually we have a problem with them if the hive was to close to the ground, as in almost touching, or if the wood itself was starting to rot.
Hi Tim, have a prime swarm in a commercial, using starter strips and foundation in the BB and just starter strips in a super, amazing how much they have built in just ten days, will be running rose hives too as my order finally came, have two cast swarms in them at the moment
Good point, You are talking about if the queen goes up wiles you take of the honey. This does not happen as the queen will go down with the opening of the crown board and smocking. Usually she is to be found on the brood in any case. Is that what you meant. David.
Hi I like your house in the background that distracted me while learning about the beekeeping you do .I find beekeeping to be very difficult to manage, because I live in close quarters with other apartments in the area other wise very interesting hobby .
Cheers Nope the queen actually can lay up to her full potential The way it works with the brood nest is that it rises upwards till the beginning of summer. Then the brood area shrinks and goes downwards leaving honey above the nest.This then become the honey suppers. The hatching of the large amounts of brood at the onset of summer is then used by the colony in the form of foragers.These then collect all the honey. Of course there are lots of workers before the summer to build comb. Cheers David
The Tim Rowe book for kids is being sold at the Waterville Craft Market, Waterville. I am using the Rose Hive method having completed my first year of beekeeping and I am happy with it so far. Probably important to have at least one national brood box in the beginning if you are buying a nuc from a conventional nuc seller (as I did). This year I have come to learn that native black bees have a distinct brood pattern which is important to recognize. We still have so much more to learn.
Hey that is interesting Thanks for letting us know ;) I myself came across an author from the 1930. In his book he also describes this method. His name was J. A. Lawson When did Lusby come up with it. Would be nice to know. I mentioned this to Tim a few years back and he did not know that it was developed before. What he has created though is a hive box that is the optimum size for this system of keeping bees. As far as I know all others are to shallow or to deep. Nice website ;) Cheers David.
Thanks for posting can appreciate the use of same size boxes as it simplifies management. A standard langstroth 10 frame box of honey is quite heavy such that I have gone to 8 frame boxes; I don't want to imagine a 12 frame box full of honey may be what 70lbs+...
Agree. Basically, this is a bigger and heavier Warre hive - a good and alternative option. 12 filled frames even if a medium are still a mite heavy. Nothing about reversing the two original hive boxes in the spring. I would NOT put an empty cold super between the two. Reverse and put the third on the top, IF needed.
Gentlemen, I have been taught over and over *never* to split the brood nest, and yet that very practice is at the heart of your method. Is there no problem with splitting the nest and chilling the bees? And when you put that new box in the middle of the brood nest, is it already filled with drawn foundation or do you let the bees build new??
You do hear it a lot. Never is a miss understood practice. You should never split the brood nest if there is not enough bees to cover the lot. A strongish colony is no problem in my experience.
I used this decades ago with a deep and a shallow. Then put a fresh shallow under the first shallow. So his method is not that different to what I've used. And yes. It does work very well. Also I would put foundation deeps in the middle of the bottom box. I used the side frames to feed new hives I had split off older hives.
So I watched all three of the video so enjoyed them. So I still wondering about mites etc that can hit a hive what do you do or have you had problem with that if not why? Also the feeding of you bee's. Do you feed them if not why. thank you
Love this concept of the Rose Boxes. Where is the entrance in these boxes? On the upper or at the lower end of the box? would it matter where of these two it was? Oh, I just realized it may not be on the boxes at all, right? So the entrance is at the bottom level of the stack in the base unit? Did I get that right?
I listen close to you, but to answer your question Why would you restrict the queen to one box?? Because i want to keep all brood to one box and keep the queen busy in that box, this allows no brood in any other boxes or pollen also. I find very little pollen and usually no brood in the supers above. That said i do use 2 boxes untill a week before the flow then shake down the second box to the first. This moves the queen down plus i add a excluder to the bottom box. Now as the brood hatches in the second box they back fill with honey now. The queen keeps laying in the bottom i keep adding in boxes as needed for the honey
great video and God bless you i don't know if a can ask a question here for Tim but am going to. If i'm going to use One-Size-Box for example if i have 4 One size box one on one in Summer should i take one off in Winter or should a let just like it was on summer
Course you are right, this method is as old as beekeeping. Tim has a different size brood/super box. An in between box that is big enough for the brood and small enough to lift for honey. As you said it works real well with brood and a half. But also double brood or only suppers. It is that the queen gets new laying space that makes the colony explode so fast. This is what she would obviously like if she can get it. Which tells me she does not get enough laying space in a single brood.
