1) I heard Hive Alive is Back In Stock? When you scrape propolis, do you separate it from wax scrapings? 2:03 2) Ive never heard of a colony halting a swarm after the queen cells were capped. I'm thinking that consistently colder temps could be a factor. 15:31 3) I changed my bee hive entrance and the bees are scratching at the previous opening. What to do? 18:52 4) When you feed sugar syrup and dry sugar, how do you tell the difference when you take honey off so that you aren't selling or giving away honey that's tainted with sugar? 24:41 5) When it comes to packing down my hive, I have a medium super with a hole in the middle. Should I rotate the box down and add a slatted rack? 34:44 6) Would you talk about your Layens and Long Langs regarding your overwintering plans? 40:09 7) My Bee Inspector Squished My Queen... after I shared that it was from my original colony from a shed cut-out in spring. "Florida regulations require all queens to be from a certified queen breeder because of concern for Africanized bees." 55:05
Hello, I’m a New beekeeper and I am learning so much from your videos. Your video/audio production is R+++. I’m always looking forward for your Friday Q&A. I can only imagine the time you spend getting these videos together and cannot thank you enough for taking the time and sharing all your knowledge and experiences! From a fellow Pennsylvania beekeeper Thank You!!
Thanks Frederick. As a second year beekeeper one of the challenges is knowing what to ask. That's why I love your channel. The questions that get asked and the answers you provide continues to increase my knowledge and understanding. Thanks for doing this for us. How's your observation hives doping? i may have missed an update.
I'm so glad to be a part of your learning journey. The observation hives are all doing very well, and they requeened themselves at the end of summer, all but one. So they have young queens and should manage winter well. Thanks for asking.
Hey Frederick, thanks for the shout-out for our horizontal hives. The bees have taken to it very well, as always, there have been some teething issues, but in general it is going well. I’ll be opening access up to the super section in a couple of weeks not that spring build-up is well and truly underway.
Fred, I made sleeves for my hives from double bubble last winter. I got free double bubble bags from PetSmart (they get their fish packed in the bags) and was able to use a heat sealer to create bags that fit tightly over the hives. I'll send you pics. The hives came through winter fine.
Requeening in southern states FYI: Fairly sure there is a similar rule in Texas - another Podcast I love is called The HiveJive & John was doing removals as part of his business. I have a memory that all of his removals have to go to a quarantine apiary & be requeened before use / sale.
Fred and Rachel, I'm a registered beekeeper in Texas and I've never heard of the rules your viewer cites regarding requeening or quarantining of bees moved during colony relocation. And Texas is known to have scutellata ("Africanized") genetics, especially in the southern counties. John Swan of The Hive Jive would know -- in fact, Fred-- John would make a superb interview subject someday. He's a great guy and so articulate.
@@davidhorsley4657 Thanks for sharing what you know, David. I haven't looked into the Texas regulations at all. She referenced Hive Jive as the source of that information. I'd check in with the Dept. of Ag for current regulations/restrictions. :)
Good golly, Mug up at the Dunn's, hello everyone. 46F and dark out at 5:16 am. We have had 3 spotty frost with the low of the fall @ 30F so far. The frost has brought out the fall foliage, especially, the reds. absolutely beautiful. The best time of year here in New Hampshire, unless you like winter, as I do. Bees are still finding pollen and in the last 2 days have been bringing in quite a bit. I have some light hives that I am feeding heavy syrup, hopefully for 1 more week. I waited all night to watch this Q&A. I have my insulated coffee mug and let's see if I can have a hot cup through the show. On to the show!...I just had a thought about fondant on top of the frames and what effect the thermal mass of the fondant patty might have on the temperature in the hive. You definitely would have to factor in consumption rate, but what do you think?... Wow! Great timely information. Coffee still hot in my thermos mug. Thanks Fred, for another great Q&A, have a great weekend!
Thanks for watching! I think thermal mass associated with fondant is just too fluid to track unless someone really wanted to plot that data. I'm comfortable with the static insulation rating of the inner cover and then double-bubble on top of that, at least there are no variables there other than outside weather conditions and internal bee numbers.
Hi Fred, Greetings From Claremont, NH and Kearsarge Beekeepers Association. I like the rapid round feeders and I used your recommendation to use it as a dry sugar feeder for the winter. Yes, there are some dead bees on the sugar. I figure any moisture from the sugar would condense into a sugar patty. It worked! and 3 to of 4 hives are alive. BUT I'm amazed at the moisture puddles in the plastic rapid round edges. I still used the lids. That much moisture???? What if we had a worse winter. I had put the rapid rounds on the inner cover, maybe directly on the double deep would have been better? In learning how to keep bees, I've collected so much stuff. I Insulated used reflex/foam boards/and made attic insulation pillows out of burlap bags for my hive top boxes, then covers. Hives were wrapped anticipating the long winter. A lot of moisture was diverted, but this was a surprise. I'm thinking of throwing a tarp over everything next winter accept the entrances.
I'm so glad your colonies did well this winter! The insulation over the rapid round is very important. I'm happy to see condensation inside the rapid round cover near dry sugar as that's very important for the bees to be able to process that sugar, if it were too dry it's almost not usable for them. If you wanted to do an experiment next winter, use the rapid rounds on some while using fondant packs from Hive Alive on others. They both seal up ventilation so that's important, and they both benefit from that humidity/condensation that occurs in the packet, or rapid round cover. If there isn't enough insulation above, or there is airflow through there the condensation rises when the dewpoint is achieved. So, very important to use a very good insulator above your emergency winter feed. I see the water in the feeder as a benefit so long as the rising warmth from the bee cluster is retained. :)
@@FrederickDunn my rapid feeders were the 4 quart square ones. so you don’t think that putting the feeder on the top board was an error? My “insulated pillows “made a neat and an easy way to check on a cold day. I’ll line everything with reflex again. I’ll fill it completely with sugar. Once I wrap, I don’t go in again till spring. A great time to go on vacation.
I know beekeepers who get swarms in FL and they don't requeen unless they are very agressive. They collect a couple a day plus the cut outs out of various places. It's a don't ask don't tell situation for most. Lessons learned.
That seems practical, but it's a stressor knowing you're operating outside of State regulations. Better to update the regulations with some variables in my opinion.
Hi Ross, I already found out and posted links in the video description. It's strange, but true, in Florida, if you capture a swarm of bees you are required to dispatch the queen and "buy" a queen from a registered queen breeder. I am very happy that this is not the case in my State. (';')... seems a little over the top, but then I don't know what kind of bee genetics issues they are facing.
inspiring video about using Reflectix. i have to reconsider how to insulate my wooden feeder boxes for winter. I was putting 2" XPS snag fitted inside and in February I was adding a sugar block under the XPS. It could be simpler with "double bubble'. I had no upper ventilation and ~ R-26 as a roof insulation.
You probably could use a aquarium heater in your syrup when it’s cold outside if your close enough to run power to it. I wonder if it would be better if you also put a piece of foam board, sandwiched between that double bubble or would that defeat the airspace? The foam board is also full of air.
@@FrederickDunn I was in the middle of editing my question when you answered back. Your too quick at responding 😂 I also had a suggestion (above) about insulation. Not sure if it would help or defeat the purpose?
A queen can mate with 50+ random drones on her mating flight. One or more could be from an africanized hive. Depending on which sperm she uses to fertilize her eggs, the ratio of her progeny that are africanized will vary from brood cycle to brood cycle.
