Expanding my Beekeeping Operation - building hives and treating for disease
Вставка
- Опубліковано 18 кві 2024
- I keep 2 hives of bees but this year I'm planning to expand my beekeeping project with the hope to have more bee hives and more honey harvest!
Check out my Instagram - / alex_smith1809
Support the Just Alex Channel on Patreon - / justalexsmith
TikTok - / justalexsmith
Watch me live on Twitch - / justalexsmith
Business enquiries - alexfordhamsmith@gmail.com
Hi Alex, I'm a 32 year old beekeeper in New Zealand, and it is really awesome to see how different the beekeeping styles are. I work for a company that has around 20,000 hives and have been working here full time for the last 15 years, and a few years ago I decided to get some hives of my own as well, and am currently sitting at 23 hives. If you're interested in seeing how our hives are different from yours, let me know and I can send you some pics of my hives at my house, it's insane how different they can be set up around the world. Keep up with making such awesome content, I'm really enjoying all your vids, and am hoping to be able to get into some home gardening as well
NZ honey is the best. In fact NZ is the best in many many ways 💚
@@kirstievapron4705 If you were given 5 unlabelled jars from a market and told one was from NZ you'd spend a good few minutes trying to work out which one it is because you can't tell the difference.
Having lived In NZ I’m pretty sure I would you know !!!! I eat honey daily. Id know 👍
@@Euro.Patriot bro let kirstie enjoy their nz honey lmao
5th reply cuz ik this is gonna blow up lol
Hi Alex,
Painting your wood is good for more than just the looks. Originally, paint was applied to wood to make sure the wood stays good for longer, and this still is the case. If you want to give your hives a longer lifetime, applying some paint, or even varnish/lacquer or whatever it is called, will keep the wood from being weathered down by the elements for much longer. I would definitely recommend it.
Is using the bees wax an option too? Would be nice cycle with all the bees offer.
@@sarahsleamanova2072 You can use wax to coat your hives, but paraffin wax is used, not bee wax. You'll need also some micro-crystaling wax. Here you see how it's done: ua-cam.com/video/KK21RVAX19s/v-deo.html
This is one of the reasons why they use cedar. Cedar contains weatherproofing oils and weathers beautifully instead of degrading. In America, many high-end homes have cedar shingles on the roofs because they last many years in the elements and look beautiful once weathered.
What he said. Also, pay extra attention to end grain of the wood, as it sucks up most moisture.
Just make sure your paint is vapour open, and that you dont use plastic based paints. Vapour open solutions as oil or limestone based paints are better for the enviroment and the wood itself. As wood acts somewhat of a sponge, its important to let the wood drain and dry out. Placticpaint is vapour closed, and can cause fungi and deteriation. Furthermore, the plasticpaint will crack eventually, and leave big "chips" plactic in your garden. You can also make your own paint from linoil, oxidepowder (natural coloring minerals) and buttermilk, which is quit fun.
Never thought I'd enjoy watching a kid and his bees so much. You make me want to get into beekeeping as well.
Me too 😊
Yep. Definitely pretty crazy to have caught this video.
Why don't you, I have the most Aggressive African honey bees, 26 hives now.
It is very good of your dad to let you have more hives. One thing I wondered is if you asked locally if anyone would let you keep bees in their gardens, it could spread the word and would expand you flock or whatever the collective is for bees
I think the word would be "colony". However, that seems more like it would refer to the bees within one hive in particular, instead of all of the bees he owns collectively. I don't know.
His dad is based
@@MarshmallowBoy *vineboom*
@@Cringeneth *BoomVine*
He did ask for people to let him put bees on their land. See the full-length one-year video. It's at the end.
Im a beekeeper from Kenya 🇰🇪🇰🇪. Your videos are really enjoyable to watch. All the best with your expansion Alex!!👍🏾
favorite moments:
(knocks on fondant)
(the dad's evil giggle after shutting his son in the van)
"They have a few less than they did before"
"this is an egg. it came from a chicken"
"huddling together like penguins"
"the bees don't need them to be painted..."
