Backyard Beekeeping Questions and Answers Episode 182, robbing, feeding, weight gain thoughts.
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- Опубликовано: 3 окт 2024
- Welcome to another episode of backyard beekeeping topics.
Today, many of the topics are related to preparing for winter and dealing with robbing behavior as well as how/when to move a hive to a new location in the same apiary.
You may post your own topic for consideration by filling out a form here:
www.fredsfinef...
All of the Question and Answer videos are available as a podcast on Podbean:
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Thank you for spending your valuable time here today.
1) What time of day is the best time to move a hive, I need to move my hive 10 feet.
This cart will hold 1,400 lbs and can be pulled behind your tractor. the sides fold down and you can use it when pulling supers. Hoses off easily.
amzn.to/3UtHJLk (Gorilla Cart)
2) I would like to put Hive Alive fondant on my Long Langstroth Hive, where would be the best place to put it?
The videos on this page will show how I've configured the feeder cover boards. www.fredsfinef...
For those wanting to know more about Hive Alive, and listen to an interview with the company owner: www.fredsfinef...
3) I'm feeding my bees every other day. I'm a little confused about when to feed, and the bees are going to my neighbor's hummingbird feeder.
This style of hummingbird feeder allows you to keep the nectar low enough that it's out of reach for honey bees while remaining accessible to hummingbirds. amzn.to/3T84xPB
4) Question regarding how robbing bees may kill the queen and lead the resident bees away. Apologies, I don't think I responded to this question.
5) There are many ways to convert feed efficiency in chickens, cattle, and insects. For example, 2 lbs. of feed to get 1 lb. of poultry meat. The question is about how bees stack resources to get their bee fat ratios up before winter.
I mentioned my favorite free-range breed in this response. They are Minorcas. If you'd like to source your own right here in the U.S. here is a Rare Breed Hatchery I recommend: www.mcmurrayha...
6) What can you do once robbing starts? If Dawn Dish soap killed all the bees, wouldn't that be enough for mites too?
Dawn Ultra Free and Clear: This is the Dawn that I recommend: amzn.to/3NDajY5
Thank YOU to Hillbilly Bee Keeping for mentioning my channel :)
• Can't Watch Your Bees?... I was flattered by his endorsement :)
Thank YOU to Randy M. 628DirtRooster also for mentioning me in his video: • We Got A Call From A L...
I forgot to mention that a Hive Gate can also help with robbing: • Yellow Jacket Wasp Att...
Links with AMZN in them may earn money for me if it's a qualifying purchase. Thank you for your kind support.
The bee feeders/drinkers that were shown in the opening sequence can be found here:
lifelinebees.com/ Please tell them Frederick Dunn sent you :)
The ENTIRE Beekeeping Question and Answer Playlist is here:
• Honey Bee Keeping and ...
QUESTIONS ABOUT RAISING CHICKENS? Many of you contacted me after this bee video was posted, and inquired about chicken videos. My 3-hour guide to rearing chickens is available, complete, and FREE right here on RUclips - • Raising Backyard Chick... (It took me 7 months to create this video).
Questions about my favorite Free Range Breed today have also come up, so I will be posting a video specifically about the Minorca Breed very soon! Please watch for that, and thank you for the chicken-related questions. I'm happy to provide information that may be helpful.
1) What time of day is the best time to move a hive, I need to move my hive 10 feet. 2:30
2) I would like to put Hive Alive fondant on my Long Langstroth Hive, where would be the best place to put it? 5:16
3) I'm feeding my bees every other day. I'm confused about when to feed, and the bees are going to my neighbor's hummingbird feeder. 11:39
5) There are many ways to convert feed efficiency in chickens, cattle, and insects. For example, 2 lbs. of feed to get 1 lb. of poultry meat. The question is about how bees stack resources to get their bee fat ratios up before winter. 19:36
6) What can you do once robbing starts? If Dawn Dish soap killed all the bees, wouldn't that be enough for mites too? 35:20
Thanks again Adam 🇦🇺👍🐝🍯
Thank you Adam.