@@FrederickDunn twelve is the average per the 2007 science daily article “For Honey Bee Queens, Multiple Matings make Her Attractive to Workers”. They estimate up to 40 are possible. Apparently the more drones mates the more attractive the queen the hive with stronger pheromones. I have seen estimates of up to 80 but since they are all guesses who really knows. If Florida was serious about fighting africanized bees they they would require the whole hive to be destroyed as the drones has the same dna as the queen and would pass them to another queen. The workers has the same dna and could create another queen as well if their hive went queenless. The approved breeders would need to breed queens in a controlled environment so they knew exactly what drones were breeding with her. Additionally, once you had an approved queen, you would need queen excluder on you hive entrance to keep her from possibly breeding again with a drone from an africanized queen in the wild. When you think this through, africanized genes are here to stay. You can only respond to the level of defensiveness of a particular hive. Maybe some sort of test where you can create a standard. I saw a video where a moving piece of red cloth was waived in front of an agitated hive. Normal bees only stung it a few times. Africanized stung it hundreds. the difference was very apparent. If the hive is above the safety standard the whole hive is destroyed. The state could certify each hive with the test but it would need to be recertified each time there was a new queen. This would have a fee of course and commercial beekeepers and farmers who need them would scream plus the price of honey would go way up. All states would have to do it but so would Canada and Mexico as swarms travel. Of course this would never happen. I guess my point is that since the africanized DNA cannot be reasonably controlled, it would be up to each beekeeper to test their hives for dangerous defensiveness and destroy hives as needed. If we have highly publicized law suites over death or sever injury to the public by excessively africanized bees, the Insurance industry will force beekeepers to be more responsible in destroying such hives by refusing to insure them or massively increase the cost of the insurance. Here is the problem with a test. If there is a test and you knew your hive was africanized, you could be liable for death and injury of people, livestock, pets etc. If there is a test and you didn’t test your hive, you could be liable. All you need in one rulling and that becomes the legal precedent cited in later cases. Today without a test, you could play dumb and hope for “an act of God” ruling. Aside from doing the right thing to protect people, livestock and pets from your africanized hive, what beekeepers (especially commercial) need to pray for is that no law firm sees bee injury as a lucrative opportunity for litigation as this would trigger the insurance companies to react.
Thank you so much for your thorough response about sugar honey versus flower honey! I'd been wondering about it for a long time. Short answer I guess, play it safe don't let them mix if you're going to bottle. I guess you can't really tell them apart under the caps from just looking at it unless it were 100% pure white cane sugar honey and it really stood out super white/clear, and I suppose most of the time they're mixing each cell with multiple different sources since each cell probably gets dozens or hundreds of visits to fill. I think this last February my dead hive had some crystallized sugar in the open cells (I never fed them raw sugar but the rich slurry I bottle fed them in December probably settled to the bottom and then dehydrated once in the cells), but I'm not really sure what it was. I scraped some honey off to bottle but there was a boundary layer where gradually went from what looked like capped honey to white crystallized open cells, and even some odd looking Elmer's gluey stuff I didn't want to take a chance on. I'm glad you like the name, one of my sister's favorite words growing up was 'mush' 😂. I'm going to rewatch this q&a like three times to get it down pat thanks again. Mush! 🛷 🐶 🦌
I think you described that well, when you see those white clumps in honey-super cells, it's highly likely that's from heavy sugar syrup fed to that hive. Best not to feed it when you have plans for harvesting. I did a video of a Flow-Hive to show what can happen if you leave the super on and don't have a queen excluder, you can see the white substance you're talking about I think: Look at 01:07 in this video ruclips.net/video/-EDiFw6gxEc/видео.html
@@FrederickDunn thanks for that vid link from 5 years ago that's perfect that's exactly what my crystallized sugar looked like. And the Elmer's glue stuff maybe that was liquefied Michellen men after a wet dry wet dry winter dieoff thaw
Mr Dunn: I believe you said that you let the bees clean out the wet super frames before you store them. I tried that, set them far apart down a long driveway, and the bees are killing each other in mass, and ripping apart all that beautiful drawn comb down to the foundation. It’s a crazy frenzy. I normally put them back on the hive in summer, but I didn’t want to disturb the hives repeatedly and bring sticky supers into the apiary (takes them just minutes to go crazy). I have at least 2, some 3, supers for each of 10 hives - how do I get that back on without mayhem? I’m afraid I have no choice, though, because I have too many for the freezer, and I’m sure ants and other pests will come for the feast if I just put them back in the barn. How also do you keep the bees from backfilling the wet supers? Some say to leave an empty super and then the wet super over the inner cover, versus putting them right over the active hive, another person said to put them in upside down (frames tied in). Another person said don’t worry about mold and just store them - screen the top and bottom of wet stacks and shim up so air can flow through, and they should be fine. I don’t mind extra work, but do want to minimize apiary disturbances so the bees can prep for winter. Sounds so simple to do. Everything I try creates mass chaos. Thoughts?
Hi Frederick, great video, Reflexit makes a tape that works well and looks good with the reflective bubble wrap, also Hillbilly Beekeeper Earl did some research on hivealive fondant and apis.biologix supplement products, what he found was hivealive gets much of it proteins from Irish seaweed and the key ingredient of both products is an amino product called proline, it bonds with stored carbohydrates in the bees fatty tissue and helps boost the carbs potential as it's used up extending each winter bees potential. LOL, IDK, they could both be "snake oil" products, that's why I pull enough capped honey and heavy pollen frames and freeze then to thaw later and give back to the bees that need it.
It's definitely best to leave them with enough resources, but I also do trust the labs used by Hive Alive to produce their products. Earl is definitely good at taking a deeper look into things :) Yep, seaweed extracts, and hand harvested btw :)
I have had nothing but issues so far with the hive gates. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong but I put them on before I installed two new packages to the hives. The one hive refused to use it and made a second entrance. They used both the hive gate and the second entrance all year. The other package did not make another entrance, had very little activity, I checked them and they had a huge die off the week of installation and it blocked the hive gate. I then took the hive gate off, tried to help that colony, but they were just not strong enough. These were healthy bees, the gate was installed right. Not sure why so many died off, then the blockage seemed to kill more. This was all within a week of install. That hive ultimately failed. The other hive that made a new entrance did really well. I blocked off the new entrance they made going into winter. This spring, I opened the box and all the bees were dead inside, it didn't appear to be blocked, but it seems like moisture did them in. I don't top vent or have any other vents. I had a solid bottom board, slatted rack, hive gate entrance, 1 full deep and a medium super. It was moldy inside the hive and bees had perished with no signs of any disease or anything else. I'm almost afraid to try the hivegate again due to these experiences. Maybe I need to make changes? Did I do something wrong? I'm pretty sure it was installed right, and they were using it while they had their other chewed out entrance. They just used both at that point, so I knew they could use it. Maybe some tips? It was pretty sad that both hives had such a hard time with those.
Thank you for sharing your results. Just some things to consider. The inventor does not want us to have slatted racks on the Hive Gate units. Keeping any entrance clear is critical, including the Hive Gates (inspect often), Did you provide sugar syrup on top of an "insulated inner cover" for that package install? Some early die-offs are due to lack of nutrition/carbohydrates, not the Hive Gate Entrance. Because the entrances are working under a variety of climate zones, I think there may be something else challenging your colonies. However, with a single entrance of any design, you have to keep it clear. The number one cause of dead bees on the bottom this time of year is starvation. You can run down the check list from there. I hope you'll give it another try.
@@FrederickDunn so I did have feed on for my package bees since they were just starting out. I kept checking to see if they needed more as well. One just didn't go well at all, but the other was fine, and had made themselves that second entrance. Then they perished during the winter this winter and there was a lot of mold in the hive (which I've never had happen before, so it was almost like it wasn't ventilated or blocked somehow. Do you think the slatted rack could be my issue here? I really like my slatted racks, but I'm wondering if they are somehow interfering with the hive gate entrance some how? Have you experienced this being an issue?
About the squishing of the queen in Florida thing, may I suggest you have a conversation with Dr Leo on this subject. He has a background to shed some light on the matter…. And I don’t think you can put it on YT but it could help you understand why he takes the position he has in certain things… just a suggestion! 🎉
Dr. Leo recycles his own bees right back to his apiary. His opinion on purchasing queens, packages, or nucleus hives is that it's a waste of money and is exactly what the industry wants you to do. His stance is pretty clear, and I agree, make your own splits and recapture your own swarms, but maybe those days are numbered if the ideas in Florida get traction. I'm told that my own State is about to make some changes that "backyard beekeepers won't like". So, I'm waiting.
Hi Fred. I fought SHB all year Upstate NY. What can I do different next year? It's like wack-a-mole when I take off the innercovers for weekly inspections. I use beetle traps with oil applecider vinegar crisco boric acid,swifter sheets, peppermint candy and my hive tool. My hives are mostly in the sun. I have carpet and tarps under my hives to keep grape vine and weeds away. Thanks Fred! Carolanne
Hi Carol, I have something else for you to try, please watch my interview with Atreya Manaswi, he has a remarkable test that he's done with SHB and the use of beer as the bait. It's an interesting story. I hope you'll watch.
@@FrederickDunn Fred, I started watching then switch back to episodes I missed of yours. I will definitely go back and finish watching the interview of this remarkable young man. Thank you!
