I missed you guys, too. I just got really busy doing lots of projects around the property and none of it was youtube worthy. I'm hoping to get back on a weekly schedule now that the bees are active and the weather has turned.
As a new beekeeper, I get confused at times watching all of your different videos as you are trying all sorts of different things, but I wanted to say... I did use one of your tricks you happen to come across and it has worked VERY WELL!! I live on the coast and it rains, sometimes for days on end and my bottom boards would get SOAKED and have dead drowned bees on it. I took a large sheet of reflective solid insulation and placed it over my hive. It hangs about 2 foot over the front and about a foot around the rest, and the girls LOVE IT!!! I haven’t lost a single bee to drowning since. Thanks for coming across that tidbit of an idea. Maybe that could be something you could develop a bit more as I don’t see it in any other YT’er and sell to other bee keepers. Although I am not a huge fan, I hope you keep making videos. They are well put together!
Really love your videos. I started this year as a new beekeeper in Central Massachusetts, so your tips are quite helpful. You've inspired me to create some of my own videos to share with friends, family and fellow beekeepers. There's so much to learn!
I love your real-life experiences. I live in Pennsylvania and just started my hives. Thanks for the content. I am jealous of your barn in a good way. I want one.
Hey there again! Yeah, it's been a while and I do miss seeing your videos because of how instructive you are; you include the mistakes, you discuss the mistakes, and counter compare to your successes: which in my books is the best modern form of the old Socratic method! I'll be using the Langstroth Top Bar Hive design, with covering boards underneath the hood (vaulted style for easier humidity and heat control), but your frame work will help me big time.......hence my happiness with your return to filming. I'm venturing into Jumbo Coturnix Quail, having 120 eggs in the GQF Hovabator 1588, but with a slight twist: I'm using the Little Giant Egg Turner, because the GQF Hova-Egg Turner had just appallingly bad reviews; crushing/cracking eggs, and chucking the larger eggs out due to a smaller designed cup size. The L.G. incubator on the other hand, had a horrible rating for temp/humidity control, sometimes having temp swings as much as 10F up or down in just one day......so some people had their eggs cooked, while other folks had their embryos die from cold. The Genesis Temp control had rave reviews, hence the odd combo! Well, that's it for now! Willkommen wieder zu Hause! Cheers from the Oil Patch in Central WY
So glad for a new video! Love your content. Just installed a nuc of overwintered survival stock. That brings me up to 2 hives up here in Maine. I hope to do a split by the end of June and give them a new local queen! Your content is what started my passion, and then expanded my knowledge!
Hey Jim, good to see you’re back making videos 👍 you were mentioned in a couple live streams recently and also Fred Dunn mentioned you too. Flowering has been weird and sporadic here in Australia the past couple years with plants flowering out of season, early and late so I think it’s a matter of observation and reaction to be able to capitalise on the flowering
I'm hoping we get some serious summer flowers because the spring is looking like a bust. Or maybe we just haven't had spring yet. I don't know what's going on. What livestreams are you talking about?
Vino Farm castle hives was one I believe, I watch so many other beeks i muddle names and channels lol regardless of that you were named as one to watch for great info and easy viewing pleasure by more than a couple channels👌so give ya self a pat on the back
Vino Farm maybe strategise differently this year use a couple of the nucs as brood factories to boost honey production colonies for when the flow is on
@vinofarm Thanks to these addicting videos and quarantine, I studied up on bees and became an amateur beekeeper at the end of April. My first hive looks great (gifted swarm) and I am getting a nuc of local bees the 1st of June. Just wanted to say thanks for the awesome content and to keep up the good work.
If you work it right you'll be splitting next spring. Plan on it. The hardest part about year 2 is not knowing what to do coupled with not having the equipment. Research into queen castles and duplex hives also called resource hives. The time and money invested in that will pay off every single season I promise. Good luck. Queen rearing essentials is a good book. Youll be doing walk away splits in queen castles in no time. 😆
I wish I knew how to make the clapping icon! Just like movie night. have to clean up all of this popcorn on the floor before the wife gets home. :-) Great update. Thank you.
Everytime I see you handling the bees without gloves, I'm amazed. If I'd do that with my bees, I'd get stung all over. Also the Moment I open up the hive, the bees start exploring everywhere and no matter how careful I am, I end up crushing a few every now and then. Your bees all just seem so calm and collected, I'm kinda envious. ;-)
Wow! In the upper MidWest, we're only a week or so behind, which is odd, because we're in a growing zone that's usually behind everyone else! That polar vortex really did a number on the NorthEast. I won't complain about how late we were this year! Looks like you're well on your way to catching up!
Here in Sweden we have the same 2/3 weeks late! Apple trees are still blooming. Getting the garden up and running. Bees are active since last week. Hope we will catch up!
I’m so glad you are making new videos again my friend I look forward to seeing them. I also have 1medium frame in most my deep boxes I do it for drones and or mite control because I can cut the wax off the bottom and put it back in.
4:45 - I like to take out the one that's closest to the wall on one side, because of that. So I can move around the other frames a little to have more space while taking them out and the outer ones have the least bee-mass and usually no queen on it. If they are especially full I sometimes also put a box right next to me to take two frames out and park it in the other box. Makes life a lot easier and beekeeping is already difficult enough.
I'm surprised people gave you some grief about swapping boxes. I've done the same thing, without ill effects, on a per-hive basis. It's all about what a specific hive needs, not whatever tradition/the books/the experts say should be done. Welcome back!
@@vinofarm I've done the same - I guess I'm just in the really mild "winter" mindset we get here, and it probably isn't as much a big deal down here, since we only have about a month of true winter when it's a little chilly for the girls to fly, and not much in bloom (at least here), so I don't have to worry about them starving as much as you do up in the frozen tundra. LOL But hey, if it works, it works, right? in the end, that's what matters (and t might help some other folks, too, so there's that). I really do admire what you've done with your apiary (and your greenhouse and your barn). Cheers.