Lots of lovely guidance here. Many thanks. Lots of stuff to take in. A little confused. Would more drones than normal mean less worker/drone ratio=less honey? Without the queen excluder would the bees naturally separate the egg laying area (lower broods?) from the nectar storage area (higher broods?). Would the gaps between the smaller frames stop the queen moving about and laying willy nilly.?
It is better for the bees trust me! Less diseases and in nature bees can swarm and start afresh once the old colony dwindles the wax moth comes and eats all the comb. This then prevents the comb getting to old.
I am interested in this method but don't understand how you can do this stuff except in good weather with a strong colony and if you have drawn comb. If you stick empty boxes to split the brood then surely it will chill the brood?
Thanks for your video, I love the house and garden in the background! Any chance of a video on that...? I haven't looked at Tim's web site yet, (wiil do shortly) is his method caring for bee's different from other methods? I don't know too much about bees, but would like too! I hope to find a Bee Club where I live, not much luck so far.
Ah somehow I posted it wrong :) It was rather warm that day for Ireland. Man I went through all the footage and it is funny. Just making the other movie, should be interesting. Cheers David.
I am a first year beekeeper in the United States. I was taught/told to just use all medium boxes. Its easier to not have differing size frames and boxes ( you mention this too!). Also its my understanding that queen excluders damage thee worker bees as they squeeze through it. I was taught that even a VERY healthy queen would only be able to keep up with laying in 2 boxes. Do you have any hard data on the efficiency of this method? Namaste.
Hard evidence yes - it works every year without any problems. Because Tim has done this with over 100 hives he created unbeknownst to him a scientific trial by having that many replicates. They all work. I also have been doing this method for more than ten years, but using brood boxes and I have never had any problems.
Also a queen can lay more if she has the room to lay in. Most of the time she will naturally at the hight of the season, not lay more than two brood boxes, unless you split the nest and give a box of empty drawn out comb in between. Then she will lay all those frames up with a week or so. Check out the tallest colony in the world video and you will see it for yourself.
I had a look at your channel and subscribed to get your videos ;) I do have a workwithnature Facebook page. Must meet up there and talk some bees hey. Thanks for letting me know. Cheers David.
morning Tim this is Larry from the states again about the frame size are they custom made frames or are they sold at suppliers thanks for the great videos
With this method, would it be possible to accidentally move your queen to another hive by mistake, unless you inspect all the frames when moving boxes.
Meiner Meinung nach ist dieser Imker, ein sehr guter Imker! Und werde es auch so machen! Was mich neuerdings beschäftige ist die dass nach der Waben Ordnung nach dem Y was ich auch bei meinen Bienen festdellen musste, weil ich Naturwaben bau habe. Das Y ist immer an der Außenseite von der Wabe, von der Mitte ausgehen in der Zelle zu erkennen. Wenn die Waben so geordnet sind dann dass soll es weniger schwärmen oder gar nicht! Damit Das Bienen Volk keine Varroaprobleme bekommt sollen nur kleine Zellen 4,9 verwandt werden auch dazu, dass es mit der Varroa besser zurecht kommt, es soll sogar keine Behandlung Nothwendig sein gegen die Varroa, laut dem Autor. Aber ich habe rotztem behandelt, es sind auch Varroa Milben gefallen, aber nicht so viele wie sonst.
