Thank you so much for your video,GREAT VIDEO! I've wasted a year watching video's from Americans, learned more from you than all the rest. I split 5 hives last July to prevent swarming but ended up with 2 swarms anyway. No beekeeper here could explain why. Now I know why because of your video. Again Thank You so much, I'll be watching only your videos from now on.
I went to a Bee Keeping Class and joined their association and went to monthly meeting's for a year and sadly learned more from watching this video. Thank you for making the video and the bee keeper for freely sharing his knowledge.
I have the blessing or the curse of having to move about this world a lot. Being an introvert I have learned that often when I donot get what I need it is because I did not open myself up enough to receive it. The best learning (not teaching) at bee clubs is done during the social time. As an introvert that means I stand on the outside of the cluster listening until I can form enough of a relationship to join the various groups or until the discussion hits on a topic that compels me to ask a question. Give you club another chance and try to be proactive in getting what you need.
***** ,,,, Thank you for your advice. I actually joined another club and it's ran very differently and although it's 20 miles further for me I am learning a lot. Have a great day my friend.
Where I live, the beekeeping club is a slave labor union where you pay the local keepers to do all the manual labor. Then they sell you their used equipment for a few dollars less than brand new. Not only that, but you have to lodge at specific motels(which they just happen to own). It's sometimes a 3 week course that ends up costing a married couple $5000, and before all that, you have to pay a membership of $300 annually. It's as if they dont want anyone else to keep bees in the area. If they find out you keep them anyways? They send over a state inspector who has the right to confiscate, fine or jail you if you don't comply. If that doesnt work, they get the federal government involved. Department of Health, Labor, CDC and others can swoop down on you if you sell a single jar without certificates saying you took their courses. I just wanted to have like 4 colonies as a hobby. They came down on me like an avalanche of hatred! I'm surprised they didn't tar and feather me! Of course, they offered me a minimum wage job if I can keep up with the migrant workers they hire.
Thanks Derek for letting us know ;) I agree, Tim is a great guy, very dedicated to his bees and with lots of knowledge about the workings of bees in general. Cheers David.
Loved the video. I'm not sure most folks can watch their hives close enough to catch the swarm cycle as closely as you did. Having said this bravo to you for some really good information and great entertainment.
No prob, Glad you found it useful. If you split a colony later you would have to leave even more brood per split. You can have 3-5 frame splits in April and let them build up. A rose box is enough for July, but 2 are needed for any later than that. Over all have one full box with brood per split. The rose hive box can be enough to get over the winter. I even had a few nuclei survive before. Your 10 frames with deep box is fine for over wintering, but you might need to feed............
Thanks Tim i have been a beekeeper for two years and have been beekeeper as a normal beekeeper ie queen excluder and all the rest of that stuff. Att the time i started i brought your book and watched most of your RUclips videos on the Rose Hive method. Down here in New Zealand we are one week into spring and now it's Rose Hive all the way.😆
Wonderful video. I spent a day on one of Tim's courses a couple of years ago and really enjoyed it. I would highly recommend Tim's method for beginners and experienced beekeepers alike. I also have his book 'The Rose Hive Method', which I have read a number of times, I pick up something new every time I read it!
Hey how are you ;) Yes I have been using this kind of way of beekeeping, but using full brood chambers. I never liked to use queen excluders from the very start and mainly had bees not for honey but to multiply the bee population. Tim shows it very neatly and it was easier to film him, then trying to film myself. Gets kind of hard to look at bees try to remember what to say and try to film at the same time :) I would also go about splitting hives to make increases in the same way. David ;)
I myself is a beginner in Bee Keeping. Glad that I found your channel and subscribed. Please i too would like to Multiply my Bee Colonies. I have two boxes(without Super) with Bees and also have extra 8 boxes without bees. Please guide me the first step to proceed for successfully multiplying or dividing the bees into th extra empty bee hive boxes.? Your input will be very important to me. Thanks in Advance..
This is absolutely fascinating! I was mesmerized. Beekeeping is such an ancient and honorable vocation, going back to the dawn of recorded history, maybe even further. How wonderful that I can now sit in my house in the city, and virtually gaze into beehives throbbing with life, listening to a master beekeeper explainin what's what!
nameofthepen Who are you? You are thinking, aren't you? I am Mario from Germany and you met my language. I ask myself if you weren't destined to learn from bees directly. Where do you live? Continent, state and what do you do?
You're right about e.Queen cells, but I wanted propagate from my stock, a strain that hardly ever swarms, but tends to supersede their old queens. They are very productive and docile and varroa resistant: I don't treat them for varroa and they thrive. I guess the best way is to leave the nucleus alone for a week to realise it is queenless, remove any e.Queen cells, then put in a small strip of eggs and young larvae to rear as good queen cells.
I am not an expert and I'm not questioning your statement about the hive casting additional swarms. I have been keeping bees for several years and I have had colonies that had several queen cells hatch and the hives sometimes have several queens walking around the hive. Maybe it depends on the timing but they don't always have hatch and immediately go about stinging and killing the other queen cells. Last year I had a hive that had seven virgin queens walking around and I made splits with all of them. Interesting video.
I think this also depends on the type of bees. Russian bees will often have numerous swarm cells and multiple queens in the colony at the same time. They also swarm alot, like these guys said, "secondary swarms". I have both types, Russian and Italian. The Russians will often swarm 4 or 5 times from the same hive. You can research them, but it is a survival instinct they have.