"Wicked" ... brings back so many memories growing up in Central Mass. Strange how that colloquialism lives on today there. It is by far one of the defining vocalizations that someone is from New England. The source is said to have originated even before the Salem Witch Trials. "Wicked Cool Vino Farm!"
Welcome back! I just started beekeeping and your videos are a good help. Love seeing the different processes. Definitely investing in some of your winter processes.
Jim, nice to see you back! Consider yourself lucky on the Apples...here in KY we had a nice warm spell that got them all in full bloom then we had the latest hard frost on record that killed all the blooms :( A couple of my trees are attempting to put on a feeble second bloom but no real hopes of apples this year :(. Bees here are continuing to be a challenge with lots of swarmy behavior. Clover is starting to bloom here so hopes of things returning to a more normal bee season is on the horizon....keep your fingers crossed :)
I'm noticing it's a light year overall for apple blossoms. Some trees have zero flowers, others are full. Pears and blueberries are PACKED with flowers.
So if you are never going to harvest the medium super and it is back on top of the brood box, Why not put your queen excluder on top of the medium super (as you add the next super for your consumption). This would give the queen more laying options with out sacrificing anything and lead to less trauma on the workers passing through the excluder. Welcome back, we missed you.
I don't want her laying in more than one box. Inspections are way WAY easier when you know the queen is in one defined space. And when you offer them MORE space, they don't necessarily FILL the space, they just lay in more random patterns spaced out over more area. Once I figured out single brood box management, I never want to do multiple brood boxes again.
Think about this from a new hive perspective. They start to draw comb from the top of a hollow tree that was burnt out by fire. 3 weeks later the brood hatch towards the top and as the colony increases the queen is forced to lay downwards but will travel back up to fill hatched brood cells. However stores may be made in those cells before she does. Now as winter comes you have a those bees which I assume are last to hatch at the bottom. Meanwhile the queen will slowly make her way to the top over winter as heat rises and it becomes time to lay eggs and finish consuming the last of the top stores for spring arrival. Thus the cycle repeats. I myself am going to try two brood boxes and 2 medium supers for overwintering. Forewarning as this is my first season.
Remember the bees need to heat their space. The bigger the space, the harder it is for them. I did double deeps for two seasons and then decided to give them less space... hence the deep/medium combo. I don't know where you are or how bad your winters are, but two deeps and two mediums for winter is something I've never heard of.
@@vinofarm it gets cold for extended periods. Im hoping to leave them about 80-100lbs minimum of honey in the mediums to overwinter. I've already got foam board on my main brood hive now and plan on wrapping them also when the time comes. If need be I could supplement a mini heater ;) hopefully in the next 2 weeks I'll be adding the second brood box which I will put on the bottom and let them draw downwards. Package bees but they are growing strong in a month's time. I may also pull a nuc out of it and try to winter in my garage as an experiment with a couple crops. That may all change as the seasons do but I want a big strong hive going into next spring. I've been documenting my journey so far and nothing like hands on. Thank you for your time and best of luck with the rest of your season.
Really missed seeing your videos. Glad your okay and the bees are okay. A number of mine I could not rotate due to having brood in both boxes. I did not want to break them up.
That was my problem last year. Tons of brood in the mediums. I had to exclude the queens below and wait for the brood to hatch out above the excluder. This new system worked as planned.
Hey Bro, glad to see an update, everyone looks to be doing pretty good. Watch that oddball queen, that pattern is pretty sketchy. Things are going okay here, weather has been *$&^%# wet here, I have zero crops in yet. Bees are doing well except so much rain has made it hard for queens to get mated and back in the hives. On a another front, I've bought some cattle. They'll be arriving next week to go on the same farm with the sheep. The adventure continues! The farms look awesome this year.
@@vinofarm Ha, yeah no joke. Gotta get them here first, 400 mile trip from TN to KS. 25 head of registered Red Polls. Certainly will post a video of them when they get here.
Well done Superman! Our weather seems the same. The prediction next week hot. When your barn is perfect i think your family needs a horse. Maybe a beautiful Morgan. 👋💗🕊ps - it did shock the tar out of me when you put the honey below. Bravo!!!
If you kept the medium above and let the queen lay into it you could put it below your deep in the spring and the queen will naturally move up into the deep and they will store pollen in the medium. Walt Wright wrote about the technique.
What is controversial about placing a deep above a medium? Seems like a reasonable idea. It’s just a bigger box. My bees seem to move down on their own so I haven’t had to swap come spring. Moreover, I am not a commercial beekeeper so I generally let the bees do what they want when it comes to brood expansion. I get enough honey as it is with 6 colonies.
Vino Farm - at the time you placed the deep above the medium, did the nest bridge both the deep and the medium? I would think so. If so, there was no up or down. The nest was in both boxes. The supplemental sugar was above, no? As the bees consumed the honey in the two boxes, the colony became smaller and trended upward into the deep to be closer to the sugar. Seems like a clever idea.
Keith Diaz Yeah, that was my thinking. It was basically a big column of honey with a cluster near the middle. There was no real “brood box” or “super”.
@@vinofarm Did the bees use up the honey in the medium super that was below them through the winter? How much honey was left in the medium? seems to me based on some of the video you showed us there was quite a bit of honey left below the brood ? this tells me that you wintered your bees in a single deep, very common with lots of beekeepers
I haven't got no bees. But I would love some. I have learns so much about them. I think your awesome really good behind the camera. And you don't mind making mistakes which make this worth watching.
I am having a strange year of beekeeping this year. I bought 2 colonies of swarm trapped local bees 3 years ago and this spring I thought I had lost one of them. I went out and bought a package locally to get me back up to 2 colonies and the package is doing great. Last week I went to my "dead" colony and was going to take the drawn frames to let my package expand easily. Wrong, the hive I thought was dead had solid bees in it from side to side in the top box although I still did not see any bees coming and going at the entrance. Now I need to regroup and figure out what free resources I actually have and why I am not seeing any bees at the entrance. I do see bees coming and going at a defect in their second box.