Many do. It is all in the way of how you chose to move the boxes around and the depth of your boxes. This is because bees mostly put their honey stores up to the top of the hive. Well they actually put it all around the brood-nest, that is kinda like an egg on its side in shape. They lean towards having the stores on top though. Probably because that is what we give them. So if you stick lots of boxes on, that is where your honey will end up. Now someone came up with the idea, based on what they were doing at the time. Namely not giving their colony adequate space. This was a follow on from the skep, by starting keeping bees in wooden boxes. So they then devised a way to keep the queen out of the honey stores - by using the queen excluder, as this they felt did not ruin their supers (honey boxes). There are several reasons some beekeepers may not wish to have the queen in the suppers. Every time a queen lays an egg in a cell the cell gets a minutely thin coating left behind inside the cell wall by the larvae spinning its cocoon. So each cell this happens to can get that little bit smaller each time. Some say you might get less honey that way. I never noticed. Also cell uncapping in the honey processing later can become a little bit more difficult. That is true if you are using a knife and not a comb roller. The main point is that if you have brood in the honey harvest at the same time, it is not great. This is mostly only a problem with honey that chrysalises fast, as you might need to take an entire supper off and then there may still be brood in it. Otherwise you are always better of to wait in till the end of the honey flow, when the brood reduces in size and the queen would not be laying in the suppers anyway. You can always swap some frames around if they are the same size and then you can give the colony back its brood that way. But with all things there are always ways around anything. I find the benefits of having no queen excluder way outweigh the above mentioned reasons. For one you get way more expansion of colony, less swarming and more bees and therefore more honey. Also if you keep on to the same super frames year after year it incorages diseases. Way better to let the bees draw out more fresh wax and sell what you do not need. Just check out the other two videos to see what I mean. Beekeeping - How to make lots more Bees - Using the Rose Hive Tallest & Strongest Bee Hives or Colonies In the World / Using the Rose Hive Also it is good to mention that you could keep bees in supers only or in brood-boxes only if that is what you wish. The rose hive Tim does in his home work-shed are in depth between the national super and national brood. Ideal for this method of beekeeping.
I like this..it's basically what I do... but a queen won't last as long and you can really grow bees.... however this will grow bees not as much honey...that's why not all people do this..my triple deep Langstroth go into winter with 200 lbs of honey so you still get about 60 or 70 lbs of excess honey..my Italians burn about 130 lbs of mostly Fall honey overwinter, in a triple deep Langstroth
Very cool vid I really like his house is there a email to get ahold of him I tried the email on this vid but did not work. I would like to find out how he did his roof or if you could do a vid on it would be even cooler.
Good question. But not really, just later in the year. It has been my expirince that a coloney will always swarm. Many books say that some do not swarm every year. Perhaps this is true with some strains. But our Irish bees almost always want to swarm. This is regardles of how much room they have or if the queen is only one year old. David.
Work With Nature I find all healthy, robust colonies want to swarm...it is their way after all. The big challenge for me has been: how do you grow the colony well to get a big colony to meet the local nectar flow in late June, but also prevent swarming, which undoes all your good work!
The artificial swarm is one way. Tim might do it differently. But if you think about it. This method gets the queen laying and gives space to the bees which helps with the prevention of swarming. You are right, most colonies will want to swarm no matter what you do and that is great in my books. But as the queen is allowed to lay more, she really builds up. If you stay ahead of her and give the colony room you will get less swarming but more foragers. Most people in my own experience do not give the queen enough room to lay. One national is just not adequate for even Irish bees, witch are suppose to be not very good at getting big. In the third video you will see this is not the case as these where Irish all bees. I have also found this to be true keeping bees in Ireland for the past 12 years. The swarming issue, You are right it is the big challenge for all of us. It is of course possible to keep most of the colony intact by taking out the queen when they make queen cells and putting her in a nuke box. Then let them go through the cycle and if they make a new queen then all is well. If they don't unite the old queen with the main colony. If you wish to make many more colonies then great to. As your colonies will have drawn out lots of frames for your future start ups. The hard part is getting a nuke to draw out frames. It just is so slow because lack of foragers. Bees are so important and I know it is your way of thinking too. So we need to have strong healthy bees, but we also need numbers to have success and all without feeding a drop of sugar. Hope that makes sense. Best wishes David.
I like this method and will try it out with my hives, but I think it is not as simple as portrayed in this video. It seems people leave comments here that are not answered, and I wonder why.
In fact, urticaria is a result from your body's immune system deficit. For that reason, in order to put a permanent stop to urticaria, you have to heal your immune system first.
Hey now worries. Bees are not an easy hobby. Lots does go wrong. But watch the three videos and try it out. You will see much more improvement. The main points are. Split the brood using a new brood chamber only when there are plenty of bees. The queen will lay lots more young then. Dont cram them into a to small a space and don't use a queen excluder. Thanks for your honesty. Best wishes David.
Great video, David, and as mentioned by others seeing that house it would be interesting to see more of that and the garden. Cheers, Henrik. PS; the link to Tim's homepage is missing "bee" - (rosebeehives/dot/com)
Hi freakygeaktwo ;) There is another video coming soon with the bees and dividing a colony. I must say Tim has it nicely worked out. The spiting is done really well. There will be a bit of humor in it too. Take care David.