Yes in Ukraine, the brotherhood of beekeepers there keep multi-queen colonies alongside each other with interconnected corridors leading between the hives. Amazing to see. There are few subspecies that seem to accommodate multiple queens but not Scutellata and not Capensis from Africa where I keep bees.
pickerick1 I just was curious how many splits can be done with a really large hive. 3, 4 or 5? more? Does letting the bee's raise the own Queen work better (genetically speaking) or should I purchase new Queen's for each new hive of good genetic stock? Do you feed the new hives? aka sugar syrup? If so how long? I really liked your video's. They showed the basic's very well.. Thank you David !! Answer: No prob, So to answer your first question. If you do not feed sugar and they prepare to swarm early in the year, up to 6 nucs from a very strong colony is possible. So this would be then in around May. (If you feed sugar and I would not go down that road, or only in an emergency. You can even make more) But anyways you will have added a second brood box ontop in April, using only foundation. The bees will draw out all the foundation. This means lots of new space for egg laying by the queen and then lots of brood and bees in May. Then the bees will naturally get congested and make queen cells. You could also add one more brood chambers and wait longer. This is all a natural process that is what you would expect to find in any colony. When there are queen cells divide the hole colony up into 6 nucs. Or divide into as many as you have, queen cells, frames of brood, frames of stores and bees to cover. Do this very gently, making sure the frames are not knocked or bees agitated. As you know each nuc needs 2-4 frames of brood, with at least one good queen cell, two frame of food, meaning pollen and honey and two times as many bees to cover the frame of brood. Also fill each nuc with 5-6 frames. This might seam excessive to some beekeepers. But we need a strong enough force to build up for winter and we do not feed sugar. Next bring all the nucs to a site where there are no other bees and more than 3 KM away from the parent colony. Then wait 4 days, go back and take down all queen cells but one. Also you will find a queen will be in one of the nucs and most likely there will be no queen cells. You will know by the presence of eggs in the worker cells and perhaps torn down queen cell in witch nuclei she is. Then leave them all alone for 3 - 4 weeks. Bring a new brood box and frames to give each colony that made it, more room.
When you find queen cells, you must judge into how many nucs you can split a colony before the next winter comes. This will depend on strength of colony, how early you can make the split. How many combs are drawn out and is there a flow on, is there lots of food in the hive. In Ireland you would split into less the later it gets into the year. With only two by late summer and only if you have two broods with full comb. Trying to make full frames of comb is what it all really boils down to. Naturally when the bees draw out comb, the bees will need to bring in a lot of honey. For that you will need lots of bees. In order to get lots of bees you will need lots of space for the queen to lay eggs into. Therefor it is best to start with a big colony for comb building and then you can divide as much as the colony has to give. Hope that makes sense :) Note that it is a must to divide and manage swarming as much as is safe, or bees will become less in your apiaries intill one year you will have none. Wild bees do not last long in the wild anymore, due to varroa. Apiguard combined with a varroa floor is the only natural means to kill varroa. It is 98% effective, even more so than the chemical stuff being applied to most hives these days. To answer your second question. It is best to let the bees raise their own queens. Less stress when you don't stick in a new queen that could get killed and you paid for her too. In Ireland we have the black honey bee of Europe. This bee is great for working the flowers even when it rains. Much better at staying alive in this climate. So I would try to only get that queen here. But there is no harm in letting your bees make there own and letting the queen mate with local drones. Any bee you will have from your hives will be just as good as any ones you could buy. Plus usually they are better adapted for your region. I hope you don't mind this turning into an essay. But to answer your last question. I only ever fed 3 colonies sugar in my hole life as a beekeeper and that was because the colony was a swarm late in the season or some other problem. Bees eat honey and sugar is for tea :) Hope that helped. Any other questions feel free to ask away. Best wishes David.
I think this is an excellent summary, David! The only thing I want to emphasize (and David already knows this) is that the smaller/weaker the splits are, the more care they are going to need. Many beekeepers talk about making splits with just 1 frame brood - to have a chance those nucs will need a lot of TLC such as shade, robber screens and feeding. Maria www.donnellyfarmsohio.com/
David, I just wanted to say Thank you. You have really helped me to understand the splits and Nuc process more than anyone has, anywhere.You above synopsis is the best detailed summary... Thank you so Much Rick
Hi it’s very informative video. While splitting, you introduced swarm cell queen in the lower deep box. Few queen cells are on top and then swarm queen cells. Can we introduce the upper queen cells too in the hive?
Thanks, this was very informative and so interesting. It is wonderful to get a visual example of how to carry out these activities. Just one piece of advice; please keep the camera trained on the action rather than the person's head or the trees behind him! I keep trying to scroll down to see what is happening.
when would you add a rose box to these splits- they are already drawn out, so i'd have thought immeidately, or do you give 5-6 weeks for the new queen's brood to hatch and then add?
I have only been an apprentice beekeeper now for almost a year. I am enjoying what I am learning through work in the yard and YT videos. I am curious about the lids you are using. Do you have a theory or reason for their use? We are using top entrances, so this wouldn't work for us, but I was just curious as to the principles of your lid.
What do you suggest for a new keep to do to gather the amount of frames needed for growing gives? Bare in mind that i do not have any shop tools like saws, etc. Would it be best to just buy the frames and supers online?
Hi David, thank you for this video (I asked you some questions couple week ago about how to prevent the swarm) - this video is very helped; however, when it is too late to split the hive before the winter? How much honey the new split will need to survive? Will they survive if the only one deep box with 10 frames will overwinter? Thank you so much!! Alla,
That is right ;) But one can also leave them nearby if the entrance of the splits are closed for two days. Make sure air gets in of course :) Then most of the bees stay put and very little robbing can happen. I usually also place a cover of wood infront of the enterance when I open up again. It makes it more tricky for bees to find their way into the small hive. That also prevents robbing. A third method if I have the time and this is great. I use a small pipe as enterance. Have it sticking into the split and out of it by 8 cm. Only bees belonging to that split find their way back in.
@@workwithnature As a beginner here.. I myself tried to transfer my whole colony of bees including the Queen from the Log Hive to the Scientific Hive as yours. I successfully transferred all of them to their new better Home with their bees wax placed on the frame. They seemed happy and stayed there. But to my utter disappointment all of them left(swarmed) a day after. Please tell me what mistake have I done here.? Suggest me for my future precautions..!!
Is there a way to use your method but keep your colony at 3 or 4 boxes. I live in town and I couldn't have too many. I like the way your boxes don't imprison the queen and it is more simple.
I made up a nucleus in June without a queen cell, it raised a queen that started to lay OK, but then they made a single queen cell from the new brood and the first queen was superseded. It looks as though they thought that the first emergency queen wasn't good enough!
Very interesting video. Thank you for sharing this. can I also apply this method for Africanized Honey bees? I work with the Langstroth hives. Thank you.
