Backyard Beekeeping Questions and Answers 149 My Favorite Beginner Beehive Configuration and more!
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- Опубликовано: 17 ноя 2024
- Welcome to another episode of backyard beekeeping questions and answers.
Today we went from 3 deg. F up to 30 deg. F in a matter of ours. It's a time of rapidly changing weather conditions.
In today's video, I present my favorite beginner Langstroth Hive Setup and explain why I arrived at the current configuration.
There is also a series of interviews with experts that you can follow here: www.fredsfinef...
Today's topics are listed below:
1) Would you please describe entrances, venting, screened bottom boards, robbing screens and more for different seasons?
2) Can you describe the difference between orientation flights and fire-drills?
Or what normal flights in spring should look like?
3) Why do the Langstroth Hives not adhere to the rules about bee-space when it comes to the extra space between boxes and the frames inside?
I see so much burr comb in so many RUclips videos.
4) I have built a simple pollen sub feeder out of PVC Pipe, should I be adding anything to the pollen sub so the bees can find it better?
5) Why do you think my bees are going into my coffee grounds for the garden, and are going after the chicken feed bin?
6) I've been watching your winter hive entrance cleanings. Should I be using that entrance size here in Winnipeg Canada?
7) Can you explain what role a follower board has? Could one be used to split a single hive box into two for nucs or splits?
8) How does the flow-hive brood and super boxes work to keep the bees from swarming during nectar flows when they need twice the space for processing nectar/honey?
9) I'm confused regarding the timing as to when to put supers on, and how many boxes to put on when?
10) I have a hive that is wild that I got from a bee exterminator a few months ago. I've had nightmare attack scenarios from them. Only when I touch the hive, when I leave them alone, they are fine.
11) I'm getting packages in late April, will I be able to do splits from them?
12) In the absence of a nectar flow, how do I get the bees to produce more comb?
13) I've seen your hives next to your house, please explain how you decided where to place them?
14) I was thinking of ordering some bettercomb, do I need to wire that in, even if I don't plan to extract it and just want to leave it for brood?
15) If the bees are bringing in tons of pollen, can they survive on that, or do they also need nectar? Will they starve?
TODAY'S LINKS ARE BELOW:
Shout-out to Aberland "Ultimate Woodworking Station"
Please say hello and show your support :) • All in 1 Ultimate Wood...
Build the Original Langstroth Hive: www.beeculture...
Long Langstroth Horizontal Hive PRINTS: FREE
www.fredsfinef...
Levels of Personal Protective Equipment: • How To Start Beekeepin...
Get a Coffee Cup with Honey Bees all over it! :)
One of a kind: freds-fine-pro...
1) Would you please describe entrances, venting, screened bottom boards, robbing screens and more for different seasons? 1:53
2) Can you describe the difference between orientation flights and fire-drills? 23:12
3) Why do the Langstroth Hives not adhere to the rules about bee-space when it comes to the extra space between boxes and frames inside? 27:16
4) I have built a simple pollen sub feeder out of PVC Pipe, should I be adding anything to the pollen sub so the bees can find it better? 35:25
5) Why do you think my bees are going into my coffee grounds for the garden, and are going after the chicken feed bin? 40:42
6) I've been watching your winter hive entrance cleanings. Should I be using that entrance size here in Winnipeg Canada? 44:47
7) Can you explain what role a follower board has? Could one be used to split a single hive box into two for nucs or splits? 46:42
8) How does the flow-hive brood and super boxes work to keep the bees from swarming during nectar flows when they need twice the space for processing nectar/honey? 51:50
9) I'm confused regarding the timing as to when to put supers on, and how many boxes to put on when? 56:33
10) I have a hive that is wild that I got from a bee exterminator a few months ago. I've had nightmare attack scenarios from them. Only when I touch the hive, when I leave them alone, they are fine. 59:20
11) I'm getting packages in late April, will I be able to do splits from them? 1:09:18
12) In the absence of a nectar flow, how do I get the bees to produce more comb? 1:12:01
13) I've seen your hives next to your house, please explain how you decided where to place them? 1:17:33
14) I was thinking of ordering some bettercomb, do I need to wire that in, even if I don't plan to extract it and just want to leave it for brood? 1:21:05
15) If the bees are bringing in tons of pollen, can they survive on that, or do they also need nectar? Will they starve? 1:22:40
Thank you, Adam!
Sorry that it’s so cold for you today, our high was 83. We’re supposed to be in the 80s for 4 or 5 conservative days. I helped a friend inspect her hives today and everyone had drones and a loads of capped drones and frame after frame of worker brood. There was nectar in every hive. Spring is beginning to spring here in central AL. I normally make splits in mid March but I don’t know if I can wait that long. Thanks for the work, time and effort that you put into helping anyone that needs help!
Thanks Don, I'm so very happy that your temps are not requiring jackets :)
this is my friday routine now thannk yu for always beeing here!!!!
