I've put pencil to paper, I can get Acorn plastic frames for a few dollars cheaper than buying wooden frames and then the foundations to load them, and that's not even counting time and labor to assemble wooden frames. Thanks for the thoughts, insights, and ideas. Keep it up, we're cheering for ya!
"It's going to be a chore" LOL. Farm lingo. Building up the operation takes a lot of work but once you get that done it will be smoother sailing. Time, effort and blessings will get u where u want to go. Thanks Nathan for the update.
Nathan, I hardly ever comment on youtube videos, but I just wanted to let you know how amazingly helpful this whole video series has been for me these last two bee seasons. I'm a good bit behind you in building out my own bee business over in Belvidere, TN, but to have someone from my area putting out high quality content for everything I'm going through and trying to do has truly been a blessing.
agree, already thinking about what how to make next year better. Less distractions is my first item for next year, I have too many irons in the fire, got to unload some none bee time to make more bee time.
Super great video. Please include more on business. I started my journey this year . I'm a lifelong businessman. I'm on my way to 100 hives next year. Be blessed.
love your videos! I've watched them all but haven't commented. this year I had a few of those acorn plastic heavy wax. it was amazing how fast the bees drew them out. I have plastic frames from mann lake, they don't fit in y extractor very well. next year I'm going to moce all the plastic frames to the brood nest area to avoid putting them in the extractor. get ready to smash hive beetles in the frame side groove gaps!
I am on the same track as far as starting a different label for packing honey. I can currently bottle, case and load a drum in 2 hours. I need to get that down that time down by about 30 minutes. Great videos keep up the good work!
Will be interesting to see your growth over the winter. Been working on moving my bees into their final stage for overwintering. Most have good food stores and been pulling saved honey from the freezer to pack them tighter - a few others are being fed and may get prosweet towards the end when I get fed up and tired of purchasing and mixing 2:1 syrup. Later season 5x5x5 nucs need feeding but trying to get some of them built up a little more in population - can do some capped brood shifting there to slow down the bigger nucs and boost the smaller slightly. All in all nucs and production hives looking pretty good. State inspector coming this week - lol he will be doing some heavy super lifting to find brood in the bottom box! We'll see just how many hives he wants to check (aka lift). Glad your getting some Fall honey.
My girls like sticker bushes, that's a good thing because I am a great sticker bush farmer.😁 Oh there I saw it, on the back of her. Isn't that an indicator of a possible higher mite load? Aren't they mostly on the undersides of the bees? Tape a very useful beekeeper tool.😂It's good to spend time with the family decompressing, Blessed Days Nathan...
I can relate to the jumper cables to run the feed pump. Done that several times because of either a dead battery or forgetting the battery all together.
There will be some supersedure and a lot of swarming attempts next year. I change most of mine every year, but when I end up in a spring like you will i start queen production as soon as its possible. To give you the timing.. i usually have all new queens in production hives before black locust and nucks made with the old ones.. and the old ones usually make a 5 frame box of honey above the nuck. Than you can do some selecting, change the queens and sell the nucks. I think buy watching Kamon and you all these years your spring is almost the same as mine most years. I wish I could sell the amount of nucks you can.. the only chance to sell something here is before locust flow. After it it gets warm on land and they all make their own queens
@@DuckRiverHoney it's easier in spring. If she's not laying on a new one there's a big chance you'll find her on the one with the youngest larva. I got used to it.. when you do it a lot your eyes kinda see the difference in movement or the bees around her. It's just practice. And mine are all dark like the bees. Ofcourse it would be best to mark her when you see... make a gadget to throw on her on the comb, mark and let her go. Something elastic. I had a plastic ring with a soft net glued on but I don't use it anymore. Here, if I manage to change them before locust I don't have to worry about swarming. And the old ones in nucks can produce you a lot of frames in (for you) triple box configuration. If you keep giving them empties for brood under excluder and frames to draw above you can pull out a lot of frames of brood and new ones from above excluders. I produce most of my frames in double deep nucks. In EU we never give frames to draw in the brood box of production hives.. maybe 1-2 above excluders in a strong flow. A long comment again 😁
Congratulations Nathan for a successful year - you've accomplished a lot! I hope you get time off for a hunting trip this fall. Surprised to hear there is no nectar with your fall Goldenrod. Why is that? I would expect some nectar flow. I bought a Hillco automatic bottler this summer and that has really improved my bottling efficiency - I assume you are not doing your bottling by hand at your tank as in the past?
Thanks Eric, probably no trip for me this year, but I’m looking forward to taking Parker and my son hunting around here. I’m still bottling by hand until I can get a Swienty.