+INVISIBLE SUN The boxes are called supers. Both the brood and honey boxes are called such. The name super is pretty simple. Super means above(basic definition) and that is where the name comes from, so basically it is a box you put above another box.
This method really works. I've used it successfully for three years. Less inspections and effort, more production, easy reproduction. Last year I converted back in order to use queen excluders for the flow hive and it was miserable. So I'm going back to the rose method.
I am a treatment free beekeeper here in Maryland USA...I have been using all deep supers for all my hives. Each colony goes to as many as 6 deeps each. I add 1 deep as needed
Very good points,
There is nothing in nature that is not complex. But then I guess it all seams very simple when you try to live in harmony with it.
Thanks David.
For sure it is also a good way to go about it. In fact Tim even mentions it. But there was no space to say it all in this video. I personally like the bee management method he is referring to. Makes a lot of sense.
Cheers David.
I have been using this method for the last 2 yrs....Its great! The frames are fairly easy to make if you are that way inclined. We need to look after these dear creatures the best we can. Love the web site David, you are an inspiration......Cheers Robin
I know him, from youtube. I know Sandra too. They are wonderful and resourceful, love their videos
Wow! I've spent about two weeks researching beekeeping so far, and this single, twelve-minute video taught me more than anything else I have found. Thank you SO much!
Having all of the same frames size and hive body size is great.
I will try this method with my deep hive bodies until I go to all mediums. Great video.
I love the one size design ive always wanted a simple easy exchangeable design and love the natural take on it and beautiful house in the back ground and what a great garden for bees
Hey how are you.
It is in that he does not restrict the laying of the queen. This allows for a massive increase of the number of worker bees. Larger colonies means more divisions (more colonies) and of course more honey. He also cleans out a hive every 2 years. As in melts all the wax down. This insures a very slim chance of most brood diseases developing into any serous problem. As for the house I will have to ask him, but I know he is planning to make some youtube videos soon.
David. .
Nice video, clear explanation. While I am not a big fan of frame hives, I like Tim's method much better than the standard National/Lang approach. I would not want to lift too many of those boxes full of honey, though!
Nice video, very well put together I think. I've really been debating on how to setup some new hives this spring and I think I just found the answer I was looking for. If I can remember I'll have to post a video response of what my idea looks like later this summer. Thanks for posting!!
Love this house in the background :D
You can, I myself have done it. The only drawback is the weight and possibly not spotting queen cells. The thing is with Tim's boxes they are the right depth. You could use suppers but then you have many more boxes to go through. When inspecting the hive for queen cells you can almost look to the center. From above and below. This means you speed up swarm checking. Cells you might miss are supercedure cells. If you are strong then National brood is fine. Or a mixture of suppers and brood boxes.
I very much enjoyed this video, thank you for posting. The logic behind this system makes very good sense.
I really like what I saw. Not ready to switch over yet. But will start using the logic behind it with standard Langsroth hives. It does make sense that bees like to build brood up to down. The exact opposite of how we do it.
+Encinitas Bee Company I currently use this method with Langsroth hive double deeps(brood boxes). Works perfectly but I must say each box can weight up to 40Kgs so unless you are up for the clean and jerk, switch to smaller frames.
Thanks for your video, I like your method of inserting boxes in between the existing brood. Thanks again.
Thank you for those insights, it sounds easy when it is explained simply, and it felt like being in the living hives with the kids playing around. I saw the "hanging Indian Kerala method" too, and it looks obvious that many diversity and styles are thriving depending of the nature of the environment. Blessing bees that are willing to give away their surplus for the good care they receive...
To answer your question, Hives are always put on a crate or blocks to stop the wet from rotting the wood. The only pests we have are rats, mice and wasps. Add a mouse guards before winter sets in, around the beginning of Autumn. At the same time you reduce entrances, against wasps. The Rats can't or often wont bother with hives that are in good condition. Usually we have a problem with them if the hive was to close to the ground, as in almost touching, or if the wood itself was starting to rot.