Like the tip on putting egg carton in pollen feeder!👍
Thanks for the wintery scenes to remind me why I moved to Las Vegas and away from the snow. It was just enough to remind me of the beauty of winter, but I enjoyed playing golf this morning instead of sitting inside looking out the window.
Ohhh, I hope you can get those greens keepers to plant all borders with pollinator friendly flowers :)
Sincere thanks Frederick ...... it's an understatement, that there is so much to learn. What did you think about the bees that came to life when they had been warmed up for just a few minutes? Problem was they were in the house on a sheet of 'kitchen roll! I had to catch half a dozen and take them to the landing board! In hindsight a gentle hair dying would have probably worked.
The hive is well insulated with 2 inch poly but as soon as it's 49 they seem to fly. I'm with you re leaving the insulation on but I've removed the rear only as it's 6 in away from a heated greenhouse.
I notice hereabouts there is a lot of dandelions on the dual carriageway intersection and also the flowering trees have just stared to bloom. They seem to be a bit early due to the not so bad winter?
The next question is when should the 'Flow Super' be put on? Is it possible to put it on too soon? I'll try to notice the situation when a lot of stores are coming back. Spring is definitely springing and around here the flowers seem to not cease proliferating until May & then our Orange tree & then the Bramley will be flowering. It all looks good which is a weight off my mind.
When they are building up in a meaningful way and are filling all of their frames with new nectar, that's when I put the flow-supers on... before they top off the lower frames/cells.
Enjoyed it as always!!! God Bless!!!
Fred, i built a 24 frame Layens hive as recommended from Dr Leo's plan. I used 5 or 6 strips of moving blanket from U-haul for top insulation. Easily removed and replaced. I'm waiting to catch a swarm or two in April, May, or June. I want the pollenation services for my garden. I don't need any honey surplus. Thanks and cheers from south central MT. Bob
In north west Minnesota I find it very important to encourage the bees to build the "bridge" comb from upper frames to lower frames.
I made the mistake of removing "bridge" comb late in the fall and had bees starve out with a full box of honey directly above them.
When I leave the "bridge" comb it allows the cluster to always be in contact with the winter food source without ever being caught foodless because of a break between the cluster and the food.
We all know bees are not going to break cluster in bitter cold weather and it don't get much more extreme than north west Minnesota in winter.
Thank you so much for sharing this! I just ordered my flow hive 2 + and you answered all the questions i would have, I also am from Pa but the south eastern part. I had so many questions about the flow hive and what to do over winter and I found your videos!
I love your favorite configuration. I think the drawling was perfect and very well described being a beginner beekeeper.
I look forward to learning more from your educational videos and thank you again!
Glad it was helpful! I hope you have a great experience with your bees :)
Can't believe it's still that cold in your neck of the woods. Hope your staying warm. Thanks for the video. Informational as always.
I'm catching up on previous videos. Decided to skip numerical sequence and watch by season. March 2022 #149...ah, working for me. Interesting information about set-ups. I'm in the basic beginner's set-up. Good tips: I was going to cut my wood to make smaller stand. Now I'll keep concrete blocks using longer treated wood for work space as advised. Easy and helpful tip.
Sounds good, and I wish you all the best with your beekeeping :)
Fred Great Video!! Especially for me this week! My 30+ year old daughter who's been keeping up with my first year with bees (one hive), wants to learn and become a beekeeper herself! I've sent links to your social media sites and recommended reading materials, and today's Q & A was perfect for the questions she's been asking me lately. Thanks again!! By the way, she's now a new follower, and is also learning about chickens since that's her next project!! 😮
That's all fantastic and chickens are just the best possible lawn companions :) I with both of you well as you advance further into beekeeping and poultry rearing. If she contacts me via my website, I'll send her my 3-hour guide to backyard poultry rearing FREE :)
Great video, thanks for making it. Can not wait till next Friday
My beekeeping sister and I talked about your interview with Dr. Humberto. We talked about your photography. I wrote a poem about it. You have no idea what effect you have on us. Enjoy my poem.
Breakfast at Lucille's
I'm sure were not the only ones
Continuing on an ancient journey
Between beautifully set silverware
Asking the bees how they feel about honey
She shares something uplifting
I want to see from her perspective
She sees we all can live in harmony
Within a new cosmic directive
Her vision gives me swan bumps
My broken wings will heal
I share some ancient wisdom
Adding words to what she already feels
Tomorrow we meet again
We pause in suspended time
I'll hear all about her journey
She gifts priceless advice on mine
She shows me the hidden door
My flashlight remembers to shine
Unlocked doors don't need a key
Unused wings can learn to fly
Hi Fred great episode , have a lovely weekend , thrilled with our girls looking absolutely fantastic and the flowers and trees are bursting into life , pollen after pollen going in the Hive 😀
Thanks, you too!
Wow, this episode was shocked full of information. Thanks for answering my question on condensing nectar to honey. I really appreciate your discussion on aggressive hives… I think it’s interesting that Italian bees are often recommended as passive bees but you found them to be too aggressive. In the city it’s a bit tricky because the aggressive level has to be so much less than the country. I have a hive that is perfectly fine until I try to open the lid and they all rush out on full attack mode. Needless to say I don’t open it, let alone try to find the queen… as I won’t do anything that might get neighbors stung. I plan to run a 2 queen hive before removing and destroying the aggressive brood chamber. What ever I do I only give myself 10 minutes with that hive!