Thank you, as always!!!
We haven't done daylight savings for a long time here in Arizona... Can't wait for the rest of you to catch up!
Namaste ...Many Blessings in the Light of the New Earth...A'Ho!! 🙏
Pleasure has no price! God Bless!!!
Thanks for teaching me so much over the last 6 months
You are very welcome, and thank you for watching and taking time to comment :)
Thank you for answering my question. I'll move the hive 2 foot a night till I get the 10ft. Great Q&A.
You're welcome, I hope it goes perfectly. :)
Hi Fred, I am so happy you mentioned your fav free range backyard chicken. We bought a small property in Arkansas January of 2022 and want to make it a small farm with bees, chickens, goats, pigs, couple cows, veg and fruit gardens. Permaculture type farm for better food for us, maybe a bit extra to sell. I bought the 2 chicken books you suggested. We have tools and materials to bee some horizontal hives. Thanks again for this chicken suggestion. We have hawks, possums, raccoons and coyotes. Smart, fast egg layer chickens are exactly what we need!
You are very welcome, and I hope everything goes well for you as you progress with your micro-farm :)
I have chickens too Fred. We love them. Sure do like the looks of that Coop Tender door. The door is way stronger than the one we have on the Chicken Guard. The bees are in a dismantled greenhouse (with 4"x5" fencing to keep the gals from eating them ) in the chicken yard and it works well for me so far.
Excellent! Every country property should be populated with chickens :)
Thank you for answering my question sir I appreciate all your knowledge We'll for surely talk to my neighbors and work with them under hummingbird feeders So the bees should have enough honey in the hive to bring them through the Winter Vegas bill
Awesome! Thank you Uncle Fred! God Bless you and your Bees!!!
Same to you! :) you're welcome, Earl!
Great video as usual!! Thanks Fred!
Glad you enjoyed it, thanks Rodney :)
Great job Frederic! Keep up the good work 👍🏻
Thank you
Adding a quarter cup bleach to a gallon of water and spraying the sides, top and rear of the hive is a way to get some temporary relief. Interesting experiment this year. Due to the late "Indian summer" this year I put out some community feed. I'm backyard and needed to have the garage open for work, it filled with lost bees. No equipment though plenty of residual smell from fall extraction. I decided to try a garden sprayer to lightly missed the inside and around the outside. After chasing out the girls I found that at best one or two found the way in. I've done this for five days now and it lasts a good five hours. Try it!
Thanks for sharing, yes, they will zip into any building that's had anything to do with wax or honey storage or processing.
Great episode, fabulous set up , nice jumper/hoodie must be time for me to purchase a new one 😀, have a fantastic weekend all
Thanks Darren!
Thank you Frederick, always something new to learn from you. So really interesting questions this week.
Thanks, Angela!
Enjoyed the video. Thank you!
Thanks for taking the time to watch!
Can you put a link to the robbing screen you shown in the video please? Thank you. I appreciate the wonderful work you do in these videos and the information.
Well Good morning Fred, it gets dark too early! Thought I made it to bedtime last night, but it was just 8pm. I went to bed, slept, woke up and it's Mug up at the Dunn's. Unseasonably warm for a few more days here in central NH. Bees flying and still finding pollen somewhere out there, not much, but still out there...time for a cup of coffee and the show! Wow, bees are so amazing. Thumbs up on the Bee Academy observation hives, they look cool. It is the time of the Yellowjacket here. Amazing how many are still active in the cooler temps. Great landing board shots! Thanks for posting. Have a great weekend!
Yes, some pollen is still coming in and I'm not sure of the source. I'll take this late season warmth though :)
Great chicken info! I also have a flock of about 2 dozen black free range chickens, Ayam Cemani in my case, and they are mostly hawk resistant. They also love the green frame drone pupae as a mostly natural mite control. Also, my best honey producing hive had the highest mite count I’ve ever had. 56:300!
Learned a lot from this video, Thanks!
Glad it was helpful!