That's interesting, in SE MA the bees, the blooms were significantly early and swarming is rampant. Everyone's running out of room to put swarms and splits.
Jim, hows the barn coming along. Sorry about you late spring, we had very mild winter here so we had an early spring. I made splits on 3/11 & 3/14 and we’ve already harvested some spring wild flower honey. Thanks for the video and looking forward to the nuc vid!
Barn construction will ramp back up in June. I've been taking care of a million other things around the property and had hands full with my son around (no school with the lockdown) over the past two months. I'm going to be doing siding next and then building out the inside over the summer.
We are 3 weeks early, it's insane. Have made my splits already, I wonder if the polars moving faster now is a possible reason. Btw in the Netherlands we use spacers, it helps a bit with peace of mind pulling the first frame. This year I note date I inspected on the cover, it tells me what box needs to be looked at. Since I forget everything above ,6 values Oh and first honey crystalized after 2 weeks, think it's because there was still honey in the honeyboxes
Did you get a lot of honey already? I live in noord holland and I heard of beekeepers around the country getting a huge crop already, But I haven't had a yield yet!
@@luoarnamsk 80 kilo from dandelion, apple, pear and plumes. Acacia is in bloom now, but minimal. This is the honey I love so I hope a few kilos for me to last 2 years.
Quick question, if you don’t plan to harvest from the medium why not leave it above the brood box below the excluder and let them have full range of both boxes? First year bee keeper, great videos.
I've learned inspections are WAAAAY easier and faster when the queen is contained in one box. And when they have two boxes to choose from, the brood spans both boxes, but doesn't ever FILL both. It's all over the place. Queen has a deep to lay in, then excluder, then a dedicated 'bee' super, then harvesting supers over that. After harvest, I can keep the 'bee' super on the colony and it's OK to treat it for mites since it's not for human consumption.
Had our first bee swarm today and it was our Saskatraz bee hive probably about a 4-6lbs package worth of bees dont even know why they swarmed as just added a extra deep as we just split them about a week ago from the double nuc. these guys came out of winter with a full 8 frames of solid bees covering them, same with our double deep 10 frame Saskatraz hive completely filled while our Italians barely fill a deep.
Overwintering “brood and a halfs”, placing a honey-filled medium under rather than over the deep, seems to be routine in the UK. I switched to this method a couple years ago, and agree it’s easier not having brood in the medium come springtime. Our winters in Portland OR are long and wet, but with little in the way of truly frigid temps. Frequent weeks in the 40s allow the bees to go down into the medium for honey when needed. In a harsher climate it may not work. A colony remaining in tight cluster, slowly working up through the deep box, might find stores down below inaccessible.
So glad your back with videos! With the honey on the bottom, did they have enough during the spring or were you adding sugar, fondant, how were you sure they wouldn't starve since now they are on top and good stuff was below? Looked like quite a bit of stores in the frames that you pulled out to look at. This is an interesting idea but worry about starving.
I kept the dry sugar on the hives all winter and they usually consume that along with their stores. I think the honey in the mediums is used in late winter when the cluster is looser and the bees are flying. When they're more active, they are all over the hive and realize there's plenty of honey down there.
Jim, Great to see new content and the progress in the bee yard! Rather have quality content than quantity, you always deliver! Nice explanation on flipping the boxes however your flip back before winter. Is this before the fall flow? I’d assume you do that before so they can fill the deep?
I explained that in my wintering part ONE video last fall. It's after the flow and after I've started feeding them syrup. I let them fill the medium, then dropped the medium to the bottom. Then kept feeding so they could pack the deep, which was then right under the syrup. Easier for them to fill.
Vino Farm Ahh okay! My memory is getting bad! Thanks for the explaining that. I went back and rewatched you fall video. Hope the flowers open up soon for you.
Vino. If I make a video of marking queens just for you ... would you think about actually doing it? I enjoy putting a mark on my bee. Maybe you might too. The marks fade because the retinue tries cleaning it off. I've got one queen where the dot turned into an hour glass... Wicked bees. . Lol
I enjoy your videos. Now that you are a bit more experienced as a beekeeper I would love to see you do stuff like running a hive with two queens separated by an excluder or raising extra queens. Those are things I'm too scared to do and kind of am unknown risk. Maybe because of your channel it would worth the risk if you got good videos from it. I for one would for sure watch but honestly I'd watch you read the phone book for two videos before I batted an eye.
Thanks for the kind words... I'll solve problems and share the stories as they come up and of course share whatever I learn.... but I have so many other things going on in my life that I don't have plans to expand the beeyard so queen rearing is not something I want to get into at the moment. Anything can happen, of course!
Sorry. I had a story going on Instagram and that queen I saved didn’t make it. So the drama ended rather abruptly. I know not everyone follows me over there, but the superfans do and it’s a place I can easily post an update or bit of news and it only takes me a couple minutes. Videos take up a whole day when you add up shooting, editing, uploading, responding to comments, etc. Instagram is free, easy and private if you want it to be. I try to post something there every day. That’s where you get real news.
@@vinofarm yep, I know what it takes to make videos, I made more than 100 on my channel (and gave up due to poor results compared to the time invested).
In the SF/Oakland Bay Area... we are too early on many blossoms. Our Fall flow of native "California Buckwheat" we rely on in September are budding and breaking bud.. in MAY. WEIRD... got to roll with it.
We are way behind here (PA) was right about normal then snow and 20s that through a wrench in everything we still have a few apples blooming and we lost the biggest part of everything early
Hi Jim, My resource hive queen is rocking this year I want to clone her and replace the queen in the neighboring resource hive and hope the both pump frames of brood out left and right!
