Getting a Jump on Beekeeping Season with Early Splits
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- Опубликовано: 29 сен 2024
- I ordered some queens from Hawaii so I could get a jump on beekeeping season with early splits. I also had the opportunity to work bees for the first time with my Hives for Heroes mentee, Lynn as well as her husband Dave. The weather was not the best and there were challenges along the way but we got it done.
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#brucesbees #beekeeping #splittingbees
Hey Bruce. I wanted to share some new news to bring awareness to beekeepers.
micro plastics are making it into honey and bee digestive systems but it's coming from swiffer cloth that some are using to trap small hive beetles.
Pass the word on. Grateful.
Thanks for checking in.
Looking good Bruce, can't wait to see your acceptance rate on these splits.
Video will be coming out soon.
Wow....Up here in N. Idaho, temps are barely seeing 40 and snow expected by the end of the week again. So itching to get into the bees.
Yeah it’s gotta be tough up there but bee season will be here before you know it!
Boxes o' BEES!!! Nice man. We are still a month away here in Massachusetts. Peace out. And thank you for your service Lynn! God Bless.
Thanks for checking in. Been season will be here for you before you know it!
Hey Bruce, I have great news on peppermint tricks for shb, of all the different methods I've tried for past 9yrs , this one has been the game changer. Soft peppermint broken up and worked in small space around top bars of frames on top box (the lip that they set on front and back ), then sprinkle some across frames. I use 3 of the small round ones from wal mart, unfortunately they come individually wrapped. Also I use a spray bottle of water with a slight amount of peppermint essential oil emulsified into water and spray around hives. The beetles apparently hate it. I've been blessed to not have had problems with shb in past year. Hope it helps you too. God bless you for all your great videos.
Thanks for the tip. I tried peppermint a little bit but with the number of hives I have it was hard to keep up and do.
@@brucesbees here's another method I believe was tremendous help, I changed all bottom boards to NO LANDING PAD entrance for hive beetles to land on and walk in. Bees can hover, and they actually seem more productive flying in and out and not roaming around on landing pad. Hive beetles can't hover.
@scottreese5492 good stuff. Thanks for sharing!
Guaranteed you won’t have any washboarding bees from those queens….they’ll be doing the hula dance instead.😂😂
If you look carefully at the bottom of the box there are 21 pairs of leis and hula skirts
Haha!
Crazy that you made splits already. Lynn, thank you for your service. .
Hey thanks for checking In Brian!
I enjoy watching and learning Bruce - Thank you!
Thanks for the support and thanks for checking in!
Given my USPS deliveries if I ordered queens from Hawaii I would get them around Christmas.
Received a Christmas card postmarked 12/2/23 on 2/20/24. Close!
I hear ya haha. These came UPS. They were a day later than they were supposed to be but arrived in great condition.
0:51 Thank you for your service, Sister. 22 years Hawaii Air Guard here. Back in Maine now.
Thanks for reaching out! And thank you for your service!
Some good looking queens and nice splits. Wish you much luck this season. God bless
Thanks man. Will be interested to see how the year goes!
I saw what looked like uncapped brood at 4:12.
Yeah I’m sure there was some here or there.
Swarm already, with the early start of spring/resources I think we’re going to have a lot of swarming
Very possible.
How did you get the right angle to get such great shots of eggs? Is there a secret?
Just have to play around with it. I use the tripod and have started shooting on the 4K setting with my phone. Then I zoom in while editing. Much of the time your really can’t see the eggs but every once in awhile it works out.
What was the temperature during this video
58 F when I started the second day. Not sure about the first. Probably in the 60s
Your bees look fantastic Bruce!! Beekeepers making it happen, rain or shine!!
Absolutely. Last weekend when I made these splits was a nasty weekend. This weekend has been beautiful! Go figure!
Good work bro
And horizontal hive update video please
I need to do that. Though admittedly I haven’t spent much time in them. They are honestly in the struggle bus and I don’t know if they will survive. I think the old queen is beginning to fail.
@@brucesbees requeen them asap then I hope they can catch up with good colonies ,and give them a frame of brood..
Them bees is rowdy
Yep. They have a natural tendency towards being a little spicy, the weather was awful. And we were going into part of the hives that had not been messed with for awhile. We basically rocked their world!
Why do you put the queen on top of the brood? Why not next to it?
That would probably work fine but with cooler weather coming in wanted to make sure the bees would be clustered around the queen. The bees have to keep the brood warm so it makes sense to me.
@@brucesbees Makes sense. I was just wondering. Thanks, Bruce.
I made a split last weekend myself! I’m in NC. Upper 60’s F a few days already. It’s neat to see someone else who’s making splits. It seems like we are usually on the same schedule every year. I went and requeened last year to full blooded Russians… mine are still rowdy but yours still take the cake 😂
Yep they can be a bit spicy. They are not all like that but for some reason have gained a reputation lol.
