Time to Reverse Boxes? - Beekeeping in Spring
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- Опубліковано 27 лип 2024
- All three hives are taken apart... What will we find? How will this beekeeper react? What will he do next? I make a decision on syrup and whether or not I should reverse my brood boxes. Do you agree???
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Thanks for watching! - Навчання та стиль
If you're wondering about the "New Bees" check out last week's video: ua-cam.com/video/_XtrXYdr1kw/v-deo.html
They are Italians with a VSH queen.
I had a tip from an old beekeeper wondering if the bees are ready to put a deep on the top. Put a piece of newspaper between the deep and the rest of the hive. It wont seem so cavernous, it will insulate it a little more, and if the queen is looking for room the workers can easily chew through the paper.
That is a cool tip!
Just noticed the Vino Farm stitched onto your jacket. AWESOME!
(It's just ironed on. Don't tell anyone.)
I want to do that to replace the logo on mine....
If your still wondering about a dual queen setup for your flowhive, what i have used in the past is... 2 double deeps side by side. Then a super on top with boards on the sides to cover the gaps. So both independant hives share a honey super (use queen excluder under the super)
It never fails to amaze me the volume of resources bees can collect and store.
It is completely amazing. For sure.
Thank you for another great informative video, I have learned so much from your videos. I just installed my first package of bees on 4/22.
That was fascinating! Thank you. 😊
Despite losing Russian Hive Left it looks like the rest of your bees are going great! Hope everything goes well with them this year, and looking forward to seeing the progress.
I'm excited to see how the bees do now that winter is over.
Looking good 😊 ...lots of progress. It should be a good year for ya.
So far so good. I'm very excited for the season.
Excellent video! I'm picking up my first ever two nucs 2nd week of May. Been a bad winter in KY this year. I'm excited to get started. Thank you for the information.
Best of luck with your bees!
Good to see you back at it, keep up the good work
Looking good! :)
Definitely a change from last year. Thanks for all your help and encouragement!
With the Winter we had (that i was sure would never end! LOL), that's nothing short of amazing!! :-)
I agree!
Love your videos, nicely edited and interesting.
Thank you!
looking great Jim! Our Autumn here in Aus is still unseasonably warm. Its meant to be cold with rain and we are still having high 20s low 30s Celceus (68-86F) which is causing a lot of the spring flowering plants to flower before winter. All my summer flowering plants are flowering a second time. It's very strange. Great news on all the hives. Much better standing from last winter I am so excited for you! Can't wait to see this seasons videos. Popcorn is ready and my enthusiasm is building!
Thanks, Casey. It is definitely an exciting time over here. We are months ahead of where we were last season, even after the harsh winter we just came out of. Thanks for watching!
You need to give the new hive a name! Contest idea??? Miss 2018 is my suggestion. Thank you for making another great video.
We already have an idea for this one... My son was tossing around names already. We will have a nuc arriving in about a month and I'm hoping to do splits, so there will be many more hives to name this summer. I like the contest idea, but you just KNOW the winning name will be Hivey McHiveface.
Since they're from Georgia... "Peachy Queen"? :D
You are lucky, you have drones for splits, then again, those drones are southern boys, hmm, still long way ahead.. Looks good..
That queen is a beauty.
These videos are the best.
That's very sweet. (Spread the word!)
Go Bees, Go! Seeing them all over that pollen reminds me of the kids in Willy Wonka, searching for that golden ticket.
They're literally rolling around in it!
curious why you want to move to deeps Jim? i try and run 8 frame mediums everywhere. the main reason is that i only have one type of equipment i can use anywhere as needed. and i can move old comb from the brood up to cycle it out as i'll pull those frames when i harvest honey and melt them down instead of returning the comb. and i also like to work the drone comb up as well since they will readily use larger cells for honey storage. and if for some reason they start back filling the brood area with nectar, i can always just pull that up and back fill with empty drawn comb or better yet empty frames to keep the nurse bess busy and away from thinking of swarming. your management options are much greater when using mediums everywhere...
Charles Ginzel that is what I would do instead, if I were starting today.....
