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John Schwartz
Приєднався 12 вер 2008
OTS Queen Rearing - Never Buy Bees Again
Live OTS Queen rearing webinar by John Schwartz to an audience of beekeepers in Manitoba. Hosted by Brad Hogg at Faith Apiaries. Learn more about OTS at thebee.farm
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Відео
Making an "On The Spot" (OTS) Split - Summary
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* Website: thebee.farm * OTS Beekeeping Group: groups/otsbeekeeping/
Mason bees are your friend!
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theBee.Farm ― Filmed from our backyard in Ohio, here's a brief video showing how we hang mason bee nesting blocks right on our back porch. Some quick facts and notes: * Mason bees don't sting ― an easy way to quickly identify is to note their rounded (not pointed) rear-end with no stinger * They emerge early each Spring and last just a few weeks, busily creating cocoons for next year's bees * Y...
Harvesting white sweet clover seed
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theBee.Farm | Harvesting White Sweet Clover (Melilotus albus) from abandoned lot. Some of it's a bit too green; dark/black seeds desirable. :)
why would you not preserve the Queens you are removing from the hives into a small nuc and sell or give away local to help your fellow bee keepers
I often sell nucs or give away queens. I as often don't have the space or time to do so.
Today I learned 'sweet' white clover and white sweet clover are completely different plants.
I just did this yesterday, but didn't have any eggs or larvae in new comb. On most of the notches that I made, it pulled the cocoon down and ruined the cell above it. I hope that a few didn't have that so the bees have something to work with. I'll find out in 7 days, I guess.
They will often choose their own locations to build cells. Notching primarily ups your odds of having cells on multiple frames for easy split creation.
I know this is am older video (great one!) but hopefully you’ll see this question. No issues at all with using OA at that 25 day mark? No problem with that OA vapor disrupting what is presumably a brand new mated queen at that time?
To date, no, I've not ever had any issues using OA at the 25 day mark, and Queens do just fine.
Mel Disselkoen tells you move the box with the original queen 2 miles away. If you don't have place where you can do that how do you handle that part.
In his book, he talks about setting it on the same pallet or a couple miles away whatever your choices it’s not a big deal really I never move mine other than a foot or two away on the same pallet or somewhere else in the yard for that matter, it’s not been a factor for many years.
@@TheBeeFarm John thank you. I am looking forward to using this method to raise and keep my bees alive. Up until now it's been move forward fall back no matter what I did. I seemed never to be able to get ahead.
I have a question I caught a swarm in the beginning of July like July 3 and I’m moving the hive out of the tree here soon. Would it be safe to despatch the queen if she is a old marked Queen. Our is it even necessary to dispatch her.
How many frames are the bees covering? How much brood has she laid?
Just moved them from the tree today. They are big. They have drawn out 8 out of the 10 frames already in less then 2 weeks. I’m not sure how many frames have brood. I did not get into the hive. I know after I moved them they were covering the hole top of the box.
@@TiffinFamilyInvestmentInc. I think I’d lean towards letting this one be?
Do you think I should add another box.
@@TiffinFamilyInvestmentInc. yes and with built out comb in center at least if you have it
What do you do with it? Tell us more!
Will notching eggs work or do they have to be 36 hour or younger larvae?
It'll work. Some do this.
Not white clover
Sweet white clover. www.outsidepride.com/seed/clover-seed/sweet-clover-white.html?gclid=CjwKCAjwqauVBhBGEiwAXOepkVBh5IudqG5hYK4nGw6U-eDYK-EOCsLoMhAn_fMMfY3Q-ctt2-e4mBoCGqcQAvD_BwE
Love the clear explanation and simple drawings. Nice going.
I have seen and heard comments about a potential down side to OTS that there is possible for bees to make queen cells from larva older than 1 or 2 days old that this could result in that cell emerge first, kill the younger cells resulting in getting an inferior queen. What is your perspective on this?
A good question. I've been doing this method since 2012 or so without said issue. I'm ruthless with quality of queen/colonies and see healthy and robust bees over time.
Thanks. I’ll quit worrying about it.😀
One of the benefits of OTS queen rearing is the mite control from the brood break. I am wondering about the artificial swarm nuc with the original queen. There is no brood break in that nuc. How do you manage mines in that colony?
There are two times during the season for this brood break. During the second instance around mid to end of June, I dispatch *all* queens, giving all colonies a brood break at least once per year.
Do you keep some colonies full size in prep for july round of queen rearing to guarantee good supply of drones.or do the colonies that you split in may ,have they built up enough to be good supply of drones for July.
Hey John, could you turn the OTS FB group back on, and maybe give a couple of us admin privileges to keep it on topic? I'll shoot you a note on FB with the same request.
Back on :)
@@TheBeeFarm - yeah it is, and I post there regularly.
I would think that the queens from notching would be more like emergency cells. Wouldn't it be interesting to graft queen cells and time them for placement in the hive that you have notched or not notched that they would make emergency cells from, smash all of their emergency cells and then put in your grafted queen cell. I know it would be more work, but would probably result in better queens.
Actual research has shown little to no difference between emergency and grafted cells which makes sense because they’re both using the same mechanism queenless to produce cells. Swarm cells on the other hand Have Shown a slightly marked improvement over the other two of like 5%, which is still within the error of the study.
Is this why some sell nucs so they don't have to kill the queen ?
Probably so :)
Do you need to wait a few days after removing the queen before notching? Great video. Thanks.
Nope! Right away and thus, "on the spot" :)
Great explanation! Thank you for making this visual!
