I had the same problem with the feeders getting hive beetle larve. If you take the cap and ladder off and throw a couple sticks in as floats, the bees can patrol the feeder better.
You are growing and things are moving fast. Great job. That is definitely been my problem growing hives and honey production at the same time. Thanks for all the good information on how you are doing it. Take care.
Love the progress on the honey house! We've had a great flow here but since we've had no rain for weeks and weeks I figure everything is going to dry up fast but no one is listening being too caught up in the heavy flow. I'm anticipating basswood will bloom early as they are already setting flower buds way early. Strange year everywhere it seems. Only saving grace might be the spotted lantern fly honey dew for summer dearth flow but that will really stress the trees out given our lack of rain and personally I think it has a funky after taste to the honey. Have spun over 134 pounds of honey already usually around here everyone harvests their honey the first week of July. Even spun some nectar out of the brood nest area to get the frames back that were getting nectar bound - tastes fantastic!. Not quite the right moisture content but I'll use it up quickly. Hear Kamon is just shaking nectar out of frames onto the ground to keep nucs from back filling! Have used some excluders this year and it helps with early harvesting. When a frame gets capped off it is pulled... I figure a capped frame isn't making me any more honey so I pull them and give another comb frame in its place. Time consuming but I'm only inspecting brood nests every 10-12 days and doing super checks every week that might change as the flow tapers off. Brood nests are set up well (no back filling or swarms) and bees shifted out of swarm mode a while ago. Pulling nucs to sell I believe takes care of swarming issues in my apiary as they are being "reset" and creating new queens or I've added in mated queens. Got to constantly adjust ones beekeeping to the conditions. You are on track with making stronger splits later in the year. Early spring you can do just about any thing but as the season progresses everything changes as the bees too shift into winter preparation mode. Hope you get some funny bee jokes... I couldn't tell a joke if my life depended on it.
Another great video Nathan. I pulled honey this week in the eastern foothills of NC....14 supers off 6 hives and got about 400lbs/33 gallons of honey....mostly tulip poplar. I also run all mediums and use 3-4 boxes for brood depending on the strength of the colony. I have had REALLY great luck this year drawing foundation by undersupering. I've not tried that till this year and have been impressed with the results. I hope your flow turns around and you are able to end up with a really good season!!! Your honey house is awesome. I'm going to have to do something next year. My 4 frame/manual extractor got quite the workout this year...as did my arms. Thanks as always for great info!!!!
Nathan one thing I do when trying to get the bees to draw out comb... if they've started one side I generally will flip that frame around to the undrawn side. This then seems to encourage the bees to draw out the undrawn side and puts drawn comb next to yet another frame for the bees to expand over to. Seems to work for me and I feel it speeds up the process as bees do not seem to like undrawn space between two drawn areas.
Great video. Looks like the honey house is coming along well. If I was closer, I would love to come help you in your yards a couple of days and pick your brain. You said something that I'm not completely understanding, you said you would make a split and put the queen above the double screen board, why above and not below? Shoutout to Cory for helping you out on the question. Keep up the great work. That was one big nope-rope at the end!
Hey Nathan, I really appreciate you answering that question, and having Cory share his expertise. Love your channel and am a better beekeeper because of it. The genetics side of beekeeping is just so fascinating and even more so relevant now that Australia has varroa. I appreciate you sharing your journey. Thanks mate
Boy Nathan you look worn out. Take a deep breath and a break. Tired people don't work fast. LOL Basswood here the last 2 year was a bust also. I am hoping for 2020's bumper crop. Hot and dry the last two summers. Have a good day and I hope you catch an unexpected flow.
We’ll see what happens Russell. Another issue is the wild cherry and mountain laurel I’ve got in some supers. I’ll have to toss some of the reduced crop I’ve got!
I'm behind on watching, I've had a busy couple weeks with bees, I started last year with 2 hives, came through winter with both, now im up to 13 between splits and swarm catching. Long ways from you still, but you have a couple years head start lol. Your Honey house is coming along nice!
