Kamon, I have always been a hobbyist beekeeper 30+ years. Have never successfully made nice queens unless I found a big queen cell in another hive....I look forward to seeing your series on queens!!!! I have usually resorted to buying queens from someone else, which is not always a pleasure in the end result. Thanks so much young man....Rick in Pa.
Hi We are enjoying your videos so very much! They are packed with information. We went into winter with 30 hives, lost 4, just split 5 and caught 2 swarms from one in our bee yard we knew was going to swarm no matter what. So now we are up to 33! When, what a journey! We attribute our winter success with our nucs from last year. We purchased them from an Apiary who is into getting and raising queens specifically bred for cold weather and resistant to mites. As soon as we opened the nucs, we knew these bees were different. We are working toward to raising our own queens and are gathering information from beekeepers of which you are at the top of the list! We belong to a commercial bee club here, who because of their size well over 1K members) and hives (100+ each beekeeper) not to mention political connections is on top of most things in our state. Such as mite spraying from those planes way up you can barely see, stuff like hat. Living in a large rural farming community we are somewhat protected from that stuff, not to mention rather large beekeepers in our area. Yet and still, wee are aiming for 50 hives for our foundation. Like many others in the north, we never know what the winter will bring so over the years we all develop ways to protect our bees and sooner or later we find what we believe to be the perfect combination of packed food storage, protection etc. Wanted to share a bit about us and to let you know how much you are helping beekeepers out here!
I really don't need to subscribe to another channel, but your calm and reasonable explanations and the great videography makes me want to see them all. So here I am...
She looked good, good idea on the bee bread I'm glad you mentioned that, I had been thinking of doing that early spring but had since forgotten, I seen where nurse be 8 to 10 days old produce the most royal jelly however I think bee population is most important issue, I spray my with sugar water and stimulate them so to speak.Good video Kamon , glad to see queen stuff too
We are season 6 keepers and my Wife and I enjoy your videos and have learnt a lot from you! Keep up the good work (both of you) Thank-you. Martyn & Izzy U.K.
I just got my two mediums set up and introduced the queens today, cant wait to check on them in a few days. So much to learn and your videos and my go to source. Thanks for all of the information and content, its greatly appreciated.
great video, have tried twice this year with no success, want to try again. would love to see how you built the starter/ finisher from the start. the rules you talk about could be invaluable.
Kamon another great video. I was in the one of my hives today and on a few frames they are building mounds of extra deep comb. I’m using 10 frame deeps on foundation with the frames tight together. These mounds face undrawn foundation. First year package installed late April in CT. Thank you for any comment. Ross
Going to give this a shot starting this evening. Getting our Cell Starter set up and over flowing with bees, brood frame, beebread, honey, water, syrup and pollen patties. Need to get some Queens raised ASAP. I will graft about 30 larva either Friday or Saturday. Wish us luck. We will let you know how our process turns out. I did successfully raise queens last year using separate cell starters and finishers. But I feel this will be much easier for us overall, as we are just small scale. Thank you
Great vid thanks .. im in the middle of building queen rearing yard here southeast Michigan. I have 30 mating nucs up and running with 20 more soon to be up and running.. goal was 100 but not happening this year .. ill play with the 50 this year get things fine tuned .. very greatful people are willing to share their methods thanks
3k subs 2 years ago to 34k subs today. Congrats on the growth. So step 1 - pack the hive with nurse bees, bee bread, honey, and larvae. Check a few times to make sure they aren't starting new queen cells and destroy them if they are before adding your graphed cells. Add access to queen candy, ultra bee, and water. Make the nuc feel like food is coming in big time and there's no reason to hold back on the queen cells. 2 days later remove the larvae frame (royal jelly source (add back to another hive)) and add your graphed cells beside a bee bread frame.
Great video on queen rearing. I have tried this and was successful in raising some queens. This is like all things beekeeping; takes time and practice. Every effort is a new learning experience. By the way thanks for bringing up the Summer Dearth, it has started in SC and has my attention this year.
How many queens are you able to successfully raise in the "starter/finisher" hive (4 or 5 frame deep)? And also curious how many do you think is possible to raise in a double 5-frame deep? I do enjoy your videos, thanks for sharing your information
The bigger the starter/finisher the more cells you can raise. I bet you could graft 45 a round in a double nuc no sweat just keep them stocked with capped brood and feed and if they get too strong pull some bees.