Hey I thought it was a pretty good idea and might do that myself. I have a similar set up but most of mine have one deep and 2 mediums and I went into winter with the deep on the bottom and the 2 mediums on top so come spring time and reverse box time I ended up with the deep on the top and the mediums on the bottom which I dont care for cuz now they put their maple honey in the deep. No bueno. I will either do the deep on top or in the middle going into winter I think.
Keep a deep box with frames 1/1 And top 3/4 frames or 1/2 storage box but wide thick frames ....if the frames are build thick for storage boxes the Queen must to chew on the wax to lay eggs on them being so deep her bottom can’t touch the end of a alveoli so she cant lay eggs on them ....you won’t need the queen excluder even if you do that ! And on this way also the production of honey will increase being more place for storage for honey and easy for bees to use same speed to cap the frames in a small surface ! .....never put 3/4 frames or 1/2 for the brood box . The queen need big frames to to lay eggs and also on same frame they need to make a crown of honey on that frame which will be easy for young bees to feed the larva If is small frames queen will lay eggs all over it almost and no space to make a crown of honey on that frame ! You have cold weather there so don’t push the nurse bees in cold times to go to other frames to bring the honey to feed their larvae ....respect. I like your videos !
@@vinofarm nice! i am giving it a go this year for the first time (more as a way to have two colonies in an urban yard and i like the idea of two colonies working together). both sides are wall to wall and they have already mostly drawn out a first super. we got a strange spring as well in portland, or. sun most of april and rain most of may.. i enjoy your vids! thanks for sharing!
I think that I lost this comment the first time. :( WOW you guys are running LATE! I am in southern New Hampshire and my apple trees have already bloomed, had the bees come and now the blooms are gone. The same is true with a couple of other spring trees. What elevation are you at?
I notice that you seem to only use 8 frame boxes and I am wondering why you don't use 10 frame boxes? I am asking as a beginner and am trying to learn as much as I can.
8 frame deeps weigh a lot less than 10 frame deeps and I'm not getting any younger. Also, I prefer the concept of taller, narrower cluster space over winter as opposed to wider space. Bees can move up and down much easier than side to side while they're in a cluster.
They always draw out the bottom to match a deep frame size. They usually make it drone size comb, so you usually get all drones down there. So I wouldn't suggest a full box of medium frames in a deep box, but one or two is fine. It is a nice dedicated spot for their drones.
@@vinofarm, suspected as much as I did see alot or drone caps on a couple of those frames. My girls add the drone comb to the bottom of my deeps as well.
Don't think I'm alone in saying, "We've missed you!". Welcome back...
I missed you guys, too. I just got really busy doing lots of projects around the property and none of it was youtube worthy. I'm hoping to get back on a weekly schedule now that the bees are active and the weather has turned.
As a new beekeeper, I get confused at times watching all of your different videos as you are trying all sorts of different things, but I wanted to say... I did use one of your tricks you happen to come across and it has worked VERY WELL!! I live on the coast and it rains, sometimes for days on end and my bottom boards would get SOAKED and have dead drowned bees on it. I took a large sheet of reflective solid insulation and placed it over my hive. It hangs about 2 foot over the front and about a foot around the rest, and the girls LOVE IT!!! I haven’t lost a single bee to drowning since. Thanks for coming across that tidbit of an idea. Maybe that could be something you could develop a bit more as I don’t see it in any other YT’er and sell to other bee keepers. Although I am not a huge fan, I hope you keep making videos. They are well put together!
Thanks. I know other beekeepers think the coroplast is ridiculous, but I don't care because the results speak for themselves. No drowned bees.
Really love your videos. I started this year as a new beekeeper in Central Massachusetts, so your tips are quite helpful. You've inspired me to create some of my own videos to share with friends, family and fellow beekeepers. There's so much to learn!
I remember that Rainbow swarm, so magical. Glad 'Dorothy' is doing okay!
I love your real-life experiences. I live in Pennsylvania and just started my hives. Thanks for the content. I am jealous of your barn in a good way. I want one.
We're still trying to finish it. It's a bit bigger in real life than on paper or on video. Lots of work still to do.
Thank you for taking the time to share your journey with us. Because of you and Dr. Leo Sharashkin I am getting into bee keeping.
What a difference location makes. In SE Texas, I did my splits in late February and harvested first honey last week.
I love this channel so much. I told 2 of my buddies to watch your journey before they start beekeeping
I was just thinking this morning that it was about time for a Vino Farm bee update! Glad spring is finally making an appearance!
Hey there again!
Yeah, it's been a while and I do miss seeing your videos because of how instructive you are; you include the mistakes, you discuss the mistakes, and counter compare to your successes: which in my books is the best modern form of the old Socratic method!
I'll be using the Langstroth Top Bar Hive design, with covering boards underneath the hood (vaulted style for easier humidity and heat control), but your frame work will help me big time.......hence my happiness with your return to filming.
I'm venturing into Jumbo Coturnix Quail, having 120 eggs in the GQF Hovabator 1588, but with a slight twist: I'm using the Little Giant Egg Turner, because the GQF Hova-Egg Turner had just appallingly bad reviews; crushing/cracking eggs, and chucking the larger eggs out due to a smaller designed cup size. The L.G. incubator on the other hand, had a horrible rating for temp/humidity control, sometimes having temp swings as much as 10F up or down in just one day......so some people had their eggs cooked, while other folks had their embryos die from cold. The Genesis Temp control had rave reviews, hence the odd combo!
Well, that's it for now! Willkommen wieder zu Hause!
Cheers from the Oil Patch in Central WY
So glad for a new video! Love your content. Just installed a nuc of overwintered survival stock. That brings me up to 2 hives up here in Maine. I hope to do a split by the end of June and give them a new local queen! Your content is what started my passion, and then expanded my knowledge!
Thanks! Sounds like you’re doing fine.
Enjoy your videos. You love your bees!