I drop little pieces of wax that I clean off of frames,etc when doing inspections into my Mother Lode Feeders. The bees shape it make nice ladders for themselves that has helped with drowning alot for me.
wet supering is way to go, I've been doing it for years, I only have 10 to 20 colonys and extract a colony at a time so it's obviously little different for me, but much easier to throw it right back on then to store it. Goodluck man, love to watch as I want to be getting in to going larger scale queen producer then am now.
Kids gona be kids, have a great weekend Nathan and family. I am 100% convinced they find every little minor flow they have in range. 🤨I guessing bees don't like to swim.
Are you finding alot robbing in your yards. I left alot of last year honey on big hives and did not check for swarming since i seen new brood in super. Bottom brood boxes were pollen bound my mistake i think they swarmed and didnt have anything in bottom brood box but pollen to protect the honey. Now got 30 pollen bound wax frames in freezer. Got to check all the way down on your hives
Pay attention to your beliefs and that as your guide, this is an odd time, don't overextend and stay safe. Your videos come from the heart and are great to see. I hope nothing but the best for you, your Vlog's are up there in a range that most don't reach.
I'm in Darlington S.C and need to start pulling more honey before it gets robbed out. Last year honey and those that swarmed are weak to robbing. Lost 3 and frames were pollen bound. 30 + put in freezer
Please explain how you have bees clean up wet supers. I use wood inner cover, then an empty box on top, then add 2 wet supers, and bees clean up and bring down honey usually in just a few days. I used to leave wet supers out for a day but that encouraged yellow jacket devils. I don’t have hive beetles though. Or big snakes!
Hi Nathan. I've never tried Mother Lode feeders but I have been tempted to so this is interesting to see. Why the extra drowning bees in your opinion? I'm curious what's wrong with the Mother Lode tube. Years ago, before there was a cap and ladder available for division board feeders, I would use a large piece of 1/4 hardware cloth folded in an accordion shape as a ladder which also kept the feeder from warping in. Would a strip of folded hardware cloth down the tube help? Thanks.
Bob I’ve tried a few things. Throwing burr comb scraps in the well causes the bees to make ladder comb in there which seems to help, but also makes cleaning out the mess harder if they do have some drowning. Green grass is a no no, it rots. Straw works OK at best. Strong nucs or a good hive have almost no drowning, but small splits and nucs have quite a bit, especially if you feed right after making the split and the bees are runny and not settled. I’ve thought of using wine corks or air soft bb’s, but then the Mann Lakes are an easier solution…. I do think that folded hardware cloth would help, but it’d have to be the right shape to allow them access to the bottom.
When basswood blooms En-masse, hold on to your hat cauz the flow gets INSANE. I suggest you use that flow to draw comb, and hope you have enough honey supers. I will also make my cell starter finisher (today in fact). Lets hope it goes well for both of us 😁
Hey Nathan, keep your head up. I think you going for it has been pretty impressive so far, it seems like the flows have been pretty lackluster everywhere so maybe we're due for a little bump in honey prices. With all of the new honey supers it is looking like you're going to have drawn at the end of this season, have you come up with a plan for storing them yet?
I watch all you beekeepers UA-cam channels and I’ve never really gotten a good idea for for foundation recommendations. I’ve tried them all but would like your thoughts or maybe someone else can chime in. Thanks, all you guys are great!
I think the different foundations have pros and cons. I’ve settled on plastic foundation by Mann lake, acorn, pierco, I also hear premier is good but haven’t tried it.
Nathan what's your method of splits with the mated queens you mentioned, i have 10 coming from Natures Image Farms in June as I'm trying to grow to 20 colonies this season.... I'm more lost than ever, but i keep trying! Russell @ Honey&The Coop South Carolina
I’ll likely do same yard splits so I lose the foragers, then do a candy release. I may also age brood over an excluder so they don’t have any option to make cells.
What do you do when you want to clear your writings off the lids? May sound like a silly questions but I've seen others do it and I'm just curious, looks faster than a notepad for sure.
