1) When I get stung in spring it hurts worse and I swell larger than normal. Do winter bees have stronger venom than bees the rest of the year? 5:08 2) Is it safe to assume you no longer use the 2" tall round feeders anymore? 14:47 3) At the feeder, are Africanized bees pretty much the same as others. Are they only dangerous at their hive? 21:40 4) Do you have a Weather Station, and if so, which one? 31:52 5) What are your thoughts on bee behavior during the eclipse? 40:55 6) I was wondering in your area what would be the earliest that you would consider doing a walkaway split? 50:25 7) One of our hives swarmed 3 days ago and they are 20 feet up a tangled tree. 1:01:55
Congratulations on 250 episodes 🎉 I can proudly say I have tuned in for almost all of them weekly as I started my beekeeping journey in the fall of 2019. Successfully got my first honey in 2020. A huge thank you for all the help and answers to questions over the years. You have become a beacon of the RUclips hobbyist beekeeping community. Here’s to 250 more ! 😊 Thank you Fred
Well Fred, 11-20"of snow headed my way through Sunday, Ah, New Hampshire. We may lose power on this on. Thanks for posting! Safety first. I have seen all your Q&As. Thanks for all the knowledge.
Congrats on 250. Look forward to getting a chuckle every week from your read between the lines humor. Come on Ken 14 bucks! :,-) I mostly admire your knowledge. Thanks for teaching. Mark
I can’t believe I made it on a Friday!! Anyone else catch a swarm yet ? I caught a swarm last Saturday in an empty long hive 😀let the games begin 🎉😋🇺🇸🐝
Thank you for making these videos and congratulations on 250. We look forward to many more. Also, I grow weary of the seemingly "right of passage" on wearing protection. My husband found out, at 60, that he is highly allergic to honeybee venom . Thank you for addressing that. Great questions with very informative explanations. Always well done.
Thank you so much! I'm a fan of good personal protective clothing when it's needed. I know there are naked beekeepers out there, and I say good for them (';'). I get PTSD watching Randy Oliver in his baggy shorts and sandles. On more than one occasion, I've finished in the apiary, returned to my desk only to get that "feeling" that something is crawling up the back of my leg. Sure enough, a honey bee right behind my knee inside my pants. It's not an indicator of beekeeping experience, but a case of personal choice. At Cornell, if you had gloves on during hive inspections, you would not pass. But I get that, we need maximum dexterity when manipulating frames.
Thanks Fred, great information. I found,so far, that a motion sensor light with 2 one hundred watt lights keep most things away from my hives so far. I've lost 2 hives to bears before the and none since. The fence didn't work because the ground gets to dry here in the summer. SW OREGON.
This was a great episode; I think it was one of my favorites! I wrote notes for comments but, everything was noteworthy! Looking forward to seeing if the eclipse conditions are right to show anything the rest speaks for itself, you are a great teacher of what should be thought about. My notes were too long so I will leave it at that.
Great show Fred. Betsy and I loved it. Congratulations on show 250. Keep making entertaining and informative videos and we always look forward to the Friday Q&A to usher in the weekend. Pete
I went to the local fire dept and police dept in my little town to give them my number to rescue bees free for people and they said they don’t do bee calls and they tell people to call an exterminator. Our police department isn’t very well liked from all the Facebook comments I see in our town’s Facebook group. I had a married couple come today and buy 4 crape Myrtles from me and they said their neighbor had a huge hive in a wall and they killed them. Some people don’t even attempt to save them. Our education system needs to teach kids we need pollinators before they grow up to be ignorant adults.
We definitely have a lot to learn. A dead colony in the wall of a house smells just like any large dead animal. Not a great move. Here, the exterminators won't proceed once they find they are honey bees. Sorry about the general attitude there.
As always, thank you for all your videos, all are helpful and informative and much appreciated. I have a question about the swarming process with regard to scout bees in particular. How far in advance of a swarm actually departing from a hive do scout bees start searching for and exploring new potential homes? Thank you for considering my question.
Yes! When I met him at the conference, I just wanted to do "something" to help get the word out. A very modest, experienced beekeeper with an idea that he acted on. We need more innovators with simple solutions that just make sense :)
Oh, there’s a product for this? I am not yet a beekeeper.. I hd a free university training once online, but I never did it. Still wanting to get into this hobby, the bee’s need us!
As you know , I live in your old stomping grounds from your navy days in southern Maryland, we are having some really warm days but then super wet windy days , I have bees bringing in boatloads of nectar and pollen , my fruit trees are budding and the bazillions of Bradford pears , eastern redbuds , locust etc etc etc are all blooming and budding , the sad thing is that all of the care and mite treatments and winter prep and I still lost a good bit of bees , the couple times tornados and sustained wind storms whizzed right next to my farm and the extreme weather/winds wiped out some of my best healthy and strong colonies and the bees that survived over winter the best were the all natural bees I did not treat and paid the least amount attention to, I was blown away by the fact that if I would have just left my bees to nature I would have the same amount of survivors or more , because I’m already catching swarms in mid march 😀
Yup. Snow here too in Wisconsin. Not surprised, last year it snowed in May but bees brooding up more than last year earlier. So now worried. But they were bringinh in pollen with our mock spring.
I was listening to our climateologist and he said that this will be a much longer pollen period this spring, extended by several weeks. I can believe it, seeing all of the pollen that's streaming into the hives.
What a wonderful video … information overload (what a wonderful problem to have). I really like the idea attracting clustered bees onto a frame and then placing the frame into a frame cage. I myself will probably place them into a regular hive box … once they are in the hive box I would put a hive cover… the box would then go over a queen excluder and then a regular bottom. This would eliminate the risk of possible damaging the queen when playin her in a cage. I would remove the queen excluder after several days. All theoretical now.
Yep first sting of the year is an important one. I react more I thought coz I haven’t been stung for 6 months. I embrace getting it out the way. Gotta build my tolerance up each spring.