Hey Jim, good to see you’re back making videos 👍 you were mentioned in a couple live streams recently and also Fred Dunn mentioned you too.
Flowering has been weird and sporadic here in Australia the past couple years with plants flowering out of season, early and late so I think it’s a matter of observation and reaction to be able to capitalise on the flowering
I'm hoping we get some serious summer flowers because the spring is looking like a bust. Or maybe we just haven't had spring yet. I don't know what's going on. What livestreams are you talking about?
Vino Farm castle hives was one I believe, I watch so many other beeks i muddle names and channels lol regardless of that you were named as one to watch for great info and easy viewing pleasure by more than a couple channels👌so give ya self a pat on the back
Vino Farm maybe strategise differently this year use a couple of the nucs as brood factories to boost honey production colonies for when the flow is on
I missed your bees. So happy to see everyone is doing well
I really missed watching your bee keeping videos. Nice to see your bees are doing so well! Enjoy spring and hope you have a great season.
Here we go! The next exciting series! What terrific success. You have learned so much and so have we! Loved the box graphics. Thanks for the video!
@vinofarm Thanks to these addicting videos and quarantine, I studied up on bees and became an amateur beekeeper at the end of April. My first hive looks great (gifted swarm) and I am getting a nuc of local bees the 1st of June. Just wanted to say thanks for the awesome content and to keep up the good work.
If you work it right you'll be splitting next spring. Plan on it.
The hardest part about year 2 is not knowing what to do coupled with not having the equipment.
Research into queen castles and duplex hives also called resource hives. The time and money invested in that will pay off every single season I promise. Good luck. Queen rearing essentials is a good book. Youll be doing walk away splits in queen castles in no time. 😆
I wish I knew how to make the clapping icon! Just like movie night. have to clean up all of this popcorn on the floor before the wife gets home. :-) Great update. Thank you.
Finally got around to watching some videos. So happy to see a bunch here to watch. 😏
Everytime I see you handling the bees without gloves, I'm amazed. If I'd do that with my bees, I'd get stung all over. Also the Moment I open up the hive, the bees start exploring everywhere and no matter how careful I am, I end up crushing a few every now and then. Your bees all just seem so calm and collected, I'm kinda envious. ;-)
They’ll get used to you. You’ll get used to them. My first years were a lot more chaotic.
Glad you are staying busy! Your videos have been missed!
Welcome back, Jim & bees! We were waiting for you!
Wow! In the upper MidWest, we're only a week or so behind, which is odd, because we're in a growing zone that's usually behind everyone else! That polar vortex really did a number on the NorthEast. I won't complain about how late we were this year! Looks like you're well on your way to catching up!
God Bless You!!! This Planet NEEDS Honey Bees SOOOO Bad!!!
Awesome! Glad to see spring finally come to the yard....weather has just been crazy this year.. love “Dorothy” name
Here in Sweden we have the same 2/3 weeks late! Apple trees are still blooming. Getting the garden up and running. Bees are active since last week.
Hope we will catch up!
In the UK we call that brood and a half. I do the flip also and has worked well for the past few years. Nice to see the bees back.
The weather is so crazy right now.....your videos are always amazing, cant wait to start the season with you! 🐝🐝
Welcome back, I have missed your videos. I have no bees, I will never have bees but I love watching your videos.
I’m so glad you are making new videos again my friend I look forward to seeing them. I also have 1medium frame in most my deep boxes I do it for drones and or mite control because I can cut the wax off the bottom and put it back in.
Oh my god i have been waiting so so long for this video!!
Thank you so much for all the knowledge you provide :)
4:45 - I like to take out the one that's closest to the wall on one side, because of that. So I can move around the other frames a little to have more space while taking them out and the outer ones have the least bee-mass and usually no queen on it. If they are especially full I sometimes also put a box right next to me to take two frames out and park it in the other box. Makes life a lot easier and beekeeping is already difficult enough.
I'm surprised people gave you some grief about swapping boxes. I've done the same thing, without ill effects, on a per-hive basis. It's all about what a specific hive needs, not whatever tradition/the books/the experts say should be done.
Welcome back!
I think the grief came because I PRE-flipped them in the fall. I know swapping in spring is common. I just did it early. No big whoop.
@@vinofarm I've done the same - I guess I'm just in the really mild "winter" mindset we get here, and it probably isn't as much a big deal down here, since we only have about a month of true winter when it's a little chilly for the girls to fly, and not much in bloom (at least here), so I don't have to worry about them starving as much as you do up in the frozen tundra. LOL But hey, if it works, it works, right? in the end, that's what matters (and t might help some other folks, too, so there's that). I really do admire what you've done with your apiary (and your greenhouse and your barn). Cheers.
"Wicked" ... brings back so many memories growing up in Central Mass. Strange how that colloquialism lives on today there. It is by far one of the defining vocalizations that someone is from New England. The source is said to have originated even before the Salem Witch Trials. "Wicked Cool Vino Farm!"
Glad to see you’re back glad to see the bees are OK looking forward to more videos from you congratulations on another winter past 👍
Thankyou for the update. Its good to see you again
Yay glad to see and hear from you!
Welcome back! I just started beekeeping and your videos are a good help. Love seeing the different processes. Definitely investing in some of your winter processes.
Jim, nice to see you back! Consider yourself lucky on the Apples...here in KY we had a nice warm spell that got them all in full bloom then we had the latest hard frost on record that killed all the blooms :( A couple of my trees are attempting to put on a feeble second bloom but no real hopes of apples this year :(. Bees here are continuing to be a challenge with lots of swarmy behavior. Clover is starting to bloom here so hopes of things returning to a more normal bee season is on the horizon....keep your fingers crossed :)
I'm noticing it's a light year overall for apple blossoms. Some trees have zero flowers, others are full. Pears and blueberries are PACKED with flowers.