Too cold 0 f this morning , no bees flying, good skiing, thanks for the video, B
It took me half way through season 1 to realize I needed a wider hive stand then just 1 hive width. Reconfigured to similar to yours that winter.
Thank you Fred ,it was a great video.
Glad you enjoyed it
Hi Fred! I have been watching tons of your videos and so appreciate the understanding you have of bee behavior and needs. I am in southern California were temps have been up in the 80's (not consistently). My apple trees started flowering the last week of January and there has been at least 1 tree in full flower since then (apple, apricot, peach, plum). A feral hive set up shop in one of my compost trash cans around Christmas time. I bought a flow hive, ordered all the equipment, and have tried to educated myself about bee keeping. I lifted the lid to peek inside 2 weeks ago and they have 5 sections of comb about 8x10 in there. I am ready to move them this weekend. I have stationed the flow hive under my apricot tree right next to the trash can they chose and set up a 20 gallon water garden next to it (we get really hot in summer). I am in a neighborhood on about .2 acre lot. Last year I produced over 650 pounds of produce in my yard and I want the bees to stay! Do you have any thoughts about the best time of day to make the move? During the day while most are away? or early morning before they leave? They seem very calm and have not minded me working my garden even a few feet away from their hive.
Definitely the best time of day for the transition would be mid-afternoon on a sunny day. As you've mentioned, the foragers and scouts will be out and about, which will greatly reduce the bees you will have to deal with. I wish you all the best and hope you have a mentor that is willing to give you some assistance as you hive them. :)
@@FrederickDunn I moved it! I hope the bees don't suffer too much from my ignorance. I was careful and as gentle and slow as I could be. I didn't find the queen, but all the bees stayed in the hive after I brushed them off the comb into the box. None of them left, so I'm pretty sure she was in there. I had researched a lot before attempting the move, but I was confronted with one choice i didn't know the answer to. When I broke the large sections of comb from under the can lid, they were too big to fit in the frames. They were also very heavy with honey on top and fragile with new wax on the bottom. I turned them over so the heavy thick side was down and the ripped honey cells would be at the bottom of the hive and not dripping all over them. The comb orientation was still vertical and in the same order, just flipped over. Do you think that will hurt them? I saw all stages of brood and lots of honey and pollen stored.
Thank you Fred! I will keep an eye on them and see if I need to give them a foothold.
great tip about under supering when honey cap/bridge,is pretty full
Thanks.
Looking forward to see that skunk cabbage or onion to flower for your bees Mr Dunn.Spring is cloose.
Best video to date. Great job understanding bee biology and reading the combs!
Thank you so much! :)
I made a “lazy layens” hive by accidentally leaving a space in a medium bottom brood box under a deep second brood box.. I saw the bees really loving the deep plus medium frame, that I pulled the next bottom medium frame and the next so that I eventually wound up with 5 full deep+medium frames on the west side of the hive, and SO MUCH brood and honey. The hive is a monster, so in the spring I plan to split out the 5 “lazy layens” frames into an 8 frame hive with the queen as an artificial swarm. The remaining bees will stay to make a new queen, and I’ll keep them in a standard setup.
Awesome information on flow hives, looking after the entire hive, not just producing honey. Not splitting hives too soon, but waiting at least a year. What to do with a hot hive, I’ve recently inspected some hives on my parents property, that aren’t ours. Most of them were hot, 1 was quite good and 2 were insanely hot. Had to wash our suits for the first time, because of the stings. Mum’s tried to contact the owner as all the hives are honey bond. To the point we almost couldn’t remove the lids. Ended up removing the top supers to inspect them. If the owner wants us to help with his bees, that will be ok, but if not then I don’t think my brother would ever go through them without me.
Unfortunately I’ve lost 2 of my hives in the recent flooding here in QLD Australia. So I’m building up my hive at home and assisting my brother with his as you watched the other day with our extraction. As always awesome video again thanks TrickyTrev 🇦🇺👍🍯🐝
Sorry about all the raining and floods there... I'm glad it wasn't worse. I'd be all over those hot hives! Sounds like new queening time.
@@FrederickDunn yes definitely 👍
Thanks Fred for the advice. It was -14 f this morning on tug hill in upstate NY. The Bee Keepers Workshop has some videos in how to build a bee hive.They ere very detailed.
Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for more great learning. We are getting one warm day each week recently, then back in the freezer. Wednesday was above 60F. I was able to check my six insulated Layens hives. Lots of honey and bees. The two strongest colonies had several frames of brood (Russians). My one Italian was just getting started. Time to get ready for spring.
Those Russian bees are generally very good at dealing with varroa! Glad things are looking for good there!
@@FrederickDunn a September Dawn mite wash had no mites. I expect to do at least a July wash this year to treat before winter bees start if I need to. Not many bees in my area.