Hi Charles Ginzel! He said in the video that it's because the rest of his hives are deeps so he can just stick to one type of equipment also. :)
true... but i was trying to give him some food for thought about maybe going the other way instead! :)
UGH! Sorry! You didn't hear me say that! Erase it from your memory!!! LOL
Charles, the same would be true if all I had were deeps, though, right? I'm trying to standardize my brood frames and brood boxes for that purpose. I want to be able to swap frames around where needed. And since I'm hoping to do splits and some experiments this year, I had to get nuc boxes and I decided to go with deep nucs. I have way more 8 frame deep equipment than medium equipment. I will still keep medium supers around for honey, but I want to get all my brood into 8 frame deeps. I'm also thinking about trying to overwinter single brood boxes... and that would need to be deeps. I had issues earlier in the year when I had plenty of deep honey frames that would not fit into my medium Balboa hive when they needed the honey. If they had been in deeps, I could have just grabbed a honey frame from the Russians and dropped it into the Balboa hive. It's just the direction I chose. It's definitely about standardization. I just had MORE of the 8Deeps to start with.
Hey Vino,
Just noticed the ears on your frames and I would suggest useing a frame tool that has the same flat bill but a "j" hook rear with a stepped sided on back of the "j". I use two frame tools the one I described above to reach inside the frame ends where my frame foundation corner is and use the frame behind it and that ladder on the back side of the "j" to life my frame and this spares me from destroying my frame ears. Then I use the same tool you use to finish my inspecrions. Keep up the awsome videos brother
Aka Jolly I have one of those j-hooks sitting in a box next to the hives. I stopped using once I discovered the traditional tool and never went back. I need to grab it for stubborn frames. Thanks!
Looking good Vino. I like your thoughts of going to an 8 frame box. (Our) locations, you in New England, me in North Idaho, (growing zone 5/6) the bees never seem to draw out frames 9 & 10. Or use them. I'm switching to 8 frame boxes for my honey yard. I think they'll put up more and utilize more. Also, I'm gonna switch a couple hives to deep honey frames....just to see what happens. Keep up the good work my friend. I can't find ANY Russian queens around here. Can ya raise one and overnight it to me. You take PayPal?😆. Cheers Jim.
Hey there... if I can successfully raise a new queen, I'm keeping her! Maybe someday I'll have extra, but I still have a long way to go to expand the bee yard. I definitely like the 8 frame boxes. Good handling, good for winter, I don't know about supering because I've never really gotten that far yet. I will keep mediums for supers for now, but I want to get my brood on deeps. Thanks for watching!
Go queen Balboa the 2nd!
She's a rockstar like her mother.
Mr. Vino Farm from most of the southern states that I've seen, they do their hive rotation when the days start being warm-ish. I know you live in a more northern state but it would probably be a good idea. It won't hurt them since you're just moving the top box (brood box) to the bottom. :) Side note: Queen Balboa is looking much bigger this year! O.O
Kelly Lea I'm waiting for nights in the 50s or so. If they cluster on their brood with a huge empty box over them, it's going to be very cold on a 30-40°f night. (This is queen Balboa's daughter. Yes she's huge!)
I think you do have a very good point, we are being spoiled here this year with some warm days and well above zero nights for a change so I forgot you're getting our nasty weather right now. I should have said Queen Balboa 2, she needs another name like Queen Boa or something! lol Hoping you and your family are doing well! :)
You could add a deep right now in place of one of your mediums and place the medium frames that are in use into it, then add deep frames a few at a time, between the mediums. This will minimise any misshapen comb built underneath the medium frames. Then later on phase out the medium frames and all you are left with are the deep frames.
I'm probably going to do that this weekend. Thanks!
Warning! The handful of mites is a big deal. The mites numbers increase with brood increases. The fact any made it to be found on the bottom board in spring is a big deal. Spring signs are always an underestimate of the real more load and fall signs are an overestimate (no new brood for the buggers to latch on) congrats on the successful overwinterd hives!
But there were Apivar strips in that hive since October... and I hand't looked at that board since I put the strips in. So those mites could have been from the fall. I'm going to be doing testing this summer. Don't worry.
cool
You could add an 8 frame deep to Balboa with a tiny “cover” to cover the gap... and evolve them to 8 frame....
Niki Canotas That's the plan. Stay tuned. We're supposed to hit 80 next week. Summer is about to rush in.
Looks like Balboa might have some competition with their cousins in the beeyard. We'll see if the Russians get bullied by the Italian mob. Be thankful that you haven't seen any hive beetles.
We never have a hive beetle problem up here. I saw maybe 3 or 4 last summer that came up with the nucs from Missouri, but they never multiplied. I don't think they can handle our winters.
I'd love to buy a jar of your honey if you get enough this year but im from switzerland soo shipping would be really expensive i guess. Great video i love your bee videos im so happy if you upload them (the other ones are nice to) :D
Thanks for watching! I'm not sure when we'll have enough honey to sell, but we will not stop making videos!