Morning Fred. . . Doing my Catch Up Viewing of Episode 250 on Sat 23rd March. Its supposed to be x3rd Day of Spring. Yet here in Scotland 🏴 its gone super Cold again. . . (Flurries of Snow on the Hills pending !) So we are having similar conditions to you Stateside. (But not as bad re Temps or Snow load.) The poor Bees rush out when a bit of Sun shows : to nab a bit of Crocus, Daffodil or Tree Catkin Pollens. Then rush in to semi-cluster again. 🙄 My neighbours Ornamental Flowering Cherry Tree. . . Nearly pops, then tightens up those Buds from the Cold Winds etc. Bless. . . Guess Spring hasnt sprung yet ! 😵💫 Love your slow-mo Snow Footage at the beginning of todays Episode. 🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝 Happy Beekeeping 2024 🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝 Questioner re Bee Stings and Spring Bad Reaction : Will also have NOT HAD any or many 'Stings thru Winter.' So his body will react 'more' in Spring with that 1st Sting of the New Bee Season, as his Immunity has to build up again. Its well known that Senior Beeks who may have had say x60yrs plus of Bee Stings, go and see their Bee Pals, have a Chat and Catch Up and get themselves 'Stung' in order to keep their Sting Reaction low by keeping their Immunity strong. 💪
@@FrederickDunn guaranteed Mr Fred it will get your attention. I have a question do you know anybody that has Rhode Island chickens. I've had them all my life until about 8 months ago and the the men I got mine from they have passed away or I just can't find them
I can confirm that deer mice find their way back, when I was a preteen or so, we caught one in the dog kibble bin and marked its tail with magic marker and turfed it outside, caught it again the next night, took it down the road, caught it again, then I put it in a hamster cage and had a pet mouse for a while till it escaped while I was handling it and it decided not to come back :) Only bit me once, I was pretty happy about that, I'd had worse behaved domestic hamsters! Congrats on 250 episodes! I've learned a lot from you, hopefully enough not to lose so many hives this season like we did last season (2 die-outs and 2 robbings before we put the Apivar in in September, a couple absconds when we put the Apivar in, and we'd had a plethora of queen and laying issues all summer after doing splits so the brood production was low in a few cases and we had some freeze-outs, even found the rather small queen in one little tennis-ball sized clump of bees... At least we seem to have had one of the swarms we caught survive the winter so far, active on warm days and continuing to devour their Hive Alive fondant.
Since my Apiary is in the path of totality, i've done a bit of research on the eclipse. Surprising, the majority of research basically states that they treat it like dusk and will return, will ground themselves, etc. Definitely an event to watch. I was in St Louis several years ago for the last eclipse.
Hi Brian! That's exactly what I expect them to do. :) It's just darkness to them. Let's hope for super clear skies! What are you going to record if anything?
@FrederickDunn I'm going to use all of my GoPros, I have the 9, 11, and 12. I do need to test them out and get everything set for that day. We are planning to drive up by the Lake that day. My place will have totality, but only around 1 minute 30 seconds. I figure drive an hour to the lake where totality will last longer.
I'm looking forward to using my swarmreacher. I attached a eyelet to the top so I can attach a line. I've caught swarms over 60 feet up by casting a fishing line with a 3/4 " steel nut or anything heavy enough to cast over the branch and attaching a heavier line and pulling up and over to shake later. I stand under the swarm with a upside down beach umbrella and give the rope a hard shake. The swarmreacher will allow me to hoist a frame up instead of shaking. Fun.....
I've never had a queen sting me directly but I have had one sting my glove. So if I hadn't had a glove on I would have gotten a queen sting. I did notice she was able to plunge her stinger into the glove and pull it back out without getting stuck. I use Ambient Weather station and I found the humidity in the outdoor temperature-humidity sensors tend to become inaccurate. I've replaced mine 3 times. This last time it started to get inaccurate I just got a z-wave humidity sensor to work with my home automation system directly.
That's very interesting! What did you use as the calibration standard when verifying the humidity indicator was off? Those are very expensive, so I don't own one. How far off was it, and what was the unit you used to validate that. We need to know :) Thanks for sharing.
@@FrederickDunn I didn't use anything to test it. The humidity just get's higher over a few months of time until it's always just reading 100%, then when it would actually get humid, as in it was raining outside, it would suddenly jump down to around 0 to 15 percent, then jump back up to 100% after the humidity would drop back down. Buying a new sensor would fix it for about a year. Right now I have a Z-wave sensor running literally right next to it and Ambient Weather sensor reads 20 to 40 percent higher than the z-wave sensor. The sensor is the WH32E and the station I'm using is the WS-0900-IP, which I believe has been discontinued.
Hi Fred….@1.06:54 in talking about the plastic clip/“swam reacher”… can you attach a GoPro to the frame to see them collect?…Thanks Fred… still raining in SoCal… gr8 for garden but not for flower pollination… stay warm 🍻 Johno
Thanks Fred, I have decided I don’t want to gamble, so I have three queens on order from beeweaver . I really value your wisdom. And of course, when they are coming, it’s looking like the weather is going to be cold. Ugh
I saw that swarm reacher and wanted to see for myself if the concept worked. I had a swarm up a tree a week ago, lashed a frame of brood comb to the end of a telescoping pole, and the queen never took. For over 5 hours, I took frame after frame of bees, shook them in front of a nuc, and every time, the bees would just go back to the queen on the tree. I couldn't get her onto that brood comb. It was honestly pretty effective at getting frames of bees down without shaking the branch but if you don't get the queen, it's just a waste of time. Edit: it's still probably more gentle and better than using a bucket and tapping the branch under the swarm. My swarm was against a tree trunk so a bucket wouldn't have done any better. And my story is a sample size of 1 so I hope to see the concept in action.
That's great information, thank you for sharing your observation and results. Was it a deep frame, medium, or shallow? I am looking forward to more observations. It lets us play with swarms that we'd otherwise ignore due to their location. Do you have any idea how long the swarm was in that location before you tried that?
@@FrederickDunn it was a medium green drone frame. I actually saw it swarming, so I suited up to watch it coalesce. It was on there for the length of time it took to clean up the surrounding branches with a pole saw and lash the frame to the pole. Maybe there was something I could've done to make the frame more attractive to the queen to entice her off the tree but the frame itself was not enough, in my limited experience.