👍👍 thanks Fred , have a great weekend!
Thanks, you too!
In your discussion on robbing you didn't discus the HiveGate. You introduced them a while back and we have been using them. They have worked great for both robbing and for hornet control.
Are you still testing them?
Yes, the hive gate units are fantastic for reducing robbing, I should have mentioned them.
hi fred ,bought a lorabee battery vaporizor, just need batteries now,its a big expense, but pushing past losses, trying to stay positive about next season, i may get a final OA treatment if batteries get here in time, great footage ,grandkids look like theyre having fun
You are going to love that unit. It's very convenient and works without any issues. Once it's warmed up, it generates the sublimated OA fast.
Fred, so nice to see an opportunity for you to shoot in your new Bee House/Training Center! I've been traveling and not able to attend the last couple of NWPA Bee Keepers Assn meetings but perhaps we might cross paths in the future. Terrific video.
Hi Bill, it's a very nice environment for small group sessions. I'm glad you're back and hope to see you at another gathering. :)
I don't like the time change. I wish it would just stay like it is in the summer. I don't like it getting dark at 5:30. I forgot you ask our opinion on daylight savings. I think it needs to go.
@ questions... 1) I have a bee smart robbing screen on each of my hives. I'm in AZ so it doesn't get that cold. Currently seeing around 70 for the high and 45-50 for the low. We do usually have several nights of sub-freezing temps in mid-winter. At what temps should I reduce my entrance and by how much. Robbing isn't an issue. I do no upper venting or entrances, solid bottom boards...
2) at what temps should one switch from 2:1 syrup to dry sugar or other emergency feeds. My girls have a well stocked deep and a half filled and capped medium, each. I'd like to do 2:1 to help them fill those mediums before it gets too cold and intend to do dry sugar in rapid rounds for emergency after that.
That demand is so regional that what I do here wouldn't likely translate well there regarding when to switch from liquid to solid feeding. I'm already on fondant here just in case. Snow will be falling here this weekend. Sounds like your bees are already well provisioned and given that they can perform cleansing flights in your weather it's not going to be as critical there as here.
I ran across this video, thought you might enjoy it. Can the answer to veroa be as simple as needing more propilis?
Propolis is fantastic, but hasn't proven to have any impact on varroa mites. However, when bees are very healthy, they may be less impacted by the virus load that they are subjected to after being fed upon by varroa mites.
I’ve found my bees eat Hive Alive fondant BEFORE they uncap their honey.
It's possible, either way they are boosting their resources and if they consume the HA, then the honey becomes the backup. :)
@@FrederickDunn and they get the medicinal benefit from the HA!
At the beginning (opening sequence) of this weeks video it shows some feeders with green bottoms. What are those, and where do you find them? I set up a robbing station but ended up with lots of drowned bees even tho I had taken measures to prevent it. They just dog piled each other to death... Thank you !
Yes, the style of feeder this time of year will definitely need a shallow feeding pan to keep them from pushing each other in. I used these for my thermal studies, and they are small, but handy. Here is the company that makes them: lifelinebees.com/
I know you should leave honey for the bees. I've heard different weights suggested--usually based on different winter climates. My question is how do you determine if your hives have the amount of honey needed? I have rings screwed to the back of the lowest hive box and use hand held luggage scales to lift the hive. I then multiply by 2 to get the total weight. I read about doing it this way somewhere. Seems like it might not be totally accurate but is probably close enough. What this weighs, of course, is the not just the weight of the honey but also the weight of the wooden ware, the comb and the bees. When you and other experts mention a specific weight for winter stores are y'all referring to the weight of just the honey or the whole "kit and kaboodle"? If just the honey, is there a formula for arriving at that weight instead of the weight of everything? Of course many just lift by hand and guestimate.