Retired carpenter, first year to be beekeeper. I like the configuration you have come up with a lot, very similar to what I was thinking would be good for SW Washington, not all that cold here but condensation and general moisture seem to be a large issue here.
Wouldn't it be better to put your hand cleats on the front and back so that you could push 2 hives together for warmth if needed, also would allow for easier tilt inspections?
I never push hives together for winter, they remain in their static positions year round. The in-cut hand holds are definitely designed to facilitate strapping together for shipping primarily. Having the lifting cleats on the front and rear of the boxes gets them closer to the individual lifting the box, so people could certainly leave them off of the long sides. My hives remain in their permanent positions throughout all seasons. Colder climates could certainly benefit from having them collectively bundled for harsh conditions if un-sheltered by terrain.
We were in the 80's week before last. Then it dropped into the mid 20's and back up into the 70's now. Bees are flying and bringing in Pollen.
Sounds like things are about to get very good there! :)
thanks for explaing bee bread,and how they use mandibular to produce royal jelly to feed larva,kinda wondered about that
would love to see a coffee cup on spring of honey comb,i was looking at yours,have a great weekend
Thanks Fred. I don’t know why people do not like the flow hive. I love it and it works great.
It's a puzzle that may never bee solved. I've had walk-outs from individuals when giving in-person presentations, just for mentioning that I use them. (';') ( ';')... I personally like to learn about all methods and can't imagine closing the door on understanding how something works. But these are different times. Many are threatened by something that "appears" too easy. I watched an entire video about a guy who is keeping bees in plastic water bottles... now, I'm not a fan of that method, but I'd love to hear all about it. :)
Exactly
I have been watching your channel for a while now and have never commented. I am getting used to your sense of humor. I know what you said wasn't meant to be funny and I am sure it wasn't funny when it happened but, when you mumble under your breath about the bees killing your hamster I couldn't help but laugh about it. Hot hives are no fun and dead pets are even less fun...but I got exactly what you were talking about when you said it. It was your delivery, not the circumstance that made me laugh.
Thank you for your videos. Keep making them for us.
:) Thanks for appreciating my humor :) no hamsters have been lost to defensive bees. Thanks for taking a moment to comment!
Frederick thankyou so much for the fantastic advice as always. I thought you said you don't now have an additional upper entrance? I wrote you that I did open up a 3/4 hole just under the bottom of the super frame but soon plugged it after seeing wasps trying to get in it .
The wasps were cleared off by two bees in the summer. I saw your upper entrance hole & so followed your style...... Have you modified your entrance techniques, after careful thought (of course)?
I like your idea to insulate all year therefore keeping cool in the summer! A bit like humans way of house styling these days.
Please do you see bees caught out in the cold in the Spring. It seems surprising that such an intelligent insect are what I would call 'accident prone'! I say this due to their camakazi way of handling fluid = such as beware of water! I thought your comments were to say the least incredible when you observed drowning bees still drinking just before they croaked! Struth!!!!!
True, I no longer use upper venting and don't use upper entrances. My feeder shims have the openings but hey aren't accessible to the bees.
Fred, I am in north west Minnesota and using only a bottom summer entrance and I am seeing brood in every level including the top box.
I am currently three boxes high and seeing full frames of brood in the top box as well as the middle and bottom box.
It could be the queen's are just that aggressive of layers and out competing the foragers.
I find it very interesting.
You are using only the bottom entrance, but is there any venting going on up at the top? There are indeed colonies that just do what they will. I guess in this instance if you really wanted brood-free honey supers you'll have to install a queen excluder.
@@FrederickDunn
Correct I am using only a bottom entrance with no upper venting during the summer.
And yes I have to use queen excluders for brood-free supers.
I'm not sure what is so different here that causes the bees to do this but I see this no matter the strain of bee.
I have had Italians, carniolins, open bread mutt bees, and another one I do not remember what strain they were but was very disappointed with them, and an open bread strain that happened to be tainted with the Africanized genetics.
I could not go anywhere near that hive without suiting up.
One day I pulled up not far from them and didn't realize the wind was blowing the exhaust directly into the hive. Turned out that slowly took them out
Didn't hurt my feelings one bit.
And I was only half way through the season and still ended up with nearly one hundred pounds of honey off that hive.
No wonder the commercial guys like using the Africanized bees for honey production.
Currently I am keeping Italians and and added open bread Minnesota overwintered bees that I purchased from Mann lake this year.
70s last couple days,my colonies were insoected most the hive alive was gone,some still had half,1 was all gone, saw brood,and queens...made me happy,...1 had a few beetles 🐞
Hi Mark, did they clean that bag out all the way? Glad they took it all in. Thanks for sharing.