I was wondering how you set up your deadouts to attract a swarm. Do you put only clean frames or can they clean up a few moldy pollen frames? Do wax moths move in without bees? How many frames- 10? 16? Any foundation-less frames or all drawn?
Hi there. If you have a Deadout : Firstly brush off all the Dead Bees. You might find if they Starved Out, there heads might be in the Cells. Just Brush a bit more ! Any Mouldy Pollen (Cells) you might need to carefully Surface Scrape the Cell Tops, Cappings away. The Bees will build these up again. To catch a Swarm via a 'Bait Hive' from your now empty Hive. I would place any Pollen Frames to the Outside (Wall) position. No Honey ! Yet. . . Then if you have Frames where the Comb 'collapsed' in the Cleaning process. Add this and some Empty Frames to the 'middle' of the Hive (say x4 or x5.) A Swarm involves a lot of Flying and Crawling in Bees ! So they need plenty of empty 'Space' to Congregate & Settle. Any other gaps, fill them up with Drawn Comb Frames. I would also add a couple of Drops of Lemon Grass Essential Oil on some Cotton Wool, a Tab of Card (pinned in place.) This LGO Smells like the Queens Pheromones: which attracts "Scout Bees" who are looking for a New Home ! (Once the Bees stay : you can add a couple of Honey or partial Honey Frames in those outer Positions. If you add these before a Swarm settles, you will only get 'visiting Robber Bees ! Who feed then leave pronto.) Not the Bees you want. . . Hope this helps. 😎 🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝 Happy Beekeeping 2024 🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝 I caught x3 Swarms last Year. One was into a (Deadout) Brood Box Langstroth Hive. The other two found their way into UK National Hive 'Nucs.' With two Boxes over each other. With added 'used Comb.' As long as the 'Home' Volume is around x40 Litres or more (x10 Frames Sideways. Or x5 over x5) This will be ideal for luring in a Swarm. One of these Swarms had a 'Marked' Queen ! So someone must of Bought and then lost a 'purchased' Breeder Queen. This Queen and her Hive over Wintered well. And is my best Colony. I hope to do a Split off them. And maybe do some Grafting too. 😏
Thank you for the information, and I’ll listen to the live talk for more. I try my best to keep my bees alive, but some years there are more losses than others. I’d love to get free bees to move in, and not hang from ladders, use a bee vacuum, etc to get them!
Just got stung 2 times the other week, palm and upper arm near the armpit. I splashed both with Vinegar as I usually do and neither one swelled up like during the summer.🤷 Each to their own I guess.
Hi John, for my horizontal hives, I use angle iron that I drive deep into the ground and make support struts between them. I also like the Lyson adjustable stands for horizontal hives. I've never just used 2x4 lumber, but if I did, I'd angle them out for high wind stability. My cross pieces for the angle iron support are 2x12. But that's likely way overbuilt.
😅I wonder if the queen could squeeze thru the excluder since she's lost weight to fly. I've had great success with keeping swarms by adding a frame of open brood, borrowed from another hive.
Wow ! Im sew impressed with the knowledge you have. First, I'm up late in sewing, not ready to go to sleep. Jeff went to bed early and wore out. The introductory I thought that was not real!! After hearing you talk, I went back and watched it again, beautiful! Plus, I'm gonna ask Jeff if he knows some of those things about the sting of the bees. Oh I know anout the dting fir cancer too. Plus, I'm gonna ask what video he is running away from the bees in!! Lololol, I watch the whole video all the way to the end about the bears. omggg, Im a Texan, or you can say south . I live on Country Road, we had a lot of Squnks all the time! I tell Jeff when I smell a squnk, it smells good. lololol, good memories crazy ! Well, I love the noise maker! Wow, that's a really good informative video,nite.
Hi Mona! Yes, Jeff will definitely remember having to go and suit up for that particular swarm. He was laughing as always, but getting stung the entire time :) Give him my best! :)
For every legitimate swarm call I've gotten, there were 5 wasp calls. It's great when it works out, but I finally think I've successfully removed myself from all local swarm lists. Not worth it for me.
Hey Fred, could you speak about "BetterComb" how-to, where, spacing i.e. placement arrangements, deeps/supers, tricks/tips that have worked for you, thanks Fred.
@@FrederickDunn Thanks Fred, I am a 2nd year keeper of bees from Gainesville Ga. that does not yet have the luxury of unlimited drawn comb, hoping "BetterComb" can fill in the blanks where the bees fall short in comb production.
During totality it is completely fine to look at the eclipse without eye protection. My idiot teachers in grade school made all the kids stay inside and closed all the blinds during a total solar eclipse when I was young and didn’t see one until I was an adult which I think is a crime in retrospect.
Hi John, that weight is variable depending on the moisture content of the wood and what people use. There are spring lifters also. I need to do further testing in that area before I can give an accurate response. Pine is 42 lbs per cubic foot on average, so determining the cubic feet of lumber used will give that answer. Also, the hinge takes a lot of the weight after initial lift, so it's dynamic to some degree. I've also considered counter-weights.
I bought the swarm reacher but have not used it yet; however, I have tried attracting a low hanging swarm and queen onto a frame of old brood and all I got on board was about a quarter of a frame. The queen was not on the frame. Later, part of the swarm was in contact with the ground so I laid the frame on the ground touching the swarm and had the same result. I will try again but first time was a failure.
It's going to be fun to play with it and come up with some possible changes regarding what kind of frame we offer them. If it fails, we still learn. :) If you can get bees from the swarm cluster to go onto the frame, then I'd put them inside the box you want the swarm to occupy and attach another brood frame to the Reacher, and repeat the process until most of them are in the box. They often pass back and forth from the box to the swarm and can convince all of the others to also occupy that box/hive.
My hives have a lot of mold inside on the frames and walls after this winter (my hives have 3 inch foam insulated tops). The bees survived well. Will they clean it themselves, or should i clean it?
It's normal to have mold on frames, comb, and in the corners that are most distant from your cluster. As the weather warms up, they will get right into cleaning that out. Unless it's a very small colony, they will take care of that pretty fast. All of my Observation hives have mold in the lower corners and on some of the lowest comb. It's just a fraction of what it was two weeks ago, and they are cleaning it up without any help. It would be better if our hives were cylinder shaped, as that would much reduce those cold corners. I think you're fine.