Great video! I was looking for affirmation that breeding queens in smaller boxes is not only possible but practical and will produce good queens. Thank you for sharing! I also work my bees without a shirt when it's getting hot! Shorts and sandals too. ;) I swell and itch more from mosquito bites than bee stings these days.
I am pretty pumped, i picked up a couple things today so i can start rearing my own queens next spring. I live in a somewhat remote area and only get mail a few times a week. So its really hard to get queens mailed to me. So i am excited to watch these videos over and over again during the winter so come spring...i might know what i am doing. Except...i told James i needed a big red truck so i could take eggs out of the frames and into the queen cells. I dont think he will get me one.
Hi Kamon, we are in eastern KY near Hazard. This is the first I have heard to add royal jelly to queen cup, do you find that it helps. Can we use our Chinese grafting tool to put the royal jelly in the cup. And do you use the starter/finisher method with your large production methods. Keep the great videos coming, thanks from Lost Creek KY.
You can dry graft without royal jelly priming and I don't see huge differences between the two. But it does make it easier to drop the larvae especially when you are new.
Question: When you are "making queens" in the Nuc box, the old queen (in this case a proven 3 year old queen) is NOT PRESENT, correct? The Nuc is queenless?
When grafting like you said you don’t get every cell to be a queen. How many larva should I graft for every queen I want to make? What side of a German grafting tool should I use when grafting? Thanks Kamon I have watched this video three times and I am about to do my firs grafting this. I would have already but I in Maine.
Enjoy your video's Kamon. Quick question on queen rearing though. For those of us that do not have big bee yards how do we avoid africanization when our queen mates with local drones? Should we avoid raising queens unless we know that local drones do not come from africanized colonies? Thanks for any suggestions.
Hey Barry hope things are going well for you. I wish I could give you an answer but I don't have any experience with africanized bees and I know just enough to be dangerous giving advice. My thoughts are if the concentration is high enough perhaps you could get away with it for the majority and expect a few hot queens from time to time BUttttttttt I don't know. If I come across any info relevant to your situation I will try to get it to you
Kamon my memory is not what it used to be so bare with me. The is a foggy recollection to not feed powdered sugar to honeybees. I am intrigued with your mention of feeding the powdered sugar mixture in the starter hive. Is this still your method of feeding the starter hive? Thanks for all you are doing for the beekeepers. Philip Rehm from Arkansas.
Thank you PhiIip! I prefer 1:1 syrup but you can feed queen candy (which has powdered sugar and honey) if you want. The cornstarch is bad in winter but when they can get a cleansing flight it works good. Most of the time I just feed syrup.
One other question when you pull bee bread from a hive to put in the freezer. How long can you store it in the freezer before using it in a queen rearing box ?? Thanks
You said to make sure to feed the bees before you put in the grafting frame but do you still feed after you put in the grafting frame . ( pollen patties, syrup, etc. ??
My queen left and took majority of my hive in one of my boxes. New queen hatched and hive started rebuilding the past few weeks. Now I cannot find the new queen but I do have some larva being layed(not much). What is your suggestion to getting this hive healthy again? I have 4 other healthy hives available to pull from. This is my 1st yr so I am very new to this all.
@@kamonreynolds That's for sure. I bought a New River Bee OSDA VSH queen with shipment in June. Hoping she makes it through winter for next year grafting.
If i had 10 frame box say 8 frames of brood .. would i be better off removing some brood frames shaking the bees back in box .. or shaking in nurse bees from different colony... just had buckfast colony go queenless for whatever reason plan on using them .. its a double deep setup for black locast flow ..
It could work just make sure you have crazy nurse bee density older foragers wont count and if their is not enough feed or forage they will just use up resources
Kamon, how do we know when dearth has started? Here in Rutherford Co, it seems like the only things blooming are queen anne's lace and buttercups, with a little clover and aster finishing up.