@@FrederickDunn yes the cleaned it totally on 1 ... a strongly populated hive
Just my thoughts, the hive alive bags seem to suction down trapping bees and the corner food, I added a.little half inch shim right into the fondant after I cut the hole in the package, working well😊😊
Just my thoughts, the hive alive bags seem to suction down trapping bees and the corner food, I added a.little half inch shim right into the fondant after I cut the hole in the package, working well😊😊
thank you fred . i all ways get something out of you
Dr. Leo demonstrates how to cut a Langstroth frame to fit inside a Layens frame (very messy process but it does work) on a utube episode of Off Grid with Doug and Stacey. It is entitled "American Beehives all wrong......" dated June 23, 2020. I am now facing the reverse process this spring....should be interesting. It is indeed a challenge when you have different hive configurations.
Yes, that's why I mentioned Dr. Leo. Doug and Stacey lost a lot of their colonies, I was very surprised by the pest loads they were accepting. Dr. Leo is shown cutting the ends off of the Langstroth Frames and placing them in the Layen's frames. That particular colony didn't make it :(
Hi Fred that was a good QnA program thanks.
I liked the info on WATCHING BEE’s spiral flight of foragers, and back n forth hovering fire drill.
I watch my bee’s a fair bit, and the actions of the bee’s interest me allot, there’s a fair deal of beekeeping information out there but not so much on the actions of bee,s and why.
Would you please cover a bit on WATCHING BEE’s when you can as most of the info iv learnt on that subject came from you.
I seen the interview you did referring to the protectabee, I thought it was a grate tool in a few ways.
Unfortunately I’m in the UK so it could be difficult to purchase here with shipping and tax’s.
But hope to see more information on it.
Thanks
Thank you so much, I'd really like to put a video together that showcases those behaviors as well as others... seeing it would be enjoyable I'm sure. I do have a lot of stock sequences saved, and will add interior behaviors to that. I really appreciate that you've found some of my information beneficial. I wish you all the best in beekeeping.
Great job! ❤💜💙❤🥳
been enjoying the easy see window btw ...i still need readers to magnify eggs,but definitely clearer
Awesome!
This winter i only insulated complete around the bottom of my flow hives. Then only insulated the sides that did not get sun. So far so good.
Thanks so much. Luckily we have about a 14 day cool down back in the single digits. I will split it as soon as a warm up comes.
@@susanmarich5487 this is my 3rd year very new
like the lifting handles 💪
Hello my friend, really enjoyed this. Thank you
Question. You mentioned that "they always need both; both pollen, nectar/honey." So does this mean than also need both during the winter? Is so, this explains why my hive perished this winter. They had tons of honey, but zero pollen. If you are telling me they always need pollen, then next winter I will give them pollen sub ever 2 weeks during winter to make sure they have it. Thanks again.
It's necessary for brood production.. remember that the nurse bees and bat bodied winter bees store it in their system. But they are pretty good at leaving some pollen cells around for winter.
I get that Frederick. I was more concern with do the live bees actually need both pollen and nectar/honey during the winter as well?
Dear Frederick You mentioned a beekeeping/ hive app please have you done anything regarding a video on the 'App'. If you yourself use an app please could you demonstrate what you use it for. If you do use an app I would suppose it is useful. Some of us old folks find some of the complexities of button pushing complex. A moror engineer pal once said to me does a good mechanic need a Crypton tuner?
For a very long time computers are at the heart of nearly everything that moves. Does bee a beekeeper need a computer?
Thank goodness a Flow hive is purely mechanical! I think it seems a good idea but I see some beekeepers hate them.
An educated saying was = work is hard enough lad -lets make it easy!
Best Wishes
I'll talk about this today. Yes, I've made videos regarding apps I use, but I'll explain the pros and cons.
Thanks Fred as always. I have been wondering why you and other beekeeping youtubers have been selling coffee cups. Now I know that the bees love coffee! Thanks for sharing that secret. I am going to go make a cup of coffee and place it in my apiary. Just wondering what kind of coffee do they like the best? I never saw the coffee station when you were testing all the different water sources with your test stations.
Keep me posted, I've never had bees go after coffee. :)
Hey Chief! Did I understand you to say you are going to put your hive stand plans on your FFF website? I can’t find them. The idea is ingenious!! BZ!
They are in the works... formal drawings of the entire setup. The same engineer who did my Long Langstroth plans is currently working on them :)
Great! I would like them too! 😊
Thank you Frederick for the helpful advice. It seems regular inspections of the combs is critical. They seem busier than usual and there are lots of opportunity for them to build the colony right now due to the flowering of everything around here =central UK. I saw someone else in the UK commented that their area is same.
I've just completed the second hive so it will be in place today. Could some of the bees automatically go in it with it being 5 feet away from their original Hive? What do you think about the Australian beekeeper swapping the position of the two hives when he 'splits'? Is it something you do and is that necessary?
I'll talk about this on Friday :)
Hello Fred, Love your videos. Honey Bound: do you leave fames of honey in the bottom box throughout the year? Thank you for the helpful insight.
Yes I do! Whatever they store in the deep brood box stays right there.