Hi Tim, have a prime swarm in a commercial, using starter strips and foundation in the BB and just starter strips in a super, amazing how much they have built in just ten days, will be running rose hives too as my order finally came, have two cast swarms in them at the moment
Good point,
You are talking about if the queen goes up wiles you take of the honey. This does not happen as the queen will go down with the opening of the crown board and smocking. Usually she is to be found on the brood in any case. Is that what you meant. David.
Same here very interesting video would love to see more on the beautiful house.
Hi I like your house in the background that distracted me while learning about the beekeeping you do .I find beekeeping to be very difficult to manage, because I live in close quarters with other apartments in the area other wise very interesting hobby .
Checkin out your Bee's playlist tonight. Thanks for doing these videos.
No prob :)
Have a great day!
Cheers
Nope the queen actually can lay up to her full potential The way it works with the brood nest is that it rises upwards till the beginning of summer. Then the brood area shrinks and goes downwards leaving honey above the nest.This then become the honey suppers. The hatching of the large amounts of brood at the onset of summer is then used by the colony in the form of foragers.These then collect all the honey. Of course there are lots of workers before the summer to build comb.
Cheers David
The Tim Rowe book for kids is being sold at the Waterville Craft Market, Waterville. I am using the Rose Hive method having completed my first year of beekeeping and I am happy with it so far. Probably important to have at least one national brood box in the beginning if you are buying a nuc from a conventional nuc seller (as I did).
This year I have come to learn that native black bees have a distinct brood pattern which is important to recognize. We still have so much more to learn.
Nice music at the beginning. Great video too!
Hey that is interesting Thanks for letting us know ;)
I myself came across an author from the 1930. In his book he also describes this method.
His name was J. A. Lawson When did Lusby come up with it. Would be nice to know.
I mentioned this to Tim a few years back and he did not know that it was developed before. What he has created though is a hive box that is the optimum size for this system of keeping bees. As far as I know all others are to shallow or to deep.
Nice website ;)
Cheers David.
Thanks for posting can appreciate the use of same size boxes as it simplifies management. A standard langstroth 10 frame box of honey is quite heavy such that I have gone to 8 frame boxes; I don't want to imagine a 12 frame box full of honey may be what 70lbs+...
Agree. Basically, this is a bigger and heavier Warre hive - a good and alternative option. 12 filled frames even if a medium are still a mite heavy. Nothing about reversing the two original hive boxes in the spring. I would NOT put an empty cold super between the two. Reverse and put the third on the top, IF needed.
will there be another video on his house ? and perhaps a look at a working rose beehive ? thanks for sharing.
Gentlemen, I have been taught over and over *never* to split the brood nest, and yet that very practice is at the heart of your method. Is there no problem with splitting the nest and chilling the bees? And when you put that new box in the middle of the brood nest, is it already filled with drawn foundation or do you let the bees build new??
You do hear it a lot. Never is a miss understood practice. You should never split the brood nest if there is not enough bees to cover the lot. A strongish colony is no problem in my experience.
+Westernwilson My question exactly
That would work very well. I my self have been using National brood in this way. But I have to admit they are way to heavy.
Cheers hey.
David.
I used this decades ago with a deep and a shallow. Then put a fresh shallow under the first shallow. So his method is not that different to what I've used. And yes. It does work very well. Also I would put foundation deeps in the middle of the bottom box. I used the side frames to feed new hives I had split off older hives.
That is nice of you to say. I will let Tim know :)
Many thanks. Things are now much clearer. Really clever thinking.
Nice house and beautiful garden.
great content and nice attitude. very unpretentious! Great
Looks like a great idea, can you create the same system just by using National brood chambers?
So I watched all three of the video so enjoyed them. So I still wondering about mites etc that can hit a hive what do you do or have you had problem with that if not why? Also the feeding of you bee's. Do you feed them if not why. thank you
FOREST GARDEN OF FLORA SPECIES + HEALTHY SOIL BIOMASS = NO DISEASES !
Love this concept of the Rose Boxes. Where is the entrance in these boxes? On the upper or at the lower end of the box? would it matter where of these two it was? Oh, I just realized it may not be on the boxes at all, right? So the entrance is at the bottom level of the stack in the base unit? Did I get that right?
awesome house
I listen close to you, but to answer your question Why would you restrict the queen to one box??