Rob from Canada Why would you not keep brood cells with the old queen, if you put some honey frames ,queen cell frames, and brood frames in a hive would end up with a new hive. I need to do splits to get more hives. I enjoy the videos
Hi Rob, How are you. For a nuke with the old queen: You don't generally have to if there is a flow on and you have given a lot of empty frames too. The queen will fill them up very fast and this simulates a swarm. You also do not want to add any brood with larvae since they may turn those into emergency cells depending what bees you have. You do not want queen cells either or they probably will swarm out.
About the secondary queen cells and secondary swarm... The new cells drawn are for emergency for a good reason ! Queens can come out unhealthy or weak. Some can even be rejected after being mated with. Sometimes they don't return from the mating flight. It's important to leave the secondary cells alone. Because losing some bees is better than having queenless colonies. Older larvae don't qualify to turn into queens, it can be too late if the cells are ripped out.
Mog of War drones don't make honey - they cost honey and pollen, and give nothing back to the hive. So a hive that makes a lot of drones produces less honey now, and also fewer workers to make honey later. It's a balancing act, though, because if you have good genetics you want to spread them around as much as possible so any wild hives in your area will have good genetics for your future queens to mate with.
only issue was that 1st box left still needs space besides 2 frames if the box already had 10 frames of bees so what happened is a loss of honey or having frames drawn. The density was wrong after splits.
No not a good idea, one queen cell is what you need to add or you will very likely get a secondary swarm. Also even if you just give one queen-cell bees will most often make emergency queen-cells as well. Do not believe all you read in books. These need to be torn down or the hive will swarm out till nothing is left. I have very rarely noticed the queens fighting it out and one of them to head the hive. After five days of there not being a queen in the split hive bees will not be able to make any emergency queen cells so on day five after the split I would check on them again and also make sure that your new queen is not due to hatch before then. Just caped queen cell on day 9 is a good time to make a split and go in and check on day 14 but before day 16 as that is when the new queen will hatch..
First and foremost, than you very very much, what a great video! I work with National hives but this was still a good lesson, largely transferable. My question is; I've been told/taught that if you move hive, or split hive, and the new position is less than 2 miles or so from the original position, and more than a few feet, the bees will be confused and will fly to their original home. How come all (or most, anyway) your bees stayed with the split and did not return to the hive left in the original position? Is it because they think they have swarmed, and therefore adapt to the new location without returning to the old home?
That is right, if you do not leave a split or colony in the original position, that is. The way it is with the splits, as you prob know, You just shake in a number of bees. Quite a few will go home, that know the old location. But most are newly hatched and will stick to the new place. Just to say, we did move most of them more than 3km. That becomes clearer I think when you watch the other two videos. But if you do not move them, then you have to really pack in some grass into the entrance before you leave the site. But only if your splits are small. These where big enough to fend for themselves. This grass will shrink within 48 hours and it will stop the robing. Otherwise the bees that have now lots of the flying bees in the old spot, will for sure come and take all the honey and pollen you left. Most young will not be able to get fresh supplies right away. hence they will starve. Or dwindle. Of course it is very important to have already a reduced entrance in both cases and then stick in the grass. I like to close them up and go back after 48 hours. Better yet. If you were to get a small plastic pype and use that as a way of entrance into each split. Have it protruding 20 cm and you are sure to stop robbing then. Have it also sticking into the hive by 10 cm. Hope that helped. Best wishes David.
At the 14 min mark you say that the splits may draw out more queen cells. I'm new to all of this, but wouldn't it require an active queen to lay eggs within them? Does it not take a new queen a couple of weeks to start laying? wouldn't they settle in at that point and not swarm? Sorry, many questions here. Cheers,J
Nope the worker bees will feed royal jelly to some of the larva and this will make emergency queen cells. This will even happen and I do not care what books say on the subject, if there is a queen cell present. So even if you do not have a queen they can still make more. Nature is smart. Best wishes David.
Totally agree. A lot of books are just copied information from older books. Some authors who write books on bees have never kept a single bee in their lives but seem to know so much about them, when all they have done is just re worded some one else work from decades ago that clearly needs updating with new discoveries, Every thing you have said is 100% correct. This happens in the wild when an old queen dies. Some hives can be present in caves for decades. There is a guy on youtube who has a 10 year old hive that he says has not been opened for 10 years or so. People often shorten the the lives of colonies with out even realizing, Work with nature and the rewards are twice as awesome, Thanks so much for posting this video.
Not a bad question that. Many have thought of it and some have actually tried. I have not myself for more than a few days in order to do a shook swarm. People have reported that it hinders the bees. But I personally have no experiential knowledge on doing this. Maybe anyone else who's done it for a wile could comment. I would advise against it from the perspective of the bees. Having several queens hatch and not get mated would be a problem. If the mother queen can not leave then she probably would fight it out with a newly hatching queen. At some point she may die. Also god knows what the worker bees may do. But perhaps it has an application somewhere that is beneficial for the bees.
A queen excluder will also keep the drones from leaving the hive. IMO, it's not a bad idea to use a queen excluder (for a short amount of time) on the bottom board when simulating a swarm.
@@workwithnature I have a queen excluder in place, I started because I had carpenter bees going in and out by the hundreds and they robbed my hive. And this worked perfectly for it. Yes, it seems like that it is a little bit harder for the worker bees to pass through, but I did not see any bees yet with damaged wings etc. Bees with pollen will pass through and on the other hand some bees that carry syrup will pass the syrup to other bees right at the queen excluder. Bees do that anyhow inside the hive so they do not have to run so far and can concentrate foraging. You have to remember that drones can not pass through either, but that can be a good thing as well a bad thing. If you are mating queens then you need the drones to be able to leave and to fly. If you do not need to make queen you want to keep other drones out. Drones are going from hive to hive to get their food and since drones are doing so the risk that they pick up mites and bringing them from hives to hives is very high. Drones are no more than sperm donors.
