Backyard Beekeeping Questions and Answers Episode 258 swarms take the day.
Вставка
- Опубліковано 16 тра 2024
- Welcome to another session of backyard beekeeping.
Lots of swarming going on, and we'll talk about some challenges.
If you have a topic that you'd like to have considered for a Friday session, please fill in the form here: www.fredsfinefowl.com/thewayt...
Have a question that just won't wait? Then here is a fellowship of beekeepers that are sure to help: / 3062274013832702
Get your name on a swarm capture list, and share with the public so swarms can be collected before they are lost: beeswarmed.org/
Today's Questions:
1) My hive has no eggs or larva. Any ideas?
2) I used a queen introduction cage, and they killed the queen and workers. The following Monday, there was a Queen and eggs. Where did I go wrong?
3) Is it possible and ethical to collect a bunch of bees on a tree with Temp Queen, and then introduce a queen into the fake swarm?
4) I caught a swarm that was so large, I had to split it in two. How small does the larvae have to bee in order for them to make a queen?
5) I have a hive that swarmed and left lots of queen cells. How can I tell if a new queen is mated?
6) I just used the swarm reacher yesterday. It worked Easy Peasy. I just wanted to share the success.
The BEST smoker pellets I've ever used. Want some switch grass smoker pellets while supporting a Non-Profit Beekeeper Association's mission?
nwpabeekeepers.org/pay-member... - Домашні улюбленці та дикі тварини
1) My hive has no eggs or larva. Any ideas? 3:36
2) I used a queen introduction cage, and they killed the queen and workers. A few days later there was a Queen and eggs. Where did I go wrong? 6:19
3) Is it possible and ethical to collect a bunch of bees on a tree with Temp Queen, and then introduce a queen into the fake swarm? 12:20
4) I caught a swarm that was so large, I had to split it in two. How small does the larvae have to bee in order for them to make a queen? 19:21
5) I have a hive that swarmed and left lots of queen cells. How can I tell if a new queen is mated? 25:40
6) I just used the swarm reacher yesterday. It worked Easy Peasy. I just wanted to share the success. 30:21
Thank you, as always!!
If I'm not sure whether their a Queen, I put queen exclder with newspaper, add a nuc with Queen, check in week, whether the bottom box has a Queen, if so, you have a, two Queen hive, can then remove, and separate the hives, if no Queen, then combine together, work great, sometime she hard to find, shiny cells ready for her to lay, is a give away she their somewhere hidden,
Thanks Adam
Great Q&A Fred!! Moral of the story....patience is sometimes the MOST valuable, but hard to use tool of the beekeeper!! 😉 Rain has probably washed the last of our main nectar flow away here in the foothills of NC, so pulling honey soon and putting boxes of foundation on my big hives and feeding to draw out for next year. However, it has been a GREAT year for me so not complaining. More honey than last year and a LOT fewer swarms from my colonies!!! Take care...and don't forget the water bottle for the beekeeper in your swarm "kit"!!! 😀
Yes, stay hydrated! Thanks, Keith! I'm glad you did get a good honey crop there :)
Dear Frederick Thank you for the great explanation of the insulator differences. Technically there are two differences:
1. here the wire spacing is 3.25 instead of 4.35.
2. the material of these insulators, is alu-zinc coating ( silvery bright colour).
Best regards Mirek
Thank you so much for great products and for that additional information :)
🎉thank you for all the time and knowledge you share with beekeepers. Today my bee vac wouldn’t work so I had to use the old fashioned hard way. In the end I remembered you told me last year to steal a frame with brood on it. Put in the empty swarm box and sure enough the swarm went into the box. I wouldn’t know that if you wouldn’t have told me. Thank you again 🎉
That's fantastic, I'm so glad it worked :)
Another great video Fred! I've had great luck housing swarms if it is their idea. I do what I call a Dorothy; I drop a house on them. A swarm on a branch can be clipped and layed in front of a single deep with a ramp up to the entrance. It is a beautiful experience to watch them walk right up and into the hive, while others fan on their new found home.
Definitely a great feeling when they volunteer to walk in :)
Coffee with Fred day. My favorite way to start my Saturday. Always learn something. Thank you!