I'm so excited. I definitely did not just finish watching all of season 3 and 4.
Jim- I see you trimmed the bushes around the bee yard. They look great!
I chop the tops off every spring to get them to grow wider. I may be able to start shaping a real hedge by fall!
@@vinofarm that wind screen is gonna be pro this fall with those bushes filled out!
Great to see you back!
Really been missing your posts. Glad all is ok.
Our weather (Southeastern NC) is weird this spring, also.
So if you are never going to harvest the medium super and it is back on top of the brood box, Why not put your queen excluder on top of the medium super (as you add the next super for your consumption). This would give the queen more laying options with out sacrificing anything and lead to less trauma on the workers passing through the excluder. Welcome back, we missed you.
I don't want her laying in more than one box. Inspections are way WAY easier when you know the queen is in one defined space. And when you offer them MORE space, they don't necessarily FILL the space, they just lay in more random patterns spaced out over more area. Once I figured out single brood box management, I never want to do multiple brood boxes again.
Welcome back. Ready to go for a new season. I’m from Australia so opposite seasons to you
Interesting experiment. Thanks for sharing! It's been cold here too until about a week ago. So glad for warmth!
Think about this from a new hive perspective. They start to draw comb from the top of a hollow tree that was burnt out by fire. 3 weeks later the brood hatch towards the top and as the colony increases the queen is forced to lay downwards but will travel back up to fill hatched brood cells. However stores may be made in those cells before she does. Now as winter comes you have a those bees which I assume are last to hatch at the bottom. Meanwhile the queen will slowly make her way to the top over winter as heat rises and it becomes time to lay eggs and finish consuming the last of the top stores for spring arrival. Thus the cycle repeats. I myself am going to try two brood boxes and 2 medium supers for overwintering. Forewarning as this is my first season.
Remember the bees need to heat their space. The bigger the space, the harder it is for them. I did double deeps for two seasons and then decided to give them less space... hence the deep/medium combo. I don't know where you are or how bad your winters are, but two deeps and two mediums for winter is something I've never heard of.
@@vinofarm it gets cold for extended periods. Im hoping to leave them about 80-100lbs minimum of honey in the mediums to overwinter. I've already got foam board on my main brood hive now and plan on wrapping them also when the time comes. If need be I could supplement a mini heater ;) hopefully in the next 2 weeks I'll be adding the second brood box which I will put on the bottom and let them draw downwards. Package bees but they are growing strong in a month's time. I may also pull a nuc out of it and try to winter in my garage as an experiment with a couple crops. That may all change as the seasons do but I want a big strong hive going into next spring. I've been documenting my journey so far and nothing like hands on. Thank you for your time and best of luck with the rest of your season.
Really missed seeing your videos. Glad your okay and the bees are okay. A number of mine I could not rotate due to having brood in both boxes. I did not want to break them up.
That was my problem last year. Tons of brood in the mediums. I had to exclude the queens below and wait for the brood to hatch out above the excluder. This new system worked as planned.
Hey Bro, glad to see an update, everyone looks to be doing pretty good. Watch that oddball queen, that pattern is pretty sketchy. Things are going okay here, weather has been *$&^%# wet here, I have zero crops in yet. Bees are doing well except so much rain has made it hard for queens to get mated and back in the hives.
On a another front, I've bought some cattle. They'll be arriving next week to go on the same farm with the sheep. The adventure continues! The farms look awesome this year.
Cattle! Wow. You're all-in now. Can't wait to see a video!
@@vinofarm Ha, yeah no joke. Gotta get them here first, 400 mile trip from TN to KS. 25 head of registered Red Polls. Certainly will post a video of them when they get here.
Man I live these vids you teach me almost everything I plan to be a bee keeper when ik get older
Love watching your videos! This year has been crazy so far. Keep up the good work and stay safe.
I love your videos so much thanks now I am going to be a beekeeper
Well done Superman! Our weather seems the same. The prediction next week hot. When your barn is perfect i think your family needs a horse. Maybe a beautiful Morgan. 👋💗🕊ps - it did shock the tar out of me when you put the honey below. Bravo!!!
This property used to have horses! And ponies. But that was back in the 50s and 60s. We still find horseshoes sometimes.
If you kept the medium above and let the queen lay into it you could put it below your deep in the spring and the queen will naturally move up into the deep and they will store pollen in the medium. Walt Wright wrote about the technique.
Then I would have two brood boxes and I don’t want that.
Vino Farm - Fair enough. I’m experimenting with it this year and since the queen moves into the deep I only inspect the single. Management is simple.
What is controversial about placing a deep above a medium? Seems like a reasonable idea. It’s just a bigger box. My bees seem to move down on their own so I haven’t had to swap come spring. Moreover, I am not a commercial beekeeper so I generally let the bees do what they want when it comes to brood expansion. I get enough honey as it is with 6 colonies.
Everyone thought the bees would be too dumb to move down to find honey. They were saying the bees only move UP and they wee going to starve.
Vino Farm - at the time you placed the deep above the medium, did the nest bridge both the deep and the medium? I would think so. If so, there was no up or down. The nest was in both boxes. The supplemental sugar was above, no? As the bees consumed the honey in the two boxes, the colony became smaller and trended upward into the deep to be closer to the sugar. Seems like a clever idea.
Keith Diaz Yeah, that was my thinking. It was basically a big column of honey with a cluster near the middle. There was no real “brood box” or “super”.
@@vinofarm Did the bees use up the honey in the medium super that was below them through the winter? How much honey was left in the medium? seems to me based on some of the video you showed us there was quite a bit of honey left below the brood ? this tells me that you wintered your bees in a single deep, very common with lots of beekeepers
That camera you are using now is awesome, it is so clear.
Same camera for the past year or so. I'm uploading in 4K now, though!
@@vinofarm This is not an answer to the question.
Jos Diepenbeek There was no question.
