I remember a couple of years back when you were starting.. writing a comment that I would love to have all mediums instead of deeps.. so I could manipulate with reversing boxes instead of moving frames... You grown alot since then.. buying Bob's bees was the right move to do this year. With a nice year and a little patience you will be there with the numbers
Yeah the bees are loving it. Colonies are busting at the seems for us. Just got to get queens and get them split before they decide to split themselves.
I feel your pain man I run about 50 colonies and I’m a mechanic full time, but no matter what I do I’m always behind with bee work. That’s why I love it , it’s always a challenge!
Our colonies are loving this early spring. Cant even pull back the big ones because no others need brood. Going to have to pick up some queens and split in the next week or 2 or its gonna be swarm city for us.
Nathan I have just binge listened to your growing a b business vlog. I got earbuds and have listened through your whole season in one shot. It's been very interesting to watch all the highs, Lowe's, plans, second guessing, and exhaustion both metal and physical. It looks like you're doing a great job moving this forward. I am poised do the same this year. After 5 years of keeping bees, I hope I've made enough mistakes and learned so I can grow this thing up. I just brought my bees back from California almonds, and I'm headed down next week to buy 75 double deep colonies. I need to make a lot of Queens this year, and it takes a lot of bees to make bees. One thing you might think about, is selling some nukes off to recoup some cash flow. I will go down and buy double D's, pull a nuke off of them and sell it for the same price I paid for the double deeps. This gets my money back plus gives me bees and equipment. It is worked in the past, I was just not able to capitalize as well as I hope to this year. I am excited to see your growth.
Sure hope you have a better source for sugar than us in Darlington SC . 19.97 for 25 lb. Heard that 4 to 1 is like nectar and can get by at 8 to 1 which helps with cost.
Nathan... Did that three box hive at 16:44 have two capped queen cells in that middle box (frames 1 and 7)?! I'm looking forward to using some double screen boards this year - picked up two at the Expo. I found a laying worker or a poorly mated queen turning worker brood comb into drone comb... that comb will be going in the wax melter and the hive was merged with a queenright one. I thought to save that comb for honey super usage but the time spent trying to keep track of it (so it doesn't get moved back into the brood nest) isn't worth the trouble. You are going to be really busy this year keeping up with those bees - happy to see such expansion for you!
Have you tried the Demaree method of swarm prevention before? I utilized it this year and am sold from now on. Great honey production and no need to split.
Your knowledge base is really getting good. I like it when you know what you see and figure out how you need to handle that hive. Are you going to try to get all your hives in a yard equalized out so that you can treat the whole yard the same? It looks like you are walking a fine line between swarming and splitting. Hope the weather doesn't bite you. Here in MN we are looking for 20" of snow in the next two days then get cold, 4f for a low, and then staying in the upper 30's for a week. Hope they have stores. LOL
Russell my plan is to manage individual hives as much as possible instead of equalizing yards. That’s for two reasons: 1. I’m small enough to be able to do that, and 2. My breeding program. I want to be able to see how individual queens are performing, and some of that gets mixed up or washed out if you do heavy equalizing of yards. At least, it’s harder to find and track the excellent queens.
@@DuckRiverHoney Good point. I was thinking time factor in labor. Did your 2 day market go as expected? I have a 2 day market in two weeks that I have no idea how big it will be. I have 400 jars of creamed honey ready and 50 jars of honey. First time there. Booth cost was $220.
You need mud flaps on your truck, I put some on my truck about 2 months ago now I have clean running boards, I didn’t know they would make such a difference
Youre right next door to me. We get our equipment from Skipper. Im down here near Pulaski. Check out the cut out I just did. The bees are survivor bees from the 1950s and have been in that house since then the owner said. The queens genetics are well suited to our area, and shes super gentle. I made 6 hives from just that one cut out. Let me know if you want a nuc made from her. Ill trade for some of your genetics.
Great Video! How are you planing on splitting the singles are you only going to pull brood out of the medium on top or are you going to pull brood from the deep too?
Nathan I run all medium boxes on my honey production hives, I bought a B3 Hive lifter a month ago and moved a couple hives with it and it worked great. Was thinking about trying a double deep hive set up since I have a hive lifter and I am getting some deep frame nucs in. I do a modified Demaree method during the honey flow and was thinking about the weight of a second deep box full of honey in the fall when I am doing treatments. It would be nice to only deal with twenty frames instead of thirty frames but do you think its would be more of and inconvenience having to have the hive lifter every time i need to work the double deep hives?
I’d like to get a couple years out of the equipment and then nuc it and sell it. I’d prefer to run all mediums long term, but I may have to keep some deeps if I can’t create a medium nuc market.