The acorn plastic frames twisting has been an issue, about 20% are real bad. Do you see many and if so, can you do anything about it? This was a real good undate with some useful information. Thanks Joe
I haven’t seen any twisting on the acorns, but I have seen it on some ML plastic frames that were left in the sun. I think they got too hot and twisted. Do you guys mean actual twisting, or the bending they do when pried with a hive tool?
@@DuckRiverHoney Yes, twisted maybe because of heat, but always seems the same. Left Top Corner to bottom right corner twist of about an inch. I tried making a frame to hold them straight and set them in the sun, but that doesn’t work. I plan on putting them together and blocking the bottom corner to force them straight until draw and see if that’s worth the effort.
One thing I did this year was to start a few nucs in mid august. Now I am using those new mated queens to replace queens to replace queens from aggressive colonies and failing queens that I find as I pull honey.
If you buy/have veroa resistant queens treat in middle of winter only. The bees will keep low mite numbers on their own. If the numbers get to high let them die. They didn’t have the correct mite resistance that is required.
Do you leave honey on your bees for them to feed on during the winter instead of feeding them sugar syrup… I leave honey on mine and then if they run short on honey I feed them sugar syrup…
@@DuckRiverHoney I know you factor time, so not sure how this calculates, but I buy foundations from Acorn, and wood frames from BetterBee and build my own.
Ha just a thought why not use fume board to get the queen out she runs to the bottom just a thought not trying to tell u what to do but it works for me, when that happens
I've put pencil to paper, I can get Acorn plastic frames for a few dollars cheaper than buying wooden frames and then the foundations to load them, and that's not even counting time and labor to assemble wooden frames. Thanks for the thoughts, insights, and ideas. Keep it up, we're cheering for ya!
As always, Nathan, you are putting out great content, and I look forward to Sunday morning coffee with Nathan's journey.......Keep Pushing!!!!
Thanks!
"It's going to be a chore" LOL. Farm lingo. Building up the operation takes a lot of work but once you get that done it will be smoother sailing. Time, effort and blessings will get u where u want to go.
Thanks Nathan for the update.
Thanks Russ!
Nathan, I hardly ever comment on youtube videos, but I just wanted to let you know how amazingly helpful this whole video series has been for me these last two bee seasons. I'm a good bit behind you in building out my own bee business over in Belvidere, TN, but to have someone from my area putting out high quality content for everything I'm going through and trying to do has truly been a blessing.
I appreciate that Justin!
agree, already thinking about what how to make next year better. Less distractions is my first item for next year, I have too many irons in the fire, got to unload some none bee time to make more bee time.
Super great video. Please include more on business. I started my journey this year . I'm a lifelong businessman. I'm on my way to 100 hives next year. Be blessed.
Thanks!
Congrats on a good year over all Nathan, the hard work managed well. It is hard trying to nail jello to the wall for a living!! Lol.
Takes a lot of nails!
love your videos! I've watched them all but haven't commented. this year I had a few of those acorn plastic heavy wax. it was amazing how fast the bees drew them out. I have plastic frames from mann lake, they don't fit in y extractor very well. next year I'm going to moce all the plastic frames to the brood nest area to avoid putting them in the extractor. get ready to smash hive beetles in the frame side groove gaps!
Thanks David, good to hear from you!
I am on the same track as far as starting a different label for packing honey. I can currently bottle, case and load a drum in 2 hours. I need to get that down that time down by about 30 minutes. Great videos keep up the good work!
You’ve got some equipment to move 600 lbs an hour!
Great job brother!!!!!!
👍
Awesome job mate
Will be interesting to see your growth over the winter. Been working on moving my bees into their final stage for overwintering. Most have good food stores and been pulling saved honey from the freezer to pack them tighter - a few others are being fed and may get prosweet towards the end when I get fed up and tired of purchasing and mixing 2:1 syrup. Later season 5x5x5 nucs need feeding but trying to get some of them built up a little more in population - can do some capped brood shifting there to slow down the bigger nucs and boost the smaller slightly. All in all nucs and production hives looking pretty good. State inspector coming this week - lol he will be doing some heavy super lifting to find brood in the bottom box! We'll see just how many hives he wants to check (aka lift). Glad your getting some Fall honey.
Nancy I’ve got a lot of winter work to do this year. Feed system, honey house improvements, and yard setups being the biggest. Plus wax dipping!
My girls like sticker bushes, that's a good thing because I am a great sticker bush farmer.😁
Oh there I saw it, on the back of her.
Isn't that an indicator of a possible higher mite load? Aren't they mostly on the undersides of the bees?
Tape a very useful beekeeper tool.😂It's good to spend time with the family decompressing, Blessed Days Nathan...
Yep, that hive may have more. Thanks!