Because i want to keep all brood to one box and keep the queen busy in that box, this allows no brood in any other boxes or pollen also. I find very little pollen and usually no brood in the supers above. That said i do use 2 boxes untill a week before the flow then shake down the second box to the first. This moves the queen down plus i add a excluder to the bottom box. Now as the brood hatches in the second box they back fill with honey now. The queen keeps laying in the bottom i keep adding in boxes as needed for the honey
What an enchanting home! Thanks for the great videos. Quick question...why 12 frames per super?
INteresting stuff. You could a similar thing using langstroth half supers. This is similar in some ways to how I would like to manage my hives.
great video and God bless you i don't know if a can ask a question here for Tim but am going to. If i'm going to use One-Size-Box for example if i have 4 One size box one on one in Summer should i take one off in Winter or should a let just like it was on summer
We call this type of bee hive set up unlimited brood chamber. It was pioneered by Dee and Ed Lusby of Tucson Arizona.
Hey Buddy, another good one.
So many comments wanting to see and hear about his house-any chance he will take you on a tour and tell us about how he created it ?
Course you are right, this method is as old as beekeeping. Tim has a different size brood/super box. An in between box that is big enough for the brood and small enough to lift for honey. As you said it works real well with brood and a half. But also double brood or only suppers. It is that the queen gets new laying space that makes the colony explode so fast. This is what she would obviously like if she can get it. Which tells me she does not get enough laying space in a single brood.
Lots of lovely guidance here. Many thanks. Lots of stuff to take in. A little confused. Would more drones than normal mean less worker/drone ratio=less honey? Without the queen excluder would the bees naturally separate the egg laying area (lower broods?) from the nectar storage area (higher broods?). Would the gaps between the smaller frames stop the queen moving about and laying willy nilly.?
If you are an organic beekeeper, why would you replace the comb every other year, or even at all ?
It is better for the bees trust me! Less diseases and in nature bees can swarm and start afresh once the old colony dwindles the wax moth comes and eats all the comb. This then prevents the comb getting to old.
interesting house...i love it.
Thanks Henrik,
I must ask Tim if he is interested. I stuck all the links in the description ;)
David.
I am interested in this method but don't understand how you can do this stuff except in good weather with a strong colony and if you have drawn comb. If you stick empty boxes to split the brood then surely it will chill the brood?
Thanks for your video, I love the house and garden in the background! Any chance of a video on that...? I haven't looked at Tim's web site yet, (wiil do shortly) is his method caring for bee's different from other methods? I don't know too much about bees, but would like too! I hope to find a Bee Club where I live, not much luck so far.
Ah somehow I posted it wrong :)
It was rather warm that day for Ireland. Man I went through all the footage and it is funny.
Just making the other movie, should be interesting.
Cheers David.
Does this very low stand of bee hive, almost on the ground makes any problems with pests, and wetness of grass, mouses, hedgehogs and similar animals?
I am a first year beekeeper in the United States. I was taught/told to just use all medium boxes. Its easier to not have differing size frames and boxes ( you mention this too!). Also its my understanding that queen excluders damage thee worker bees as they squeeze through it. I was taught that even a VERY healthy queen would only be able to keep up with laying in 2 boxes. Do you have any hard data on the efficiency of this method? Namaste.
Hard evidence yes - it works every year without any problems. Because Tim has done this with over 100 hives he created unbeknownst to him a scientific trial by having that many replicates. They all work. I also have been doing this method for more than ten years, but using brood boxes and I have never had any problems.
Also a queen can lay more if she has the room to lay in. Most of the time she will naturally at the hight of the season, not lay more than two brood boxes, unless you split the nest and give a box of empty drawn out comb in between. Then she will lay all those frames up with a week or so. Check out the tallest colony in the world video and you will see it for yourself.
@@workwithnature Is there any way to purchase an e-book copy of The Rose Hive Method? Thank you.
@@etripp111 No idea if tim is still selling it. Try googling Tim Row - The Rose Hive Method.
Is there a video on that house somewhere?
It is in The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
Yes!
Their channel is called WayOutWest Blowinblog.
They made a few videos on the construction of their house, and are a wonderful channel in general!
Yes, way out west blog. They have a terrific channel.
The roof needs to be mowed.
I had a look at your channel and subscribed to get your videos ;)
I do have a workwithnature Facebook page. Must meet up there and talk some bees hey.
Thanks for letting me know.
Cheers David.
