Ranting About My First Year In The UP And Feeding Bees
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- Опубліковано 16 жов 2024
- In this video I chat about what I've been up to over the last month, and touch on my thoughts as our first year keeping bees in the UP comes to a close.
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congrats on a great year in a new location!
What part of the UP? I’m from Indiana and we go to the UP every other year for hiking, off roading, and fishing. We hang out in Ontonagon county. I saw a nice bee yard up there with around 16-20 colonies while out in my SxS last August.
I have cut wild grasses by hand and used for community feeding - seems to work fine.
thank you
nice rant, good stuff
New area new rules.Still can't wait to see those honey videos ✅😁👍👍🏴☠️
I'm at the cusp of crafting a deal to open a mid-size apiary in Central Illinois. Most my other deals are in the suburbs skirting Chicago but this one is a bit more rural and I finally have a shot at something substantial! It will be a lot different, and having a bee yard an hour away is going to be a new challenge but I'm eager to have a beeyard that breaches into the double digits for # of colonies.
Heck yeah. You're going to be happy with the extra spot. Make sure you get a pile of hive tools (leave like 5 of them in the truck) and always leave the smoker in the truck at the end of the day. If you don't, you'll certainly end up making a pointless trip to the out yard.
@@BKBees thanks I'll grab some this week. Great advice, gotta gear up for the long haul!
Hi Bret - Welcome back :)
Thanks brother.
Did you talk about putting unfinished honey supers on top of hive in another video? I would like to learn more about that.
Not too much to say about it. In years past we have (at the end of the summer) always taken every honey box off of the hives. The plan in those years was to overwinter just straight single boxes. This year rather than wintering singles I decided to give every hive a honey box on honey removal day. So, in the middle of August we went through and pulled honey, but rather than taking everything we left a partially filled box on top of each single. This allowed for fall feeding to be really easy, and makes me feel better knowing there is an insurance box on top.
@@BKBees Thanks for the explanation. I'm in upstate NY and figure our weather is probably similar
One more thing, do I need to remove or cover screen bottom boards for the winter
Nope. They'll do fine over the screen if they have enough food.
Can you explain that feeder please?
When feeding your bees preparing them for winter, what’s your target hive weight for singles and doubles?
I have a video on this subject coming out in the next couple of days. 90lbs for a single, 150 or so for a double, but the more applicable answer is every frame should be heavy with honey or syrup, the hive should be impossible to move or lift with one hand.
@@BKBees thanks for the response, I’m trying to run singles for the first time in SE Wisconsin. They are about 70lbs now. Guess I better get to feeding
I still say that you should buy a couple sheets of XPS foam and insulate 10-20 hive lids.
Then see how they do compared to the other colonies.
Maybe weigh them before & after winter. Also weigh some uninsulated colonies. See if you find some meaningful data for or against insulating.
I like that scientific approach. The idea hadn't ever been pressing, as I always had singles overwinter with lots of extra food in the lower peninsula... If I see my successful colonies come out of winter next spring with lots of extra food I'll probably just keep it going the way I'm doing it, but if they're lighter than expected, or I see any deadouts with weight to them, I'll certainly do this.
I bought a sheet of 1/2 inch foam (R 2.8) and put under the covers to help my colonies because they were splits in late summer. Also bought a Wintering inner cover with 1" foam to try on a weaker colony from MannLake (cost around 31$) designed to vent condensation from the center hole. I picked up my first NUC in May and a package in June, currently have six single deep boxes and two NUCs that are small. Doing what is necessary for a better survival rate because it can get cold here in western Virginia.
@@heavymechanic2
R-2.8 is minimal. I use R-15 lids. R-10 is good.
Those Mann Lake wintering inner covers are absolute garbage. Any insulation *above* ventilation (upper entrance, vents, etc) does *nothing*. In fact, insulation above ventilation creates a worse situation by increasing the rate at which warm is blown out of the hive and cold air is sucked in.
Insulation on top (as much as possible). Seal-up the hives as tight as possible. There should be *zero* gaps/cracks/holes aside from a single lower entrance.
I heard you say that you stop feeding the end of the first week of October, st least when you were in the lower peninsula. When do stop treating for mites with ox, I've heard that's its ok when the bees have started to cluster to treat the last time.
You can treat with OA vapor in the middle of winter. In fact it's the most effective it'll ever be in those broodless cluster stages.
Hope you can shed some light on how to handle crystallized honey. Last year, with the basswood honey I had almost none. This year it all is crystiling.
With 7k lbs of honey you apparently don't sell all that at Farmers markets. You must sell most in drums right?
Nope. I've never sold a drum of honey before. The last couple of years it's been like 30% wholesale jars to stores and 70% by the bucket to other beekeepers.
So are you saying you are leaving your unfinished supers on over winter, or put them on in the spring?
When I pulled honey in mid August, rather than pulling everything and testing the boxes with refractometers during extraction, I left each colony with an unfinished box of honey. In years past I'd remove everything but the single brood chamber, this year it's the single brood chamber with a honey box on top.
Thanks for the update. That's how I overwinter with a single deep and 1 super above. It worked great last year and we had a pretty tough winter last year.
@@BKBees Got it. Same here. Thx.
Hey Brett I don't know how far u r from Ashland Wisconsin but I normally go up there every spring for smelt fishing I would be willing to bring a couple bales of straw up that way for u
Thank you, Mark, I appreciate the heck out of the offer. It's not such a big deal, I can bring straw up here on any of my many trips down state, it was just an inconvenience because I hadn't planned on bringing it up. Either way, I appreciate you watching, the comment, and the offer.
What do you mean by 'unfinished boxes'?
Honey boxes that weren't filled completely or entirely capped.
Do you offer U.P. classes or need labor? I understand timing an schedules. I live down state and have a camp in the U.P. We are gluten free so that's a bonus to us. I only get 40-60 lbs of honey in 17 frame Lazutin hives unless basswood bloom. I go to the U.P. Memorial day, 4th of july, and just before labor day for 9-14 days. I will build bigger hives when I move up there full time. Trying to plant earlier stuff to build bees up before berry bloom. Skunk cabbage, pussy willow, and lot of early bulbs. Staring a couple of grooves of fruit trees too. From early to late season blooms.
My mite counts have been low all season and continue to stay low. It's a very different (and welcomed!) year.
Beautiful.
Try pine straw (needals) I think it works pretty good
Agreed. The only reason I don't do this all of the time is the effort in acquiring them. Pine needles used to be my only source of smoker fuel and feeder floats.
Glad to watch redundancy, have you seen what’s on tv lol. 👍
lol, that made me chuckle, yes, I know what you mean.
Welcome back! Can’t wait to hear how many pounds you two pulled. It’s already giving me an inferiority complex. Lol
lol, well, to help your confidence level I can assure you we were short of the 10k lb goal. I think it'll end up at something around 7k.
@@BKBees We got a new motorized spinner this year, and I still don’t think I want to pull 7000 pounds. Lol
Hi Son!
Hi Mom!
When honey crystallizes it’s humidity is too high. I’m buying a honey refractometer to keep an eye on it. Best of luck❤️✝️❗️
So, moisture can affect how quickly honey crystallizes, but, almost any natural honey is going to crystallize regardless of water content. Some will crystallize quicker than others, and that's due to a higher glucose:fructose ratio (more glucose). The honey in the frames in my kitchen is mostly at about 16 - 17%, and while the humidity in the air in my kitchen might be affecting it to some extent, the moisture content in the honey itself isn't the cause.