What kind of weed killer are you using around the colonies? I was wondering if vinegar would be safe or what others use. Great content sir !
I can relate to the jumper cables to run the feed pump. Done that several times because of either a dead battery or forgetting the battery all together.
😆
There will be some supersedure and a lot of swarming attempts next year. I change most of mine every year, but when I end up in a spring like you will i start queen production as soon as its possible. To give you the timing.. i usually have all new queens in production hives before black locust and nucks made with the old ones.. and the old ones usually make a 5 frame box of honey above the nuck. Than you can do some selecting, change the queens and sell the nucks.
I think buy watching Kamon and you all these years your spring is almost the same as mine most years. I wish I could sell the amount of nucks you can.. the only chance to sell something here is before locust flow. After it it gets warm on land and they all make their own queens
I was thinking of trying to replace queens early next year, but finding them all takes time, and that’ll be nuc making season.
@@DuckRiverHoney it's easier in spring. If she's not laying on a new one there's a big chance you'll find her on the one with the youngest larva. I got used to it.. when you do it a lot your eyes kinda see the difference in movement or the bees around her. It's just practice. And mine are all dark like the bees. Ofcourse it would be best to mark her when you see... make a gadget to throw on her on the comb, mark and let her go. Something elastic. I had a plastic ring with a soft net glued on but I don't use it anymore.
Here, if I manage to change them before locust I don't have to worry about swarming.
And the old ones in nucks can produce you a lot of frames in (for you) triple box configuration. If you keep giving them empties for brood under excluder and frames to draw above you can pull out a lot of frames of brood and new ones from above excluders. I produce most of my frames in double deep nucks. In EU we never give frames to draw in the brood box of production hives.. maybe 1-2 above excluders in a strong flow.
A long comment again 😁
Congratulations Nathan for a successful year - you've accomplished a lot! I hope you get time off for a hunting trip this fall. Surprised to hear there is no nectar with your fall Goldenrod. Why is that? I would expect some nectar flow. I bought a Hillco automatic bottler this summer and that has really improved my bottling efficiency - I assume you are not doing your bottling by hand at your tank as in the past?
Thanks Eric, probably no trip for me this year, but I’m looking forward to taking Parker and my son hunting around here. I’m still bottling by hand until I can get a Swienty.
The acorn plastic frames twisting has been an issue, about 20% are real bad. Do you see many and if so, can you do anything about it? This was a real good undate with some useful information. Thanks Joe
I'm in central Ohio and haven't seen that. I only got 180 of em this year. Are you seeing it with full boxes of acorn or a hotter climate?
I’m not buying any more plastic frames because of the twisting.
I haven’t seen any twisting on the acorns, but I have seen it on some ML plastic frames that were left in the sun. I think they got too hot and twisted. Do you guys mean actual twisting, or the bending they do when pried with a hive tool?
@@DuckRiverHoney Yes, twisted maybe because of heat, but always seems the same. Left Top Corner to bottom right corner twist of about an inch. I tried making a frame to hold them straight and set them in the sun, but that doesn’t work. I plan on putting them together and blocking the bottom corner to force them straight until draw and see if that’s worth the effort.
Mine were ML.
One thing I did this year was to start a few nucs in mid august. Now I am using those new mated queens to replace queens to replace queens from aggressive colonies and failing queens that I find as I pull honey.
Good plan.
What are the red bands in some of the hives? Queen excluders?? Bee Escapes??
Bee escapes. I painted them all red so I wouldn’t miss any.
Invest in Queen excluders. Early spring flow confine the queen and capitalize on the flow?
If you buy/have veroa resistant queens treat in middle of winter only. The bees will keep low mite numbers on their own. If the numbers get to high let them die. They didn’t have the correct mite resistance that is required.
Cracks in boxes, squeeze a little bit of silicone in them.
What are you spraying around the hives that kills the grasses?
Glyphosate
Do you leave honey on your bees for them to feed on during the winter instead of feeding them sugar syrup…
I leave honey on mine and then if they run short on honey I feed them sugar syrup…
I do leave honey for them, but I’ll try not to leave too much in future. Sugar is cheaper than honey.
Acorn has wooden frames also.
They’re pricey.
@@DuckRiverHoney I know you factor time, so not sure how this calculates, but I buy foundations from Acorn, and wood frames from BetterBee and build my own.
Ha just a thought why not use fume board to get the queen out she runs to the bottom just a thought not trying to tell u what to do but it works for me, when that happens
There is brood mixed in the upper boxes so I’ll have to sort through them anyway.
Are you sure the plastic frames aren’t contributing to your beetle problems?
I don’t think that’s my problem.
Invest in Queen excluders. Early spring flow confine the queen and capitalize on the flow?
I’m planning to use more of them next year.