Awesome as always Fred, great content. Very interesting about the bee inspector who squished their queen. Seems like controlling genetics 🧬 or governments making decisions not based on facts just assumptions. Sounds familiar to my past experiences in my early teens being inexperienced and another beekeeper destroying our hive instead of just re-queening. Not understanding genetics 🧬 at the time until later in my early 20’s, then realising we could have saved them and perhaps we wouldn’t have been attacked any more. Also I seen Kat’s video just last week interesting hives. Thanks again TrickyTrev 🇦🇺👍🐝🍯
I agree someone isn't being well-informed in the area of bee genetics. Maybe I would understand if she did that to a recently hived swarm, but not one that's been in place long enough to know their behavior and traits. Thanks for sharing your thoughts :)
Thé flow frames in the Lang Mr Dunn are already tipped through the way that section was built while the rest of the hive isn’t.. they thought about this detail. I am not in the flow hive but I am always impressed by how some people are so inventive! « GUI » is pronounced As »Ghee » like in Ghee butter.
Hey Suzanne, thanks for recommending my hive video, I appreciate not only that you watched it, but that you thought it was interesting enough to recommend it to Frederick. Thanks. ❤ And yes, I am very lucky that my husband is such a talented and creative craftsman.
@@Kat_Andrews Hi Kay in Australia! I am in Canada so bees here are shutting down and yours are starting their new season. I was more than pleased to recommend your channel… hope it brings more attention to your channel. Joe you have a nice season.
@@Kat_Andrews Hi Kat in Australia! I am in Canada so bees here are shutting down and yours are starting their new season. I was more than pleased to recommend your channel… hope it brings more attention to your channel. Joe you have a nice season.(I ment Kat, sorry)
@@suzanneguiho4882 thanks. Yes, my bees are ramping up very quickly now. I am actually in New Zealand, not Australia, but going by my accent, it’s an easy mistake to make. Have a great day.
Thank you Frederick Dunn. You are appreciated. I'm working on watching all your videos. So much great info in them. Got a funny for ya. None of your bees minds will be controlled by aliens 👽 sorry that popped in my head with the double bubble.
That's what I understand. Thanks. Here where I reside, I'd really dislike having to requeen one of my own swarms, but I understand that genetics in Florida are headed in a different direction which requires that intervention.
Hi again Suzanne, this is interesting, if Dr. Leo lived in Florida, he wouldn't be permitted to keep bees the way he is and has been. I'm very grateful not to reside in Florida... you must inspect monthly, and you cannot collect and hive swarms without removing and replacing the queen. You must buy in queens from certified queen breeders. This is their attempt to control the spread of Africanized genetics as well as mandate best practices in their State. forms.fdacs.gov/08492.pdf I highly suspect many keepers in Florida are simply not registered. I'm sure they have their reasons.
@@FrederickDunn Mr Dunn I think you are a sweet man but I think the Africanize thingy is a pretext for something else! I know a conspirator.. blah.. blah.. blah ! What I at the end.. well look at what is happening in agriculture in Holland…my Dad (RIP) 30 years ago saw it coming… some think that that will never come to the US/America…. Hummmm! I remember you saying in one of the first video I saw from your channel when you had received the visit of an inspector. got beekeepers to not feel uncomfortable with the inspectors. Well from what you heard going on in Florida and whatever is incoming in your state in the near future… do you have the same opinion. You don’t have to answer… my suggestion is hide your bees… well some of them!
Hello Fred…. wanting to know how you are going to use your cleaning tool on the Apimaye hives? I have 2 and not sure how I will be able to do that. Thank you for saying how you will be putting the fondant packs in the feeders. I will try that😀
Hi Anita, well, I can't apparently. So, if those entrances appear plugged, I'll have to poke through those holes with chop-sticks, or put my endoscope in there to see what the situation is as winter continues... there will be a lot to observe this winter, and we'll adapt as the seasons pass. :)
Fred, I live in Utah and am a first year beekeeper of two hives. They both are doing well as we prepare for winter. At our bee association some of the members shared their use of Quilt Boards with wood chips. Others didn't use the quilt board. What are your thoughts about the use of the quilt board during winter. Thanks. Gordon
Hi Gordon, I've long since stopped allowing any top venting and also no upper entrances. The bees selection of activities when left to themselves, and when permitted to close up screens in the top of hives, demonstrates that top venting/quilt boards aren't something they would choose to have in their spaces. Insulation of the inner cover and top of the hive are key to preventing condensation over the bees, and that's far more effective than allowing warm air to vent off throughout winter. Here in my climate, they work against the bee's conservation of energy in winter. I hope that helps in your decision-making.
I'm in Arizona where all feral bees are considered africanized. We make a point of requeening from out of state sources that have known genetics, not certified, just known, every time we have a capture, cut out, or split. There is no regulation requiring this of us, and there are some keepers, out in the boonies, who choose to work with africanized colonies. The fact that Florida doesn't really have the africanized bees in their area, like TX, NM, AZ and southern CA do, makes this regulation simply ridiculous.
They actually do have a growing problem with Africanized stock spreading there. According to the University of Florida and their Dept. of Ag. I guess they are really trying to control that with pervasive breeding programs. I would not be at all happy to have a good quality productive queen "pinched" by an inspector so far after the collection date when I'd already know the disposition of the bees.
@@FrederickDunn Someone needs to retrain inspectors to know what they're looking for... Even if they had said "you need to requeen with, blah blah blah" and left you to do it...
I agree it’s crazy to kill the queens. Here in Virginia u r supposed to request any captured swarm of u known genetics within 30 days. My thoughts is that if the hive was strong enough to swarm then I would like to have those genetics unless I find them to be aggressive. And seems like getting rid of bees that may have figured out the key to surviving with varroa (if they were a feral hive?
Te questions: Insulation: what are you going to use to absorb the humidity? No. If frames question for the Layens: you said 45 to 50 pounds. Dr Leo’s suggest. A full frame of honey on each side of the brood nest. Each frame is between 8 to 10 pounds. (Never weighed one) plus the honey on top of the brood nest should come to about that. I think Tom Seeley also mentions about 50 pounds. The person that asked you the question wanted to know « how many frames of honey for the Layens ». Question: You mentioned that you once had a colony of 12 frames of brood going into winter. I would like to know how many of does bees survived the winter. The reason I am asking this is because I suspect that out of these bees there were a lot of summer bees that died out. I sent you a study on winter bees by the University of Guelf and that study gives us an idea of the % of winter bees that are produced for the winter and if all of your 12 frames were winter bees that would not support their findings.Just curious here??? Thank you for your video as always packed with info. I too use the « double bubble » insulation and have done so for the past 5 years ever since I saw Ian Steppler use it on all his hive. I put it as you did inside the the cover. There is the air gap between it and the top of the frames. I did however do like you intend to do try putting a sheet on top of the frames to add insulation. But I discovered a lot of water droplets on the side of the double bubble and that added humidity to the hive. The idea of using wool on top is not only for insulation but also to absorb the humidity. Also you did not mention the importance of raising the follower board for the winter as to leave an air circulation at the bottom. This Dr Leo also suggests. The wool cover/ pillow to be put on top of frames should not block the crack under the follower board and obstruct the air/ humidity from escaping from underneath. He puts 3 screws under the said board that he does not fully screw in and that lifts the board about a 1/4 inch or so from the bottom of the hive. Well that is my two cents for this one. Permit me to add an impression which is the category of a value judgement so take it for what it’s worth. You are in the Langstroph mind set and there are details for the Layens that are being skipped over. Wish you luck for the winter for all your bees in whatever box they are in🎉.
I don't do anything to absorb the humidity. With insulation in the top, and no top venting, condensation forms on the sidewalls below the cluster. I'm not 100% in line with Dr. Leo's management approach. I don't use pillow tops or even the bat with wool for the top. If I fail my bees, I'll share about that in spring. I don't think my thermal concepts are locked to the Langstroth design, so much as how bees cycle air through any cavity they occupy. The hive top insulation value should exceed the sidewall insulation and offer no air movement through the top. Yes, the brood will be much reduced, and workers will decline. Winter bees "should" form their long-term cluster and gradually migrate through honey resources. The Layens offers more verticle resources than the Long Langstroth does, If early thermal readings are accurate and continue to show more warmth retention, then they should be able to migrate laterally. If the bees were able to move across the comb without having to move from comb to comb, they would have another advantage. So for example, in the Long Langstroth, if the comb ran parallel to the long axis of the hive, the bees would simply move along the face of the comb/honey uninterrupted. But, I'm testing the Long Lang as is for now. We'll see. There are many things I like about Dr. Leo's approach to bee husbandry and others that just don't work for me anyway. Thankful that there are many content producers sharing a variety of options that help keepers arrive at their own methods and practices. When there is a removal, or rip out of a large feral colony of bees, I always want to know the size of the space, the orientation of the cavity, the way the bees have arranged their comb, and what ventilation is available to them. Overwhelmingly, there is a single entrance regardless of the orientation (vertical or horizontal) of the cavity they are occupying. It makes sense to me.