@21:55 the viewer says in the question, 'I googled and found 17 Apiaries around me".... How did he do that? Is there something other than "Apiary near me"
It's going to be a fun spring, that's all I can say! Yes, brood frames have been used as attractants for swarms for a very long time by many keepers. This is just a handy way to clip it on the end of a telescoping pole. That's the novel part, the simplicity of a clip rather than putting the frame in a bucket etc... Thanks, Suzanne :)
Hey 👋 Fred, when you have a 2 frame-black -slide in-1 gallon sugar syrup feeder, how do you keep them from drowning as fast, like your sock trick on the top feeder?? Or should I just use HiveAlive pattys on the top lid
You'll be disppointed in my response, I don't use frame feeders as "feeders" at all I only use them as place-holders or spacers just becuase they are so pracical for that. We're coming to the end of the need for Hive Alive Fondant within the next week or so. I'd go with the Bee Buffet, or Rapid Round if you still need to put sugar syrup on a colony that needs help.
Hi there. I use mine here in Scotland 🏴 by adding lots of Pine Needles. There are Pine Trees and Twigs all over the place too. Stops those Bees from Drowning. 🤞 🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝 Happy Beekeeping 2024. 🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝
what and where can I get bee suits for great grandaughter? she is 7 would like it large enough to grow into, maybe 2 seasons. Contacted guardian they do not have them yet what is your suggestion?
All of my child suits from infant up to 10 year olds are from Honey Flow. They are extremely soft and washable. I put them on my grandchildren, and visiting toddlers so they can visit the bee yard. www.honeyflow.com/collections/child-bee-suits/products/bee-suit-child
I'm not sure who's lying about the hives. You'll have to be more specific. Hoover Hives are likely the most popular wax-coated hives that are made in China and sold here. Is there a specific hive you're wanting to know more about? Bearsville Bees would be completely American, they even harvest their own wood from their own land.
So, you're saying that there isn't a future with apitherapy? Pretty extreme comparison, but I get it, you've closed the door on that possibility. If there is any room for scientific consideration on this topic, I encourage you to read more: www.mdpi.com/2072-6651/14/7/460
Hi Fredrick. I've been using round feeders, however this time I made a mistake. I put Hive alive fondant in it and it melted drowning bees. Maybe I should have made a plastic cover with slots on top of it to allow the bees to reach the fondant without getting stuck in the mud. I did notice even when using syrup bees would drown. I'm trying to invent a way to save the bees from drowning. Maybe cotton filling in the bottom and the syrup might be able to be sucked up through the cotton? I love the idea of round feeders, just want to figure a way to save any bee from drowning. I live south of Ottawa and the weather has been erratic. Warm, cold, supper cold, warm. The next warm day I will remove the hive alive and mix it down with water and see if they will consume that rather than throwing it out. Try to make the same viscosity as 1:1 syrup? regards.
With hive alive fondant, I leave that in the packet and cover the hole in the inner cover. It "could" definitely trap bees when uncovered. Yes, a light syrup of 1:1 would be a good consistency.
1) When I get stung in spring it hurts worse and I swell larger than normal. Do winter bees have stronger venom than bees the rest of the year? 5:08
2) Is it safe to assume you no longer use the 2" tall round feeders anymore? 14:47
3) At the feeder, are Africanized bees pretty much the same as others. Are they only dangerous at their hive? 21:40
4) Do you have a Weather Station, and if so, which one? 31:52
5) What are your thoughts on bee behavior during the eclipse? 40:55
6) I was wondering in your area what would be the earliest that you would consider doing a walkaway split? 50:25
7) One of our hives swarmed 3 days ago and they are 20 feet up a tangled tree. 1:01:55
Thank you Adam
Congratulations on 250 episodes 🎉 I can proudly say I have tuned in for almost all of them weekly as I started my beekeeping journey in the fall of 2019. Successfully got my first honey in 2020. A huge thank you for all the help and answers to questions over the years. You have become a beacon of the RUclips hobbyist beekeeping community. Here’s to 250 more ! 😊 Thank you Fred
Wow, thank you so much for all of that great support. I'm glad you've found the information I've shared to be helpful.
Thank you as always Fred! I've learned so much over the past few years of watching your videos.
Congratulations on 250 episodes Fred, I hope there’s hundreds and hundreds more, Thanks so much and have a great weekend!
Thanks, Red! Well, I don't have any plans to quit :) I appreciate it.
Thank you for all the work you have put in to get to 250.
You're very welcome :) Thanks for watching and being a frequent commenter :)
#250, Awesome! Congratulations. I have watched most of them and learn something every episode. Thank you very much for sharing your knowledge.
Awesome! Thank you!
Congrats on episode 250!!! I'm so very happy for you 😊 we had snow this morning also, just south of Detroit
Well Fred, 11-20"of snow headed my way through Sunday, Ah, New Hampshire. We may lose power on this on. Thanks for posting! Safety first. I have seen all your Q&As. Thanks for all the knowledge.
Thank you for being such a faithful viewer, I really do appreciate it :)
Congrats on 250. Look forward to getting a chuckle every week from your read between the lines humor. Come on Ken 14 bucks! :,-) I mostly admire your knowledge. Thanks for teaching.
Mark
Thank you so much :)
Wow, 250 episodes! Great job and Thank You for what you do and how you inspire us.
Hi Jimmy! Thank you, and give my kind regards to your wonderful wife also! :) Hope to see you guys again one of these days.
Thank you for another great video. I value your very indepth research and explination of the presented topics. Have a good week!
I can’t believe I made it on a Friday!! Anyone else catch a swarm yet ? I caught a swarm last Saturday in an empty long hive 😀let the games begin 🎉😋🇺🇸🐝
Where r u located
Jim in Panama City, Fla - caught a medium size swarm Tuesday afternoon - they are still with me as of now, 7PM Friday.
How do you catch a swarm?? 😮
Thank you for making these videos and congratulations on 250. We look forward to many more.