Hey, I'm hearing impaired but this doesnt have captions. Is there any way you can make a copy with captions avalable please and thank you? It seems like a fascinating video but I cant make out what's being talked about
i never wanted to offend at all i am just pumped for years no ones understood deep dug funny stupid rap games i respect but want to learn from my piers and maybe get better need inspiration from great influence and the other lads are new winner so faaarrrr love it
This can be done in Feb. if you are in Ireland, because of the nice mild spring. Bees hardly use honey in the winter, but use a lot when the brood is starting to be raised again in spring. Usually though you will have mild enough weather to feed some thick syrup, when the queen starts laying again. Or if you don't like giving sugar, check out the video I have on feeding honey. Don't be tempted to take out any frames to have a look. It will still be to cold. Hope that helped. Best wishes David.
+Luke Calls Because an actual swarm will not have any brood. If there is brood the bees will likely still try to swarm and make a replacement queen from any remaining brood. Leaving no brood is one of the main things that makes this method work.
Thank you for interesting video! We have other types of beehives but similar ways of bee swarms collecting and hiving them! By the way, welcome to Kiev,Ukraine and welcome to Petro Prokopovich Beekeeping Museum in Kiev! Good luck beekeeping! :)
Dr Victor Fursov - Entomologist Beekeeper Teacher Dr. Victor I'm new to 🐝 keeping, started with 10 boxes in Bihar, India in an orchard 400 Trees of Litchis, Mangoes, Have seen your channel, Keep in Touch, Best Regards. Please share your website, contact also.
In your case I would just buy the gear. You really need to be extract for making hives. This is to do with getting the bee space right, or the bees will glue all your frames to the inside of the hive. Or fill in the gaps with comb for larger gaps. David.
I would like to start off by saying how much I enjoy the videos. I must be missing something regarding feed. I know you don't feed sugar water, is it because you have enough forage for the bees. I live in the USA. I have one langstroth hive. I do not want to feed, but every beekeeper here says, feed, feed, feed. The bees need this to grow the hive. When you don't feed, "sugar water, you give then a minimal chance of survival". The bees have plenty of honey, the queen is laying eggs. I did put dry sugar in the hive for the winter, they never even touched it. I have taken two frames of honey out of the brood box, replaced with two empty frames, so she has room to lay brood. I feel that the hive is healthy. They are building nice white comb in the medium super above. I have been told that if I only leave the honey in there, the bees will not feel the need to search for food. As far as they are concerned, they have enough honey. There are no queen cells. Last, but not least, I have also been told we owe it to the bees to feed them, because we have them in boxes. Most come from Ca. I live in Utah. My response to that is, if the bees don't like it they will leave. Sorry this post has been so long. I just want bees that can survive without being fed by me. I did put pollen patties in the hive. They ate it in one week. The patties were large, so I was surprised when it was all gone. Sorry this turned in to a novel. Just really confused about feeding. I am going into my third year, and my first hive to survive. I tried tbh, they both died. I will try them again this year.
I understand the splits completely, say for one thing. I have been taught that when there are multiple queen cells in a hive, the first queen out will sting and kill the queens in the other cells, OR fight to the death until one comes out dominant if they are hatched at the same time. I don't understand why you were getting secondary or thirdly swarms from the hive with 5 uncapped queen cells. Why didn't one emerge as dominant and thus stop the hive from swarming again after the split?
I know that is what I have been taught too. But it has been my expierince that very often if left unchecked. New queens will just swarm out and there will be near no bees by the end. Even in the splits. This can be due to bees protecting the cells from new queens. It has been reported that this happens. In my Irish bees this is what I found a lot. Tim just follows the normal way and loses sometimes some swarms. But then he has a big population number. Best wishes David.
Until the queens are mated, the drive to kill the competition isn't strong. There is some evidence that the worker bees will attempt to keep the virgin queens away from each other.
Thank you so much for your video,GREAT VIDEO! I've wasted a year watching video's from Americans, learned more from you than all the rest. I split 5 hives last July to prevent swarming but ended up with 2 swarms anyway. No beekeeper here could explain why. Now I know why because of your video. Again Thank You so much, I'll be watching only your videos from now on.
I went to a Bee Keeping Class and joined their association and went to monthly meeting's for a year and sadly learned more from watching this video. Thank you for making the video and the bee keeper for freely sharing his knowledge.
You know sometimes the guys at the classes are not great teachers. I had the same experience when I first started with bees too.
I have the blessing or the curse of having to move about this world a lot. Being an introvert I have learned that often when I donot get what I need it is because I did not open myself up enough to receive it. The best learning (not teaching) at bee clubs is done during the social time. As an introvert that means I stand on the outside of the cluster listening until I can form enough of a relationship to join the various groups or until the discussion hits on a topic that compels me to ask a question. Give you club another chance and try to be proactive in getting what you need.
***** ,,,, Thank you for your advice. I actually joined another club and it's ran very differently and although it's 20 miles further for me I am learning a lot. Have a great day my friend.
What's your location?
Where I live, the beekeeping club is a slave labor union where you pay the local keepers to do all the manual labor. Then they sell you their used equipment for a few dollars less than brand new. Not only that, but you have to lodge at specific motels(which they just happen to own). It's sometimes a 3 week course that ends up costing a married couple $5000, and before all that, you have to pay a membership of $300 annually. It's as if they dont want anyone else to keep bees in the area. If they find out you keep them anyways? They send over a state inspector who has the right to confiscate, fine or jail you if you don't comply. If that doesnt work, they get the federal government involved. Department of Health, Labor, CDC and others can swoop down on you if you sell a single jar without certificates saying you took their courses. I just wanted to have like 4 colonies as a hobby. They came down on me like an avalanche of hatred! I'm surprised they didn't tar and feather me! Of course, they offered me a minimum wage job if I can keep up with the migrant workers they hire.
Thanks Derek for letting us know ;)
I agree, Tim is a great guy, very dedicated to his bees and with lots of knowledge about the workings of bees in general.
Cheers David.
Loved the video. I'm not sure most folks can watch their hives close enough to catch the swarm cycle as closely as you did. Having said this bravo to you for some really good information and great entertainment.
Will do. I don't plan on being a huge beek with anything more than two hives. thanks for the help and the videos! God bless!
No prob,
Glad you found it useful.
If you split a colony later you would have to leave even more brood per split. You can have 3-5 frame splits in April and let them build up. A rose box is enough for July, but 2 are needed for any later than that. Over all have one full box with brood per split. The rose hive box can be enough to get over the winter. I even had a few nuclei survive before.