The last set I received from my favorite source "Apis" have the extension. I just put the rapid round on a board with a hole through the center for those versions. They seem to have and not have that feature without any predictability.
In Florida, apparently, if you capture a swarm of bees you are required to replace the queen with one from an approved Queen Breeder - I was skeptical, but here it is - forms.fdacs.gov/08492.pdf
how is pollen collected for pollen patties? and what kind of pollen do they usually collect? its hard for me to understand how they get soo much pollen.... and to me it smells like chamomile, so im guessing thats at least one of the ingredients in the patty.
That's a great question! I've asked the producers directly about the pollen in their patties. I also asked Randy Oliver regarding the pollen source in the patties utilized in his study. The answer I received from everyone so far, is that it's "American Pollen from California", I could not get answers regarding what plant the pollen comes from, or it's a mix of many floral sources. The test results have been good, so regarding the actual pollen, I guess it's just whatever they happen to have trapped for the patties. The pollen content certainly drives up the price/value.
thanks mr dunn ,i reread my email notification, your right the fondant will be available in a week,sorry for any confusion,...interesting stuff about the wax with propolis, i usually mix it all together too,i know some make propolis tinctures w everclear,....i had a similar thing with queen cell recently,queen was there,but been reduced brood,and resources plus few drones so i culled the small underdeveloped cell,all seems fine,friends told me never cull a q cell but its a risk i took since the queen was there and looked ok to me,,i did order some global hive alive patties ,i understand about boosting from supplements, and just letting the environment provide,but i wanted to use up some older stock of pollen patties,thank you,i have yet to try ultra bee,
I hope those patties show a return on the investment :) Can't hurt. The studies showed often that there was only a marginal increase, or no increase at all going into winter, so the risk was just that you may waste your $$, so I'm ok with trying it.
Well what did you expect out of Florida, every box of tomatoes grown in south Florida carries $2 inspection fee before they can cross into North Florida, they don't inspect a single tomato, they collect the fee and stamp the bill of laden at a truck weigh station at the Suwannee River, that's where the driver tosses 2 canisters of methyl bromide gas inside trailer and by the time he gets the GA. Farmers Market in Atlanta they are pink and not pale green anymore.
Agreed, just saying Florida is money pit for everything and I wouldn't their certified queen rules. I wouldn't live there if they gave me the place, where I'm at is 2 hours from the beach or the blue Ridge Mountains.
Hopefully the bee inspector got stung on her nose the very next Hive she opened 😂, fab episode as always , have a great weekend and happy horror movie watching 👻
It's just part of the design, I've found the insulated and uninsulated hives perform equally here where I live, but it is critical to have insulated covers in my opinion.
got me some double bubble,great info on improved r value,cant wait to see your hot pockets, observation hives,btw my double bubble is like 5/16 ,or so kinda thick,how thick is your version?
I'm not sure of the thickness, but I think I did get some reflectex that isn't actually "double" bubble, but rather "single bubble" with aluminized facing on both sides. Either way, it's a vast improvement for such thin material..
That Florida bee inspector wouldn't happen to be a queen breeder by any chance, would he? I'd kick him right off the premises and sue him personally for damage to my livestock, and the State for carelessly allowing him to hold an inspection license. I very much doubt if there is any law allowing such destructive behaviour except for reasons of disease, never mind mandating it. It would be equivalent to allowing dog wardens to just turn up and shoot "dangerous" breeds - although as most of us know it is the owners, not the breeds, which are dangerous. Because I call BS - according to that, you can't even breed your own - which you are possibly not even aware of as hives will requeen themselves, as well as swarm, possibly when you aren't around to observe it and may just think that hive is a bit slow building up in the spring, or shutting down a bit early at the end of the season. No splits to prevent swarming, either. And are the "approved" breeders all paying for DNA testing of all queens and all progeny from every drone they mated with?
Hi Phil, the inspector is a "she", and it actually looks like it is a Florida policy. I provided a link, and you can also probably go to the Florida State Beekeeper's Association page to see what the regulations actually are. I agree, it seems a tad sketchy. BUT, here it is - If you collect a swarm, you are required to requeen it - forms.fdacs.gov/08492.pdf
@@FrederickDunn The laws of nature (just as those of physics) outweigh the laws of man, and I'm not even certain that there is any legislation allowing enforcement of such an arbitrary regulation.
Ya, well, I'll take that risk :) always ask questions and if you don't like what they are doing, it's time to start contacting the decision makers for more information.
Hey Frederick you might want to check out the killer bee guy I'd like to know what your thoughts are on it my own personal thoughts are this guy needs to be re-educated he's relying on 30-year-old technology and is murdering honey bees
I have no idea who that is? The Killer Bee Guy? Is that a RUclips channel name? All we can do is share what we are doing and the logic behind whatever approach we use. We really can't police others and I really don't want to. There are so many keepers out there and they all have their own convictions. It's all I can to do keep up with my own. :)
I'm in AZ like he is... I can't stand him... I often comment to him that his practices break my heart. I get that sometimes a colony is an immediate danger to the area and may have to be euthanized... or that sometimes multiple requeening attempts fail and again, the colony has to be euthanized... but to say that no one should keep bees in the state and that all bees should be killed here is simply horrible.
@@FrederickDunn yeah sorry Fred I didn't give you more information it's a RUclips channel guy I just happened to roll across it I've never really been this disgusted he's spray adhesive on bees this guy does run into Killer Bees but if you watch the last two episodes he's running into honey bees he treats them all the same it's disgusting I was so upset I sent it too dirt rooster and geoffry.
@@sh9downonme71 No problem, all we can do is hope that people become better educated regarding levels of defensiveness and how to manage any given situation. Have you shared your thoughts with him? Thanks for sharing.
1) I heard Hive Alive is Back In Stock? When you scrape propolis, do you separate it from wax scrapings? 2:03
2) Ive never heard of a colony halting a swarm after the queen cells were capped. I'm thinking that consistently colder temps could be a factor. 15:31
3) I changed my bee hive entrance and the bees are scratching at the previous opening. What to do? 18:52
4) When you feed sugar syrup and dry sugar, how do you tell the difference when you take honey off so that you aren't selling or giving away honey that's tainted with sugar? 24:41
5) When it comes to packing down my hive, I have a medium super with a hole in the middle. Should I rotate the box down and add a slatted rack? 34:44
6) Would you talk about your Layens and Long Langs regarding your overwintering plans? 40:09
7) My Bee Inspector Squished My Queen... after I shared that it was from my original colony from a shed cut-out in spring. "Florida regulations require all queens to be from a certified queen breeder because of concern for Africanized bees." 55:05
Thank you Adam
Hello, I’m a New beekeeper and I am learning so much from your videos. Your video/audio production is R+++. I’m always looking forward for your Friday Q&A. I can only imagine the time you spend getting these videos together and cannot thank you enough for taking the time and sharing all your knowledge and experiences! From a fellow Pennsylvania beekeeper Thank You!!
Thank you so much, what a nice comment!
Ditto ❤️
“R”?
We used “R+” in the military as a quick way of recognizing great work.
Agreed! Thanks so much!
Thanks Frederick. As a second year beekeeper one of the challenges is knowing what to ask. That's why I love your channel. The questions that get asked and the answers you provide continues to increase my knowledge and understanding. Thanks for doing this for us. How's your observation hives doping? i may have missed an update.
I'm so glad to be a part of your learning journey. The observation hives are all doing very well, and they requeened themselves at the end of summer, all but one. So they have young queens and should manage winter well. Thanks for asking.
Hey Frederick, thanks for the shout-out for our horizontal hives. The bees have taken to it very well, as always, there have been some teething issues, but in general it is going well. I’ll be opening access up to the super section in a couple of weeks not that spring build-up is well and truly underway.
You are very welcome, and I hope it all goes well for you with that fun hive configuration. :)
Fred, I made sleeves for my hives from double bubble last winter. I got free double bubble bags from PetSmart (they get their fish packed in the bags) and was able to use a heat sealer to create bags that fit tightly over the hives. I'll send you pics. The hives came through winter fine.
That's very interesting! So the double bubble foil surface did ok when exposed to the weather? Nice find, getting them from PetSmart!