@@brucesbees you pick the funnest ones to video 😂
No doubt lol. Always an adventure.
Great video Bruce, looking forward to the bee season ahead. Hope the splits work wonderful for you! Have a great day Bruce, RTR 😎🏈🐝
Thanks Grayson. It will be an adventure for sure
Looking good Bruce. Your hives are building up nicely. Keep them from swarming and you'll get a great honey crop for sure. I use the tape over the candy with a hole on some Queen introductions. That definitely slows the release by a few days and increases acceptance.
Yep it worked out well this time (video coming soon). I need to split a bunch more! Will probably end up with some swarms. Hoping to find some queen cells to do splits next weekend.
What great looking colony ( full ) . Like Ian says that is a box of bees . Bruce THANK YOU an EVERYONE ELSE that are helping with the hives for HEROES . I was planning on getting in on that this season but I have to much going on this season. I am in the middle of trying to get my new bee barn finished built to have for this season 🤞🤞. So next year I will be all over it next year. That is a great great idea helping all those people out getting started an the education they will get an happiness working with there bees . What was the shipping cost on getting your queens ??. Thanks
I can’t remember but wasn’t too bad. If you are interested in finding out more you can contact Zak Heintzelman on FB
Questions:
1) to draw new comb, does there need to be a flow or do they need to have been fed?
2) with that first colony, you had a virgin queen that may or may not have been there, then split it. If you think the orig queen swarmed, you leave one without a queen, right? And you didn’t see eggs….
3) I had a lot of drone brood. Is that n indication they are about to pop or get ready to swarm?
1. Yes they need to have a source of fresh food to build comb. Either nectar or syrup.
2. Not 100 sure of the queen situation in that first colony. But if a virgin queen I am hoping she stayed back in the original colony. We looked very carefully on the frames we put in the split and did not see her. The split we took was hopefully intentionally queenless so we could introduce the new queens and have them accepted.
3. Drone Brood-could be either. To me lots of drones means a healthy and productive colony, assuming the queen is not a drone layer. But it could very well be an indication that they are about to swarm, especially if they are in a cramped space.
These are my thoughts. Hope it helps!
Hey Bruce...with that last split and no syrup. You still have the jar you could steal some syrup from the other splits so that you have some syrup. Just a thought. It looks like you have enough of a flow anyway.
Not a bad idea. Thanks for checking in!
Do you have issues with Varroa there in Alabama? It seems down south they don't have many issues with Varroa but have a time with small hive beetles. We don't have small hive beetles hardly but you almost have to treat for mites.
Yes we absolutely have mite issues. We have it all! 😜😎
Hey Bruce! My mentee with Hives for Heroes is coming out to my apiary tomorrow for the first time. I hope everything goes well!
I’m sure it will go great. Have fun!
Hate I missed the premiere! Glad to see you and Lynn with Dave get into those bees!
I'm looking forward to splits as well! I hope you end up with good takes.
@sweetharlanhoneybees5877 video will be coming out soon. Spoiler alert…things are looking good!
Swapping locations of Nuc for genetic reasons?
More just to keep the bees in the boxes for population purposes. Didn’t want all the foragers to fly home. With these mated queens the genetics will be shifted automatically within a few weeks.
Thanks Bruce!!!
Thanks for checking in!
Source of those queens? Italians?
Not sure exactly but I know they are at least partially Cordovans.
Looking great Bruce!!!
Thanks man. Hope all is well with you!
Does your queen breeder have a website?
You can message him on FB at Zak Heintzelman
Nice. We won’t split till June here in Newfoundland Canada. Jealous of your weather though we are still varroa free 🤞🏼so not complaining.
Wow that seems late. But you guys are WAY up north. It amazes me that bees can survive that far north. Amazing little critters!
@@brucesbees Just checked on my hives today. Cleaning out the entrances that were blocked from dead bees so they could get out better. I have 6 apimaye hives 1 wooden hive. The wooden hive is now dead ☠️. Starved to death. They definitely seem to use more energy in the wooden hive in our colder damp climate.
Keep up the good work. Enjoy your videos and the stream team. Cheers
Thanks Corey
2024?
Yep. Last weekend.
Dang, wish I had queens already.
Yeah I got fortunate here. I guess they produce queens year round on the Big Island.
@@brucesbees headed out here shortly to go check hives. I have queens coming in early April from Jose Uribe
Awesome. Hopefully you can keep them out of the trees! I have several more that need to be split. Trying to track down some cells for next weekend.
Worse bee handling I ever see 😢
Ok lol.
So make a video yourself doing better.