Thanks, Pam :)
Been following for years, another great episode. Love some swarm talk
Thank you so much :)
I used the swarm reacher yesterday and it worked I shook the bees off the frame into the box which had frames after the 3rd time shaking the bees into the box I had the queen they started to fan I waited 45 minutes and the rest left the tree and went into the box . It was a very big swarm , in the 15 years I have been keeping bees this is the earliest I have ever seen a swarm .
Thank you for sharing! It's a winner apparently :)
Another praise for the smoker pellets. They are the bomb. Went crazy and purchased two bags in support of your association. Think Ill have great smoke for many years to come as I do cork it after use. Oh and they don't gum up my smoker like the pine needles I used to use. Thank you for promoting these Fred.
Thank you so much! They are a winner for me too. I personally appreciate it, and am glad to know you like them.
Hello Mister Frederick 😃
thanks for clarifying introduction/ vs isolation cages,very helpful,and about David peck suggestion on only using brood without nurses in introduction cage ,... I didnt know the bars were closer together on a intro cage vs isolation cage
Fred I use the cork to closed the smoke.. I left the tip a bit longer and storage at the loop to pull the lead open so you don’t get burned is about the same size holes. That way you don’t lose it
Thanks for sharing! :)
Another great show. The one with your grandson was excellent also.
Love the pellets i got from your club. A small handfull lasts more than enough time for me to inspect my 5 hives. An the smoke is excellent qualty
Thanks, Seth! Both for the support and for sharing how they are working for you. I do like a smoker that smokes for a nice long time. I used to bring more than one pre-loaded smoker so I could switch fast when one ran out. And, these burn cooler. Thanks again.
I got the reacher after you mentioned it in an earlier video. I have only had one swarm that went to a tree and not into my traps. I got a frame attached to the reacher and put it up next to the swarm and the bees started crawling onto the frame. The queen got on the third frame and I put her in a cage, tied it onto the frame and got almost all the remaining bees in a few minutes. After I got the queen, I would shake the bees off the frame at the hive and stick it, along with the caged queen back up. It took me a total of 6 frames to get most of the bees. I actually only used 3 frames but 6 lifts to the swarm,in total, to get the swarm. Because I put the first two frames in the hive with the swarm bees, they stayed there. Great idea.
That's great news! The positive stories about the SwarmReacher are on the rise. Thanks for sharing how it worked out for you :)
My oldest hive was also brood-less and very little pollen. It’s a deep and 2 mediums. Plenty of honey. About 15 mediums of honey and I found the Queen. My old Queen isn’t marked so I’m not sure if she’s a new queen.
Thank you Fred, for letting me know about the Queen Isolation Cage. I’ve been calling it my Queen Excluder Cage, because I’ve been using it the opposite of trying to isolate a queen inside it, but try to keep a queen from going IN it. I was gifted an 8 frame “nuc” with medium frames. Well, my Long Langstroth runs deep frames. So I’ve been using the cage to phase out the medium frames, allowing the brood to emerge and leave the cage, before pulling the frame and giving it back to the original owner so she can have her equipment back. It’s been VERY helpful so far! I’ve managed to phase out 5 medium frames so far, 3 to go! I can’t wait to not have to deal with the burr comb anymore on the bottom of the medium frames. 😅
So, as it turned out, one queen tried to lay several times, and the brood died. One queen never came back. So those 3 got combined. The package queen finally started to lay.
Another stunning opening sequence. Super talented. Helpful to make people feel and think...hard to do both at the same time.
Thank you so much!
I love the beginnings of your videos!
Thank you Fred for educating and entertaining us.
Thank you so much :)
Thank you for sharing and educating us regarding the difference between Queen isolation and introduction cages.
You're very welcome :)
Every time the sun comes out I am chasing my swarms.
Thanks Fred, great information as always, have a fantastic weekend!!
Lost a huge swarm out of a hive today, sad thing is they almost filled an entire 7frame flow hive super in three weeks.