I will address the dearth in the next video or 2 it is starting to hit here. Not full on dearth but things are quickly slowing down and robbing will start if honey or sugar syrup is spilt
Excellent video, Kamon. Two questions - 1) Is the entry to your starter open or closed? 2) Since you're using bee candy to supplement (and not sugar syrup), should water be made available to the starter population? Thanks for the advice!
Is there a max number of queens you can raise in a 5 frame nuc at a time as opposed to using an 8 framer ? Obviously it would take more resources to pack out an 8 framer. That pollen sub you fed, is that purely a bought product or have you combined it with other ingredients to make that paste like substance, or is that like a pollen patty.
After 8 years this is the year that I’m committed to making my own queens. My question is: as far as I can determine there are no colonies within miles of my lil apiary. Since I’ve read that queens won’t mate with drones from their hive how will my virgins mate? And if the drones from my various other hives all go to the same DCA how would the queen determine which were drones from her hive vs drone from the adjacent hives?
I caught this video late, if just starting out. You don't have any frames with bee bread on them could you take a frame an add some pollen sub to it an use it instead of the bee bread it self? an thanks again great videos!!!!
Hey Jason, ideally find a frame from a big have that has some beebread if possible but yes if you continually feed sub without breaks it will work just fine. Though I prefer having both!
Kamon, I’m taking the leap for the 1st time making my own queens to save money, did 4 walk away splits in February, 3 came back mated and doing well. I’m going to attempt Grafting, any suggestions in what I can do to see larvae better? Can I carefully move back some comb to expose larvae better? Do I shake 4 frames of nurse bees plus ad 4 brood frames? Or just shake and give them resources? I tried grafting few weeks ago but struggled seeing down into her holes. Thank You
Ok I’ve been watching y’all raise queen bees. I would like to raise some queens like you’ve been showing on UA-cam, but I DON’T have any drone bees. Should I still try to raise the queens without any drones?
Apivar is an easy chemical route. Apiguard and formic acid work but both will kill brood if the temps are too hot. Apiguard is easier on them in my experience. Apiguard recommends 2 dose 10 days aparts of 50 grams of their thymol product. I find using 3 rounds of 30 odd grams a week apart works better. Oxalic acid Dribble and vapor both work but vapor is pretty weak during brooding seasons. Dribble is a pain and can damage brood. Staying on top of the mites is fundamental. I use multiple treatments a year of apiguard, and oxalic acid.
Check out the Mighty Mite Killer. It uses heat to kill mites, even under capped brood. No chemicals. This is my 2nd season using it and it works GREAT! 3 hours for setup and treatment isn't practical for large volumes of hives but is PERFECT for the hobbyist
What was that about sprinklers? I have sprinklers and use them 3 times a week in my yard with my bees. I enjoy your videos. They are informational! It’s like reading the Better Queens book but with real visuals. Thank you!
It was a test done in germany and when they sprinkled the hive with water the bees started feeding less protein to the larvae since they were not foraging pollen. That is why we want to feed our queen rearing colonies so that they never slow down and our queens get feed copiously
Hi Kamon, Is the nuc starter/finisher good for several graft cycles or is it best to start over each time? Hope your season is going well. Cheers, Barry
Thank you, i wondered what royal jelly might taste like and if it was possibly poisonous for humans. Anything that taste awful is usually good for you.
Nurse bees are freshly hatched young small bees and are mostly found around brood. Being a nurse bee is one of the first jobs a bee will do after hatching and a nurse bee has not been outside of the hive yet. A forager bee that brings nectar, pollen and other stuff into the hive is a old bee and toward the end of the life cycle
"Amazing! I watched the part at [06:36] and couldn't take my eyes off it! Thank you for sharing such valuable information!"
I'm loving your work. Thank you very much 😊
Thank you for this video! Tried it. Fantastic!! Also, it’s good to know that shaking bees at the entrance works! Great tips!
Glad it was helpful!
Spring can’t come fast enough to start this. Enjoy your videos
I know I can’t wait for bee season to start agian
Kamon, I have always been a hobbyist beekeeper 30+ years. Have never successfully made nice queens unless I found a big queen cell in another hive....I look forward to seeing your series on queens!!!! I have usually resorted to buying queens from someone else, which is not always a pleasure in the end result. Thanks so much young man....Rick in Pa.
Thanks Kamon. This is a great series.