Requeening in southern states FYI: Fairly sure there is a similar rule in Texas - another Podcast I love is called The HiveJive & John was doing removals as part of his business. I have a memory that all of his removals have to go to a quarantine apiary & be requeened before use / sale.
Thanks for sharing, I had not heard of the Texas regulations requiring requeening of all captures. I wonder if Texas Beeworks is aware of that?
Fred and Rachel, I'm a registered beekeeper in Texas and I've never heard of the rules your viewer cites regarding requeening or quarantining of bees moved during colony relocation. And Texas is known to have scutellata ("Africanized") genetics, especially in the southern counties. John Swan of The Hive Jive would know -- in fact, Fred-- John would make a superb interview subject someday. He's a great guy and so articulate.
@@davidhorsley4657 Thanks for sharing what you know, David. I haven't looked into the Texas regulations at all. She referenced Hive Jive as the source of that information. I'd check in with the Dept. of Ag for current regulations/restrictions. :)
It was a few years ago so my memory is probably wrong - maybe he just quarantined & requeened as a routine ~ risk of scutalata genetics.
Good golly, Mug up at the Dunn's, hello everyone. 46F and dark out at 5:16 am. We have had 3 spotty frost with the low of the fall @ 30F so far. The frost has brought out the fall foliage, especially, the reds. absolutely beautiful. The best time of year here in New Hampshire, unless you like winter, as I do. Bees are still finding pollen and in the last 2 days have been bringing in quite a bit. I have some light hives that I am feeding heavy syrup, hopefully for 1 more week. I waited all night to watch this Q&A. I have my insulated coffee mug and let's see if I can have a hot cup through the show. On to the show!...I just had a thought about fondant on top of the frames and what effect the thermal mass of the fondant patty might have on the temperature in the hive. You definitely would have to factor in consumption rate, but what do you think?... Wow! Great timely information. Coffee still hot in my thermos mug. Thanks Fred, for another great Q&A, have a great weekend!
Thanks for watching! I think thermal mass associated with fondant is just too fluid to track unless someone really wanted to plot that data. I'm comfortable with the static insulation rating of the inner cover and then double-bubble on top of that, at least there are no variables there other than outside weather conditions and internal bee numbers.
Hi Fred, Greetings From Claremont, NH and Kearsarge Beekeepers Association.
I like the rapid round feeders and I used your recommendation to use it as a dry sugar feeder for the winter. Yes, there are some dead bees on the sugar. I figure any moisture from the sugar would condense into a sugar patty. It worked! and 3 to of 4 hives are alive. BUT I'm amazed at the moisture puddles in the plastic rapid round edges.
I still used the lids. That much moisture???? What if we had a worse winter. I had put the rapid rounds on the inner cover, maybe directly on the double deep would have been better?
In learning how to keep bees, I've collected so much stuff.
I Insulated used reflex/foam boards/and made attic insulation pillows out of burlap bags for my hive top boxes, then covers. Hives were wrapped anticipating the long winter. A lot of moisture was diverted, but this was a surprise. I'm thinking of throwing a tarp over everything next winter accept the entrances.
I'm so glad your colonies did well this winter! The insulation over the rapid round is very important. I'm happy to see condensation inside the rapid round cover near dry sugar as that's very important for the bees to be able to process that sugar, if it were too dry it's almost not usable for them. If you wanted to do an experiment next winter, use the rapid rounds on some while using fondant packs from Hive Alive on others. They both seal up ventilation so that's important, and they both benefit from that humidity/condensation that occurs in the packet, or rapid round cover. If there isn't enough insulation above, or there is airflow through there the condensation rises when the dewpoint is achieved. So, very important to use a very good insulator above your emergency winter feed. I see the water in the feeder as a benefit so long as the rising warmth from the bee cluster is retained. :)
@@FrederickDunn my rapid feeders were the 4 quart square ones. so you don’t think that putting the feeder on the top board was an error? My “insulated pillows “made a neat and an easy way to check on a cold day. I’ll line everything with reflex again. I’ll fill it completely with sugar. Once I wrap, I don’t go in again till spring. A great time to go on vacation.
@@dmanc53 Insulate over and under the feeder, and I think you're fine :)
Always enjoy you're answers and questions. Learned alot.
I know beekeepers who get swarms in FL and they don't requeen unless they are very agressive. They collect a couple a day plus the cut outs out of various places. It's a don't ask don't tell situation for most. Lessons learned.
That seems practical, but it's a stressor knowing you're operating outside of State regulations. Better to update the regulations with some variables in my opinion.
Thank you Fred, have a great weekend ✌️
I will bet when you started this series, you never imagined it would still be going strong at 178!
True, I certainly thought I'd run out of topics to talk about. Yet, here we are :)
Thanks for answering my question Fred. Great information, very helpful. Please let us know next week what you found out about Florida and Queens.
Hi Ross, I already found out and posted links in the video description. It's strange, but true, in Florida, if you capture a swarm of bees you are required to dispatch the queen and "buy" a queen from a registered queen breeder. I am very happy that this is not the case in my State. (';')... seems a little over the top, but then I don't know what kind of bee genetics issues they are facing.
@@FrederickDunn I listen to Jamie Ellis' podcast. I'll submit a question about it and try to get the backstory.
inspiring video about using Reflectix. i have to reconsider how to insulate my wooden feeder boxes for winter. I was putting 2" XPS snag fitted inside and in February I was adding a sugar block under the XPS. It could be simpler with "double bubble'. I had no upper ventilation and ~ R-26 as a roof insulation.
Glad it was helpful! Always fun to try something new. :)
love the idea of a offset feeder hole
You probably could use a aquarium heater in your syrup when it’s cold outside if your close enough to run power to it. I wonder if it would be better if you also put a piece of foam board, sandwiched between that double bubble or would that defeat the airspace? The foam board is also full of air.
That's an interesting suggestion. Thanks.
@@FrederickDunn I was in the middle of editing my question when you answered back. Your too quick at responding 😂 I also had a suggestion (above) about insulation. Not sure if it would help or defeat the purpose?
A queen can mate with 50+ random drones on her mating flight. One or more could be from an africanized hive. Depending on which sperm she uses to fertilize her eggs, the ratio of her progeny that are africanized will vary from brood cycle to brood cycle.
Where did you come up with 50+ matings? That's more than double what dna sampling has validated. I'd like know more about that, thanks.
@@FrederickDunn twelve is the average per the 2007 science daily article “For Honey Bee Queens, Multiple Matings make Her Attractive to Workers”. They estimate up to 40 are possible. Apparently the more drones mates the more attractive the queen the hive with stronger pheromones. I have seen estimates of up to 80 but since they are all guesses who really knows.
If Florida was serious about fighting africanized bees they they would require the whole hive to be destroyed as the drones has the same dna as the queen and would pass them to another queen. The workers has the same dna and could create another queen as well if their hive went queenless.
The approved breeders would need to breed queens in a controlled environment so they knew exactly what drones were breeding with her. Additionally, once you had an approved queen, you would need queen excluder on you hive entrance to keep her from possibly breeding again with a drone from an africanized queen in the wild.
When you think this through, africanized genes are here to stay. You can only respond to the level of defensiveness of a particular hive. Maybe some sort of test where you can create a standard. I saw a video where a moving piece of red cloth was waived in front of an agitated hive. Normal bees only stung it a few times. Africanized stung it hundreds. the difference was very apparent. If the hive is above the safety standard the whole hive is destroyed.
The state could certify each hive with the test but it would need to be recertified each time there was a new queen. This would have a fee of course and commercial beekeepers and farmers who need them would scream plus the price of honey would go way up. All states would have to do it but so would Canada and Mexico as swarms travel. Of course this would never happen.
I guess my point is that since the africanized DNA cannot be reasonably controlled, it would be up to each beekeeper to test their hives for dangerous defensiveness and destroy hives as needed. If we have highly publicized law suites over death or sever injury to the public by excessively africanized bees, the Insurance industry will force beekeepers to be more responsible in destroying such hives by refusing to insure them or massively increase the cost of the insurance.
Here is the problem with a test. If there is a test and you knew your hive was africanized, you could be liable for death and injury of people, livestock, pets etc. If there is a test and you didn’t test your hive, you could be liable. All you need in one rulling and that becomes the legal precedent cited in later cases.
Today without a test, you could play dumb and hope for “an act of God” ruling. Aside from doing the right thing to protect people, livestock and pets from your africanized hive, what beekeepers (especially commercial) need to pray for is that no law firm sees bee injury as a lucrative opportunity for litigation as this would trigger the insurance companies to react.