(the dad and his orchids)
"it's so good to see my little friends agaaaain"
"it's like a drive thru, but for bee equipment"
"I am surrounded by lots of pieces of wood"
"I'm already confused" (skips to a UA-cam tutorial)
"you don't really want baby bees...er, inside your honey"
😂 love how your dad is adamant his garden still looks good!!
Hope your honey business takes off, what an amazing story that would be.
Hi Alex. Great to watch you develop as a beekeeper. A couple of things to help you from a Scottish beekeeper with 6 years experience: put your fondant blocks directly on top of your frames, not on the crown board, your bees can then access it across several frames rather than through a small hole (a mistake I made in my first year and my bees starved!). Also have a water source close to your hives, a shallow bowl with pebbles and moss and water from a water butt (not tap water). Enjoy your bee keeping!
I originally started watching you for your beekeeping. Then your recent 3 hour video was playing as I woke from a nap, I continued to watch all 3 hours of it. Your voice is so calm, your adventures are calming. I love your channel already and only been watching you for the last couple of days.
Your bee videos are top tier , hidden gem of a channel
Man I wish you all the best! May your bees swarm right when you want them to, may the mites die off when you need them to and may the honey flow as heavily as you wish it to!!
I'm a beekeeper in Spain so I like to think of these videos as an update from a fellow brother in the hive :P
VERY VERY informative - it is amazing that a "newbee" (pun intended) like yourself makes it easy for ALL to understand! Really a very good EDUCATOR!
Hi Alex, awesome video. I'm a biologist (although more into the microbial field) so always into data collection and analysis. Might I recommend you draw a grid on the white board you insert at the bottom of the hive, so that you can get an average square inch concentrations/infestation of mites. Depending on how often you swap out the boards, you can track if the mite concentration is increading/decreasing over time. It'll let you know how effective the strips are as well, if you get a sudden increase and then decrease. Hope it helps and keeps the bees healthy. Best wishes from New Zealand.
Thank you for your videos Alex, you're quite wonderful to watch. I admire what you do and all you learn and you teach. Please keep doing what you do!
Hi Alex, a tip for you: never wear dark clothing around bees, including gloves. This will sound stupid but I've had numerous beekeepers tell me that it's something to do with bees thinking you might be a bear! I thought it was a myth, until I was mowing my lawn (about 5 metres from the nearest hive) wearing black gardening gloves and a few of the guard bees came charging at me and stung me on the hand! Also, bees are generally a little more defensive when there's a strong nectar flow on. If you have aggressive bees, then it's best to swap out the queen and replace her with a new docile queen, especially if you have neighbours.
From what I have heard painted hives help prevent drift, they provide visual cues so returning bees can easily locate their own colony. Different hive colours or blocks of colour help bees hone in on the right hive. Seeing you have more hives now it seems worth doing that.
Thank you for using independent local businesses like ours Alex 👍 and for me being in the video 😀
Your dad is a gem Alex! I started beekeeping in 2022 :) im on my journey with you lol :)
Hey amigo! 30 years experience here from California. Always happy to see the next generation following the passion. Look forward to seeing you get into splitting hives, learning about requeening, and more!
The planet needs more guys like you!
Just three suggestions.
#1. You should keep a water source close by the hives for them. Just a small birdbath filled with small stones and pebbles with do - sloping up the sides so they can walk down to the water.
#2. If you want to protect your new bee boxes - going forward - give them the viking treatment. Get some raw linseed oil and organic pine tar, then do a 50/50 mix. It'll preserve the wood for decades, and it's food and insect safe - and pine tar smells so good! Just leave them to dry for a week or two before you introduce bees to them. I do this for all my raised garden beds too.
#3. You can easily build an insulating frame box to go over your bee boxes for the winter. Just need to cut out around the exit of the box for air circulation. Pop it on in the winter, take it off in the spring. Happy, warm, bees, also use less energy to stay warm, so less food required for them.
Keep at it, love your work, man!
If you look into VSH Bees. They are more Verroa mite resistant. Researchers are working on making colonies that can fight mites better. When I went to VSH bees it was life changer. Varroa mite and and too strong hives are my weakness.