Wow you thought you were busy in the Bee yard, look at all the comments. Thanks for sharing the videos and answering peoples questions.
Hi We are enjoying your videos so very much! They are packed with information. We went into winter with 30 hives, lost 4, just split 5 and caught 2 swarms from one in our bee yard we knew was going to swarm no matter what. So now we are up to 33! When, what a journey! We attribute our winter success with our nucs from last year. We purchased them from an Apiary who is into getting and raising queens specifically bred for cold weather and resistant to mites. As soon as we opened the nucs, we knew these bees were different. We are working toward to raising our own queens and are gathering information from beekeepers of which you are at the top of the list! We belong to a commercial bee club here, who because of their size well over 1K members) and hives (100+ each beekeeper) not to mention political connections is on top of most things in our state. Such as mite spraying from those planes way up you can barely see, stuff like hat. Living in a large rural farming community we are somewhat protected from that stuff, not to mention rather large beekeepers in our area. Yet and still, wee are aiming for 50 hives for our foundation. Like many others in the north, we never know what the winter will bring so over the years we all develop ways to protect our bees and sooner or later we find what we believe to be the perfect combination of packed food storage, protection etc. Wanted to share a bit about us and to let you know how much you are helping beekeepers out here!
Sounds great! We wish you all nothing but the best and hope our videos help!
If I could like this more than once I would, thanks for all of your awesome videos.
As a new Beekeeper I'm delighted to learn all I can! Thanks a bunch!
Thanks for Watching Faye! Hope they help!
I actually tried the same methods but with a 7 frame nuc, from 45 they build 40 cells, full of royal jelly.
Thank you Kamon for the great videos!
Can I put another 30 cells on the same hive or maybe its to much ?
I really don't need to subscribe to another channel, but your calm and reasonable explanations and the great videography makes me want to see them all. So here I am...
Thanks Jeff welcome aboard!
Kamon, thanks for keeping it real. Looking forward to the next video. JWP.
Great Great channel men keep up the good work
I really like your methods of teaching, very easy to understand. Thanks.
Great video, Kamon. Thank you for posting.
Great video Kamon. Looking forward to the rest of the series.
Thank you Camon for your videos. They are very educational.
thanks for all the education. always great videos.
Thanks Jeff
She looked good, good idea on the bee bread I'm glad you mentioned that, I had been thinking of doing that early spring but had since forgotten, I seen where nurse be 8 to 10 days old produce the most royal jelly however I think bee population is most important issue, I spray my with sugar water and stimulate them so to speak.Good video Kamon , glad to see queen stuff too
Great video's Kamon. Appreciate all your advice. Keep up the good work. 👍😀
Great video , Thanks for your hard work
Thanks for another great video.
Thanks again for another great video Sir! I appreciate your knowledge and sharing with the rest of us.
Enjoying the videos.
Keep up the good work
Mark from St.helena lsland lam learn so much from you.keep up the teacher, l learn more from you.
We are season 6 keepers and my Wife and I enjoy your videos and have learnt a lot from you! Keep up the good work (both of you) Thank-you. Martyn & Izzy U.K.
This looks like it’s going to be a fantastic series my friend. Thanks for sharing.
I just got my two mediums set up and introduced the queens today, cant wait to check on them in a few days. So much to learn and your videos and my go to source. Thanks for all of the information and content, its greatly appreciated.
Thank you Kamon and Laurel. I learn so much.
Great video Thanks for the info..👊from Tuscaloosa, AL
I like dees bees videos i learns uha lots watching you there's no bees hear anymore .id like to brings them backs. Thanks for the video.
Wow you do such a great job explaining things! Thank you so much!🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝
Great content. Thanks Thumbs up from SE Kentucky 👍
Great start on this subject. Thanks for all you do!!
Congratulations on your viewership increase. Your doing a great job teaching and sharing your beekeeping experience.
Looking forward to seeing all these videos! So well done!!! Thank you!
great video, have tried twice this year with no success, want to try again. would love to see how you built the starter/ finisher from the start. the rules you talk about could be invaluable.
Kamon another great video. I was in the one of my hives today and on a few frames they are building mounds of extra deep comb. I’m using 10 frame deeps on foundation with the frames tight together. These mounds face undrawn foundation. First year package installed late April in CT. Thank you for any comment. Ross
It does happen to me as well. I try to do what I can to prevent it. I will try to do a video on that soon!