Hi Darrell, there isn't a formula other than finding that sweet-spot year after year. I began with 70-100 lbs of honey, that was two full supers and likely the weight of everything together. The medium supers with honey, frames, and the box were coming in around 45 lbs each. As each winter passed we looked at leftover honey and found that they didn't need that much "here" where I reside. When I added the insulated inner covers last year, the demand for honey dramatically dropped off again. Now we're at 50 lbs and that's proven to be more than enough unless you end up with a very large population in a hive. Each zone, and each micro-climate will have an impact on consumption.
@@FrederickDunn Thanks for your reply!
Here in the Northwest we have rain from October-November until April or May. When I started beekeeping this year I started with a nuc in march and had to feed until May. I just put on Hivealive this last week as the rains are here again. The bees have consumed the diameter of the inner cover hole in just a few days. Interesting was that until the rains started the bees were bringing in a lot of pollen. This was in the range of 2:1 bees with pollen pants. On another note; The WEF is promoting eating crickets and crickets are showing up in various foods like Doritos. Why????
Crickets are easy to breed and are high in animal protein. I think we may be learning more about insects in our diets going forward and I have to say that I'm not at all against it :)
Another great video Q&A! And I'm a big fan of eliminating DST!
As far as I understand it, here in Australia the city folk like daylight saving and the country folk do not.
That's an interesting divide :)
Hey Fred! You mentioned your current variety of chickens that are great forage. I'm looking for a different free range chicken, but couldn't find the type you mentioned today. Could you post the spelling of your free range chicken, so I could research it. Many thanks. Enjoy your videos every Saturday morning with coffee. The videos are my start to the weekend. Thanks Bill, a NW Minnesota Beekeeper
Hi Bill, they are Minorcas. Outstanding birds, very active and I'd classify them as intense foragers. I recommend the large standard, they are also available as bantams. www.mcmurrayhatchery.com/black_minorcas.html
@@FrederickDunn thanks for the quick response. Well, upon checking this chicken out, it's not well suited for -40 degree winters, so I'll have to keep looking. As with by bees, my current flock are just mutts.
I'm going to post a link you might find interesting if you haven't seen it already in my next comment. Thank you for your weekly Q&A 💕 I look forward to it!
Thanks for sharing!
Yes, I posted my questions and have tried to find out more about his process. He doesn't respond and there are many gaps in the presentation. Thanks for sharing though. He has a very popular channel and is likely too busy to respond.
placed formic pro on 5 colonies,....wait n see,stormy weather here, have a great weekend
I hope it does what you need it to :)
@@FrederickDunn sort of a test,full dose 14 days,
Mr. Dunn! Thank you for sharing your vast knowledge - I have learned so much and look forward to the Friday videos. Question: is it possible for a hive to be honey/nectar bound going into winter? How could one tell if the hive is too heavy? It’s too late in the season to be digging into the brood box or even to break the seal between the bottom brood and second honey super. Or is it something not to be worried about as the bees will leave a few open cells for the queen? Thanks again! ❤️🐝🐝 in Northern IL.
I'll talk about this on Friday, but it doesn't concern me at this time of year. They are reducing the brood area and in my opinion, they will just use up any nectar that's placed in the brood cells first. I'd rather have that than dry cells this time of year.
Great epispode. Thx
Fredrick. Heading into winter and all during winter, how wide do you keep your entrances? I was thinking 5”????
My entrances are at 3" wide or less and 3/8" high.
Dziękujemy.
Wow, thank you so much! :) That doesn't happen very often, I really do appreciate it.
Scotland Coatbridge or clocks went back last weekend we had a _3 last night
75 degrees today in Fort Wayne 🌞 concerned bees are burning up their stores.
Depends on how active they are. If the brood is low and pollen is rare, they may not use as much as you think. I hope it all goes well for you there.
Fred, as always thanks for the great information (bees & chickens) and also for sharing your
Apimaye! I'm a second year beekeeper in Georgia with 5 Apimaye hives (3 Ergos & two 7 frame hives). The robbing screen that you like will it fit on the Apimaye? *Fred, I have a split that is a single deep. I have enough left over capped honey frames that I could add a medium super on that deep for the winter. Should I go ahead and add that super of capped honey or do you think it will cause robbing?