I also here Saskatraz bees do well in the cold. I will be trying them this year. :)
I am amazed that he literally made *eating breakfast* entertaining 17:32
Started following a few days ago. Really relaxing and inspiring content
I can't seem to get enough of Alex's Bee Keeping videos. Cheers from Southwestern U.S. 🤙
Never cared about bees until that last big video i found of yours, now I look forward to them and supporting the channel!
I've been watching your videos for the past two weeks, and they've honestly been so inspirational.
Wishing for your success in the future! 🙏
You got 12kg of honey man, that’s awesome 👏. Very educational stuff about mites, pests and diseases etc. You are learning loads ( and so are we). Keep it up matey
Maybe you could make a structure to give the bee hives a roof to help prevent rain and snow a little more.
And another thing, maybe you could use gardening gloves instead when handling the bee work 😋
Hello Alex! I am loving this bee keeping content because just like your brother, I'm horribly allergic to bees but seeing you become a bee keeper and teaching me more about bees, I've grown sentiments towards bees and understand them much deeper now. they are such lovely beings and knowing we can co exist with them without harming them and really taking care of them is making me want to do bee keeping myself! I've learned about bees and how important they are for our ecosystem, keep it up! 💯
I’m glad your dad finally conceded to your request. Happy days!
I absolutely adore your videos Alex. You are such a kind soul, with an amazingly relaxing energy. Keep up the fantastic work, and let me know when you harvest some of your honey. I'd gladly buy some to support more hives and future projects!!! Your Koi are also gorgeous!!
Thank you for sharing your journey, I wanna keep bees now
Well done alex you have done so well with every thing from your van to your bees and just your life in general i love these videos i watch every single one of them you've done so so well to get people to watch your videos and like i said keep it up 👊🔥🇬🇧
I cannot *wait* to see how things go with this! I've been captivated by your earlier videos and I'm so excited for what comes next for you, Alex!
Nice one Alex, your presenting style has really come a long way over the last couple of years. I found that this latest vlog was so educational and informative so well done. keep up the good work and may you have the best of luck this year with your Bees.
After watching a few of these bee videos, I'm convinced beekeeping is the coolest thing ever
Alex - you crack me up. I own a Practice in Herts. and keep bees. At the moment we have a skeleton dispensing team and so after a day of Optometry, I spend evenings doing the dispensing and any admin.
I’ve watched / listened to several of your videos here in succession and some of your comments make me laugh spontaneously out loud.
I love your enthusiasm and dedication as much as your researched nuggets of wisdom.
Keep up the good work.
I love your positivity and adventurous spirit. You are inspiring people all over the world to try new things and live life with intention. I showed one of your traveling videos to my husband and he looked at me and said, "Let's buy a van!"
So no disappearing on holiday during swarm season this year then. I hope you'll be able to catch them before they get up in the trees and split the hives easier than last year. Really enjoy watching you learn and do new things and I look forward to your upcoming Bee antics and whatever else you get up to. Never stop learning and all the best for 2023. 👍
When I was little, we used to have hives that opened from the back instead of top, so they could be stacked on top of each other. My grandfather and dad had them stacked on top of each other in rows. Nice memories 😊
Power to ya man,youre an inspiration to the world in my opinion. Ive never even thought bee keeping was for me but after watching you i really wanna try
Alex, sounds like you could do a world tour of beekeeping?! The beautiful environments and landscapes you would see would be fascinating, as well as the people involved..
Just gonna point this out cause sometimes we need a reminder of how grateful we need to be. I don't hate my parents and I love them for who I became. However my parents would never support my passions and goals like yours do. I am a expert psychologist and I can recognize your dads hesitation as you prob do but he's supporting it anyways and that's worth a world of gold anyhow.
A record is soooooo important!!! And extremely helpful! Well done!
Your wood working skills have improved massively since the camper build
I saw a video of you from last year, Me and my friends got really excited of that video. We are getting ready for the summer to get our own hive going. We hope it is as much fun as your bee hives! Thanks for the content, I hope we also get honey this year :)
Alex, I have no idea what is it about your beekeeping videos but I can't stop watching.
