Building a Bee Business [Vlog #4]
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- Опубліковано 2 бер 2023
- In this video I talk about different Queen Management systems, critical to an operation.
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That was such a cutie of a little girl with a good strong outlook on learning things, don't let these times pass you by. My daughters, all in their 30's now, say they enjoyed their childhood. I was so busy I don't remember most of it and yours is about to become even more busy. You have a sound outlook and if I had to bet on it, I would bet on you. Always keep your family life grounded, thanks for being who you are.
Thanks Tommy, that’s high praise.
Daddy daughter time /Snuggle time is very important. God new she needed it so make sure she gets it when she is not sick. Got it!
Way to be Dad at the same time when working. Good on you Nathan.
Thanks Rod!
As Always another Awesome VID,,, cute Daughter and Ferbaby
Thanks Harold!
Just watched Nuke Battery I went to the presentation but couldn’t hear it too good. Glad I got those videos. Thanks for the update
Thanks Dave!
I love how you do your research, you seem to know which direction to go in, puts you two steps ahead! Love the videos keep them coming.
I appreciate it John, I like to learn.
Enjoy your video's and your views on bee keeping I'm watching them All 😊 Thanks
Thanks Brian!
Appreciate your vlog updates. Pop Pop's flipper was a good finish.
Thanks!
Definitely giving a lot of incite . Enjoying the videos
Thanks!
We're in the same boat: I've been modeling my beekeeping after Ian's methods. Also being in Canada makes his way of beekeeping very compatible with my region, made a few adjustments for my region and it's looking very good so far
Awesome!
Love watching you southern folks with your bees while here in the Finger Lakes of Upstate NY waiting for the snow and ice to melt. Thanks for sharing some of your management philosophy. It's helping g me get better focused on my operation.
Thanks Tom!
Like the direction your taking. I agree it just plug and play with nucs. Combine and acceptance just happens. It good to have such good help around. She will look fondly on these days with dad. Thanks for the video. Take care.
Thanks! She’s my little buddy. Total Daddy’s Girl
Appreciate your experiances here, thank you!
Thanks Robin!
Nathan, this series is amazing! Thank you for your time!
Thanks Adrian!
Nathan I run all 8-frame mediums have done so since my second year (of 10) because I hated not having what I needed when I needed it! What I like most about it is the lighter weight of the boxes and ease of ordering equipment... its standard across the board and I never have to worry about needing a certain sized frame or box or not having it in stock and on hand. Also creates a niche for medium nuc sales. But when I'm making up queen mating nucs... I do use deep deep queen castles or deep three frame queen mating nuc boxes (special made) so that queen cells don't get smashed in a medium if hanging off the bottom of a frame. Three-framers use up less resources and still get the job done. This also give the mating nucs some lower space if they get too cramped. If a three-framer queen nuc fails to get a successful mating its no problem to merge it with one that did and shift them then to an 8-frame box or into a 5x5 medium nuc configuration for growing on. I do overwinter 5x5x5 medium nucs successfully with outer foam board boxes (Pennsylvania). So if you have any questions let me know - be happy to add my 2 cents.
Thanks Nancy!
Please keep the vlogs going. I really appreciate it.
Thanks Robert. To be honest I debated not putting one out this week since I didn’t have time to get much done. Hearing feedback like this makes me think I can lean on QA’s a little harder in the future.
I agree 100% I like the nuc battery for plugging holes in colonies. I may not know much, but a🐝has to be a better🐝then me.👍Great vlog, step by step Nathan.
Thanks!
We just passed through a week of a nasty case of flu, too. Be Well and Stay Safe.
Thanks Barry!
One big Thanks Nathan !
Thanks Francisco
If you have the extra Nuc boxes,,, removing a 1 year old queen, why not use her to just drawn comb.
I've been doing about the same. Try to keep about 1/3 nucs for filling in deadouts and weak hives, though just a 50 hive sideliner. Nucs are the most valuable asset to fix almost any issue.