Going to give this a shot starting this evening. Getting our Cell Starter set up and over flowing with bees, brood frame, beebread, honey, water, syrup and pollen patties. Need to get some Queens raised ASAP. I will graft about 30 larva either Friday or Saturday. Wish us luck. We will let you know how our process turns out. I did successfully raise queens last year using separate cell starters and finishers. But I feel this will be much easier for us overall, as we are just small scale. Thank you
I laughed so hard when you said "ask me how I know". I can feel the pain you've had before hahaha!
Great videos. Thanks.
Great vid thanks .. im in the middle of building queen rearing yard here southeast Michigan. I have 30 mating nucs up and running with 20 more soon to be up and running.. goal was 100 but not happening this year .. ill play with the 50 this year get things fine tuned .. very greatful people are willing to share their methods thanks
Sounds great! good luck on your queen rearing!
One word kamon.Outstanding.this is important info for the newbies.Keep up the great work.🐝safe and keep your smoker lit.
Konrad
3k subs 2 years ago to 34k subs today. Congrats on the growth. So step 1 - pack the hive with nurse bees, bee bread, honey, and larvae. Check a few times to make sure they aren't starting new queen cells and destroy them if they are before adding your graphed cells. Add access to queen candy, ultra bee, and water. Make the nuc feel like food is coming in big time and there's no reason to hold back on the queen cells. 2 days later remove the larvae frame (royal jelly source (add back to another hive)) and add your graphed cells beside a bee bread frame.
If you add the royal jelly, Can the larvae drown if you put them in the cell wrong? I did taste it and your right. Thanks for the great Videos.
Drop them down in and the nurse bees will take care of the larvae. They make it easy!
I always want to get in to beekeeping i like your shows
Love your show
Thanks so much Tod!
Great work keep the vids coming.
wohoo free stuff ! Awesome Kamon ---- I could use a smoker that has cold heat lol !!!!
You and me both! Stingless bee would be even better!
Nice work and good video
New subscriber! This video is very informative. Looking forward to watching many more. Thank you.
Great video on queen rearing. I have tried this and was successful in raising some queens. This is like all things beekeeping; takes time and practice. Every effort is a new learning experience. By the way thanks for bringing up the Summer Dearth, it has started in SC and has my attention this year.
Well done ! thank u for this nice video
How many queens are you able to successfully raise in the "starter/finisher" hive (4 or 5 frame deep)? And also curious how many do you think is possible to raise in a double 5-frame deep? I do enjoy your videos, thanks for sharing your information
The bigger the starter/finisher the more cells you can raise. I bet you could graft 45 a round in a double nuc no sweat just keep them stocked with capped brood and feed and if they get too strong pull some bees.
I dilute royal jelly with distilled water. It goes farther. Works well.
Great video
Great video! I was looking for affirmation that breeding queens in smaller boxes is not only possible but practical and will produce good queens. Thank you for sharing! I also work my bees without a shirt when it's getting hot! Shorts and sandals too. ;) I swell and itch more from mosquito bites than bee stings these days.
Honey hobbits! I love that name!
Aw, thank you, Kamon!
Thank you for good video,
I need to start beekeeping process, my simple question is What do you put in this smoke bottle??
I am pretty pumped, i picked up a couple things today so i can start rearing my own queens next spring. I live in a somewhat remote area and only get mail a few times a week. So its really hard to get queens mailed to me. So i am excited to watch these videos over and over again during the winter so come spring...i might know what i am doing. Except...i told James i needed a big red truck so i could take eggs out of the frames and into the queen cells. I dont think he will get me one.
Hi Kamon, we are in eastern KY near Hazard. This is the first I have heard to add royal jelly to queen cup, do you find that it helps. Can we use our Chinese grafting tool to put the royal jelly in the cup. And do you use the starter/finisher method with your large production methods. Keep the great videos coming, thanks from Lost Creek KY.
Called priming the cell
You can dry graft without royal jelly priming and I don't see huge differences between the two. But it does make it easier to drop the larvae especially when you are new.