Your 10 frames with deep box is fine for over wintering, but you might need to feed............
Thanks Tim i have been a beekeeper for two years and have been beekeeper as a normal beekeeper ie queen excluder and all the rest of that stuff.
Att the time i started i brought your book and watched most of your RUclips videos on the Rose Hive method.
Down here in New Zealand we are one week into spring and now it's Rose Hive all the way.😆
I love the way he speaks to them. very charming presentation.
I love bees.
11:50
Bee on his shoulder attempting to sting him. Never sdeen that before! Very cool!
I have no idea what you are doing, but thank you. We love bees and use a lot of honey in our recipes.
Thank you very much for explaining so easy the peocedure of splitting the hives. Thank you
Tim is awesome :-) Well done both of you
Really useful video! Thanks so much. Nice splits!
Wonderful video. I spent a day on one of Tim's courses a couple of years ago and really enjoyed it. I would highly recommend Tim's method for beginners and experienced beekeepers alike. I also have his book 'The Rose Hive Method', which I have read a number of times, I pick up something new every time I read it!
Aleksandar rilak
This is absolutely fascinating.
Thank you for the post very informative. Learned a lot. Take care.
Hey how are you ;)
Yes I have been using this kind of way of beekeeping, but using full brood chambers.
I never liked to use queen excluders from the very start and mainly had bees not for honey but to multiply the bee population. Tim shows it very neatly and it was easier to film him, then trying to film myself. Gets kind of hard to look at bees try to remember what to say and try to film at the same time :)
I would also go about splitting hives to make increases in the same way.
David ;)
I myself is a beginner in Bee Keeping. Glad that I found your channel and subscribed.
Please i too would like to Multiply my Bee Colonies. I have two boxes(without Super) with Bees and also have extra 8 boxes without bees. Please guide me the first step to proceed for successfully multiplying or dividing the bees into th extra empty bee hive boxes.?
Your input will be very important to me.
Thanks in Advance..
This is absolutely fascinating! I was mesmerized.
Beekeeping is such an ancient and honorable vocation, going back to the dawn of recorded history, maybe even further.
How wonderful that I can now sit in my house in the city, and virtually gaze into beehives throbbing with life, listening to a master beekeeper explainin what's what!
nameofthepen Who are you? You are thinking, aren't you? I am Mario from Germany and you met my language. I ask myself if you weren't destined to learn from bees directly. Where do you live? Continent, state and what do you do?
Thank you David, very informative
I think this Rose dood must be determined to rebuild the UK's honey bee population singlehandedly. The Queen should give him an OBE or something.
How wonderful! !
hard work i can feel the bees on my you ear 🤗
Nice video and nice learning!
Thanks for the educative video. I want to start a social economic enterprise on bee keeping in Kenya. very helpful
You're right about e.Queen cells, but I wanted propagate from my stock, a strain that hardly ever swarms, but tends to supersede their old queens. They are very productive and docile and varroa resistant: I don't treat them for varroa and they thrive.
I guess the best way is to leave the nucleus alone for a week to realise it is queenless, remove any e.Queen cells, then put in a small strip of eggs and young larvae to rear as good queen cells.
because we love bees and like the honey, im a beekeeper myself :)
Хоть много и не понял но посмотрел как ведете пчел, молодцы .
I am not an expert and I'm not questioning your statement about the hive casting additional swarms. I have been keeping bees for several years and I have had colonies that had several queen cells hatch and the hives sometimes have several queens walking around the hive. Maybe it depends on the timing but they don't always have hatch and immediately go about stinging and killing the other queen cells.
Last year I had a hive that had seven virgin queens walking around and I made splits with all of them.
Interesting video.
I think this also depends on the type of bees. Russian bees will often have numerous swarm cells and multiple queens in the colony at the same time. They also swarm alot, like these guys said, "secondary swarms". I have both types, Russian and Italian. The Russians will often swarm 4 or 5 times from the same hive. You can research them, but it is a survival instinct they have.
Johannah Lawrence where is your Apiary?
Bogalusa LA in United States
Yes in Ukraine, the brotherhood of beekeepers there keep multi-queen colonies alongside each other with interconnected corridors leading between the hives. Amazing to see. There are few subspecies that seem to accommodate multiple queens but not Scutellata and not Capensis from Africa where I keep bees.
What do you all treat varroa with? Nice to see huge hive,!!!
delightful video...first time I heard queens called princesses...lol...
steve syvan 梅艳芳
thanks....that makes sence...it helps a new beekeeper...
Only read after you watch the clip.
pickerick1
I just was curious how many splits can be done with a really large hive. 3, 4 or 5? more? Does letting the bee's raise the own Queen work better (genetically speaking) or should I purchase new Queen's for each new hive of good genetic stock? Do you feed the new hives? aka sugar syrup? If so how long? I really liked your video's. They showed the basic's very well.. Thank you David !!
Answer:
No prob,
So to answer your first question. If you do not feed sugar and they prepare to swarm early in the year, up to 6 nucs from a very strong colony is possible. So this would be then in around May.
(If you feed sugar and I would not go down that road, or only in an emergency. You can even make more)
But anyways you will have added a second brood box ontop in April, using only foundation. The bees will draw out all the foundation. This means lots of new space for egg laying by the queen and then lots of brood and bees in May. Then the bees will naturally get congested and make queen cells. You could also add one more brood chambers and wait longer. This is all a natural process that is what you would expect to find in any colony.
When there are queen cells divide the hole colony up into 6 nucs. Or divide into as many as you have, queen cells, frames of brood, frames of stores and bees to cover. Do this very gently, making sure the frames are not knocked or bees agitated. As you know each nuc needs 2-4 frames of brood, with at least one good queen cell, two frame of food, meaning pollen and honey and two times as many bees to cover the frame of brood. Also fill each nuc with 5-6 frames. This might seam excessive to some beekeepers. But we need a strong enough force to build up for winter and we do not feed sugar.