Good stuff Alex. I'm Peter in Palm Beach, Florida. I loved that UA-cam directed me to you and your bees. Would love to meet you. Pete
Your dad must love what your bees do for his plants.
Your parents’ garden is lovely and your bees look great! Very nice of your dad to give up space(and bushes!) in the garden to support your bee venture😊. Not to mention turning the kitchen into a bee box building studio workshop!lol. Fun seeing where the apple came from…you with your “pet” bees and your dad with his “pet” orchids and tortoise.❤. Cheers!😊
Thanks for sharing your life with us, you are awesome buddy. Much love
"And there we have a complete cedar beehive." You've inspired me and my heart skips a beat for you. Carry on bold explorer, I'm enjoying watching your progress and joy of being young, teachable, and scaling the heights of a mountain. Most Excellent!
This is quickly becoming my favorite channel. Thank you and keep up the great work!
I cant wait to see how you get on. I wish you all the best and hope your plans for having more bees becomes a reality. I know you have more plans for the garden like your veg and also planting more flowers to also help the bees. Please please keep us updated and again i hope everything goes well.
Hi Alex,
You can put another brood box on top of both of your hives to give your queen more room to lay. So you will have two brood boxes on each hive. If there isn’t more room for the queen to lay they make more room by swarming. Plus you will get more honey because the queen can lay more worker bees 😊
Watch Bob Bennie or Kamon Reynolds they are very helpful and David Burns.
Just passing along with I have learned ❤ love your videos
200k almost glad to see your channel grow!!!
Another banger video. I find these so relaxing Alex. Helps me forget about my daily worries for a little while!
Great job Alex! Love these beekeeping videos. It's always heartening to see your passion for learning and caring for your colonies. Keep it up! I'm hoping to start a hive myself, here in the States, this year. Wish me luck!
i can't wait for more beekeeping updates! exited to see what's to come of this adventure
out of all the videos ive watched from you, it seems that bee keeping is something you look super comfortable and confident in. and you aren't teaching people. you're taking us along your journey as a humble person. that is invaluable. glad i found this place.
excited to see the future of these bees!
You have inspired me to try my hand at bee keeping. Thank you Alex!
I’ve thought about doing it for a few years now here on my farm in Northern New Mexico, as one of my friends kept a few hives here years back. The biggest problem he had was bears destroyed his hives several times. We finally discovered the best way to keep them safe was to put them inside of a cattle trailer with a roof on it.
After he put them in there, we heard the bear angrily trying to get into the trailer at night several times. But never successfully. Haha
YOu have come a long way Alex in VERY short time, well done lad, such honest, kind careing person, an amazing positive outlook on life, your definalty a breath of fresh air in my nto so bright life atm, cheers.
I love your care for the most amazing insects in the world. They're amazing - even as a none beekeeper; I appreciate bees and always will. They never harm you unless you are a threat.
Love you for it too Alex! You're a keeper of the bees and that's amazing. Youre amazing. Thankyou for taking care of my best friends x
These videos are so amazing and wholesome Alex. Love your channel. 🥰
Absolutely fascinating as always. Great job Alex!👍
I never thought I'd want to keep my own bees. I don't eat honey, but I do love honeycomb. I can see myself making my own honeycomb one day and it all started with your bee keeping videos.
Great video Alex cant wait to see honey harvest again and good luck with the bees❤
man, you are bee keeping scientifically! With notes and video recording and everything! Thanks for sharing with us 😄
Lol this piece of sheet nigerian prince tried to scam me!😆
never knew i wanted to own bee's until I watched your videos ! keep it up
Bees I believe are one of the most sacred magical creatures on the planet and you are doing a wonderful job of nurturing and being their guardian! Humanity would be lost without them and so many people do not realise how critical they are for so much of the food we eat! Bless the bees!!!
One of the things I find really fascinating about beekeeping, is that you can see how things have progressed over the centuries, with people thinking things like, "It would be better to keep the honey cells separate from the brooding cells, I wonder how we can do that?" and now you see a queen excluder, where you know someone at some point figured this out, and other people started to do it too.
Looking forward to watch you progress 😄👍🏻👍🏻
Free rm and brd for bees and painting the bee stands?