Yes, I use the starter and finishers on my large ones. However, I am dabbling with large all in one hive starter/finisher
Thanks from Marengo, WI.
Outstanding!
Question: When you are "making queens" in the Nuc box, the old queen (in this case a proven 3 year old queen) is NOT PRESENT, correct? The Nuc is queenless?
Correct this colony is queenless
Nice video...Thanks Kamon!!
Well done! Thank you for this nice video. I'm following you
When grafting like you said you don’t get every cell to be a queen. How many larva should I graft for every queen I want to make? What side of a German grafting tool should I use when grafting? Thanks Kamon I have watched this video three times and I am about to do my firs grafting this. I would have already but I in Maine.
Great job.
Enjoy your video's Kamon. Quick question on queen rearing though. For those of us that do not have big bee yards how do we avoid africanization when our queen mates with local drones? Should we avoid raising queens unless we know that local drones do not come from africanized colonies?
Thanks for any suggestions.
Hey Barry hope things are going well for you. I wish I could give you an answer but I don't have any experience with africanized bees and I know just enough to be dangerous giving advice. My thoughts are if the concentration is high enough perhaps you could get away with it for the majority and expect a few hot queens from time to time BUttttttttt I don't know. If I come across any info relevant to your situation I will try to get it to you
Kamon my memory is not what it used to be so bare with me. The is a foggy recollection to not feed powdered sugar to honeybees. I am intrigued with your mention of feeding the powdered sugar mixture in the starter hive. Is this still your method of feeding the starter hive?
Thanks for all you are doing for the beekeepers.
Philip Rehm from Arkansas.
Thank you PhiIip! I prefer 1:1 syrup but you can feed queen candy (which has powdered sugar and honey) if you want. The cornstarch is bad in winter but when they can get a cleansing flight it works good. Most of the time I just feed syrup.
@@kamonreynolds Thank you much for your reponse!
very nicely explained , want to hear more from you.
One other question when you pull bee bread from a hive to put in the freezer. How long can you store it in the freezer before using it in a queen rearing box ?? Thanks
You said to make sure to feed the bees before you put in the grafting frame but do you still feed after you put in the grafting frame . ( pollen patties, syrup, etc. ??
Thanks for the info
My queen left and took majority of my hive in one of my boxes. New queen hatched and hive started rebuilding the past few weeks. Now I cannot find the new queen but I do have some larva being layed(not much). What is your suggestion to getting this hive healthy again? I have 4 other healthy hives available to pull from. This is my 1st yr so I am very new to this all.
Great video again. Another giveaway. Awesome. Plan on graphing next year.
Awesome Mack you're going to like it!
@@kamonreynolds That's for sure. I bought a New River Bee OSDA VSH queen with shipment in June. Hoping she makes it through winter for next year grafting.
Kamon if I freeze bee bread for grafting how long should I let it throw before I put in a starter hive . Thanks
If i had 10 frame box say 8 frames of brood .. would i be better off removing some brood frames shaking the bees back in box .. or shaking in nurse bees from different colony... just had buckfast colony go queenless for whatever reason plan on using them .. its a double deep setup for black locast flow ..
It could work just make sure you have crazy nurse bee density older foragers wont count and if their is not enough feed or forage they will just use up resources
You the bee legend
Kamon, how do we know when dearth has started? Here in Rutherford Co, it seems like the only things blooming are queen anne's lace and buttercups, with a little clover and aster finishing up.
I will address the dearth in the next video or 2 it is starting to hit here. Not full on dearth but things are quickly slowing down and robbing will start if honey or sugar syrup is spilt
Excellent video, Kamon. Two questions - 1) Is the entry to your starter open or closed? 2) Since you're using bee candy to supplement (and not sugar syrup), should water be made available to the starter population? Thanks for the advice!
Thanks Kamon, quick question what was the feeding mixture at the end of the video ?
What temps are those cardboard Nuc boxes good for? Thanks
Is there a max number of queens you can raise in a 5 frame nuc at a time as opposed to using an 8 framer ? Obviously it would take more resources to pack out an 8 framer.
That pollen sub you fed, is that purely a bought product or have you combined it with other ingredients to make that paste like substance, or is that like a pollen patty.