Next bring all the nucs to a site where there are no other bees and more than 3 KM away from the parent colony. Then wait 4 days, go back and take down all queen cells but one. Also you will find a queen will be in one of the nucs and most likely there will be no queen cells. You will know by the presence of eggs in the worker cells and perhaps torn down queen cell in witch nuclei she is.
Then leave them all alone for 3 - 4 weeks. Bring a new brood box and frames to give each colony that made it, more room.
When you find queen cells, you must judge into how many nucs you can split a colony before the next winter comes. This will depend on strength of colony, how early you can make the split. How many combs are drawn out and is there a flow on, is there lots of food in the hive.
In Ireland you would split into less the later it gets into the year. With only two by late summer and only if you have two broods with full comb. Trying to make full frames of comb is what it all really boils down to. Naturally when the bees draw out comb, the bees will need to bring in a lot of honey. For that you will need lots of bees. In order to get lots of bees you will need lots of space for the queen to lay eggs into. Therefor it is best to start with a big colony for comb building and then you can divide as much as the colony has to give.
Hope that makes sense :)
Note that it is a must to divide and manage swarming as much as is safe, or bees will become less in your apiaries intill one year you will have none. Wild bees do not last long in the wild anymore, due to varroa. Apiguard combined with a varroa floor is the only natural means to kill varroa. It is 98% effective, even more so than the chemical stuff being applied to most hives these days.
To answer your second question. It is best to let the bees raise their own queens. Less stress when you don't stick in a new queen that could get killed and you paid for her too.
In Ireland we have the black honey bee of Europe. This bee is great for working the flowers even when it rains. Much better at staying alive in this climate. So I would try to only get that queen here. But there is no harm in letting your bees make there own and letting the queen mate with local drones. Any bee you will have from your hives will be just as good as any ones you could buy. Plus usually they are better adapted for your region.
I hope you don't mind this turning into an essay. But to answer your last question. I only ever fed 3 colonies sugar in my hole life as a beekeeper and that was because the colony was a swarm late in the season or some other problem. Bees eat honey and sugar is for tea :)
Hope that helped.
Any other questions feel free to ask away.
Best wishes David.
I think this is an excellent summary, David! The only thing I want to emphasize (and David already knows this) is that the smaller/weaker the splits are, the more care they are going to need. Many beekeepers talk about making splits with just 1 frame brood - to have a chance those nucs will need a lot of TLC such as shade, robber screens and feeding.
Maria
www.donnellyfarmsohio.com/
David, I just wanted to say Thank you. You have really helped me to understand the splits and Nuc process more than anyone has, anywhere.You above synopsis is the best detailed summary...
Thank you so Much
Rick
***** Cheers Rick,
Glad it helped you :)
Happy beekeeping.
David.
Hi it’s very informative video. While splitting, you introduced swarm cell queen in the lower deep box. Few queen cells are on top and then swarm queen cells. Can we introduce the upper queen cells too in the hive?
Thanks, this was very informative and so interesting. It is wonderful to get a visual example of how to carry out these activities.
Just one piece of advice; please keep the camera trained on the action rather than the person's head or the trees behind him! I keep trying to scroll down to see what is happening.
Can you make a split early in the year and still be able to harvest some honey from them?
Thanks for your hard work. =]
when would you add a rose box to these splits- they are already drawn out, so i'd have thought immeidately, or do you give 5-6 weeks for the new queen's brood to hatch and then add?
Would it be time to add a second box on either of the two splits you checked?
I have only been an apprentice beekeeper now for almost a year. I am enjoying what I am learning through work in the yard and YT videos. I am curious about the lids you are using. Do you have a theory or reason for their use? We are using top entrances, so this wouldn't work for us, but I was just curious as to the principles of your lid.
What do you suggest for a new keep to do to gather the amount of frames needed for growing gives? Bare in mind that i do not have any shop tools like saws, etc. Would it be best to just buy the frames and supers online?
Nice video. I've a question if you don't mind? I'm wondering why you favour bottom bee space over top... ?
Hi David, thank you for this video (I asked you some questions couple week ago about how to prevent the swarm) - this video is very helped; however, when it is too late to split the hive before the winter? How much honey the new split will need to survive? Will they survive if the only one deep box with 10 frames will overwinter? Thank you so much!!
Alla,
Maybe a stupid question....but I am assuming that you moved the hives far away (over 3 miles) away from the original apiary after making the split?
That is right ;)
But one can also leave them nearby if the entrance of the splits are closed for two days. Make sure air gets in of course :)
Then most of the bees stay put and very little robbing can happen. I usually also place a cover of wood infront of the enterance when I open up again. It makes it more tricky for bees to find their way into the small hive. That also prevents robbing. A third method if I have the time and this is great. I use a small pipe as enterance. Have it sticking into the split and out of it by 8 cm. Only bees belonging to that split find their way back in.
U
@@workwithnature As a beginner here.. I myself tried to transfer my whole colony of bees including the Queen from the Log Hive to the Scientific Hive as yours.
I successfully transferred all of them to their new better Home with their bees wax placed on the frame. They seemed happy and stayed there.
But to my utter disappointment all of them left(swarmed) a day after.
Please tell me what mistake have I done here.? Suggest me for my future precautions..!!
Is there a way to use your method but keep your colony at 3 or 4 boxes. I live in town and I couldn't have too many. I like the way your boxes don't imprison the queen and it is more simple.
hi can you tell me haw i keep bumblebees in my garden in winter time ?
can i make a bumble beehouse to keep them over wintering in my garden ?
I made up a nucleus in June without a queen cell, it raised a queen that started to lay OK, but then they made a single queen cell from the new brood and the first queen was superseded. It looks as though they thought that the first emergency queen wasn't good enough!
Hi David Thanks For the Tips i have a question do you have to move away your new hive for example 3 km away ?
Very Nice Video! Can we split the hive without queen cell from 1 box to 2?
hard opening jumped straight in with my fave pan petters like pippers fluite
will an empty hive attract bees when there are conditions like food and water meet?
What is the minimum distance to Transfer the Split Hive box with Old Queen as to start a new brood cells?
Iam a newbie here.
Very interesting video. Thank you for sharing this. can I also apply this method for Africanized Honey bees? I work with the Langstroth hives. Thank you.