Sounds fair to me!
Anything for the bees!
Pine rots quickly in wet weather.
Make bee stands out of cedar and wet westher is no problem.
Love the program 24:09 and admire your parents!
Just when I think I understand it all, there is always more to learn. Thank you for your awesome videos. Please keep them coming.
Thanks for showing all the segments of a bee-hive :)
Nice one, Alex. Nice to see you're extending your bee collection. You're becoming a pro 👌🐝🐝🐝 and it's always very interesting to watch. I can't wait for the next one keep up the amazing work, Alex, as always 🐝😁👍
Watching your videos gives me hope. Thanks for inspiring me Alex. ❤️
@ Alex, I think it would be a really cool thing to document not only your stores and what you get from them, but also it would be cool to see how the hive affects the greenery around you. The garden, if you have any fruit trees and the area. They're pollinators so I'd be curious to see if you and your family notice any of those extra effects on your area. Maybe your neighbors would as well.
"i'm coming in bees"
that has got to be my favorite thing that is said throughout your series of beekeeping. makes me laugh every time
I like how your dad embraced you beekeeping operation!
Loving the bee content i love how u never know what to expect when it comes to your videos but u always know there going to be good regardless
I've been doing a lot of research myself cuz I plan on having my own bees and I ended up stumbling across your videos so it's definitely helping out. And another thing I seen is it's good to have a certain type of mushroom around your bees to keep them from getting a specific type of disease that causes their wings not to develop correctly
I am a beekeeper in New Zealand - i do a "sugar shake" to get a more accurate count of varroa than your drop board which relies on only counting mites that happen to fall off and not crawl onto another bee. it involves 30 grams icing sugar and about 300 bees and a jar. Not quite as accurate as an alcohol shake but with a sugar shake the bees don't die :) You can easily find out how to do one on youtube.
Good video Alex, I enjoy your presentation and storytelling, humble yet growing in practical knowledge.
Been watching since the secret lake! I’ve not fished for years. But I have become a keen gardener. Now I’m onto bees!
You have always had a wise head on young shoulders 🤙🏾🤙🏾
Can’t believe I’ve found your content after all these years and it’s on a completely different subject. 👍🏾👍🏾
It's crazy that i stumbled upon your channel yesterday and found a fresh new update. Your journey is inspiring, keep going 🙌🏼
Alex I loved this video your so knowledgeable of bees now so awesome keep us informed more please.
Hi Alex, I’m loving your beekeeping content so much! It’s so sweet how supportive your dad is. Thank you for the great content 🙏🐝💛
Love the bee content! Subbed after your year bee keeping review, happy to see you are expanding!
One of my favorite series! Love your videos!
Hi Alex, I'm a beekeeper and a woodworker in a similar climate as yours. While the cedar hives look very nice in their natural unpainted state, you can make them last much longer with some sort of protectant. I really like the look of the natural wood, so I treat mine with a mixture of 50% paraffin wax and 50% microcrystalline wax. I then apply that to the outside of the hive with a heat gun until the wood will absorb no more. I'm 4 years in and my hives still look brand new. Cheers!
The apiary looks beautiful with the painted stands and the mulch you added in afterwards! Well done!
painting or even varnishing the wood is really good to protect it from rotting or being weathered down by the elements as easily
I was wondering about more hives since the compost bin video had a second hive stand! Love that your dad decided to allow more hives- he really mustve liked last year's honey haha And you did say gardening is his thing so bees are great for him too anyway!
I worked on a dairy farm that also had bees and I got to say knowing all I do it's great fun to watch you learn and even fumble your way through this. Like I noticed bee diarrhea in your first hive but then it became a super swarmer and what you saw as bad them swarming showed how strong your hives were that they prolifically kept swarming. Positives in negatives my man.
Impeccable Timing. I just finished the day 1 to a year video and still wanted more.
I just found your channel today and watched all your beekeeping content only for you to post more! thank you for the good information and entertainment you bring to the subject. I wish you luck with homesteading!
I found your channel through gardening videos, and I absolutely love the beekeeping videos! I may have to try it out at some point in my life!