Great videos
Bee Bread Bro. :) lots of good stuff in a small space. Thanks. :)
Great video. Loved the ending "let's cut this video. Thanks for w"
Haha yes my wife was like "Well you said to cut it!" One of these days she is going to do a video!
What are the characteristics of bee bread as opposed to just pollen. Is it easy to tell the difference?
Pollen is turned into beebread very quickly by the bees so pretty much if it is stored in combs it is considered beebread at that point.
Kamon thanks again great information! have you ever used the Nicot queen rearing system? An if so how did you like or not like it thanks again.
After 8 years this is the year that I’m committed to making my own queens. My question is: as far as I can determine there are no colonies within miles of my lil apiary. Since I’ve read that queens won’t mate with drones from their hive how will my virgins mate? And if the drones from my various other hives all go to the same DCA how would the queen determine which were drones from her hive vs drone from the adjacent hives?
I caught this video late, if just starting out. You don't have any frames with bee bread on them could you take a frame an add some pollen sub to it an use it instead of the bee bread it self? an thanks again great videos!!!!
Hey Jason, ideally find a frame from a big have that has some beebread if possible but yes if you continually feed sub without breaks it will work just fine. Though I prefer having both!
Kamon, I’m taking the leap for the 1st time making my own queens to save money, did 4 walk away splits in February, 3 came back mated and doing well. I’m going to attempt Grafting, any suggestions in what I can do to see larvae better? Can I carefully move back some comb to expose larvae better? Do I shake 4 frames of nurse bees plus ad 4 brood frames? Or just shake and give them resources? I tried grafting few weeks ago but struggled seeing down into her holes. Thank You
Ok I’ve been watching y’all raise queen bees. I would like to raise some queens like you’ve been showing on UA-cam, but I DON’T have any drone bees. Should I still try to raise the queens without any drones?
Yes. There will be some out there. Unless you are raising several dozens or pushing the season (early) or (Late) you should be good
Thank you
Do you lock up the bees in the hive before you add queens cut or larva ?
How can you tell the difference between royal jelly and a small amount of necter/honey.
Very creamy and white. Try a bite it is bitter as heck!
Kamon. What do you suggest for mites for just a few hives.
Apivar is an easy chemical route. Apiguard and formic acid work but both will kill brood if the temps are too hot. Apiguard is easier on them in my experience. Apiguard recommends 2 dose 10 days aparts of 50 grams of their thymol product. I find using 3 rounds of 30 odd grams a week apart works better. Oxalic acid Dribble and vapor both work but vapor is pretty weak during brooding seasons. Dribble is a pain and can damage brood. Staying on top of the mites is fundamental. I use multiple treatments a year of apiguard, and oxalic acid.
Check out the Mighty Mite Killer. It uses heat to kill mites, even under capped brood. No chemicals. This is my 2nd season using it and it works GREAT! 3 hours for setup and treatment isn't practical for large volumes of hives but is PERFECT for the hobbyist
What was that about sprinklers? I have sprinklers and use them 3 times a week in my yard with my bees. I enjoy your videos. They are informational! It’s like reading the Better Queens book but with real visuals. Thank you!
It was a test done in germany and when they sprinkled the hive with water the bees started feeding less protein to the larvae since they were not foraging pollen. That is why we want to feed our queen rearing colonies so that they never slow down and our queens get feed copiously
Kamon Reynolds - Tennessee's Bees That makes sense. I was concerned with night watering the sound would cause the lack of brood. 😅
Hi Kamon,
Is the nuc starter/finisher good for several graft cycles or is it best to start over each time?
Hope your season is going well.
Cheers,
Barry
What would replace the bee bread food if you don’t have access to that with only 3 hives?
Constantly feeding pollen patties is the only thing that works for me.
Thank you, i wondered what royal jelly might taste like and if it was possibly poisonous for humans. Anything that taste awful is usually good for you.
How can you tell the difference between a nurse bee and worker bee?
Nurse bees are freshly hatched young small bees and are mostly found around brood. Being a nurse bee is one of the first jobs a bee will do after hatching and a nurse bee has not been outside of the hive yet. A forager bee that brings nectar, pollen and other stuff into the hive is a old bee and toward the end of the life cycle
good info, thanks