Are you using foundationless frames or do they already have a foundation?
Thanks
Hi there, this was published in the month of August, would those splits have another Rose box added to them at that stage? tia
Great video David.
Rob from Canada Why would you not keep brood cells with the old queen, if you put some honey frames ,queen cell frames, and brood frames in a hive would end up with a new hive. I need to do splits to get more hives. I enjoy the videos
Hi Rob,
How are you.
For a nuke with the old queen:
You don't generally have to if there is a flow on and you have given a lot of empty frames too. The queen will fill them up very fast and this simulates a swarm. You also do not want to add any brood with larvae since they may turn those into emergency cells depending what bees you have. You do not want queen cells either or they probably will swarm out.
About the secondary queen cells and secondary swarm... The new cells drawn are for emergency for a good reason ! Queens can come out unhealthy or weak. Some can even be rejected after being mated with. Sometimes they don't return from the mating flight. It's important to leave the secondary cells alone. Because losing some bees is better than having queenless colonies. Older larvae don't qualify to turn into queens, it can be too late if the cells are ripped out.
More important question: Why do others practicing Apiculture discourage drone broods?
Mog of War drones don't make honey - they cost honey and pollen, and give nothing back to the hive. So a hive that makes a lot of drones produces less honey now, and also fewer workers to make honey later.
It's a balancing act, though, because if you have good genetics you want to spread them around as much as possible so any wild hives in your area will have good genetics for your future queens to mate with.
Greetings from Belarus
Great video thanks for sharing next year is my first I have 2 set ups
What time of year do you do this?
Uhhh gives me chills
Thank you
only issue was that 1st box left still needs space besides 2 frames if the box already had 10 frames of bees so what happened is a loss of honey or having frames drawn. The density was wrong after splits.
Just curious why couldn't you take food and then a frame with a queen sale and start a small colony like that
should you have put both queen cells in the other hive to insure that you get a queen?
No not a good idea, one queen cell is what you need to add or you will very likely get a secondary swarm. Also even if you just give one queen-cell bees will most often make emergency queen-cells as well. Do not believe all you read in books. These need to be torn down or the hive will swarm out till nothing is left. I have very rarely noticed the queens fighting it out and one of them to head the hive. After five days of there not being a queen in the split hive bees will not be able to make any emergency queen cells so on day five after the split I would check on them again and also make sure that your new queen is not due to hatch before then. Just caped queen cell on day 9 is a good time to make a split and go in and check on day 14 but before day 16 as that is when the new queen will hatch..
What kind of bees are your bees?
The primary races here in Finland are Italian, Krainian and Buckfast.
They are the black bee from Ireland.
Do you use treatment?
First and foremost, than you very very much, what a great video! I work with National hives but this was still a good lesson, largely transferable.
My question is; I've been told/taught that if you move hive, or split hive, and the new position is less than 2 miles or so from the original position, and more than a few feet, the bees will be confused and will fly to their original home.
How come all (or most, anyway) your bees stayed with the split and did not return to the hive left in the original position? Is it because they think they have swarmed, and therefore adapt to the new location without returning to the old home?
That is right, if you do not leave a split or colony in the original position, that is.
The way it is with the splits, as you prob know, You just shake in a number of bees. Quite a few will go home, that know the old location. But most are newly hatched and will stick to the new place. Just to say, we did move most of them more than 3km. That becomes clearer I think when you watch the other two videos.
But if you do not move them, then you have to really pack in some grass into the entrance before you leave the site. But only if your splits are small. These where big enough to fend for themselves.
This grass will shrink within 48 hours and it will stop the robing. Otherwise the bees that have now lots of the flying bees in the old spot, will for sure come and take all the honey and pollen you left. Most young will not be able to get fresh supplies right away. hence they will starve. Or dwindle.
Of course it is very important to have already a reduced entrance in both cases and then stick in the grass.
I like to close them up and go back after 48 hours. Better yet. If you were to get a small plastic pype and use that as a way of entrance into each split. Have it protruding 20 cm and you are sure to stop robbing then.
Have it also sticking into the hive by 10 cm.
Hope that helped.
Best wishes David.
At the 14 min mark you say that the splits may draw out more queen cells. I'm new to all of this, but wouldn't it require an active queen to lay eggs within them? Does it not take a new queen a couple of weeks to start laying? wouldn't they settle in at that point and not swarm? Sorry, many questions here. Cheers,J
Nope the worker bees will feed royal jelly to some of the larva and this will make emergency queen cells. This will even happen and I do not care what books say on the subject, if there is a queen cell present. So even if you do not have a queen they can still make more. Nature is smart.
Best wishes David.
Totally agree. A lot of books are just copied information from older books. Some authors who write books on bees have never kept a single bee in their lives but seem to know so much about them, when all they have done is just re worded some one else work from decades ago that clearly needs updating with new discoveries, Every thing you have said is 100% correct. This happens in the wild when an old queen dies. Some hives can be present in caves for decades. There is a guy on youtube who has a 10 year old hive that he says has not been opened for 10 years or so. People often shorten the the lives of colonies with out even realizing, Work with nature and the rewards are twice as awesome, Thanks so much for posting this video.
Solid floors or OMF?
David do you use this method ?
Hello thereI have a question pls when its the right time to do this splitting new queen to a new box (colony) or on which month maybe.
many thanks
Best answer as I don"t know your location is when your hive is over flowing with bees. More comb drawn out that way.
DOing the bee gods work bless u :)
What if you put a queen excluder in to keep them from leaving with a swarm?
Not a bad question that. Many have thought of it and some have actually tried. I have not myself for more than a few days in order to do a shook swarm. People have reported that it hinders the bees. But I personally have no experiential knowledge on doing this. Maybe anyone else who's done it for a wile could comment. I would advise against it from the perspective of the bees. Having several queens hatch and not get mated would be a problem. If the mother queen can not leave then she probably would fight it out with a newly hatching queen. At some point she may die. Also god knows what the worker bees may do. But perhaps it has an application somewhere that is beneficial for the bees.
A queen excluder will also keep the drones from leaving the hive. IMO, it's not a bad idea to use a queen excluder (for a short amount of time) on the bottom board when simulating a swarm.