Thank you so much for your thorough response about sugar honey versus flower honey! I'd been wondering about it for a long time. Short answer I guess, play it safe don't let them mix if you're going to bottle. I guess you can't really tell them apart under the caps from just looking at it unless it were 100% pure white cane sugar honey and it really stood out super white/clear, and I suppose most of the time they're mixing each cell with multiple different sources since each cell probably gets dozens or hundreds of visits to fill. I think this last February my dead hive had some crystallized sugar in the open cells (I never fed them raw sugar but the rich slurry I bottle fed them in December probably settled to the bottom and then dehydrated once in the cells), but I'm not really sure what it was. I scraped some honey off to bottle but there was a boundary layer where gradually went from what looked like capped honey to white crystallized open cells, and even some odd looking Elmer's gluey stuff I didn't want to take a chance on. I'm glad you like the name, one of my sister's favorite words growing up was 'mush' 😂. I'm going to rewatch this q&a like three times to get it down pat thanks again. Mush! 🛷 🐶 🦌
I think you described that well, when you see those white clumps in honey-super cells, it's highly likely that's from heavy sugar syrup fed to that hive. Best not to feed it when you have plans for harvesting. I did a video of a Flow-Hive to show what can happen if you leave the super on and don't have a queen excluder, you can see the white substance you're talking about I think: Look at 01:07 in this video ruclips.net/video/-EDiFw6gxEc/видео.html
@@FrederickDunn thanks for that vid link from 5 years ago that's perfect that's exactly what my crystallized sugar looked like. And the Elmer's glue stuff maybe that was liquefied Michellen men after a wet dry wet dry winter dieoff thaw
Mr Dunn: I believe you said that you let the bees clean out the wet super frames before you store them. I tried that, set them far apart down a long driveway, and the bees are killing each other in mass, and ripping apart all that beautiful drawn comb down to the foundation. It’s a crazy frenzy. I normally put them back on the hive in summer, but I didn’t want to disturb the hives repeatedly and bring sticky supers into the apiary (takes them just minutes to go crazy). I have at least 2, some 3, supers for each of 10 hives - how do I get that back on without mayhem? I’m afraid I have no choice, though, because I have too many for the freezer, and I’m sure ants and other pests will come for the feast if I just put them back in the barn. How also do you keep the bees from backfilling the wet supers? Some say to leave an empty super and then the wet super over the inner cover, versus putting them right over the active hive, another person said to put them in upside down (frames tied in). Another person said don’t worry about mold and just store them - screen the top and bottom of wet stacks and shim up so air can flow through, and they should be fine. I don’t mind extra work, but do want to minimize apiary disturbances so the bees can prep for winter. Sounds so simple to do. Everything I try creates mass chaos. Thoughts?
I'll talk about this tomorrow... there are so many options that I think, I'll explain why I arrived at my current method.
Ya I wouldn't want my bees chewing plastic either.👍
Hi Frederick, great video, Reflexit makes a tape that works well and looks good with the reflective bubble wrap, also Hillbilly Beekeeper Earl did some research on hivealive fondant and apis.biologix supplement products, what he found was hivealive gets much of it proteins from Irish seaweed and the key ingredient of both products is an amino product called proline, it bonds with stored carbohydrates in the bees fatty tissue and helps boost the carbs potential as it's used up extending each winter bees potential. LOL, IDK, they could both be "snake oil" products, that's why I pull enough capped honey and heavy pollen frames and freeze then to thaw later and give back to the bees that need it.
It's definitely best to leave them with enough resources, but I also do trust the labs used by Hive Alive to produce their products. Earl is definitely good at taking a deeper look into things :) Yep, seaweed extracts, and hand harvested btw :)
If it weren't for bees, there would be no produce sections at the supermarkets and grocery stores.
I have had nothing but issues so far with the hive gates. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong but I put them on before I installed two new packages to the hives. The one hive refused to use it and made a second entrance. They used both the hive gate and the second entrance all year. The other package did not make another entrance, had very little activity, I checked them and they had a huge die off the week of installation and it blocked the hive gate. I then took the hive gate off, tried to help that colony, but they were just not strong enough. These were healthy bees, the gate was installed right. Not sure why so many died off, then the blockage seemed to kill more. This was all within a week of install. That hive ultimately failed. The other hive that made a new entrance did really well. I blocked off the new entrance they made going into winter. This spring, I opened the box and all the bees were dead inside, it didn't appear to be blocked, but it seems like moisture did them in. I don't top vent or have any other vents. I had a solid bottom board, slatted rack, hive gate entrance, 1 full deep and a medium super. It was moldy inside the hive and bees had perished with no signs of any disease or anything else. I'm almost afraid to try the hivegate again due to these experiences. Maybe I need to make changes? Did I do something wrong? I'm pretty sure it was installed right, and they were using it while they had their other chewed out entrance. They just used both at that point, so I knew they could use it. Maybe some tips? It was pretty sad that both hives had such a hard time with those.
Thank you for sharing your results. Just some things to consider. The inventor does not want us to have slatted racks on the Hive Gate units. Keeping any entrance clear is critical, including the Hive Gates (inspect often), Did you provide sugar syrup on top of an "insulated inner cover" for that package install? Some early die-offs are due to lack of nutrition/carbohydrates, not the Hive Gate Entrance. Because the entrances are working under a variety of climate zones, I think there may be something else challenging your colonies. However, with a single entrance of any design, you have to keep it clear. The number one cause of dead bees on the bottom this time of year is starvation. You can run down the check list from there. I hope you'll give it another try.
@@FrederickDunn so I did have feed on for my package bees since they were just starting out. I kept checking to see if they needed more as well. One just didn't go well at all, but the other was fine, and had made themselves that second entrance. Then they perished during the winter this winter and there was a lot of mold in the hive (which I've never had happen before, so it was almost like it wasn't ventilated or blocked somehow. Do you think the slatted rack could be my issue here? I really like my slatted racks, but I'm wondering if they are somehow interfering with the hive gate entrance some how? Have you experienced this being an issue?
About the squishing of the queen in Florida thing, may I suggest you have a conversation with Dr Leo on this subject. He has a background to shed some light on the matter…. And I don’t think you can put it on YT but it could help you understand why he takes the position he has in certain things… just a suggestion! 🎉
Dr. Leo recycles his own bees right back to his apiary. His opinion on purchasing queens, packages, or nucleus hives is that it's a waste of money and is exactly what the industry wants you to do. His stance is pretty clear, and I agree, make your own splits and recapture your own swarms, but maybe those days are numbered if the ideas in Florida get traction. I'm told that my own State is about to make some changes that "backyard beekeepers won't like". So, I'm waiting.
@@FrederickDunn I wasn’t referring to the sqishing of queen per say. Humm don’t know how to say this. I’ll send it in an e-mail.
Hi Fred. I fought SHB all year Upstate NY. What can I do different next year? It's like wack-a-mole when I take off the innercovers for weekly inspections. I use beetle traps with oil applecider vinegar crisco boric acid,swifter sheets, peppermint candy and my hive tool. My hives are mostly in the sun. I have carpet and tarps under my hives to keep grape vine and weeds away. Thanks Fred!
Carolanne
Hi Carol, I have something else for you to try, please watch my interview with Atreya Manaswi, he has a remarkable test that he's done with SHB and the use of beer as the bait. It's an interesting story. I hope you'll watch.
@@FrederickDunn Fred, I started watching then switch back to episodes I missed of yours. I will definitely go back and finish watching the interview of this remarkable young man. Thank you!
Miller high life it is. Gonna try the beetle blasters I've been using a diffrent style.
V
Awesome as always Fred, great content. Very interesting about the bee inspector who squished their queen. Seems like controlling genetics 🧬 or governments making decisions not based on facts just assumptions. Sounds familiar to my past experiences in my early teens being inexperienced and another beekeeper destroying our hive instead of just re-queening. Not understanding genetics 🧬 at the time until later in my early 20’s, then realising we could have saved them and perhaps we wouldn’t have been attacked any more. Also I seen Kat’s video just last week interesting hives. Thanks again TrickyTrev 🇦🇺👍🐝🍯
I agree someone isn't being well-informed in the area of bee genetics. Maybe I would understand if she did that to a recently hived swarm, but not one that's been in place long enough to know their behavior and traits. Thanks for sharing your thoughts :)
Randy McAffrey gave you a nice shout-out recently.