Hey Nathan! Have you considered moving supers onto some hives and adding empty foundations to the hives you removed supers from. You could then use the strength to draw combs on syrup without polluting honey supers... just a thought. Keith (creeksidebees)
I had the same problem with the feeders getting hive beetle larve. If you take the cap and ladder off and throw a couple sticks in as floats, the bees can patrol the feeder better.
very nice honey house, congratulations
Thanks, it’s coming along now.
You are a great Dad in my book. So hope you the best
Looking forward to a full Honey House tour once you have it all buttoned up! Looking great!!
Thanks!
Congratulations on your honey house
You need to get a boat/canoe! Plant a new tree further back.
You are growing and things are moving fast. Great job. That is definitely been my problem growing hives and honey production at the same time. Thanks for all the good information on how you are doing it. Take care.
Thanks Garry!
Love the progress on the honey house! We've had a great flow here but since we've had no rain for weeks and weeks I figure everything is going to dry up fast but no one is listening being too caught up in the heavy flow. I'm anticipating basswood will bloom early as they are already setting flower buds way early. Strange year everywhere it seems. Only saving grace might be the spotted lantern fly honey dew for summer dearth flow but that will really stress the trees out given our lack of rain and personally I think it has a funky after taste to the honey. Have spun over 134 pounds of honey already usually around here everyone harvests their honey the first week of July. Even spun some nectar out of the brood nest area to get the frames back that were getting nectar bound - tastes fantastic!. Not quite the right moisture content but I'll use it up quickly. Hear Kamon is just shaking nectar out of frames onto the ground to keep nucs from back filling! Have used some excluders this year and it helps with early harvesting. When a frame gets capped off it is pulled... I figure a capped frame isn't making me any more honey so I pull them and give another comb frame in its place. Time consuming but I'm only inspecting brood nests every 10-12 days and doing super checks every week that might change as the flow tapers off. Brood nests are set up well (no back filling or swarms) and bees shifted out of swarm mode a while ago. Pulling nucs to sell I believe takes care of swarming issues in my apiary as they are being "reset" and creating new queens or I've added in mated queens. Got to constantly adjust ones beekeeping to the conditions. You are on track with making stronger splits later in the year. Early spring you can do just about any thing but as the season progresses everything changes as the bees too shift into winter preparation mode. Hope you get some funny bee jokes... I couldn't tell a joke if my life depended on it.
Thanks Nancy! I saw a bunch of basswoods setting flower yesterday, so I hope we’ve got more flow ahead of us.
Another great video Nathan. I pulled honey this week in the eastern foothills of NC....14 supers off 6 hives and got about 400lbs/33 gallons of honey....mostly tulip poplar. I also run all mediums and use 3-4 boxes for brood depending on the strength of the colony. I have had REALLY great luck this year drawing foundation by undersupering. I've not tried that till this year and have been impressed with the results. I hope your flow turns around and you are able to end up with a really good season!!! Your honey house is awesome. I'm going to have to do something next year. My 4 frame/manual extractor got quite the workout this year...as did my arms. Thanks as always for great info!!!!
Thanks Keith, I’m glad you had such a good season.
RIP "Swarm Tree" 😄
I’m glad that one is gone. Now they’ll have to use one of the good ones.
Glad to see someone else has excessive plugins in their shop. I love it.
Dave, I’ve never been in a shop that had too many outlets. I believe you could hold a plug in there, close your eyes, and still get it in an outlet!
Nathan one thing I do when trying to get the bees to draw out comb... if they've started one side I generally will flip that frame around to the undrawn side. This then seems to encourage the bees to draw out the undrawn side and puts drawn comb next to yet another frame for the bees to expand over to. Seems to work for me and I feel it speeds up the process as bees do not seem to like undrawn space between two drawn areas.
I do that but usually with the outer frames after they’ve mostly drawn the box.