It got up to 70* for two days in a row, of course I get nervous about a possible swarm although there are no environmental resources for the bees. I opened just the top medium box to check how much honey is available. Three solid frames and two half frame's out of 7, Plus sugar on the top. A large buildup is happening right now. How full of bees is too full? I would do a split but it seems way too early here. Even if new queen cellls are made it would be too early for Drones and mating flights. Will a virgin queen wait until better weather to fly? I am hesitant to open the bottom and break the propolis and chill the brood, it will get really cold again soon.
There is typically nothing to forage until May here in our high altitude area of Wyoming.
I've been watching you closely and followed your hive configuration. It is really working.
Hi Susan! Ok, this is the all too frequent scenario during these warmups. I'll talk about this on Friday, but you will need to have your extra hive equipment ready to go. If the numbers are big in that hive, and you see evidence of queen cell construction, those rascals can fly out and swarm on the first hot day! Remember, the departing queen is already mated and in lay, so she can start right away and they bring resources with them that hold them until pollen begins to show up in a meaningful way. If you find queen cells under construction and a warm day is coming soon, I'd personally split them myself, leave them with eggs and resources as well as pull brood with the existing queen into the new box. This sets them back a tad and the virgin queens can wait a couple of weeks before making a mating flight. So, drones may not be far behind. They also have to mature before being capable of mating. BUT, bee ready to interfere with their plans... :) prime swarms are sad to see go, and they catch beekeepers off guard so often! Last year, I had one victory after another in stopping those from departing. It's really a fun game of timing and inspection. Strength and Honor... Bee ready... (';')
Thanks Fred. A nuc box is on standby and if it warms I'm going in!
When you answered #5's question you mention sawdust in your answer, I have seen beekeepers mention this in other of videos. I know that much of the lumber used in construction is wet lumber and wet lumber still contains more of that woods natural oils. Could it be, the sawdust and oils are in part being used in propolis production? Also if wet lumber sawdust there would be natural moisture.
That's a very interesting thought, but I've personally not seen green cut wood visited by bees. I think of our local saw mill that cuts newly felled logs. Those are generally speaking, very rough cut and the finer saw dust piles are not produced. I'm speaking more about the fine wood dust generating by sanding operations. But very interesting take on that. Thanks for sharing.
What would happen if the combs were placed horizontally one above the other? Thank you. Nigel Moore.
Hi Nigel, I'm not sure I understand your question? All comb must be verticle, if you're suggesting having them flat surfaces facing down or up, bees won't use that at all. They are gravity driven in their comb construction and use.
@@FrederickDunn Thank you. I did not know the combs were vertical in the wild. I had wondered if the bees always had vertical combs. Nigel Moore.
love the drawing....
Thanks Mark :)
I live in zone 3 in N.E. Vermont
I keep four hives for pollination of my orchard and home garden. They have over wintered for the first time since I have lived in N.E. VT. for 14 years. They are double hive bodies and insulated with 1.5 in. foil covered foam on 4 sides and top with no top vent.
2 of the hives were bought and swarmed, I caught the swarms. Should I re-queen any of my hives this year?
If so I am thinking of a few methods: NO. 1 would let the queen start laying, then kill my queen so to get a brood break. No. 2 Buy a queen and kill the old queen.
Can you suggest a better method?
Back yard bee keeper
Mike A
Hi Mike, I'm interested in what town you're in, or near? My family is from Craftsbury :) My grandfather used to own the Mill Village Store :) For a fast recovery, if you really want to change the queens out, I'd get some of Michael Palmer's Queens and remove your resident queens 2 days prior to their introduction. Michael is already working with Vermont acclimated stock. Since they would not be providing the brood break you mentioned, you wouldn't have the opportunity to get a treatment in for varroa mites if that's part of your plan? You have a short season, so a direct queen replacement would be most beneficial for them to build in time for winter. OR, if they made it through winter and seem to be doing well, I wouldn't replace the queens at all. I'd stay with the swarm-stock that wintered. They sound like winners to me :)
@@FrederickDunn In Westmore, on the west side of Lake Willoughby at 1500ft.
I got one for you time before last looking into my hives somehow I lost my hive tool halfway through then my next inspection I found it it was sitting right on top of the frames in between two boxes and them girls had it glue down.lol
I have wondered about these "fire drills" and sometimes think they're also eliminating bees with deformed wing virus in these events. It always seemed to me there is the swarm motivating bees (shaker bees) which prompt every bee of a graduating age to activate and if anything is wrong with them they're kicked out.
That's an interesting take on that, Cynthia, thanks for sharing.
cant wait to see your 5 on 5 nucs and feeder on top, when weather permits
Those small hives are just spectacular performers and it's a pleasure to visit them. There will definitely be more of them this year.
Amazing 🤩
I watched a different video by you and you said you don"t use a slotted rack and in this one you are showing you do.Do you think that they do some good? I do enjoy your videos they are very helpful .
Yes, I've since added them to nearly all of my hives just for the added convenience of space below the brood box and for encouraging the queen to use cells all the way down to the bottom of the frame.