Also, I grow weary of the seemingly "right of passage" on wearing protection. My husband found out, at 60, that he is highly allergic to honeybee venom . Thank you for addressing that.
Great questions with very informative explanations.
Always well done.
Thank you so much! I'm a fan of good personal protective clothing when it's needed. I know there are naked beekeepers out there, and I say good for them (';'). I get PTSD watching Randy Oliver in his baggy shorts and sandles. On more than one occasion, I've finished in the apiary, returned to my desk only to get that "feeling" that something is crawling up the back of my leg. Sure enough, a honey bee right behind my knee inside my pants. It's not an indicator of beekeeping experience, but a case of personal choice. At Cornell, if you had gloves on during hive inspections, you would not pass. But I get that, we need maximum dexterity when manipulating frames.
Thanks Fred, great information. I found,so far, that a motion sensor light with 2 one hundred watt lights keep most things away from my hives so far. I've lost 2 hives to bears before the and none since. The fence didn't work because the ground gets to dry here in the summer. SW OREGON.
Thanks for sharing. Glad you've figured that out.
Congratulations on 250 episodes. I'm looking forward to many more!
Thank you very much!
I say they’re juiced up when it hurts so bad! Thanks Fred!
This was a great episode; I think it was one of my favorites! I wrote notes for comments but, everything was noteworthy! Looking forward to seeing if the eclipse conditions are right to show anything the rest speaks for itself, you are a great teacher of what should be thought about. My notes were too long so I will leave it at that.
Thanks, Tommy! I'm glad you got something out of it :)
Great show Fred. Betsy and I loved it. Congratulations on show 250. Keep making entertaining and informative videos and we always look forward to the Friday Q&A to usher in the weekend.
Pete
Hi Pete, thank you so much, and please pass my gratitude on to Betsy! :)
I went to the local fire dept and police dept in my little town to give them my number to rescue bees free for people and they said they don’t do bee calls and they tell people to call an exterminator. Our police department isn’t very well liked from all the Facebook comments I see in our town’s Facebook group. I had a married couple come today and buy 4 crape Myrtles from me and they said their neighbor had a huge hive in a wall and they killed them. Some people don’t even attempt to save them. Our education system needs to teach kids we need pollinators before they grow up to be ignorant adults.
We definitely have a lot to learn. A dead colony in the wall of a house smells just like any large dead animal. Not a great move. Here, the exterminators won't proceed once they find they are honey bees. Sorry about the general attitude there.
As always, thank you for all your videos, all are helpful and informative and much appreciated. I have a question about the swarming process with regard to scout bees in particular. How far in advance of a swarm actually departing from a hive do scout bees start searching for and exploring new potential homes? Thank you for considering my question.
I bought 2 Swarm Reachers thru the mail. Like you, I wanted to reward an inventor for a nifty idea.
Yes! When I met him at the conference, I just wanted to do "something" to help get the word out. A very modest, experienced beekeeper with an idea that he acted on. We need more innovators with simple solutions that just make sense :)
Oh, there’s a product for this? I am not yet a beekeeper.. I hd a free university training once online, but I never did it. Still wanting to get into this hobby, the bee’s need us!
Snow up here in Wisconsin now!
The fluff section is the BOSS!
Thank you for turning on the closed captions.
Any time!
As you know , I live in your old stomping grounds from your navy days in southern Maryland, we are having some really warm days but then super wet windy days , I have bees bringing in boatloads of nectar and pollen , my fruit trees are budding and the bazillions of Bradford pears , eastern redbuds , locust etc etc etc are all blooming and budding , the sad thing is that all of the care and mite treatments and winter prep and I still lost a good bit of bees , the couple times tornados and sustained wind storms whizzed right next to my farm and the extreme weather/winds wiped out some of my best healthy and strong colonies and the bees that survived over winter the best were the all natural bees I did not treat and paid the least amount attention to, I was blown away by the fact that if I would have just left my bees to nature I would have the same amount of survivors or more , because I’m already catching swarms in mid march 😀
Yup. Snow here too in Wisconsin. Not surprised, last year it snowed in May but bees brooding up more than last year earlier. So now worried. But they were bringinh in pollen with our mock spring.
I was listening to our climateologist and he said that this will be a much longer pollen period this spring, extended by several weeks. I can believe it, seeing all of the pollen that's streaming into the hives.
@FrederickDunn It's amazing this year. Bees were flying in February which usually never happens here. I hope we all have a great year and prosper.
What a wonderful video … information overload (what a wonderful problem to have). I really like the idea attracting clustered bees onto a frame and then placing the frame into a frame cage. I myself will probably place them into a regular hive box … once they are in the hive box I would put a hive cover… the box would then go over a queen excluder and then a regular bottom. This would eliminate the risk of possible damaging the queen when playin her in a cage. I would remove the queen excluder after several days. All theoretical now.
Yep first sting of the year is an important one. I react more I thought coz I haven’t been stung for 6 months. I embrace getting it out the way. Gotta build my tolerance up each spring.
Morning Fred. . .
Doing my Catch Up Viewing of Episode 250 on Sat 23rd March.
Its supposed to be x3rd Day of Spring.
Yet here in Scotland 🏴 its gone super Cold again. . . (Flurries of Snow on the Hills pending !)
So we are having similar conditions to you Stateside. (But not as bad re Temps or Snow load.)
The poor Bees rush out when a bit of Sun shows : to nab a bit of Crocus, Daffodil or Tree Catkin Pollens. Then rush in to semi-cluster again. 🙄
My neighbours Ornamental Flowering Cherry Tree. . . Nearly pops, then tightens up those Buds from the Cold Winds etc. Bless. . .
Guess Spring hasnt sprung yet ! 😵💫
Love your slow-mo Snow Footage at the beginning of todays Episode.
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Happy Beekeeping 2024
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Questioner re Bee Stings and Spring Bad Reaction :
Will also have NOT HAD any or many 'Stings thru Winter.' So his body will react 'more' in Spring with that 1st Sting of the New Bee Season, as his Immunity has to build up again.
Its well known that Senior Beeks who may have had say x60yrs plus of Bee Stings, go and see their Bee Pals, have a Chat and Catch Up and get themselves 'Stung' in order to keep their Sting Reaction low by keeping their Immunity strong. 💪
Thanks for sharing! :)
Very informative, thank you!