I wish more people were using the size in between medium and deep, like one of Bob Binnie's commercial beekeeping friends. I think that seems like the ideal size but doesn't seem very common.
Join them with a strong colony and they’ll sort out the laying worker. I don’t merge LW colonies with weak nucs but have no problem putting them into a strong hive.
You always want that capped brood on the bottom, open should be above, heat rises and emerging brood brings her down, capped brood is generating heat, again heat rises…
Ahh man I can’t wait to get my daughter a bee suit and let her paint it. The best in life are our children
Absolutely! 👍
I look forward to viewing your video on Sunday morning!!! Take care and may God bless you on your journey!!!
Thanks Ed, I appreciate it!
Looking Good Nathan 👍 Hope you Have a great Beekeeping Season, Have a great Day :)
Thanks!
Little bee suits make me grin, wish they had had those when I was young. Thanks for sharing your time Nathan.
Thanks DC!
I remember a couple of years back when you were starting.. writing a comment that I would love to have all mediums instead of deeps.. so I could manipulate with reversing boxes instead of moving frames...
You grown alot since then.. buying Bob's bees was the right move to do this year. With a nice year and a little patience you will be there with the numbers
Thanks, I appreciate it!
I do like all mediums for that reason.
Nice job! This early buildup most are having makes it a good year to boost your numbers.
Yeah the bees are loving it. Colonies are busting at the seems for us. Just got to get queens and get them split before they decide to split themselves.
I feel your pain man I run about 50 colonies and I’m a mechanic full time, but no matter what I do I’m always behind with bee work. That’s why I love it , it’s always a challenge!
👍
I think a deep and a medium is perfect brood box for our area. Greg Rogers old time bee man does it this way!!!!!
Good video Nathan,
I really enjoy how you explain your process and share what you are thinking throughout the video. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks Tom!
Our colonies are loving this early spring. Cant even pull back the big ones because no others need brood. Going to have to pick up some queens and split in the next week or 2 or its gonna be swarm city for us.
Nathan I have just binge listened to your growing a b business vlog. I got earbuds and have listened through your whole season in one shot. It's been very interesting to watch all the highs, Lowe's, plans, second guessing, and exhaustion both metal and physical. It looks like you're doing a great job moving this forward. I am poised do the same this year. After 5 years of keeping bees, I hope I've made enough mistakes and learned so I can grow this thing up. I just brought my bees back from California almonds, and I'm headed down next week to buy 75 double deep colonies. I need to make a lot of Queens this year, and it takes a lot of bees to make bees. One thing you might think about, is selling some nukes off to recoup some cash flow. I will go down and buy double D's, pull a nuke off of them and sell it for the same price I paid for the double deeps. This gets my money back plus gives me bees and equipment. It is worked in the past, I was just not able to capitalize as well as I hope to this year. I am excited to see your growth.
Thanks Harris, I appreciate it!
Thanks for the update, things seem to be progressing quickly for you!
Thanks Rainier!
Like what you are seeing. Looks like you’ve got it going. Thanks for the videos. Take care.
Thanks Garry, always good to hear from you. Good luck this season!
Looks like you are really dialing it in this year, nice work
Thanks Aidan!
My grandson has same suit. I'm so jealous. We still have snow on the ground in Wisconsin.
More cold weather coming I hear!
@@DuckRiverHoney icky.
😂
Sure hope you have a better source for sugar than us in Darlington SC . 19.97 for 25 lb. Heard that 4 to 1 is like nectar and can get by at 8 to 1 which helps with cost.
If you have a slow flow
Costco is 77 cents per lb.
Nathan... Did that three box hive at 16:44 have two capped queen cells in that middle box (frames 1 and 7)?! I'm looking forward to using some double screen boards this year - picked up two at the Expo. I found a laying worker or a poorly mated queen turning worker brood comb into drone comb... that comb will be going in the wax melter and the hive was merged with a queenright one. I thought to save that comb for honey super usage but the time spent trying to keep track of it (so it doesn't get moved back into the brood nest) isn't worth the trouble. You are going to be really busy this year keeping up with those bees - happy to see such expansion for you!
Thanks Nancy! I don’t think that hive had cells, I think it was drone brood that got torn.
Beautiful family.
Thanks!
Have you tried the Demaree method of swarm prevention before? I utilized it this year and am sold from now on. Great honey production and no need to split.
It’s a lot of work to scale.
Another great video on the day to day operations of a bee business 👍
Thanks!
Great video Nathan 👌👌🐝🐝💥 Regards Sebastian UK
Thanks Sebastian!
Ha good video it is nice to see what you are doing Hope the bee season goes good for u. God Bless and have a good week.