Great video. Looks like the honey house is coming along well. If I was closer, I would love to come help you in your yards a couple of days and pick your brain. You said something that I'm not completely understanding, you said you would make a split and put the queen above the double screen board, why above and not below? Shoutout to Cory for helping you out on the question. Keep up the great work. That was one big nope-rope at the end!
Here’s a link to the system I use. ua-cam.com/video/c28O916sy48/v-deo.html
My little girl Wren fell asleep all suited up on a pallet next to a hive the last time I brought her with me to work bees. Lol
My kids hate naps, even if they really need one. They just get grumpy.
Hey Nathan, I really appreciate you answering that question, and having Cory share his expertise. Love your channel and am a better beekeeper because of it. The genetics side of beekeeping is just so fascinating and even more so relevant now that Australia has varroa. I appreciate you sharing your journey. Thanks mate
Thanks Aidan!
Boy Nathan you look worn out. Take a deep breath and a break. Tired people don't work fast. LOL
Basswood here the last 2 year was a bust also. I am hoping for 2020's bumper crop. Hot and dry the last two summers.
Have a good day and I hope you catch an unexpected flow.
We’ll see what happens Russell. Another issue is the wild cherry and mountain laurel I’ve got in some supers. I’ll have to toss some of the reduced crop I’ve got!
Basswood is same in NE Indiana. 1 to 2 years out of 5 have a flow.
I'm behind on watching, I've had a busy couple weeks with bees, I started last year with 2 hives, came through winter with both, now im up to 13 between splits and swarm catching. Long ways from you still, but you have a couple years head start lol. Your Honey house is coming along nice!
Thanks Chuck! This year and next the flywheel should start moving a bit.
I drop little pieces of wax that I clean off of frames,etc when doing inspections into my Mother Lode Feeders. The bees shape it make nice ladders for themselves that has helped with drowning alot for me.
I’ve started doing some of that as well. It does help, but makes it harder to clean out.
wet supering is way to go, I've been doing it for years, I only have 10 to 20 colonys and extract a colony at a time so it's obviously little different for me, but much easier to throw it right back on then to store it.
Goodluck man, love to watch as I want to be getting in to going larger scale queen producer then am now.
Thanks Pete! Queens are a lot of fun.
Looking good 👍
👍
Oh LOVE all the plug-ins, the honey house is coming along great.👍
Thanks!
Thank you for your work. Really nice job adapting and juggling everything!
Thanks Howard!
Kids gona be kids, have a great weekend Nathan and family.
I am 100% convinced they find every little minor flow they have in range. 🤨I guessing bees don't like to swim.
Ever try the Michael Palmer double nucs? I use them to raise queens, draw foundation and you can put qe on and get honey also!
Are you finding alot robbing in your yards. I left alot of last year honey on big hives and did not check for swarming since i seen new brood in super. Bottom brood boxes were pollen bound my mistake i think they swarmed and didnt have anything in bottom brood box but pollen to protect the honey. Now got 30 pollen bound wax frames in freezer. Got to check all the way down on your hives
Pay attention to your beliefs and that as your guide, this is an odd time, don't overextend and stay safe. Your videos come from the heart and are great to see. I hope nothing but the best for you, your Vlog's are up there in a range that most don't reach.
Thanks Tommy, that’s kind of you.
So what's the decision, Nathan? I condensed supers onto my strongest that may produce a crop if the flow rebounds. The rest got foundation and syrup.
Drop those green Frames right in center of the brood nest
👍
Got ya! Ya I thought you were talking about trapped swarms. Thanks for the clarification!
👍
I'm in Darlington S.C and need to start pulling more honey before it gets robbed out. Last year honey and those that swarmed are weak to robbing. Lost 3 and frames were pollen bound. 30 + put in freezer
Already put 12 pint jar cases from 4 hives but lost alot from the 3 rob outs
We have a crazy nectar flow here too
Please explain how you have bees clean up wet supers. I use wood inner cover, then an empty box on top, then add 2 wet supers, and bees clean up and bring down honey usually in just a few days. I used to leave wet supers out for a day but that encouraged yellow jacket devils. I don’t have hive beetles though. Or big snakes!