I learned this a couple days ago if you have to use the bathroom while you're in the bee yard make sure your zipper is all the way up
Wade! That is defnitely a valuable tip!
@@FrederickDunn guaranteed Mr Fred it will get your attention. I have a question do you know anybody that has Rhode Island chickens. I've had them all my life until about 8 months ago and the the men I got mine from they have passed away or I just can't find them
Reversing can also be a way to give them space above,provided she is not laying down below. Dandelion bloom is an indicator of when to reverse.
Some people do rotate their brood boxes. I'm just not one of them.
Thank you Fred!! Love your show!
Thank you :)
Love the slow mo snow flakes and pond scene
Thanks! That was the brook, but just as good as the pond :)
Thanks 4 all the info and your time you put into RUclips 😊 I enjoy watching your videos thanks 😊
Thank you right back, for spending your valuable time watching :)
The mouse is probably zigzagging like ships afraid of submarines. The wild kingdom is fascinating!
They are definitely survivors!
I can confirm that deer mice find their way back, when I was a preteen or so, we caught one in the dog kibble bin and marked its tail with magic marker and turfed it outside, caught it again the next night, took it down the road, caught it again, then I put it in a hamster cage and had a pet mouse for a while till it escaped while I was handling it and it decided not to come back :) Only bit me once, I was pretty happy about that, I'd had worse behaved domestic hamsters!
Congrats on 250 episodes! I've learned a lot from you, hopefully enough not to lose so many hives this season like we did last season (2 die-outs and 2 robbings before we put the Apivar in in September, a couple absconds when we put the Apivar in, and we'd had a plethora of queen and laying issues all summer after doing splits so the brood production was low in a few cases and we had some freeze-outs, even found the rather small queen in one little tennis-ball sized clump of bees... At least we seem to have had one of the swarms we caught survive the winter so far, active on warm days and continuing to devour their Hive Alive fondant.
BIG fan of the BetterBee blue tank feeder. Just be sure to invert and let a vacuum form before mounting in the feeeder shim!
That's the BeeSmart Design feeder, and that's seen a lot of improvements. I'm so glad you like it :)
@@FrederickDunn Mine are only about 3 years old....improvements??
$14, KEN...love it!! I paid my $14, including shipping, Ken, and its sitting on my desk ready to try.
:)
First!! Happy Friday Fred :) Hope you have a great weekend! Hope warm weather comes your way soon!
I was the first but I took too long typing my comment lol 😅
Grayson, you get the award for the fastest keyboard! :)
@@DavidWilliams-wr4wb You still get extra credit, David :)
For viewing an eclipse fill a bowl full of water and view the eclipse in the reflection’ that’s the safe way
Since my Apiary is in the path of totality, i've done a bit of research on the eclipse. Surprising, the majority of research basically states that they treat it like dusk and will return, will ground themselves, etc. Definitely an event to watch. I was in St Louis several years ago for the last eclipse.
Hi Brian! That's exactly what I expect them to do. :) It's just darkness to them. Let's hope for super clear skies! What are you going to record if anything?
@FrederickDunn I'm going to use all of my GoPros, I have the 9, 11, and 12. I do need to test them out and get everything set for that day. We are planning to drive up by the Lake that day. My place will have totality, but only around 1 minute 30 seconds. I figure drive an hour to the lake where totality will last longer.
I'm looking forward to using my swarmreacher. I attached a eyelet to the top so I can attach a line. I've caught swarms over 60 feet up by casting a fishing line with a 3/4 " steel nut or anything heavy enough to cast over the branch and attaching a heavier line and pulling up and over to shake later. I stand under the swarm with a upside down beach umbrella and give the rope a hard shake. The swarmreacher will allow me to hoist a frame up instead of shaking. Fun.....
Thanks for sharing what's working out for you! I wish you all the best, Michael :)
You too. Congratulations on the 250!! Many more to come. Come up to Maine and we'll have Lobsta and talk bees
I do wish the podcast version could be had on Apple. That's my browser of choice.
I've never had a queen sting me directly but I have had one sting my glove. So if I hadn't had a glove on I would have gotten a queen sting. I did notice she was able to plunge her stinger into the glove and pull it back out without getting stuck.
I use Ambient Weather station and I found the humidity in the outdoor temperature-humidity sensors tend to become inaccurate. I've replaced mine 3 times. This last time it started to get inaccurate I just got a z-wave humidity sensor to work with my home automation system directly.
That's very interesting! What did you use as the calibration standard when verifying the humidity indicator was off? Those are very expensive, so I don't own one. How far off was it, and what was the unit you used to validate that. We need to know :) Thanks for sharing.
@@FrederickDunn I didn't use anything to test it. The humidity just get's higher over a few months of time until it's always just reading 100%, then when it would actually get humid, as in it was raining outside, it would suddenly jump down to around 0 to 15 percent, then jump back up to 100% after the humidity would drop back down. Buying a new sensor would fix it for about a year. Right now I have a Z-wave sensor running literally right next to it and Ambient Weather sensor reads 20 to 40 percent higher than the z-wave sensor. The sensor is the WH32E and the station I'm using is the WS-0900-IP, which I believe has been discontinued.
Grateful!
Hi Fred….@1.06:54 in talking about the plastic clip/“swam reacher”… can you attach a GoPro to the frame to see them collect?…Thanks Fred… still raining in SoCal… gr8 for garden but not for flower pollination… stay warm
🍻 Johno
Don't make me reveal my secrets! :)
@@FrederickDunn 🤣🤣🤣
Thanks Fred, I have decided I don’t want to gamble, so I have three queens on order from beeweaver . I really value your wisdom. And of course, when they are coming, it’s looking like the weather is going to be cold. Ugh
I hope it all works out well, Jason! Will you be using any queen introduction cages? Or just placing them inside the cages they arrive in?
Well I have one of the cages that I can use. But when I did this before I just used the one she came in. What would you recommend?