Agreed 100%
Hey Nathan, another good video. There's a lot of perspectives on when to requeen and how, I enjoyed hearing the reason you chose yours. Years ago I started beekeeping with all medium boxes and have since switched to deep broods with medium supers, and have second guessed my decision ever since. My main reason for switching is long and drawn out so I won't go there, but the only 2 advantages I have found is, if selling nucs, deeps are more the industry standard and there is a slight cost savings in woodenware. Personally, I think having uniform size between broods and supers is definitely worth taking into consideration, no matter what size anyone chooses. But after lifting that 1st deep full of honey, I started second guessing my decision making paradigm and my desire to sell nucs.
Very good points Mike! Save for QA
I agree with Tommy Chew, enjoy while you can. Time spent with family is valuable.
Question - Many commercial beekeepers run a single deep for their brood chamber. Would you advice using two medium 8 frame boxes as you brood chamber and produce honey above them? If so, then would you use a 3rd box put on in the fall for the winter configuration? This would force you to feed some in the fall so that you have at least 2 mediums full of winter stores. Hope to see or hear how you will handle your hives this summer. Have a great weekend - by the way the lemon creamed honey got top honors in its class also. I got lucky.
Thanks Russell! I have run double mediums with current year queens with an excluder on top and gotten two supers drawn out on them. It works. With an older queen I think you’d better put drawn comb on them. I’ll talk about this, save for QA
Here in Pennsylvania I run 3 medium 8-frame boxes as my brood chamber and overwinter in this configuration as well. For overwintering I need the top two boxes to be full of honey.
No luck, you make darn great creamed honey!
Great series, Nathan. I would like to go to all mediums, but I have too much invested in my deeps. I could cut the boxes down, but not the frames.
You get married to equipment. Changing is hard once you have drawn comb.
Nathan your content has taken a giant leap forward and it was nice adding a little bit of your daughter and pupper, nice touch! All mediums here about 50 coming out of winter. I am adding deeps this year but only in nuc format with a medium as the base. Winter in double nucs like Palmer with a 4 frame medium as the base and a 5 frame deep 2nd story for nuc sales in the Spring. I am intending to further add brood factories like Palmer to create brood to make nucs for the "nuc battery" and also replacements in order to not steal from productioon colonies. There isn't a lot of content on YT with folks running mediums. Look forward to watching you more in the future. Question for you? What do you think about using 2 mediums as the brood chamber similar to single deep brood management throughout the Summer and supering above that for honey? Depending on the climate it isn't much different than a single deep. I can winter single mediums here in central PA as of late with our milder winters. I know with a single deep you don't have the transition between boxes which may be of benefit to the cluster? Thoughts?
Thanks! I think double medium with an excluder makes sense for honey production. After honey pull you can add a box of foundation and feed hard to get them draw out a super of winter feed. Breaking the cluster between boxes….I’m in TN so it doesn’t matter to me. For someone up north it might.
Thanks for the info, I really appreciate the time and effort that you put into your vlog. I have been running all medium hives for 3 years, and love it. For me, standardization has been a great help, and all mediums is much better on my body. In the spring, my bottom box is typically empty, so moving a medium brood nest down is very simple. I too want to create nucs this year for backups, but, do you think using all medium nucs would require either more than 5 frames, or stacked nuc boxes for success?
Thanks! QA
I think that it's easier to run all the same size equipment. Whether it's deep or medium. I run all 10 frame deeps for brood nest and honey supers. Single brood chamber and excluder during the honey flow. They are heavy when pulling honey but I also have a bobcat that does a lot of work once they are stacked on a pallet. All mediums are more equipment to deal with but probably would have saved me from getting a hernia last year.
Sterling, I’m only getting older, so I figured all mediums may help me to future proof. Save for QA
Thanks for everything you do
I hope you will keep us informed on how Cory Stevens bee’s do
Again thank you
Thanks Jeffrey! I’ll be headed out to visit Cory again in a few weeks.
I hope the ubo testing Cory is doing the year works out sounds like it will be a great way to test
If it works as hoped and is affordable it could be a sea change.