Don't mean to be down on you but I thought you might want to know this. You need to remove those Apivar strips after 6 weeks (two brood cycles). So sometime in late Autumn. I use Apivar myself and I know it says so in the instructions. If you don't you'll end up with pesticide residues in your wax and possibly in your honey. Not a good thing I'm sure you'll agree. Just trying to help and wishing you well in your beekeeping.
6:41 Spoilers: 2020 and the 10 frame mediums are still in use 😉
I got all the main hives out of 10 frame boxes in 2019!
Vino; Dear Vino.
What cell size have you in your hives?
Jim, When do you think you should remove the silver boards?
Well, we're supposed to hit 80s next week, so it might be a good time! I don't want to cook the hives.
Bees are so interesting! I just found your site a little bit ago and it is very interesting and informative. What is the difference between Italian Balboa and Russian bees?
Jim, look at the videos from last summer. The Russian Hive is one of two he had with Russian Bees. Hive Balboa has Italian bees which took a beating ( like Rocky ) but survived. This queen is the daughter of the original queen. The videos are great and provide a lot of good lessons.
Bees come in all sorts of breeds. "Italians" are the most common. They are known to be extremely productive and on the gentler side. However, they can be susceptible to several diseases. Russians are known for winter hardiness and an inclination to either remove or destroy varroa mites. People say they are more aggressive, but I have not found that to be true. I would like to try many other types. Here's a good write up: content.ces.ncsu.edu/the-different-types-of-honey-bees
Put another box on the new hive
And put a new box on top of bilboa so they can make new comb
You've got a 2 box Russian colony which is clearly growing, has plenty of stores and all you're giving them is a single frame of drawn comb. Given Russian bees propensities for explosive growth, wouldn't considerably more space be appropriate as early as it is?
I have not seen a propensity for explosive growth in my Russians. In fact, I have found that they slowly fill their space and then just stop and maintain it. After three years, last year was the first time I pulled honey off of them. They had never made any excess honey before.
@vino farm 3 years wow!!!!! I admit they're a little slow to get going, protein sub needs to be on by beginning of March, but by mid May, they usually hit the accelerator through the rest of spring into summer. Hope they get better for you. Out of curiosity how well has the queen(s) been laying?
So maybe time to think about a queen excluder on the Russian hive in hopes of getting a good harvest from it?
Yes, live and learn. I heard that Russians were VERY good at conserving stores and living on less than the Italians. I just had no idea HOW good they were. Last fall, I just wanted everyone filled up to be safe. This year I know they don't need two full deeps.
Roughly how many eggs can a queen bee lay in a week?
Really nice update, do you know where your bees collect water from? Or do you provide water for them?
Also you should try to get some slight motion footage of the bees with the pollen substitute of you can. They pack their legs as they hover above flowers and sometimes you'll see them doing this with substitute too
There is water over the hill behind the bee yard, but I've never actually put water out for them. (Last two summers they were being fed syrup all summer.) I am going to add a watering hole for them very soon. Stay tuned.
They're pretty funny in the pile of pollen substitute. They're rolling around like dogs in the grass.
Remove that lower box and have them in a single story box. They will build up so much faster. They have less house to heat and better chance you don’t get chill brood.
Do you mean the Russians on the right?
Vino Farm yes and the Italians too. Looked like the Italian where not laying in the bottom box too. You need to help the bees out with less house to heat. When that can warm the house better the queen will lay more and build the hive up faster. Great job putting the pollen out for them. I would put a syrup feeder out too. I agree to not put the feeder in the hive tops with it still getting cold at night. It will cause moisture problems. I enjoy your videos and keep up the great work! Oh a wait on the 2nd box until all frames are drawn out and bees are on 70% of the frames.
i am wondering... in the balboa hive..if the bottom box is empty and you had three boxes total... shouldnt you look for the queen... see if she is laying in the top box and switch this to the bottom box... this is what i have done... keeping the queen and brood in the bottom and the stores above.... just a thought....
This was the whole point of the video... I explained why I didn't do that. It's too cold at the moment for a reverse. I will do it this weekend since the weather is warming up.
what's the white stuff on top of the frames? fondant?
Yes, it was fondant that hardened up and turned into candy. I took it off the established hives, but left some on the new package hive because they don't have a ton of honey and there's no nectar yet. It's been too cold for syrup, but I'll be putting that on this weekend.
What kind of bees did you get this time?