That is annoying when they are such great producers :)
I’ve caught 4 swarms this year and two have been virgin queens and two mated queens and each virgin swarm has been close to a mated queen swarm but not in one cluster this common
Oh my, it's Fred-Day! "The way to be" take me away! Apple trees just started blooming yesterday. Inside of the hives are yellow with dandelion pollen. Good golly, all this swarm talk is making my post traumatic swarm disorder from last year, return. I think I am ahead, but I know, that thinking stuff can be dangerous. New supers for everyone tomorrow. This is my 4th year and I'm hoping for a honey year. Thanks for another information packed Q&A. May your bees be low in the trees. Better yet, may your bees stay home and make honey. Brice
:)
Thanks Fred! Have a great weekend
Thanks, Steven, you too :)
Hi Frederick,
I love your tests, I hear more and more about an alternative to the smoker, Apisilos I cross.
Have you already tested this product?
If anyone has, I'd love to hear about it. It seems very interesting to me, I hate the smoker.
Those smoker pellets kept smoking for 36 hours! No cork… if I cork it, that bag will last at least 2 years!
It's great stuff :) That's a great problem to have :)
Hi Fred 👋 Thank you for explaining queen isolation and queen introduction cage. I had questions about those myself. Been using the isolation cage. Going to get an introduction cage now in hopes to introduce beeweaver queens. Cage is out of stock at betterbee. Last year I bought two both were killed.
Caught my first swarm yesterday!
Thanks for all you do.
I'm so glad they came out with those cage options. The Queen Introduction Cage is the newest version, and it really can provide peace of mind if you've spent the big $$$ for a new queen.
Great video to help backup knowledge already learned, and reenforcing what has just been forgotten. Something just occurred to me, would honeybee healthy extend the life of hummingbird feed? That needs to be looked into for sure, that could be a great boost for the company. I can't possibly the first person to think of that I would think though, it's more bacteria I think that is worried about with changing out Hummingbird feed.
That's one for an avian specialist, they really don't like additives in their hummingbird syrup, but... you never know until you ask :)
rain,cloudy...but managed to get into hives,seems im behind, I used swarm traps as resources to requeen queenless hives (2) of them,..im thinking swarm impulse is waning here,clover fading,,and blackberries fading...time will tell,need more sunny days
Fred on 5/18 at 7:15am EST the link to the smoker pellets is broke. It's giving an api error. Get them to fix this as I'm ready to buy! :-)
I had a wonky experience with that link yesterday, and then went on another computer and it was fine. That's a puzzle. Maybe a different browser? Sorry for that frustration, I think it works now. :)
@@FrederickDunn I've tried 2 different computers and two different browsers with the same results. Invalid Ols API Response. I'll try again on Monday.
Link is working and my orders placed. Thanks Fred!
I have been following you for a while and love the content. What I would love to hear is a show or an interview about the stages worker bees go through in their lives. Even in today’s video you discussed a forager reverting to nurse status. I am guessing it is all pheromones but thanks in advance! If you already have this in your library please let me know!
It's actually their hormones that govern their progression through their duties. Particularly when it comes to being able to provide nutrition to other developing larvae. It's a fascinating area, I think we just may have to cover that ground. :)
Thanks! I heard a report on the ‘zombie’ fires in Canada. They are not a new thing but normally less than 10 a winter. This year well over 100 if the report is accurate.
Using the QNP noodle or a queen sounds like a good way to get bees. I should do it at work, it's over 25 miles from my house, but just happens to be very near a large apiary.
If you're near a large apiary then get ready for large clusters. :)
@@FrederickDunn Well, not where I live, but near my work yes. Where do I QNP noodles BTW?
Thanks for the tip about large swarms. Happened to me too. I thought it was that they were damp from sugar spray
Question about your smoker where can I purchase one with metal screen in the top, I think that is what I saw tonight in video
HoneyFlow.com
Yikes! That spraying. Does that ever negatively affect your bees?
Are you talking about the field spraying right up to my apiary? I have to say that they annoy me when they do it during high winds which carry the chemicals well into my property. However, I haven't noticed any impact on the bees or their foraging activities. More to come on that as I participated in a study back in 2023 and will be interviewing the program director.