It's very hard for me to answer that question regarding the split. It would really depend on how populated that single deep is. I condensed one of my Apimaye hived down to a 5-frame deep and that improved their chances quite a bit. If the deep box is heavily populated then I'd add the medium super of honey and keep that entrance very small. To my knowledge, the screens I've mentioned are not compatible with Apimaye. But you can certainly reduce the entrance and make them less appetizing to other bee colonies.
Hi Fred,
I have a colony that was robbed out but found the queen. There are few attendants caring for her. I'm in NE Ohio. What should I do with the queen? I feel terrible for her. I have 6 other hives. This time of year, should I risk weakening a strong hive to make a nuc to help her?
Thanks!
I don't think we have time to make a nucleus. If you can condense that hive down to a nucleus without borrowing from your other hives. It's often remarkable when a tiny cluster survives winter against all odds. if you have a 5-frame nucleus box, you have nothing to lose by placing her in it and in the same location, but I'm concerned they will continue to be visited by robbing bees and honestly don't have much of a chance.
@@FrederickDunn Ok thanks. Will try something! Maybe just give her to someone queenless also.
@@terrir8525 Yes, if someone else has a late-season queenless colony that is well populated, great remedy.
I believe I NEED that style observation hive… I’ll Look for a link somewhere.
Here are the details of that observation hive, I would make some changes. ruclips.net/video/QE7IaqVAIPk/видео.html
Hi Fred, wondering if anyone else has had brood laid in their flowframes. I had a new metal wood bound QX on top of a single brood box then the flow super. The brood box is full of worker brood, very full busy hive and is queen right with 2nd year marked queen so it shouldn't be a laying worker??? The brood in the flow frames is hard to tell if it's all drones or also worker brood some cappings are quite flat. There is also multiple eggs in the bottom of the flow cells? I did think my queen was looking a little roughed up and wonder if she was able to get through the metal QX. I did take a split of 3 frames with uncapped queen cells from the hive about 1 month ago. I'm thinking they may have already been slimming the queen down in preparation for swarming and she was able to get through the QX???
I've now put new plastic QXs under the broody flow on top and another QX under a middle flow hybrid super and shook out all the bees down into the bottom brood box. Just wondering if anyone else has had similar situations and how they dealt with it??
Mine did that in the past when I had upper venting. She produced workers in the flow-super even though the cells are sized to discourage that. Without a queen excluder there is always some risk. I found that having a deep brood box, then a medium super full of honey prior to adding the flow-super allowed me not to use queen excluders. I also have no upper venting at all, and no upper entrance.
@@FrederickDunn I forgot to mention that I live in Yea, Victoria Australia. We've had record rain falls for the past 2 months so my Bee inspections for spring haven't been as often as should be. I love watching your program and have no upper entrance or upper venting. I'm not sure if my queen was able to get through the QX after being slimmed down for swarm preparation just before I took a split of 3 frames with the queen cells, also I wonder if I missed a hidden queen cell and possibly a very young queen has been able to squeeze through the metal QX. Did you need to clean out the flow cells after the brood hatched so the frames worked for honey extraction? I am going to do as you suggest and put medium supers above the brood boxs then flow supers at my next inspection. We again have a lot of rain forecast for the next week, very very wet spring here but my 3 hives all have very good stores of honey and pollen. Thank you for your help. Kind regards, Christine Simmons
Any reason you use Red Oak on the top inner covers?
I had a stack of red-oak planks laying around :)
Hello Dear Frederick Dunn 🥰🥰🥰🥰
I could get rich selling grasshoppers where I live if there was a market for them here. They swarm like locust here some years. It’s hot and sandy soil here and perfect for their reproduction. They need loose soil to lay eggs and thrive in heat. I catch them at night with a flashlight and use them for catfish bait.
Tasty!
Swarming grasshoppers ARE locusts!
@@saintjohncoleman8602 locust are a species of grasshoppers. All locust are grasshoppers. Not all grasshoppers are locust. The grasshoppers here that are by far the worst are the Yellow Differentail species. Ours devour everything in sight on the final molting stage. Later in the year they slow down with their appetite.