Italians. VSH queen.
So, are we going to call the new bees “the Georgians “?
I think we might have a name already... but I'll need a bunch of new names this summer if my splits are successful.
I'm curious, how do you prevent crushing bees when you place the lid and other things down?
Use smoke, move slowly, check to see if there's anyone in the way, just be careful. Unfortunately, sometimes bees get crushed.
Where is the bees' watering hole?
awe man... don't go calling it the s word or it will go straight back into next winter dangit!
What video editing software do you use?
60 Acres of Whatever Final Cut Pro.
What pollen is that your using?
It's on the video... Ultra bee pollen substitute www.mannlakeltd.com/shop-all-categories/ultra-bee/ultra-bee-dry-10-lb-pail-4-54-kg
i think you should able to use your flow frames this year
I definitely COULD... but I'm leaning toward aggressively splitting and trying to build the bee yard this summer. I do want to use the Flow hive, but it's not going anywhere and can wait another season. I'd rather focus on the bees this year and see what happens. I really want to expand the apiary and learn about raising bees.
Vino Farm maybe try a cutdown split with your Balboa hive. That way you can get use out of your Flow frames and get a split from it.
Cutdown splits help a booming hive produce more honey, while requeening and causing a break in brood cycle for Varroa control. Take mostly open brood, honey, and pollen frames and move to new hive with old queen. Leave capped brood and a frame with eggs in original hive with no queen. Original hive will focus most of the force on foraging while making a new queen with limited brood. Having limited brood frees up more workers to forage.
What kind of bees did you get?
Italians.
Where did yo purchase your entrance hardware?
kennapop3 link in description.
Thanks 2 purchased.
Maybe you should consider Having all your hives in medium boxes! On this seminar >> ua-cam.com/video/-rwDPXJdJG8/v-deo.html Michael Bush explains why having his whole yard in medium frames makes his job a lot easier! You know best what to do with your bees! But I just thought I would mention his practices since they seem very reasonable!
I'm converting that hive's brood boxes to deeps with the same rationale as Bush's "all mediums" concept. I just chose to go with deeps across the board. Same idea... make everything interchangeable. He likes mediums because they're lighter. I can handle 8 frame deeps. (Maybe not 10 frame deeps.) I have more 8 frame deep equipment than medium equipment. I just want to make all the brood frames deeps. It's also because I plan on splits and some other experiments and I have deep nuc boxes. Thanks for writing.
Wow! Thank you so much for the quick reply! It does make a lot of sense to stick with deeps since you own more equipment for them. Keep up the great work! I love watching your videos!
I recomend just stay them 2 weeks, not one of them ar strong! After emerging brood... Why you feed this rock sugar! Take it off and make sugar sirup 1/1. It will be extra whater for brood. It is not recomend stay treatment strips in winter, you'r breeding resistent mites.
Janis T He couldn't use syrup over the winter bc it gets to cold and would freeze. That isn't rock sugar, it's fondant plus bees all have plenty of honey.
Think that you can stop with candy... They are packed with candy honey.
Simone Fabris Never heard of candy honey.
I'm not adding anything new. The only fondant is on the brand new package since they are not "packed" with honey.
Love you videos but isn't it "cheating" to feed them so much? Syrup, Fondin, Pollen. A little bit to help a weak hive or over winter seems reasonable. But leaving out a pile of pollen and constantly restocking it seems like a little much.
When the bees are flying and there are still weeks before flowers come in, you need to offer them food for brood. If they don't need it they won't take it. They took all the pollen I put out for about 3 days and then STOPPED taking it. So I stopped offering it. Nothing worse than nursing bees through winter and then watching them starve 2 weeks before spring hits.
Why do you want to reverse boxes so soon??
jonas lukša I don't want to do it too soon. I want to do it at the proper time. This video is about my decision not to do it.
In my location we reversing boxes when queen starting to lay eggs in bottom box.
The queens move DOWN to lay in the bottom? I thought they wouldn't do that... and that's why you reverse boxes. I thought they always want to move UP.
Vino Farm if they are not mowing dawn, it mean that it is to early! Dont forget that bee develop from egg 21 day, after week your collonies could not be strong.
Pacage quality... So, šo... If they sell with drones. So expencive, but they don't use queen excluder to divide drones! Fake sellers!
Wrong ...lighting it's not so I suffer without food and sky shows you the line when summer start the heavy lighting arrive in Europe to France what you never see before. Many humans dies for purpose of your greed
I'm going to need to buy a vowel.
🙋