Awesome info as Always.... Love the drawings that shows your current set-up. I have a question about the insulated feeder shim.... what is it insulated with?
www.betterbee.com/wooden-hive-equipment-10-frame/ICBS1-BeeSmart-Insulated-Inner-Cover.asp?mkwid=&pcrid=409843175975&pkw=&pmt=&pdv=c&gclid=CjwKCAiAjoeRBhAJEiwAYY3nDGxnlqxC5ajxGJvMQd10iawjiOwpcTb7PWlqO3hKdvk7cyms6ATsYxoC4i8QAvD_BwE
@@FrederickDunn Thank You!
@@FrederickDunn Fred I have the info for the insulated inner cover and the insulated outer cover. I was asking about the Feeder shim itself. You noted in your drawing today that your feeder shim was insulated. I don't see an insulated feeder shim for sale. Do you create an insulated feeder shim with rigid foam insulation or foam insulation?
Fred I could see honey bees going into fresh sawdust. Aside from being idiots I cannot help but wonder at a possible attraction to remaining fresh resins. I'm thinking for propolis. Would that make sense? I'll have to put out a pile of kiln dried dust next to sawdust of a fresh cut log.
There's a 2nd espresso comparison trial out of the blue...
It's a great thought, but the sawdust wouldn't have enough resin remaining (unless it's near fresh felled logs), for the bees to go for that. Also, it's generally the finer dust that they collect, like in the dust bins etc... I think it's really the texture over content. BUT, someone may do a study some day with consistent physical traits but with plant resin added, or fresh vs dried. It's a guessing game at this point.
I have ordered rapid round feeders and they are not consistently made the same. I like the kind the had the center entrance tube that fits down in the round hole. When ordering you can’t see the length of the tube. I couldn’t find the video that you explained the differences. Which company makes the feeder?
Rocket Hardware was selling the perferred rapid round you've described. BUT, I think even though they have the best materialsl at the moment, they have eliminated the protruding center cone as it won't fit into the hole in most inner covers (people didn't want to have to drill that hole). So they have probably arrived at the flush bottom because it works on all inner covers. This is a non-affiliate link to the ones I use and like: www.amazon.com/Rapid-Feeder-Round-Hive-Easy/dp/B07FNW2VDB/ref=sr_1_2?crid=2RRXERGP8ICZH&keywords=rapid+round+feeder&qid=1646488804&sprefix=rapid+round+feeder%2Caps%2C79&sr=8-2
I have some frames I removed from my hives for the winter. They were not drawn out yet. They are wax foundation ( I think it is the Spanish wax I got from Horizontal Hive). They had warped some from the summer heat. Estimate worst 3/8" off from centerline. Will the bees have issues with the distortion and should I find some way to try to flatten them?
I would try to warm and flatten them again before putting them back in the hive. I have the same foundation from Dr. Leo's site and it's very thick and also deformed. Just a little warming on a flat piece of wood will get them right again. :)
Hi, Fred. Thank you. The background noise is gone in this video. I noticed a curious lack of the HiveGate in your current hive setup. Has there been a consensus reached as to their effectiveness (or lack thereof)?
Hi Christopher, because of you, I've stopped the panning :) As for the HiveGate, because it's still experimental, I didn't include it in my hive design. The feedback on that entrance has been all positive, save for one user that said they had water issues. They stopped, or profoundly reduced wasp-related losses. There is a lot going on with those entrances that we don't even understand completely yet. But it's all positive so far. When spring colonies are evaluated, we'll know more. This is my first winter with hive gates, so I haven't finished my field testing. But, good so far.
Finally all caught up!
Wow Daniel.. it's been a very long time :)
@@FrederickDunn i was in the Baltic countries for a bit hanging out, then PCS'ed from germany, saw family in Georgia, got to Oklahoma for work, got covid, had a baby, went to dome training, and now... about to start beekeeping again at the end of the month. Its been almost a year! I hated leaving my bees in germany, worst part of my PCS for sure.
Your mini layens hive could double as a 3 section queen mating castle..
I've been meaning to ask you about your broodminders. I have 2 of them, one in a topbar hive and one in a dbl deep lang, both of them the temp is close to the same 90 degrees. The humidity in the lang is 47% and the topbar the humidity is 67%. Have you experienced this difference? Lots of bees in both hives. Thoughts?
I've found the humidity readings just provide daily rises and falls in humidity. Not much correlation between hive designs. I won't be using the broodminders going foreward. Did you read the article from Ross Conrad regarding the impact on honey bee digestive systems and tech? Having them on top or in the inner cover isn't a concern, but putting them near or on brood may be an issue in the end. I feel that I don't really need the information they provide.
That sky is moving
time lapse goodness...
I have a ground hornet nest that is surprisingly nice, I can sit right next to the entrance and they don't bother me one bit, but if my husband get 10 feet they go after him..it's very interesting this behavior from them.
Hmmmm.... maybe it's time to reconsider your husband's place in your life? (';')( ';').... but seriously, they are very visual, and pheromone reactive.
@@FrederickDunn They say Salmon can 'sense' a lady 'fishers' hormones on the fly lure?