I'm in southern Illinois, I found swarm cells in 1 of mine last week
😬 that’s early
Question - what is your strategy for expanding the brood nest this spring? Will you be using the method Greg Rogers describes in the Spring Management video?
Good question. I’ll probably do some brood spreading but not as systematically as Greg does. I’ll use equalizing and splitting more since I need to grow hive numbers.
I understand the use of all mediums. My question is, going thru 3 boxes seems like more work than 2 deeps. I like the idea of everything being interchangeable. Are your nucs mediums also?
Thanks! Save for QA
When you pinch a queen and add the nuc what's the process of that? Same day wait a day or what? Thanks and enjoy the kids why you can. wish mine were young enough for that still :)
Steve I’d find the old queen, kill her, and combine a nuc. Either French with syrup or smoke hard, or newspaper combine….or none of that.
You put up a map of your 3 bee yards and drew overlapping circles which is where your new queens will be put to mate. How big r the circles/how far apart are the bee yards? 100 yards? 1/4 mile? 1/2 mile?
The circles were 1 mile radius. Drones typically fly .25 to .5 miles from hive while virgins fly 1 to 1.5 miles, so this arrangement should give virgins plenty of drones.
Deep nucs are typically 4 or 5 frames. What size are your medium nucs? 4 or 5 frames? 4 over 4? Or a full 10 frame with a feeder to reduce it to 8?
10 frame with double frame feeder and 8 frames. I’ll probably build some divided mating nuc boxes for next year.
Michael Palmer also uses nucs in this manner.
Yes he does, Sustainable Apiary I believe he calls it.
If I had to do it over again I'd do all mediums. I do not replace any deeps and am moving to deep and a medium for all hves. James Fisher has a saying "friends don't let friends do lift deeps".
LOL! 😂
Was the radius on your map that you showed 3 or 5 miles? or something else?
1 mile radius on the yards. Mating yard will be in between.
I’d love to know your opinion about running all mediums and dividing up the brood nest vs. deeps.
Dividing up how?
We call it dead space if it's between two deeps. If it is between two mediums then it's not dead space.. bees will always keep that space "alive".. in between two short boxes.
I would love to keep all medium these days, and just do full box rotations. Instead, i have all deeps and have to move frames around
Save for QA
By dividing up.... I mean when you run 3 mediums vs 2 deeps there are 2 gaps in the brood nest (between boxes) that the queen has to cross to lay. People that are against all mediums say this can cause issues like not laying in all 3 boxes. With 2 deeps theres only one gap to cross and In single deep there's no gap to cross. Is the "brood nest" larger when you use deeps vs mediums because it's not split into 3 sections.
Thanks!
@@honey_bee_live that is complicated. Depends on the queen.. a yung, good one will move everywhere... but its more about the bees. They will keep the brood.. what ever they can cover at that time of year. Those young bees that never went out.. they take care of it, command what goes on in the hive. If they clean and polish comb for brood then the queen will lay.. if she lays more, they will cannibalize what they think is too much to cover or they're able to keep.
These days in Europe we keep restricted nests.. 6 -8 deep frames and the rest is partitions, feeder/dividers... gives a square cluster, every cell is brood (no honey).. those bees are better kept and live longer.. no early swarming. It's a different way, too much to write
All mediums? Price the cost of back surgery, including lost work production during recovery. And lifetime disability. No-brainer! I just went all mediums after the ruptured discs...
Ouch Tony!
Curious, how many years have you been keeping bees?
Year 4 I think
@@DuckRiverHoney That's what I was thinking. Bee careful and don't expand too quickly. You're got a lot of empty frames sitting there that need to be drawn and it takes a lot of honey to make wax.
It’s going to be an ambitious year of hard work. I hope it works out.
@@DuckRiverHoney I hope so, too. Good luck.
4 years? Man you’re doing great, I think I’ve been doing it for 8 and now feel like I’m behind. Lol I just asked Bob Bennie about drawing out all that foundation last week. Nathan, what are your plans to get it drawn out quick?
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