❤ listening to some information about solar system you know what are you talking about? It’s not pretending.
Hey Fred. Sorry to miss last Saturday's Q&A. Was in lovely Paris 🇫🇷 : Checking out the awesome Bee Hives with 'Japanese Pointy Roofs' in the "Jardin de Luxembourg."
(Worth an Image Search to see them ! As you can't post a Photo in a Comment. 🤭)
Came Home to Scotland 🏴 to find x2 Bait Hives occupied. Yes ! Lemon Grass Oil and Old Brood Comb works a treat. 👍
Off to see Quinn (The 'Young' Bee Inspector) in his own Bee Video re Flow Hive II.
Hope to watch this Saturday coming for sure. 😎
🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝
Happy Beekeeping 2024
🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝
Here in UK : "Swarm Saying"
A Swarm in May is worth "Hay".
A Swarm in June is a "Silver Spoon". And a Swarm in July is worth not a "Fly".
However, with Climate Change, Global Weather Warming. Maybe 'May is the New June.'
Also Hope your Bees & Hives were OK after Q&A Starting Sequence of 'Field Spraying that Crop, so close to your Apiary : Didn't do Damage. 😖
Luckily where I am is a huge Field of Buttercups (Hay in the making) and x2 further Fields of Oil Seed Rape (Canola Oil) in full Bright Yellow Bloom too. 🤗
Coming home to find hives auto-occupied is a great welcome home gift :)
I have a long hive divided with a central partition make two hives. One side is getting crowded the other is vacant. Rather than split the swelling hive would it make sense to remove that partition and make it one extremely long hive? I have the long hive because I’m 78 years old with back problems and this makes for enjoyable beekeeping. I live in Gloucestershire UK,.
This is a personal choice, I'd open it up :)
Thank you Fred I’ll do that thing. Decision made.
I am looking for the cordless handheld vacuum you use to vacuum bees and releasethem. Appreciate if anyone can send me the make and model.
This is it, I have two of them so I can have one charged and ready at all times. Still works great :)
Hi Fred, I see you replied, but no make and model of the vacuum?
@@mubarakumar6903 That's weird.... sorry about that: Shark UltraCyclone Pro Cordless Handheld Vacuum, with XL Dust Cup, Green
You are awesome! My wife and I love your sense of humor. I look forward to Fridays!!
Hi 👋 Fred, Trying to get rid of carpenter ants 🐜 on beesmart inner covers. They lime to chew into the insulation. I glued the wooden inner covers to the beesmart insulated covers like you did. I brushed apple cider vinigar on the wood tops. I put aluminum foil around the legs of my hive stand and brushed on some apple cider vinigar. I just read aluminum foil disrupt the magnetic field and could make bees flee?? Should I take the foil off the legs of my stands? I also just put foil inside one of my telescopic covers. Side note since the ants came my SHB have dwindled...Wonder if that has anything to do with the ants. Rather have carpenter ants than SHB bc they don't go inside the hivez. I do have beetle traps oil and apple cider vinigar in all my hivez same last 3 yrs. Thanks for all you do. I did order some of your clubs smoker ⛽️ fuel.
I'm going to talk about this tomorrow... in advance, I'll share that you can use aluminum foil anywhere you'd like... no problem at all :)
@FrederickDunn Thank you! I also got some good feed back from the group. Do you think the carpenter ants are responsible for the big drop in my SHB? I hope so.
That's the stupidest excuse I've heard for forest fires in Canada. We had at least a 2-3 weeks that was like 20-40°c below depending on where in Canada you are
From a fire-fighter perspective that has to be a huge frustration to have a reflash from remaining embers. Apparently, very hard to keep track of.
Two questions if I may: can I put back an older super from last year with old racks of comb and some honey onto this years new hive? Will the new queen and bees use and accept these old racks in an old top box? Lower box getting full of honey.
Two: is it normal on a hot afternoon for my bees to come out in force and fly around in a group ( not saying swarm here) of 200-300 bees in the air in front of the hive? Lasts about 1-2 hours and then they settle back into hive with the usual 50 bees flying around.
Thanks for your videos.