Good to see you again. Missed ya man
You're back!!! Also amazed you're in shorts. Just got my first sting of the season.
i did the same as you but with deeps bees had a good winter here good video
I was so sad every week that their was no new video but when I saw I new was posted I rushed to it.
Yep, All bee keeping is local. It can change a few miles down the road. You have to figure out what is right for your area.
OkieRob is correct.
Nice to see you back and posting Jim. How's the barn? I'm sure it's all finished, but we want to see the final product!
Not finished! Siding is next, then I'll spend the summer on the inside. It's going to be a while.
@@vinofarm Can't wait!
You need a Hive Butler, to keep that queen safe while you continue on with your inspection! I sent you an email last month!
I haven't got no bees. But I would love some. I have learns so much about them. I think your awesome really good behind the camera. And you don't mind making mistakes which make this worth watching.
Living vicariously off your videos still I get started but lockdown in Scotland put a halt, but still trying to locate some swarms....
I am having a strange year of beekeeping this year. I bought 2 colonies of swarm trapped local bees 3 years ago and this spring I thought I had lost one of them. I went out and bought a package locally to get me back up to 2 colonies and the package is doing great. Last week I went to my "dead" colony and was going to take the drawn frames to let my package expand easily. Wrong, the hive I thought was dead had solid bees in it from side to side in the top box although I still did not see any bees coming and going at the entrance. Now I need to regroup and figure out what free resources I actually have and why I am not seeing any bees at the entrance. I do see bees coming and going at a defect in their second box.
That's interesting, in SE MA the bees, the blooms were significantly early and swarming is rampant. Everyone's running out of room to put swarms and splits.
Jim, hows the barn coming along. Sorry about you late spring, we had very mild winter here so we had an early spring. I made splits on 3/11 & 3/14 and we’ve already harvested some spring wild flower honey. Thanks for the video and looking forward to the nuc vid!
Barn construction will ramp back up in June. I've been taking care of a million other things around the property and had hands full with my son around (no school with the lockdown) over the past two months. I'm going to be doing siding next and then building out the inside over the summer.
We are 3 weeks early, it's insane. Have made my splits already, I wonder if the polars moving faster now is a possible reason.
Btw in the Netherlands we use spacers, it helps a bit with peace of mind pulling the first frame.
This year I note date I inspected on the cover, it tells me what box needs to be looked at. Since I forget everything above ,6 values
Oh and first honey crystalized after 2 weeks, think it's because there was still honey in the honeyboxes
Did you get a lot of honey already? I live in noord holland and I heard of beekeepers around the country getting a huge crop already, But I haven't had a yield yet!
@@luoarnamsk 80 kilo from dandelion, apple, pear and plumes. Acacia is in bloom now, but minimal. This is the honey I love so I hope a few kilos for me to last 2 years.
@@rogierdikkes Wow! How many hives do you have? Where in the country?
@@luoarnamsk Utrecht area, 7 hives that produce, 12 in total
i'm watching you from syria ❤❤👍
Quick question, if you don’t plan to harvest from the medium why not leave it above the brood box below the excluder and let them have full range of both boxes? First year bee keeper, great videos.
I've learned inspections are WAAAAY easier and faster when the queen is contained in one box. And when they have two boxes to choose from, the brood spans both boxes, but doesn't ever FILL both. It's all over the place. Queen has a deep to lay in, then excluder, then a dedicated 'bee' super, then harvesting supers over that. After harvest, I can keep the 'bee' super on the colony and it's OK to treat it for mites since it's not for human consumption.
Had our first bee swarm today and it was our Saskatraz bee hive probably about a 4-6lbs package worth of bees dont even know why they swarmed as just added a extra deep as we just split them about a week ago from the double nuc. these guys came out of winter with a full 8 frames of solid bees covering them, same with our double deep 10 frame Saskatraz hive completely filled while our Italians barely fill a deep.
Overwintering “brood and a halfs”, placing a honey-filled medium under rather than over the deep, seems to be routine in the UK. I switched to this method a couple years ago, and agree it’s easier not having brood in the medium come springtime. Our winters in Portland OR are long and wet, but with little in the way of truly frigid temps. Frequent weeks in the 40s allow the bees to go down into the medium for honey when needed. In a harsher climate it may not work. A colony remaining in tight cluster, slowly working up through the deep box, might find stores down below inaccessible.
Later this summer can you give an update to your bulb and flower planting. How are they growing in. Did the golden rod dispersement work.
I didn't notice you were gone because as of i'm watching this video (8/19/20) I started watching you about a week ago...
so sorry I didn't miss you
So glad your back with videos! With the honey on the bottom, did they have enough during the spring or were you adding sugar, fondant, how were you sure they wouldn't starve since now they are on top and good stuff was below? Looked like quite a bit of stores in the frames that you pulled out to look at. This is an interesting idea but worry about starving.
I kept the dry sugar on the hives all winter and they usually consume that along with their stores. I think the honey in the mediums is used in late winter when the cluster is looser and the bees are flying. When they're more active, they are all over the hive and realize there's plenty of honey down there.
Jim, Great to see new content and the progress in the bee yard! Rather have quality content than quantity, you always deliver! Nice explanation on flipping the boxes however your flip back before winter. Is this before the fall flow? I’d assume you do that before so they can fill the deep?
I explained that in my wintering part ONE video last fall. It's after the flow and after I've started feeding them syrup. I let them fill the medium, then dropped the medium to the bottom. Then kept feeding so they could pack the deep, which was then right under the syrup. Easier for them to fill.
Vino Farm Ahh okay! My memory is getting bad! Thanks for the explaining that. I went back and rewatched you fall video. Hope the flowers open up soon for you.
I just wanna let you know I really enjoy your content and you have inspired me to study apiary sciences in collage
Wow. That's awesome.
Vino. If I make a video of marking queens just for you ... would you think about actually doing it?
I enjoy putting a mark on my bee. Maybe you might too.