Good luck Michael!
Mary setting them on top of the inner cover is the legal way to clean them up here since we can’t open feed honey.
Hi Nathan. I've never tried Mother Lode feeders but I have been tempted to so this is interesting to see. Why the extra drowning bees in your opinion? I'm curious what's wrong with the Mother Lode tube. Years ago, before there was a cap and ladder available for division board feeders, I would use a large piece of 1/4 hardware cloth folded in an accordion shape as a ladder which also kept the feeder from warping in. Would a strip of folded hardware cloth down the tube help? Thanks.
Bob I’ve tried a few things. Throwing burr comb scraps in the well causes the bees to make ladder comb in there which seems to help, but also makes cleaning out the mess harder if they do have some drowning. Green grass is a no no, it rots. Straw works OK at best. Strong nucs or a good hive have almost no drowning, but small splits and nucs have quite a bit, especially if you feed right after making the split and the bees are runny and not settled. I’ve thought of using wine corks or air soft bb’s, but then the Mann Lakes are an easier solution…. I do think that folded hardware cloth would help, but it’d have to be the right shape to allow them access to the bottom.
When basswood blooms En-masse, hold on to your hat cauz the flow gets INSANE. I suggest you use that flow to draw comb, and hope you have enough honey supers.
I will also make my cell starter finisher (today in fact). Lets hope it goes well for both of us 😁
👍 Thanks!
If you want them to draw drone combs they will do it much faster before swarming. From now on they don't care much about drones
They’ll draw them in a super on a good flow. Agree they’ll do it early in the season, but I have less luck then.
Hey Nathan, keep your head up. I think you going for it has been pretty impressive so far, it seems like the flows have been pretty lackluster everywhere so maybe we're due for a little bump in honey prices.
With all of the new honey supers it is looking like you're going to have drawn at the end of this season, have you come up with a plan for storing them yet?
I’ll likely store them in the barn with paramoth on them.
I watch all you beekeepers UA-cam channels and I’ve never really gotten a good idea for for foundation recommendations. I’ve tried them all but would like your thoughts or maybe someone else can chime in. Thanks, all you guys are great!
Swarms pull foundation like crazy
I think the different foundations have pros and cons. I’ve settled on plastic foundation by Mann lake, acorn, pierco, I also hear premier is good but haven’t tried it.
@@DuckRiverHoney I can say for sure Dadant plastic foundation coated with beeswax encourages wonkie comb. No idea why tho.
Yeah I have t heard great things about permadent
Nathan what's your method of splits with the mated queens you mentioned, i have 10 coming from Natures Image Farms in June as I'm trying to grow to 20 colonies this season.... I'm more lost than ever, but i keep trying!
Russell @ Honey&The Coop
South Carolina
I’ll likely do same yard splits so I lose the foragers, then do a candy release. I may also age brood over an excluder so they don’t have any option to make cells.
You forgot fighty lol
🤣
What do you do when you want to clear your writings off the lids? May sound like a silly questions but I've seen others do it and I'm just curious, looks faster than a notepad for sure.
Sun and rain. By next spring it’ll all be gone.
@@DuckRiverHoney oh wow good to know, thx
👍
Hi Nathan, have a question I'm doing single brood management, but don't know what to do with polen frames, can I put up the QX using only deeps?
Is the broodnest getting plugged with pollen?
@@DuckRiverHoney the have 1st and last frame with pollen and honey and frames in the centre have pollen and brood
King snake
It was a gray rat snake who I found eating a baby blue jay.
Hey Nathan! Have you considered moving supers onto some hives and adding empty foundations to the hives you removed supers from. You could then use the strength to draw combs on syrup without polluting honey supers... just a thought. Keith (creeksidebees)
Yep, I may move honey to nucs to let it age. I had footage talking about that but axed it because it got too long.
@DuckRiverHoney 😀 I had a feeling you would already have thought of this option! Really enjoying this series of videos!
Thanks Keith!