Thanks!
Your knowledge base is really getting good. I like it when you know what you see and figure out how you need to handle that hive. Are you going to try to get all your hives in a yard equalized out so that you can treat the whole yard the same? It looks like you are walking a fine line between swarming and splitting. Hope the weather doesn't bite you. Here in MN we are looking for 20" of snow in the next two days then get cold, 4f for a low, and then staying in the upper 30's for a week. Hope they have stores. LOL
Russell my plan is to manage individual hives as much as possible instead of equalizing yards. That’s for two reasons: 1. I’m small enough to be able to do that, and 2. My breeding program. I want to be able to see how individual queens are performing, and some of that gets mixed up or washed out if you do heavy equalizing of yards. At least, it’s harder to find and track the excellent queens.
@@DuckRiverHoney Good point. I was thinking time factor in labor. Did your 2 day market go as expected? I have a 2 day market in two weeks that I have no idea how big it will be. I have 400 jars of creamed honey ready and 50 jars of honey. First time there. Booth cost was $220.
We did ok, sold a little less than 200 lbs, and almost all of that was on day two. First day rained.
Cute lil one in the being what a blessing. Hey what feeders you use I see frame feeders but what brand. Thanks 😊 Good looking bees 🐝 too 😊
I prefer the Man Lake pro feeders.
Lol I feel I'm eternally running behind!
Always!
FYI, I wash my F350 2 times a year... After last frost (snow country here, so salt ) and in the Fall some time if I remember ;)
I try to wax mine once in the fall before winter. And spray fluid film on the undercarriage.
I beleave in ground drenching also. I use gardstar 40%
I’ve heard good things about gardstar.
BOX O' BEES!!!!!!!
👍
Great video
Thanks!
You need mud flaps on your truck, I put some on my truck about 2 months ago now I have clean running boards, I didn’t know they would make such a difference
I do need some
Hi Nathan, thanks for the series. On these hives, are their bottom boards just simply a piece of plywood with 3/4'' shims on the three sides?
HDO and it’s a 3/8” bottom spacing. That’s what Bob uses mostly.
We could make a tee shirt on that comment. “That’s What Bob Uses”
What dose one have to do with the woodwhere of a deadout ,,, lots of bees headfirst in the cells brushed off what I could???
Youre right next door to me. We get our equipment from Skipper. Im down here near Pulaski. Check out the cut out I just did. The bees are survivor bees from the 1950s and have been in that house since then the owner said. The queens genetics are well suited to our area, and shes super gentle. I made 6 hives from just that one cut out. Let me know if you want a nuc made from her. Ill trade for some of your genetics.
Great Video! How are you planing on splitting the singles are you only going to pull brood out of the medium on top or are you going to pull brood from the deep too?
I’ll pull brood from the medium.
Nathan I run all medium boxes on my honey production hives, I bought a B3 Hive lifter a month ago and moved a couple hives with it and it worked great. Was thinking about trying a double deep hive set up since I have a hive lifter and I am getting some deep frame nucs in. I do a modified Demaree method during the honey flow and was thinking about the weight of a second deep box full of honey in the fall when I am doing treatments. It would be nice to only deal with twenty frames instead of thirty frames but do you think its would be more of and inconvenience having to have the hive lifter every time i need to work the double deep hives?
If you do a lot of frame moving then deeps are easier. I really like only having one size of equipment.
About time that you start running deeps. How are you going to deal with that in the future.
I’d like to get a couple years out of the equipment and then nuc it and sell it. I’d prefer to run all mediums long term, but I may have to keep some deeps if I can’t create a medium nuc market.
I wish more people were using the size in between medium and deep, like one of Bob Binnie's commercial beekeeping friends. I think that seems like the ideal size but doesn't seem very common.
@@cradlemaker 7 5/8" is the beta max to the vhs of 9 5/8" & 6 5/8". If you get that reference, congratulations on living to a ripe old age.
@@DuckRiverHoney After you've sold off the frames in nucs you can always cut the boxes down to mediums plus shims.
Yep!
What size of trailer do you have and do you find a big enough for what you need?
It’s a 12’, and yes/no. It’s fine most of the time, at times I wish it were bigger. I may add a car hauler.
How do you merge your colonys,,, do you have to find the laying worker or just merge them
Join them with a strong colony and they’ll sort out the laying worker. I don’t merge LW colonies with weak nucs but have no problem putting them into a strong hive.
Like your videos, are thse hives from bob bennie.
Yes, I picked up 32 singles from Bob.
You always want that capped brood on the bottom, open should be above, heat rises and emerging brood brings her down, capped brood is generating heat, again heat rises…
🙃 'Promo SM'