Thanks really appreciate information swarm catcher with isolated cage, to catch swarms thanks again
You're very welcome :)
Ashtabula same way
I saw that swarm reacher and wanted to see for myself if the concept worked. I had a swarm up a tree a week ago, lashed a frame of brood comb to the end of a telescoping pole, and the queen never took. For over 5 hours, I took frame after frame of bees, shook them in front of a nuc, and every time, the bees would just go back to the queen on the tree. I couldn't get her onto that brood comb. It was honestly pretty effective at getting frames of bees down without shaking the branch but if you don't get the queen, it's just a waste of time.
Edit: it's still probably more gentle and better than using a bucket and tapping the branch under the swarm. My swarm was against a tree trunk so a bucket wouldn't have done any better. And my story is a sample size of 1 so I hope to see the concept in action.
That's great information, thank you for sharing your observation and results. Was it a deep frame, medium, or shallow? I am looking forward to more observations. It lets us play with swarms that we'd otherwise ignore due to their location. Do you have any idea how long the swarm was in that location before you tried that?
@@FrederickDunn it was a medium green drone frame. I actually saw it swarming, so I suited up to watch it coalesce. It was on there for the length of time it took to clean up the surrounding branches with a pole saw and lash the frame to the pole. Maybe there was something I could've done to make the frame more attractive to the queen to entice her off the tree but the frame itself was not enough, in my limited experience.
I was wondering how you set up your deadouts to attract a swarm. Do you put only clean frames or can they clean up a few moldy pollen frames? Do wax moths move in without bees? How many frames- 10? 16? Any foundation-less frames or all drawn?
Ok, I think this will be my opening topic on Friday for the Live-Stream. All great questions and not a simple answer.
Hi there.
If you have a Deadout : Firstly brush off all the Dead Bees. You might find if they Starved Out, there heads might be in the Cells. Just Brush a bit more ! Any Mouldy Pollen (Cells) you might need to carefully Surface Scrape the Cell Tops, Cappings away. The Bees will build these up again.
To catch a Swarm via a 'Bait Hive' from your now empty Hive. I would place any Pollen Frames to the Outside (Wall) position. No Honey ! Yet. . .
Then if you have Frames where the Comb 'collapsed' in the Cleaning process. Add this and some Empty Frames to the 'middle' of the Hive (say x4 or x5.) A Swarm involves a lot of Flying and Crawling in Bees ! So they need plenty of empty 'Space' to Congregate & Settle.
Any other gaps, fill them up with Drawn Comb Frames.
I would also add a couple of Drops of Lemon Grass Essential Oil on some Cotton Wool, a Tab of Card (pinned in place.)
This LGO Smells like the Queens Pheromones: which attracts "Scout Bees" who are looking for a New Home !
(Once the Bees stay : you can add a couple of Honey or partial Honey Frames in those outer Positions. If you add these before a Swarm settles, you will only get 'visiting Robber Bees ! Who feed then leave pronto.) Not the Bees you want. . .
Hope this helps. 😎
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Happy Beekeeping 2024
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I caught x3 Swarms last Year. One was into a (Deadout) Brood Box Langstroth Hive.
The other two found their way into UK National Hive 'Nucs.' With two Boxes over each other. With added 'used Comb.'
As long as the 'Home' Volume is around x40 Litres or more (x10 Frames Sideways. Or x5 over x5) This will be ideal for luring in a Swarm.
One of these Swarms had a 'Marked' Queen ! So someone must of Bought and then lost a 'purchased' Breeder Queen.
This Queen and her Hive over Wintered well. And is my best Colony. I hope to do a Split off them. And maybe do some Grafting too. 😏
Thank you for the information, and I’ll listen to the live talk for more. I try my best to keep my bees alive, but some years there are more losses than others. I’d love to get free bees to move in, and not hang from ladders, use a bee vacuum, etc to get them!
Just got stung 2 times the other week, palm and upper arm near the armpit. I splashed both with Vinegar as I usually do and neither one swelled up like during the summer.🤷 Each to their own I guess.
Picked up the lumber for the Horizintal Hive today, some assembly required. Thoughts on the legs - 2X4 stout enough???
Hi John, for my horizontal hives, I use angle iron that I drive deep into the ground and make support struts between them. I also like the Lyson adjustable stands for horizontal hives. I've never just used 2x4 lumber, but if I did, I'd angle them out for high wind stability. My cross pieces for the angle iron support are 2x12. But that's likely way overbuilt.
😅I wonder if the queen could squeeze thru the excluder since she's lost weight to fly. I've had great success with keeping swarms by adding a frame of open brood, borrowed from another hive.
None have so far. It's more about the thorax rather than the abdomen.
Wow ! Im sew impressed with the knowledge you have. First, I'm up late in sewing, not ready to go to sleep. Jeff went to bed early and wore out. The introductory I thought that was not real!! After hearing you talk, I went back and watched it again, beautiful! Plus, I'm gonna ask Jeff if he knows some of those things about the sting of the bees. Oh I know anout the dting fir cancer too. Plus, I'm gonna ask what video he is running away from the bees in!! Lololol, I watch the whole video all the way to the end about the bears. omggg, Im a Texan, or you can say south . I live on Country Road, we had a lot of Squnks all the time! I tell Jeff when I smell a squnk, it smells good. lololol, good memories crazy ! Well, I love the noise maker! Wow, that's a really good informative video,nite.
Hi Mona! Yes, Jeff will definitely remember having to go and suit up for that particular swarm. He was laughing as always, but getting stung the entire time :) Give him my best! :)
For every legitimate swarm call I've gotten, there were 5 wasp calls. It's great when it works out, but I finally think I've successfully removed myself from all local swarm lists. Not worth it for me.
Great point, always ask for photos, and get verification prior to heading out. Personally, I don't mind bagging wasps :)
Hey Fred, could you speak about "BetterComb" how-to, where, spacing i.e. placement arrangements, deeps/supers, tricks/tips that have worked for you, thanks Fred.
I'll add this topic to my Friday Live-Stream on March 29th :) Thanks.
@@FrederickDunn Thanks Fred, I am a 2nd year keeper of bees from Gainesville Ga. that does not yet have the luxury of unlimited drawn comb, hoping "BetterComb" can fill in the blanks where the bees fall short in comb production.