@@workwithnature
I have a queen excluder in place,
I started because I had carpenter bees going in and out by the hundreds and they robbed my hive. And this worked perfectly for it.
Yes, it seems like that it is a little bit harder for the worker bees to pass through, but I did not see any bees yet with damaged wings etc. Bees with pollen will pass through and on the other hand some bees that carry syrup will pass the syrup to other bees right at the queen excluder. Bees do that anyhow inside the hive so they do not have to run so far and can concentrate foraging.
You have to remember that drones can not pass through either, but that can be a good thing as well a bad thing. If you are mating queens then you need the drones to be able to leave and to fly. If you do not need to make queen you want to keep other drones out. Drones are going from hive to hive to get their food and since drones are doing so the risk that they pick up mites and bringing them from hives to hives is very high. Drones are no more than sperm donors.
Hey, I'm hearing impaired but this doesnt have captions.
Is there any way you can make a copy with captions avalable please and thank you?
It seems like a fascinating video but I cant make out what's being talked about
Good info.
Omg you re not scared?? I ve got bees in my wall what can i do? Because i cannot sleep :( and they are so active day and night
some times there will bee multiple queens and thay will keep the one thay like and ball the others so iv herd
another question, how do u get so strong hives :O ^^
i never wanted to offend at all i am just pumped for years no ones understood deep dug funny stupid rap games
i respect but want to learn from my piers and maybe get better need inspiration from great influence and the other lads are new winner so faaarrrr love it
This can be done in Feb. if you are in Ireland, because of the nice mild spring. Bees hardly use honey in the winter, but use a lot when the brood is starting to be raised again in spring. Usually though you will have mild enough weather to feed some thick syrup, when the queen starts laying again. Or if you don't like giving sugar, check out the video I have on feeding honey. Don't be tempted to take out any frames to have a look. It will still be to cold.
Hope that helped.
Best wishes David.
Where is part 2???? I cannot find it, can anyone point me in the right direction please
Just go to me channel and see under rose hive
Why do you not want brood in the nuc/swarm box
+Luke Calls Because an actual swarm will not have any brood. If there is brood the bees will likely still try to swarm and make a replacement queen from any remaining brood. Leaving no brood is one of the main things that makes this method work.
Thank you for interesting video! We have other types of beehives but similar ways of bee swarms collecting and hiving them! By the way, welcome to Kiev,Ukraine and welcome to Petro Prokopovich Beekeeping Museum in Kiev! Good luck beekeeping! :)
Dr Victor Fursov - Entomologist Beekeeper Teacher Dr. Victor I'm new to 🐝 keeping, started with 10 boxes in Bihar, India in an orchard 400 Trees of Litchis, Mangoes, Have seen your channel, Keep in Touch, Best Regards. Please share your website, contact also.
I am a bit confused as I was under the impression the first queen to hatch killed all the others?
Worker bees can also make a ball around the queen-cells to prevent that from happening. Those queens can then do a secondary swarm and so on.
class bees
what happened to the nuc withthe original queen?
She ended up in a brood chamber as the coloney could not stay in a nuc to long
Your bees are huge! You using drone sized foundation?
yoyofargo n
I aim to do what to what Tim has done but I´ve been told by other beekeepers that large hives tend to be more aggressive than smaller hives.
No not really it is just more attacking you if they get mad :)
Work With Nature they also say that the bigger hives don't produce as much honey.
Is the opposite, the more bees the more honey.
It's smoke. I think it calms them down, or drives them back into the hive.
It also tricks them into engorging themselves with honey from uncapped cells. They become slow and less likely to sting.
In your case I would just buy the gear. You really need to be extract for making hives. This is to do with getting the bee space right, or the bees will glue all your frames to the inside of the hive. Or fill in the gaps with comb for larger gaps.
David.
Ha good one :)
I think Tim said he will post it on.
You should track him down for it hey :)
I would like to start off by saying how much I enjoy the videos. I must be missing something regarding feed. I know you don't feed sugar water, is it because you have enough forage for the bees.
I live in the USA. I have one langstroth hive. I do not want to feed, but every beekeeper here says, feed, feed, feed. The bees need this to grow the hive. When you don't feed, "sugar water, you give then a minimal chance of survival".
The bees have plenty of honey, the queen is laying eggs. I did put dry sugar in the hive for the winter, they never even touched it. I have taken two frames of honey out of the brood box, replaced with two empty frames, so she has room to lay brood. I feel that the hive is healthy. They are building nice white comb in the medium super above.
I have been told that if I only leave the honey in there, the bees will not feel the need to search for food. As far as they are concerned, they have enough honey. There are no queen cells.
Last, but not least, I have also been told we owe it to the bees to feed them, because we have them in boxes. Most come from Ca. I live in Utah. My response to that is, if the bees don't like it they will leave.
Sorry this post has been so long. I just want bees that can survive without being fed by me. I did put pollen patties in the hive. They ate it in one week. The patties were large, so I was surprised when it was all gone.
Sorry this turned in to a novel. Just really confused about feeding. I am going into my third year, and my first hive to survive. I tried tbh, they both died. I will try them again this year.
I understand the splits completely, say for one thing. I have been taught that when there are multiple queen cells in a hive, the first queen out will sting and kill the queens in the other cells, OR fight to the death until one comes out dominant if they are hatched at the same time. I don't understand why you were getting secondary or thirdly swarms from the hive with 5 uncapped queen cells. Why didn't one emerge as dominant and thus stop the hive from swarming again after the split?
I know that is what I have been taught too. But it has been my expierince that very often if left unchecked. New queens will just swarm out and there will be near no bees by the end. Even in the splits. This can be due to bees protecting the cells from new queens. It has been reported that this happens. In my Irish bees this is what I found a lot. Tim just follows the normal way and loses sometimes some swarms. But then he has a big population number.
Best wishes David.
+Ian Reeber tertiary*
My first queens out kill the rest everytime.....or the workers remove the queen larvas
All bees behave diffrent i guess
Until the queens are mated, the drive to kill the competition isn't strong. There is some evidence that the worker bees will attempt to keep the virgin queens away from each other.
yes
Greetings from Poland :)
Why does he encourage drone cells?