The marks fade because the retinue tries cleaning it off.
I've got one queen where the dot turned into an hour glass...
Wicked bees. . Lol
I already did it. ua-cam.com/video/PDqalQAuawM/v-deo.html
You need to start asking us to share your videos, would help you out. We don't mind
I enjoy your videos. Now that you are a bit more experienced as a beekeeper I would love to see you do stuff like running a hive with two queens separated by an excluder or raising extra queens. Those are things I'm too scared to do and kind of am unknown risk. Maybe because of your channel it would worth the risk if you got good videos from it. I for one would for sure watch but honestly I'd watch you read the phone book for two videos before I batted an eye.
Thanks for the kind words... I'll solve problems and share the stories as they come up and of course share whatever I learn.... but I have so many other things going on in my life that I don't have plans to expand the beeyard so queen rearing is not something I want to get into at the moment. Anything can happen, of course!
@@vinofarm I demand you do stuff I admitted I won't and record and edit videos about it or else.....meh... it was worth a try
@@Ikantspell4 I'm open to suggestions. Can't say I'll take them, but I'm always open.
I'm a little bit confused : I thought your next videos would be about Queen drama, and no news :o) ! Thank you anyway for your super video.
Sorry. I had a story going on Instagram and that queen I saved didn’t make it. So the drama ended rather abruptly. I know not everyone follows me over there, but the superfans do and it’s a place I can easily post an update or bit of news and it only takes me a couple minutes. Videos take up a whole day when you add up shooting, editing, uploading, responding to comments, etc. Instagram is free, easy and private if you want it to be. I try to post something there every day. That’s where you get real news.
@@vinofarm yep, I know what it takes to make videos, I made more than 100 on my channel (and gave up due to poor results compared to the time invested).
yay!! glad to see you!!
Lucy: A little bee-hind
In the SF/Oakland Bay Area... we are too early on many blossoms. Our Fall flow of native "California Buckwheat" we rely on in September are budding and breaking bud.. in MAY. WEIRD... got to roll with it.
We are way behind here (PA) was right about normal then snow and 20s that through a wrench in everything we still have a few apples blooming and we lost the biggest part of everything early
god bless you beekeeper thank you for your notes that queen carniola you comment thank you
Hi Jim, My resource hive queen is rocking this year I want to clone her and replace the queen in the neighboring resource hive and hope the both pump frames of brood out left and right!
Hey I thought it was a pretty good idea and might do that myself. I have a similar set up but most of mine have one deep and 2 mediums and I went into winter with the deep on the bottom and the 2 mediums on top so come spring time and reverse box time I ended up with the deep on the top and the mediums on the bottom which I dont care for cuz now they put their maple honey in the deep. No bueno. I will either do the deep on top or in the middle going into winter I think.
Yup. That is what happened to me last spring. 10 queens laying in mediums with empty deeps below. This solved the problem!
Keep a deep box with frames 1/1 And top 3/4 frames or 1/2 storage box but wide thick frames ....if the frames are build thick for storage boxes the Queen must to chew on the wax to lay eggs on them being so deep her bottom can’t touch the end of a alveoli so she cant lay eggs on them ....you won’t need the queen excluder even if you do that ! And on this way also the production of honey will increase being more place for storage for honey and easy for bees to use same speed to cap the frames in a small surface ! .....never put 3/4 frames or 1/2 for the brood box . The queen need big frames to to lay eggs and also on same frame they need to make a crown of honey on that frame which will be easy for young bees to feed the larva If is small frames queen will lay eggs all over it almost and no space to make a crown of honey on that frame ! You have cold weather there so don’t push the nurse bees in cold times to go to other frames to bring the honey to feed their larvae ....respect. I like your videos !
We had 0 tree flowers this year in the Ohio valley. Freezes got all of them. Last fall with drought and now nothing. One tough year.
Hi even thou I'm scared of bees I love ur show welcome back!
The bee population is dropping off. We need to try and make sure these “murder bees” aren’t effecting the pops. Oh and welcome back! We’ve missed you!
have you tried supering your nucs with a queen excluder to keep the two apart?
Yes, last fall... but we were in a drought and had zero flow so I didn't get to see if it worked. I'll try again.
@@vinofarm nice! i am giving it a go this year for the first time (more as a way to have two colonies in an urban yard and i like the idea of two colonies working together). both sides are wall to wall and they have already mostly drawn out a first super. we got a strange spring as well in portland, or. sun most of april and rain most of may.. i enjoy your vids! thanks for sharing!
I think that I lost this comment the first time. :(
WOW you guys are running LATE! I am in southern New Hampshire and my apple trees have already bloomed, had the bees come and now the blooms are gone. The same is true with a couple of other spring trees. What elevation are you at?
1200'
@@vinofarm That answers that Milford is only at 259' above sea level.
Yayyyyy
Well, Murder Hornets, any ideas on how to protect your bees from those guys?
I notice that you seem to only use 8 frame boxes and I am wondering why you don't use 10 frame boxes? I am asking as a beginner and am trying to learn as much as I can.
8 frame deeps weigh a lot less than 10 frame deeps and I'm not getting any younger. Also, I prefer the concept of taller, narrower cluster space over winter as opposed to wider space. Bees can move up and down much easier than side to side while they're in a cluster.
@@vinofarm makes sense to me on both accounts, thank you for the response!
Here we try to rotate all frames within 2 years i use the honeyframes from last year for the new year
I notice you have a few medium frames in your deep boxes. Any I'll side effects to doing that other than aesthetics?
They always draw out the bottom to match a deep frame size. They usually make it drone size comb, so you usually get all drones down there. So I wouldn't suggest a full box of medium frames in a deep box, but one or two is fine. It is a nice dedicated spot for their drones.
@@vinofarm, suspected as much as I did see alot or drone caps on a couple of those frames. My girls add the drone comb to the bottom of my deeps as well.