Cheers mate ;)
David.
thanks ....the only thing is I dont like brood in my honey supers ...with no queen excluder you will be fighting brood in the honey frames
I would like to purchase shop equipment to make Rose HIves. Need specific blades for spindle. Tom
Nice roof!
morning Tim this is Larry from the states again about the frame size are they custom made frames or are they sold at suppliers thanks for the great videos
Hi Larry,
They are nationals where the sides are made sorter. But I think you can buy them too from thorns uk.
Best wishes David.
With this method, would it be possible to accidentally move your queen to another hive by mistake, unless you inspect all the frames when moving boxes.
Meiner Meinung nach ist dieser Imker, ein sehr guter Imker! Und werde es auch so machen! Was mich neuerdings beschäftige ist die dass nach der Waben Ordnung nach dem Y was ich auch bei meinen Bienen festdellen musste, weil ich Naturwaben bau habe. Das Y ist immer an der Außenseite von der Wabe, von der Mitte ausgehen in der Zelle zu erkennen. Wenn die Waben so geordnet sind dann dass soll es weniger schwärmen oder gar nicht! Damit Das Bienen Volk keine Varroaprobleme bekommt sollen nur kleine Zellen 4,9 verwandt werden auch dazu, dass es mit der Varroa besser zurecht kommt, es soll sogar keine Behandlung Nothwendig sein gegen die Varroa, laut dem Autor. Aber ich habe rotztem behandelt, es sind auch Varroa Milben gefallen, aber nicht so viele wie sonst.
None bee keeper here but interested to learn more - Why would some beekeepers use a queen excluder if it isnt necessary?
Many do. It is all in the way of how you chose to move the boxes around and the depth of your boxes. This is because bees mostly put their honey stores up to the top of the hive. Well they actually put it all around the brood-nest, that is kinda like an egg on its side in shape.
They lean towards having the stores on top though. Probably because that is what we give them. So if you stick lots of boxes on, that is where your honey will end up.
Now someone came up with the idea, based on what they were doing at the time. Namely not giving their colony adequate space. This was a follow on from the skep, by starting keeping bees in wooden boxes. So they then devised a way to keep the queen out of the honey stores - by using the queen excluder, as this they felt did not ruin their supers (honey boxes).
There are several reasons some beekeepers may not wish to have the queen in the suppers. Every time a queen lays an egg in a cell the cell gets a minutely thin coating left behind inside the cell wall by the larvae spinning its cocoon. So each cell this happens to can get that little bit smaller each time. Some say you might get less honey that way. I never noticed. Also cell uncapping in the honey processing later can become a little bit more difficult. That is true if you are using a knife and not a comb roller.
The main point is that if you have brood in the honey harvest at the same time, it is not great.
This is mostly only a problem with honey that chrysalises fast, as you might need to take an entire supper off and then there may still be brood in it. Otherwise you are always better of to wait in till the end of the honey flow, when the brood reduces in size and the queen would not be laying in the suppers anyway. You can always swap some frames around if they are the same size and then you can give the colony back its brood that way.
But with all things there are always ways around anything. I find the benefits of having no queen excluder way outweigh the above mentioned reasons. For one you get way more expansion of colony, less swarming and more bees and therefore more honey. Also if you keep on to the same super frames year after year it incorages diseases. Way better to let the bees draw out more fresh wax and sell what you do not need.
Just check out the other two videos to see what I mean.
Beekeeping - How to make lots more Bees - Using the Rose Hive
Tallest & Strongest Bee Hives or Colonies In the World / Using the Rose Hive
Also it is good to mention that you could keep bees in supers only or in brood-boxes only if that is what you wish. The rose hive Tim does in his home work-shed are in depth between the national super and national brood. Ideal for this method of beekeeping.
I like this..it's basically what I do... but a queen won't last as long and you can really grow bees.... however this will grow bees not as much honey...that's why not all people do this..my triple deep Langstroth go into winter with 200 lbs of honey so you still get about 60 or 70 lbs of excess honey..my Italians burn about 130 lbs of mostly Fall honey overwinter, in a triple deep Langstroth
You can get it on his website for 17€, more reasonable.
Cheers David.
So are these 12 frame boxes or did I miscount?
Hey that's great. Could you talk a bit more about the treatment free. Do you mean varroa.
David.
The website seems to be down. Is this going to be a permanent outage?
Very cool vid I really like his house is there a email to get ahold of him I tried the email on this vid but did not work. I would like to find out how he did his roof or if you could do a vid on it would be even cooler.