Wow, well, Randy is a fantastic individual! It's great to be one of his many friends :)
Thé flow frames in the Lang Mr Dunn are already tipped through the way that section was built while the rest of the hive isn’t.. they thought about this detail. I am not in the flow hive but I am always impressed by how some people are so inventive!
« GUI » is pronounced As »Ghee » like in Ghee butter.
Hey Suzanne, thanks for recommending my hive video, I appreciate not only that you watched it, but that you thought it was interesting enough to recommend it to Frederick. Thanks. ❤
And yes, I am very lucky that my husband is such a talented and creative craftsman.
@@Kat_Andrews Hi Kay in Australia! I am in Canada so bees here are shutting down and yours are starting their new season.
I was more than pleased to recommend your channel… hope it brings more attention to your channel. Joe you have a nice season.
@@Kat_Andrews Hi Kat in Australia! I am in Canada so bees here are shutting down and yours are starting their new season.
I was more than pleased to recommend your channel… hope it brings more attention to your channel. Joe you have a nice season.(I ment Kat, sorry)
@@suzanneguiho4882 thanks. Yes, my bees are ramping up very quickly now. I am actually in New Zealand, not Australia, but going by my accent, it’s an easy mistake to make. Have a great day.
@@Kat_Andrews LOL sorry…
great Q&A, have a fantastic week yourself.
Thank you! You too!
Thank you Frederick Dunn. You are appreciated. I'm working on watching all your videos. So much great info in them.
Got a funny for ya. None of your bees minds will be controlled by aliens 👽 sorry that popped in my head with the double bubble.
Not sure about that intro music… but the video and of course your teaching is top notch.
Music is always highly subjective :)
You can get cut outs etc… but you have to re-queen the hive.
That's what I understand. Thanks. Here where I reside, I'd really dislike having to requeen one of my own swarms, but I understand that genetics in Florida are headed in a different direction which requires that intervention.
I have found this video on a conversion hive from a Lang to a Layens. Very inventive. May help some of your subscribers. 🎉
Hi again Suzanne, this is interesting, if Dr. Leo lived in Florida, he wouldn't be permitted to keep bees the way he is and has been. I'm very grateful not to reside in Florida... you must inspect monthly, and you cannot collect and hive swarms without removing and replacing the queen. You must buy in queens from certified queen breeders.
This is their attempt to control the spread of Africanized genetics as well as mandate best practices in their State. forms.fdacs.gov/08492.pdf I highly suspect many keepers in Florida are simply not registered. I'm sure they have their reasons.
@@FrederickDunn Mr Dunn I think you are a sweet man but I think the Africanize thingy is a pretext for something else! I know a conspirator.. blah.. blah.. blah ! What I at the end.. well look at what is happening in agriculture in Holland…my Dad (RIP) 30 years ago saw it coming… some think that that will never come to the US/America…. Hummmm!
I remember you saying in one of the first video I saw from your channel when you had received the visit of an inspector. got beekeepers to not feel uncomfortable with the inspectors. Well from what you heard going on in Florida and whatever is incoming in your state in the near future… do you have the same opinion. You don’t have to answer… my suggestion is hide your bees… well some of them!
Hello Fred…. wanting to know how you are going to use your cleaning tool on the Apimaye hives? I have 2 and not sure how I will be able to do that. Thank you for saying how you will be putting the fondant packs in the feeders. I will try that😀
Hi Anita, well, I can't apparently. So, if those entrances appear plugged, I'll have to poke through those holes with chop-sticks, or put my endoscope in there to see what the situation is as winter continues... there will be a lot to observe this winter, and we'll adapt as the seasons pass. :)
Hello Dear Frederick 🥰🥰🥰🥰
Hello, Enrico!
@@FrederickDunn Have a nice day 🥰🥰🥰🥰
Fred, I live in Utah and am a first year beekeeper of two hives. They both are doing well as we prepare for winter. At our bee association some of the members shared their use of Quilt Boards with wood chips. Others didn't use the quilt board. What are your thoughts about the use of the quilt board during winter. Thanks. Gordon
Hi Gordon, I've long since stopped allowing any top venting and also no upper entrances. The bees selection of activities when left to themselves, and when permitted to close up screens in the top of hives, demonstrates that top venting/quilt boards aren't something they would choose to have in their spaces. Insulation of the inner cover and top of the hive are key to preventing condensation over the bees, and that's far more effective than allowing warm air to vent off throughout winter. Here in my climate, they work against the bee's conservation of energy in winter. I hope that helps in your decision-making.
I'm in Arizona where all feral bees are considered africanized. We make a point of requeening from out of state sources that have known genetics, not certified, just known, every time we have a capture, cut out, or split. There is no regulation requiring this of us, and there are some keepers, out in the boonies, who choose to work with africanized colonies. The fact that Florida doesn't really have the africanized bees in their area, like TX, NM, AZ and southern CA do, makes this regulation simply ridiculous.
They actually do have a growing problem with Africanized stock spreading there. According to the University of Florida and their Dept. of Ag. I guess they are really trying to control that with pervasive breeding programs. I would not be at all happy to have a good quality productive queen "pinched" by an inspector so far after the collection date when I'd already know the disposition of the bees.
@@FrederickDunn Someone needs to retrain inspectors to know what they're looking for... Even if they had said "you need to requeen with, blah blah blah" and left you to do it...
Wow another great video, excellent info regarding insulation. Thank you Fred. The killing of the queen by the inspector is just insane.
I'm with you, Kennith!
I agree it’s crazy to kill the queens. Here in Virginia u r supposed to request any captured swarm of u known genetics within 30 days. My thoughts is that if the hive was strong enough to swarm then I would like to have those genetics unless I find them to be aggressive. And seems like getting rid of bees that may have figured out the key to surviving with varroa (if they were a feral hive?
Te questions:
Insulation: what are you going to use to absorb the humidity?
No. If frames question for the Layens: you said 45 to 50 pounds. Dr Leo’s suggest. A full frame of honey on each side of the brood nest. Each frame is between 8 to 10 pounds. (Never weighed one) plus the honey on top of the brood nest should come to about that. I think Tom Seeley also mentions about 50 pounds.
The person that asked you the question wanted to know « how many frames of honey for the Layens ».
Question: You mentioned that you once had a colony of 12 frames of brood going into winter. I would like to know how many of does bees survived the winter. The reason I am asking this is because I suspect that out of these bees there were a lot of summer bees that died out. I sent you a study on winter bees by the University of Guelf and that study gives us an idea of the % of winter bees that are produced for the winter and if all of your 12 frames were winter bees that would not support their findings.Just curious here???
Thank you for your video as always packed with info.
I too use the « double bubble » insulation and have done so for the past 5 years ever since I saw Ian Steppler use it on all his hive. I put it as you did inside the the cover. There is the air gap between it and the top of the frames. I did however do like you intend to do try putting a sheet on top of the frames to add insulation. But I discovered a lot of water droplets on the side of the double bubble and that added humidity to the hive.
The idea of using wool on top is not only for insulation but also to absorb the humidity. Also you did not mention the importance of raising the follower board for the winter as to leave an air circulation at the bottom. This Dr Leo also suggests. The wool cover/ pillow to be put on top of frames should not block the crack under the follower board and obstruct the air/ humidity from escaping from underneath. He puts 3 screws under the said board that he does not fully screw in and that lifts the board about a 1/4 inch or so from the bottom of the hive.
Well that is my two cents for this one.
Permit me to add an impression which is the category of a value judgement so take it for what it’s worth. You are in the Langstroph mind set and there are details for the Layens that are being skipped over. Wish you luck for the winter for all your bees in whatever box they are in🎉.
I don't do anything to absorb the humidity. With insulation in the top, and no top venting, condensation forms on the sidewalls below the cluster. I'm not 100% in line with Dr. Leo's management approach. I don't use pillow tops or even the bat with wool for the top. If I fail my bees, I'll share about that in spring. I don't think my thermal concepts are locked to the Langstroth design, so much as how bees cycle air through any cavity they occupy. The hive top insulation value should exceed the sidewall insulation and offer no air movement through the top. Yes, the brood will be much reduced, and workers will decline. Winter bees "should" form their long-term cluster and gradually migrate through honey resources. The Layens offers more verticle resources than the Long Langstroth does, If early thermal readings are accurate and continue to show more warmth retention, then they should be able to migrate laterally. If the bees were able to move across the comb without having to move from comb to comb, they would have another advantage. So for example, in the Long Langstroth, if the comb ran parallel to the long axis of the hive, the bees would simply move along the face of the comb/honey uninterrupted. But, I'm testing the Long Lang as is for now. We'll see. There are many things I like about Dr. Leo's approach to bee husbandry and others that just don't work for me anyway. Thankful that there are many content producers sharing a variety of options that help keepers arrive at their own methods and practices. When there is a removal, or rip out of a large feral colony of bees, I always want to know the size of the space, the orientation of the cavity, the way the bees have arranged their comb, and what ventilation is available to them. Overwhelmingly, there is a single entrance regardless of the orientation (vertical or horizontal) of the cavity they are occupying. It makes sense to me.