How would you build an adaptor to put a Nuc over a standard Langstroth? Thinking that would be a good prep step to make a split.
If someone wanted to do that, it would be easy to simply make a solid cover with a cutout the size of the interior space of the nucleus box. Then just remove it when they have done the work. I personally wouldn't do that as it's the highly populated hives that I want to split from and I like to simply pull their frames and swap them out as part of releiving the congestion in that parent colony. But all experiments are open :)
@@FrederickDunn I think moisture would leak in with a simple snug fitting opening
Hi Fred, do you ever allow anyone to come and follow you around for a week or weekend and just learn??
Follow me around? (';')( ';').... what? I've had visitors for specific activities, but no extended visits as I think that would be extremely boring for the visitor. When my Way To Bee Academy is built/finished, I will be able to do small workshops in that building, but not yet. :)
can I just put a hive next to a hive that is ready to swarm.will old queen go to empty hive next to swarming hive?
That's a great question Raymond, that's very risky as they would only move into that box if there was nothing else available anywhere in the area. It's happened here where a colony did swarm right into a stored stack of hives less than 20 feet away. BUT, their strong instinct is to spread out and travel at least 250 meters from their original hive location. You're way ahead by just removing brood and the current queen and placing them in the box yourself. You take the risk out of it and they are anchored by the brood. You'll lose lots of foragers back to the original hive, but will gain all of the new brood and they will continue from there.
So spring came and my bees died, although last week i saw them flying. Could this be because of this heat cycles? We have -8C nights and +6C days. This was my first winter as a beekeeper and this is not encouraging :( another question, can you feed pollen substance in top hive feeder? (i mean inside the hive)
I personally never ever put dry pollen sub inside the hive. If you want to offer pollen inside, then pollen patties would be the way to go. HiveAlive Just Released Pollen Patties, Randy Oliver did a recent study and shared that Global Patties performed the best. One common problem, if mites and starvation have been eliminated, is queen loss which results in attrition through winter with no new brood evidence. I hope you will stay with it.
@@FrederickDunn thank you, Fred
i tried harvest lane dry feed powder sub from tractor supply,...they dont even go to it at all ...total fail,ill have to try ultra bee sometime
Interesting, I've never heard of that sub. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks.
You're welcome
FRED , IT IS SAID THAT IN SRRING YOU SHOULD FEED BEES ONE TO ONE SUGAR SYRUP. MY QUESTION , CAN YOU FEED PRO-SWEET IN SPRING OR IS IT NOT TO BE FED TO THE BEES IN SPRING BECAUSE OF THE THICKNESS OF HONEY? THANKS JIM GEARHART
You can defnitely feed ProSweet in spring. You can even cut it with water a little if you want them to take it faster. It's for any dearth period, or for any build-up. "Dr. Brian Johnson at U.C. Davis, package colonies on new foundation were fed either sucrose syrup or Mann Lake’s ProSweet (50:50 sucrose:HFCS). The colonies grew better on the ProSweet." I was just looking back to this study today :) so great for colonies you need to boost.
Emma formerly from Dyce lab routinely “under supers” as swarm prevention.
I absolutely love Emma, and am happy she has found undersupering to be helpful. I don't engage in that practice. Dr. Thomas Seeley is also at Cornell and he does not recommend that practice, I've done it in the past and no longer see the benefit. With a single entrance and no top venting, the bees naturally move down with their bood toward the entrance and back fill with honey stores as spring gets toing. IF you are leaving top vents or upper entrances, then swapping boxes will force the bees and their brood down below.
@@FrederickDunn I don’t use upper entrances or ventilation. I’m actually going to seal the Apimaye louvres with spray foam on 3 out of 7 of my Apimaye hives and see what that does compared to the 4 I leave as they are.
I just cut the whole lot on the disc and that's what my bees use I think it's a half inch
Who do you get most of your equipment from
These days, it's almost always Betterbee
I got a box of bees they chewed a
hole in the insulation and I fixed it then I noticed they done it again so I went to the hive to put all These Brood in one box I noticed I had eggs in the top in the bottom they must have made a Virgin Queen or a queen flew into it because there's two queens when working the top and one what's working the bottom so I made a split now everybody's got one Queen
The insulated inner covers I use are protected by a plastic barrier between the insulation and the bees. Yes, they can chew through a lot of materials, including rigid foam board. Glad you made a nice split and caught that situation early :)
@@FrederickDunn the best split that I have ever made literally two boxes of bees too bad they wouldn't just do that on all of them in the spring
It's supposed to be in a high 80s it may even hit 90 and then then next weekend it's supposed to drop Cold
Those up and down temps are challenging.
Sir where I can sale the bee venom sir please help me
If you mean bees for venom therapy, BeeWeaver.com
3/8 is just a smidge under 10 mm
3/8=9.525 mm,give or take
.375 is the decimal of 3/8"
🇱🇨👍🏼♥️
parakeet? LLLoL
[I hope that is not a true case !!]
People, slap a piece of window screen over your brood frames.
Why would you do that?