Welcome :)
Thank you for such a concise explanation. Mel's book is the authority, but I am too much of a novice to understand it all.
Most welcome, Tom.
Great informative video. Lots of info and coverage of the method.
John, I have loved your videos and watched your lectures a few times already. I purchased Mel’s book yesterday. I currently have 4 hives coming out of winter. One hive in particular has 2 brood boxes with at least 8 frames total brood,and I’ve been peeling brood off of her since two weeks ago and giving frames of brood to my weaker hives to even them out. This hive is still going like nuts and I’m not sure if they will make it in just the two boxes. My swarm season is around May 8th. I don’t think they will make it without more room. Would you add another brood box to this colon? I have drones in all of my hives, but it’s been cold and rainy this spring (Oregon). Would you start OTS now on that hive, (April 2nd) and hope for good weather for breeding or add an additional box and wait until the optimal time of May 8th? Thanks for your time. PS. I love the computer presentations. You make this so simple and explain thing very well.
If you have live drones, at least 6 frames of brood and good weather: good time to do artificial swarms.
Is this Dutch white clove?
No, it's not. Sweet clover is a much better plant for bees.
I've been hearing about OTS for the past few weeks here and there, decided to look it up this evening. I discovered I knew about it and have been practicing it since the late 90's...this is how I do my walk away splits. The key difference between the way I've done my WAS and some others is that I take the old queen and her brood frame bees and leave the split as the OG hive just queenless. This simulates the swarming action and gives the split most of the workers. Most people don't notch under the desired cells to encourage the queen cells either for WAS but this works well, been doing it for decades now. Glad I looked it up and also glad I don't need to learn anything new. Anyone looking at doing this, make sure there are drones around or you are too early to be making queens.
At a toss up on OTS. I’m in the Facebook group, learning. I’m also in NE Ohio, hr south of Cleveland.
Welcome. If you have questions, just let me know.
Spot on about the need for good numbers to make good cells. However, this method totally ignores the fact that 1, 2, and 3 day old larvae are turned into queens in this situation. Only the 1 day old larvae makes a great queen. The inferior queens from 2 and 3 day old larvae emerge first and kill your good queen from a 1 day old larvae being raised as a queen from day one. You are making queens.... but not the best one's you could be making.
Jonathan Chitwood i notch the same 36 hour or less larvae i would if grafting. bees, if given choice, will choose the right aged larvae. have been very succesful raising queens and selling nucs annually.
@@TheBeeFarm all of the research in the last decade indicates 12-24hrs is the sweet spot for best possible queen..... what the OTS approach ignores is controlling for age at your culling inspection. In the video, this happens on day 10. Your ideal larvae and the less desirable larvae would all be capped at this point. I would put to you; that you would have even better outcomes moving up your cull by one day. And culling capped and nearly capped cells on that day. Leaving the to be capped in the next 24hrs cells as your production queens. Grab a calendar and check the math. Not blowing out your candle, just trying to make it brighter.
Jonathan Chitwood okay i will think on it and give it a try. always something to learn. thx for taking time to share. any suggested papers/books?
@@TheBeeFarm Dr. Spivak's Successful Queen Rearing: Short Course is good. And its the one you won't get at the library. I'd check out the other standards at the library, Queen Rearing Essentials, Queen Rearing Simplified etc. And I think larvae age is the most significant change in knowledge since some of the old standards in queen rearing were written.But the key take away items are, understanding the queen calendar, controlling for correctly aged larvae, lots of nurse bees, good nutrition and quenlessness. Once one grasps those concepts firmly they can do any number of different procedures to produce superior quality queens. You can go out and search the Journal of Apicultural Science for corroboration that 12-24hrs old larvae make better queens. There are any number of articles in there.
Great information! We started beekeeping 2 years ago, lost both hives, took last year off and found out about OTS but did not research as much as i should. Bought one package of bees this spring because thats all i could find and afford, will be doing 2 more splits this weekend and if all works, then we will go into winter with 5 colonies. Thanks for this video, this has helped even more!
Hey guys! Its Mike from Stoney Hill Farm just checking this out per your advice on Facebook the other day!
Great info John thanks!
You're most welcome. :)
What do you say when someone asks what is the "BIG" difference in OTS system and just a walk away split? What are the benefits?
@natserog ― Some differences off the top of my head would be: (1) A Walk Away (WA) essentially is splitting colony in half and letting the queenless box raise a queen whereas OTS is doing an artificial swarm with minimum requirements for the new queenless split to grow/thrive (~2 frames of brood, shake or two of bees, empty comb, frame of honey/pollen). So, you're letting the bulk of the bees raise the cells in the queenless/notched box. Quality queens require high density of bees and you're not sacrificing or gambling with that requirement with OTS, unlike a WA. (2) With OTS as described by Disselkoen, you are notching on multiple frames to encourage queen cells on multiple frames a week later which gives you the resources thus to make multiple splits at that point. Folks doing a WA may find all their queen cells on one frame. (3) I get quality queens nearly every time I do OTS "properly" and I don't think the same can be said of WA's reliably, especially for the novice, and thus the negative feelings by some about the general idea and also about OTS due to misunderstanding.
OOOOOH! I thought the seeds were from the faded flower!
How close can the hives be together? Can you literally put one box right next to the other when doing the split?
Yes, that’s not a problem. :)
Nice video thank you
great video! visuals sure help understand the process!
Thx for the note :)
Simple and straight to the point. Beautiful.
Too easy!
wow that easy