You'll need to modify your swarm reacher if your top bars are thick like mine
I would knotch the top bar if it's too large, or the swarm reacher can't quite grip it. Easy to carve out a little bit of wood.
During totality it is completely fine to look at the eclipse without eye protection. My idiot teachers in grade school made all the kids stay inside and closed all the blinds during a total solar eclipse when I was young and didn’t see one until I was an adult which I think is a crime in retrospect.
I am going to make a horizontal hive this Spring and want to add hydraulic lifters to the lid!!! Do you know the aproximate weight? TYVM!
Hi John, that weight is variable depending on the moisture content of the wood and what people use. There are spring lifters also. I need to do further testing in that area before I can give an accurate response. Pine is 42 lbs per cubic foot on average, so determining the cubic feet of lumber used will give that answer. Also, the hinge takes a lot of the weight after initial lift, so it's dynamic to some degree. I've also considered counter-weights.
I bought the swarm reacher but have not used it yet; however, I have tried attracting a low hanging swarm and queen onto a frame of old brood and all I got on board was about a quarter of a frame. The queen was not on the frame. Later, part of the swarm was in contact with the ground so I laid the frame on the ground touching the swarm and had the same result. I will try again but first time was a failure.
It's going to be fun to play with it and come up with some possible changes regarding what kind of frame we offer them. If it fails, we still learn. :) If you can get bees from the swarm cluster to go onto the frame, then I'd put them inside the box you want the swarm to occupy and attach another brood frame to the Reacher, and repeat the process until most of them are in the box. They often pass back and forth from the box to the swarm and can convince all of the others to also occupy that box/hive.
Thanks!
Wow, thank you, Yvonne! I am very grateful for your support :)
I wish more would contribute- you deserve it!
My hives have a lot of mold inside on the frames and walls after this winter (my hives have 3 inch foam insulated tops). The bees survived well. Will they clean it themselves, or should i clean it?
It's normal to have mold on frames, comb, and in the corners that are most distant from your cluster. As the weather warms up, they will get right into cleaning that out. Unless it's a very small colony, they will take care of that pretty fast. All of my Observation hives have mold in the lower corners and on some of the lowest comb. It's just a fraction of what it was two weeks ago, and they are cleaning it up without any help. It would be better if our hives were cylinder shaped, as that would much reduce those cold corners. I think you're fine.
@21:55 the viewer says in the question, 'I googled and found 17 Apiaries around me"....
How did he do that?
Is there something other than "Apiary near me"
I have no idea, it would have to be through the Dept. of Ag and would possibly show registered apiaries, commercial?
I could not find the dimensions of SwarmReacher. Will Layens frame fit?
I don't think it's designed for Layens frames, sized right for Langstroth plastic and wood frames.
Dirt Rooster. I think. In one of his videos did attract a swarm with the « frame method ». ….and it works very well!
It's going to be a fun spring, that's all I can say! Yes, brood frames have been used as attractants for swarms for a very long time by many keepers. This is just a handy way to clip it on the end of a telescoping pole. That's the novel part, the simplicity of a clip rather than putting the frame in a bucket etc... Thanks, Suzanne :)
Hey 👋 Fred, when you have a 2 frame-black -slide in-1 gallon sugar syrup feeder, how do you keep them from drowning as fast, like your sock trick on the top feeder?? Or should I just use HiveAlive pattys on the top lid
You'll be disppointed in my response, I don't use frame feeders as "feeders" at all I only use them as place-holders or spacers just becuase they are so pracical for that. We're coming to the end of the need for Hive Alive Fondant within the next week or so. I'd go with the Bee Buffet, or Rapid Round if you still need to put sugar syrup on a colony that needs help.
Greattttt thanks my dude…I appreciate your expertise and hard work you put into educating us
Hi there.
I use mine here in Scotland 🏴 by adding lots of Pine Needles.
There are Pine Trees and Twigs all over the place too. Stops those Bees from Drowning. 🤞
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Happy Beekeeping 2024.
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Brilliant ideas thanks my dudes
Just made 200 frames today, 800 to go. Haha, then I need to wax them
Great vdo ty
Thanks, Peter!
what and where can I get bee suits for great grandaughter? she is 7 would like it large enough to grow into, maybe 2 seasons. Contacted guardian they do not have them yet what is your suggestion?
All of my child suits from infant up to 10 year olds are from Honey Flow. They are extremely soft and washable. I put them on my grandchildren, and visiting toddlers so they can visit the bee yard. www.honeyflow.com/collections/child-bee-suits/products/bee-suit-child
I noticed more people are selling Chinese made hives. I don't like being lied to.
So who is making hives in America.?
I'm not sure who's lying about the hives. You'll have to be more specific. Hoover Hives are likely the most popular wax-coated hives that are made in China and sold here. Is there a specific hive you're wanting to know more about? Bearsville Bees would be completely American, they even harvest their own wood from their own land.
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Regarding Apitherapy a meat tenderiser hammer is also good at killing cancel cells but the host has an equally hard time.
So, you're saying that there isn't a future with apitherapy? Pretty extreme comparison, but I get it, you've closed the door on that possibility. If there is any room for scientific consideration on this topic, I encourage you to read more: www.mdpi.com/2072-6651/14/7/460
Hi Fredrick.
I've been using round feeders, however this time I made a mistake. I put Hive alive fondant in it and it melted drowning bees. Maybe I should have made a plastic cover with slots on top of it to allow the bees to reach the fondant without getting stuck in the mud. I did notice even when using syrup bees would drown. I'm trying to invent a way to save the bees from drowning. Maybe cotton filling in the bottom and the syrup might be able to be sucked up through the cotton? I love the idea of round feeders, just want to figure a way to save any bee from drowning. I live south of Ottawa and the weather has been erratic. Warm, cold, supper cold, warm. The next warm day I will remove the hive alive and mix it down with water and see if they will consume that rather than throwing it out. Try to make the same viscosity as 1:1 syrup?
regards.
With hive alive fondant, I leave that in the packet and cover the hole in the inner cover. It "could" definitely trap bees when uncovered. Yes, a light syrup of 1:1 would be a good consistency.