@@jamesbarron1202 the article I read in nat Geo describes certain species ( red legged in the article) convert to locust style behavior and physiology when the population gets too dense. Certainly a plague!
Good afternoon
Fred is it better to feed chickens whole or cracked corn?
Hi Terry, it makes no difference nutritionally speaking. Although if you purchase scratch grains for the birds you'll find the corn has been cracked. The chickens will take whole corn and when it finds its way into the crop it will be ground into small pieces anyway by the grit. If you provide the corn already crushed/cracked, then it makes that process easier for the birds. Corn is just callorie boost for the birds and helps them put on fat.
What theories are there regarding the cause of Colony Collapse Disorder
Basically, it's anything that impedes honey bee health and nutrition in forage. Everything from agricultural practices with heavy pesticide loads, to mono-cultural advances in crops, to a reduction in diversity and increased pesticide use in urban green spaces. That said, I've never observed a "collapsed" colony in the way that it was presented originally. That would be a colony that is simply absent from the hive with no dead bees to test. CCD was noted by Mr. Hackenberg who resides in PA, but hauls honey bees all over the country and found the devastation in one of his wintering grounds/locations.
I have wondered this too. Thanks for asking this and Fred for answering.
@@FrederickDunn If there is no generally accepted cause for CCD let me test one with you based on experience.
I had a 42 colony breeding apiary in an area with little forage available so it was fed remotely from the middle of the year until the middle of November to make up for this.
They all died over the winter and spring. About half had died by middle of January, the other half by March. There were few dead bees in the hives.
We now know that the queen at the end of the year lay winter (fat bodied) bees that are designed for winter conditions.
The tendency is for beekeepers to take the honey and back feed sugar syrup straight away. This would block the queen from laying those vital winter (fat) bees and would switch the nurse bees from breeding to storing. The old bees vacated the hive to die, as happens with CCD.
Where can I get a t shirt version of your sweatshirt????
It's on my TeeSpring page. All of my designs are on sweatshirts, hoodies, and T-shirts. Some are on jogger pants. www.fredsfinefowl.com/mystore.html
Ha mr dunn they were cool feeders at the beginning of this video where did u get them the video was great as always have a blessed week
Those are the same feeders I use for my temperature and foraging tests. I buy my own clear bottles in bulk via amazon, but the actual feeders, bases, and other details are from LifeLineBees.com Please tell them I sent you just in case there is a discount :)
@@FrederickDunn Ha thanks
Looked up 5 alive and it’s $20.00 for one 😮
Are you saying $20 for a Hive Alive Fondant Pack? I would absolutely avoid that seller.
@@FrederickDunn amazon. Do you have a direct link to their site ? Thanks…
@@colene77HillCo, LLC has it for $6.89 @
I got hive alive two weeks ago exp dated 2021
Is that the fondant, or the syrup additive? Where did you source it?
🇱🇨👊🏼👍🏼♥️
Coon Hound. Outside dog
Hounds are interesting dogs for sure.
Dog is barking at my bees
The bees can't hear the dog :) But they can its breath :)
I help dog
Cleaning up poo
My bee are after dog poo. So I am feeding
Definitely collect that dog waste. Not good.
5 to 6 WEEKS!!!!😲😲😲😲😲🥸
A sad truth. They don't have breed names, they have genetic numbers. After six weeks, they just start sitting down because they can't support their own weight. (">
Fred.. WHAT was the Bottle on the OPENING SCENE?…. It looks like you have maybe 1:1- thin syrup in there-?
I’m totally looking for to seeing/meeting you at 🐝HIVELIFE23🐝Thank you.
The open feeding bottles presented in the opening time-lapse sequence are filled with heavy sugar syrup with Hive Alive added. It's an attempt to divert would-be robbing bees. Heavy syrup occupies them longer.
@@FrederickDunn I was looking at that too...What kind and where to find?