Go to his channel. You can find it on my youtube channel page in the box. It is something like blowinsfromoutwest. Or something like that.
mohawksniper79 His channel is WayOutWest BlowinBlog. Very nice people so be nice okay.
Do you get slightly less swarming this way?
Good question.
But not really, just later in the year.
It has been my expirince that a coloney will always swarm. Many books say that some do not swarm every year. Perhaps this is true with some strains. But our Irish bees almost always want to swarm. This is regardles of how much room they have or if the queen is only one year old.
David.
Work With Nature
I find all healthy, robust colonies want to swarm...it is their way after all. The big challenge for me has been: how do you grow the colony well to get a big colony to meet the local nectar flow in late June, but also prevent swarming, which undoes all your good work!
The artificial swarm is one way.
Tim might do it differently.
But if you think about it. This method gets the queen laying and gives space to the bees which helps with the prevention of swarming. You are right, most colonies will want to swarm no matter what you do and that is great in my books. But as the queen is allowed to lay more, she really builds up. If you stay ahead of her and give the colony room you will get less swarming but more foragers. Most people in my own experience do not give the queen enough room to lay. One national is just not adequate for even Irish bees, witch are suppose to be not very good at getting big. In the third video you will see this is not the case as these where Irish all bees. I have also found this to be true keeping bees in Ireland for the past 12 years.
The swarming issue, You are right it is the big challenge for all of us. It is of course possible to keep most of the colony intact by taking out the queen when they make queen cells and putting her in a nuke box. Then let them go through the cycle and if they make a new queen then all is well. If they don't unite the old queen with the main colony.
If you wish to make many more colonies then great to. As your colonies will have drawn out lots of frames for your future start ups. The hard part is getting a nuke to draw out frames. It just is so slow because lack of foragers.
Bees are so important and I know it is your way of thinking too. So we need to have strong healthy bees, but we also need numbers to have success and all without feeding a drop of sugar.
Hope that makes sense.
Best wishes David.
You have my full permission to download the entire video and translate it to German if that helps. Leider ist mein Deutch nicht so gut.
Guesse David.
I like this method and will try it out with my hives, but I think it is not as simple as portrayed in this video. It seems people leave comments here that are not answered, and I wonder why.
In fact, urticaria is a result from your body's immune system deficit. For that reason, in order to put a permanent stop to urticaria, you have to heal your immune system first.
i have been beekeeping since the age of 9 but i still cant get my hives over 1 broad and 2 supers high :?
Hey now worries.
Bees are not an easy hobby. Lots does go wrong. But watch the three videos and try it out.
You will see much more improvement. The main points are. Split the brood using a new brood chamber only when there are plenty of bees.
The queen will lay lots more young then. Dont cram them into a to small a space and don't use a queen excluder.
Thanks for your honesty.
Best wishes David.
Ha good one ;)
The link above is incorrect. .... rosebeehives not rosehives
I don't think anyone in history ever said this, so I'll be the first...you have to mow your roof.:-)
Nah.....You just have to get a goat on the roof.
Great video, David, and as mentioned by others seeing that house it would be interesting to see more of that and the garden. Cheers, Henrik. PS; the link to Tim's homepage is missing "bee" - (rosebeehives/dot/com)
Hi freakygeaktwo ;)
There is another video coming soon with the bees and dividing a colony. I must say Tim has it nicely worked out. The spiting is done really well. There will be a bit of humor in it too.
Take care David.
Why is it called Rose hive? I have been reading about it, but this never seems to be explained. Can anyone explain? Thx
After the inventor/maker of the hive - Mr. Rose is the older gentleman in the video.
@TrueloveTim Rowe is his name.
What is a supper?
+Tyler McClain Honey super - The box or boxes above the brood box(s)
+INVISIBLE SUN The boxes are called supers. Both the brood and honey boxes are called such. The name super is pretty simple. Super means above(basic definition) and that is where the name comes from, so basically it is a box you put above another box.
würde genau wissen um was es geht, kann das einer auf Deutsch übersetzen?
i wonder if you could guinea pigs to graze your roof lol
Why not do this with national deeps
Holy Cow, did you realize there are weeds growing on your roof? just kidding, look cool
Bitte das ganze auf Deutsch übersetzen?
Whats this frigging Hobbits????