Where can you purchase the round in hive feeders you showed on the video
I just get them from Amazon. The yellow round feeders have a lower capacity, but are built stronger.
Thanks for the video Fred! Do you know the name/model rapid round that has the bottom opening that does not extend past the bottom of the feeder?
The last set I received from my favorite source "Apis" have the extension. I just put the rapid round on a board with a hole through the center for those versions. They seem to have and not have that feature without any predictability.
crazy florida inspector youd think the demeanor of the bees would play into the determination if africanized bees are in your apiary
In Florida, apparently, if you capture a swarm of bees you are required to replace the queen with one from an approved Queen Breeder - I was skeptical, but here it is - forms.fdacs.gov/08492.pdf
how is pollen collected for pollen patties? and what kind of pollen do they usually collect?
its hard for me to understand how they get soo much pollen.... and to me it smells like chamomile, so im guessing thats at least one of the ingredients in the patty.
That's a great question! I've asked the producers directly about the pollen in their patties. I also asked Randy Oliver regarding the pollen source in the patties utilized in his study. The answer I received from everyone so far, is that it's "American Pollen from California", I could not get answers regarding what plant the pollen comes from, or it's a mix of many floral sources. The test results have been good, so regarding the actual pollen, I guess it's just whatever they happen to have trapped for the patties. The pollen content certainly drives up the price/value.
@@FrederickDunn do you have any info on how they collect soo much pollen?
thanks mr dunn ,i reread my email notification, your right the fondant will be available in a week,sorry for any confusion,...interesting stuff about the wax with propolis, i usually mix it all together too,i know some make propolis tinctures w everclear,....i had a similar thing with queen cell recently,queen was there,but been reduced brood,and resources plus few drones so i culled the small underdeveloped cell,all seems fine,friends told me never cull a q cell but its a risk i took since the queen was there and looked ok to me,,i did order some global hive alive patties ,i understand about boosting from supplements, and just letting the environment provide,but i wanted to use up some older stock of pollen patties,thank you,i have yet to try ultra bee,
I hope those patties show a return on the investment :) Can't hurt. The studies showed often that there was only a marginal increase, or no increase at all going into winter, so the risk was just that you may waste your $$, so I'm ok with trying it.
@@FrederickDunn here i have to be careful because of hive beetle larve,so usually dictates the amount of pattie,so it can be consumed in short time
He may have found himself in the south 40.
The inspector was a "she" and she was complying with Fla. State Regs apparently
forms.fdacs.gov/08492.pdf
Well what did you expect out of Florida, every box of tomatoes grown in south Florida carries $2 inspection fee before they can cross into North Florida, they don't inspect a single tomato, they collect the fee and stamp the bill of laden at a truck weigh station at the Suwannee River, that's where the driver tosses 2 canisters of methyl bromide gas inside trailer and by the time he gets the GA. Farmers Market in Atlanta they are pink and not pale green anymore.
What? Too many moving parts for me, Carl. I think there is more going on than we have the time to track.
Agreed, just saying Florida is money pit for everything and I wouldn't their certified queen rules. I wouldn't live there if they gave me the place, where I'm at is 2 hours from the beach or the blue Ridge Mountains.
Hopefully the bee inspector got stung on her nose the very next Hive she opened 😂, fab episode as always , have a great weekend and happy horror movie watching 👻
Thanks, Darren, I definitely enjoy scary movies :)
Fred we always subscribe to shut out
Who are the shut outs, and why were they shut out? Are we talking about drones? Just teasing of course...
Fred, wouldn’t stapling the double bubble provide areas for hive battlesbeatles to hide?
I haven't seen that yet. Maybe someone who deals with heavy SHB infestations will provide more input on that potential issue.
Fred your wife is lucky to have a guy like you. Show her this txt lol
Can you tell me the hight of the opening in the hivegate? It appears smaller than 3/8 in.
Sure, the outside dimension of the entrance at the outside is 2 3/8" wide by 3/8" high, with the opening being 5/16"
@@FrederickDunn thank you
Why does the Lands require so much insulation compared to the vertical hives. I live in Seattle. should I be insulating now?
It's just part of the design, I've found the insulated and uninsulated hives perform equally here where I live, but it is critical to have insulated covers in my opinion.
I have had that condition my whole life..... ???? Running all around my head ???? 🥴🤨
Great vdo
Thanks, Peter.
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got me some double bubble,great info on improved r value,cant wait to see your hot pockets, observation hives,btw my double bubble is like 5/16 ,or so kinda thick,how thick is your version?
I'm not sure of the thickness, but I think I did get some reflectex that isn't actually "double" bubble, but rather "single bubble" with aluminized facing on both sides. Either way, it's a vast improvement for such thin material..
I completely agree that the inspector's rationale is ridiculous. Sounds to me like there's an inside job happening in Florida...
There may be more to it than we know, but I have some concerns regarding that action on an established colony.
That Florida bee inspector wouldn't happen to be a queen breeder by any chance, would he?
I'd kick him right off the premises and sue him personally for damage to my livestock, and the State for carelessly allowing him to hold an inspection license.
I very much doubt if there is any law allowing such destructive behaviour except for reasons of disease, never mind mandating it.
It would be equivalent to allowing dog wardens to just turn up and shoot "dangerous" breeds - although as most of us know it is the owners, not the breeds, which are dangerous.
Because I call BS - according to that, you can't even breed your own - which you are possibly not even aware of as hives will requeen themselves, as well as swarm, possibly when you aren't around to observe it and may just think that hive is a bit slow building up in the spring, or shutting down a bit early at the end of the season. No splits to prevent swarming, either.
And are the "approved" breeders all paying for DNA testing of all queens and all progeny from every drone they mated with?
Hi Phil, the inspector is a "she", and it actually looks like it is a Florida policy. I provided a link, and you can also probably go to the Florida State Beekeeper's Association page to see what the regulations actually are. I agree, it seems a tad sketchy. BUT, here it is - If you collect a swarm, you are required to requeen it - forms.fdacs.gov/08492.pdf
@@FrederickDunn The laws of nature (just as those of physics) outweigh the laws of man, and I'm not even certain that there is any legislation allowing enforcement of such an arbitrary regulation.
Be careful not to question government bureaucrats and beehive inspectors it may be considered hate speech and censored from RUclips.
Ya, well, I'll take that risk :) always ask questions and if you don't like what they are doing, it's time to start contacting the decision makers for more information.
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Trust me that guy killed queen he better go home rt now
It was a woman, and she was complying with Florida's regulations... I thought it was a little nutty, but here it is: forms.fdacs.gov/08492.pdf
Hey Frederick you might want to check out the killer bee guy I'd like to know what your thoughts are on it my own personal thoughts are this guy needs to be re-educated he's relying on 30-year-old technology and is murdering honey bees
I have no idea who that is? The Killer Bee Guy? Is that a RUclips channel name? All we can do is share what we are doing and the logic behind whatever approach we use. We really can't police others and I really don't want to. There are so many keepers out there and they all have their own convictions. It's all I can to do keep up with my own. :)
I'm in AZ like he is... I can't stand him... I often comment to him that his practices break my heart. I get that sometimes a colony is an immediate danger to the area and may have to be euthanized... or that sometimes multiple requeening attempts fail and again, the colony has to be euthanized... but to say that no one should keep bees in the state and that all bees should be killed here is simply horrible.
@@FrederickDunn yeah sorry Fred I didn't give you more information it's a RUclips channel guy I just happened to roll across it I've never really been this disgusted he's spray adhesive on bees this guy does run into Killer Bees but if you watch the last two episodes he's running into honey bees he treats them all the same it's disgusting
I was so upset I sent it too dirt rooster and geoffry.
@@Amethyst1919 I absolutely agree with you, I am AZBORN, don't live there anymore though
@@sh9downonme71 No problem, all we can do is hope that people become better educated regarding levels of defensiveness and how to manage any given situation. Have you shared your thoughts with him? Thanks for sharing.