WALK AWAY SPLITS with QUEEN CELLS
Вставка
- Опубліковано 6 бер 2022
- It seemed a bit early but the bees had exploded and needed to be split or chances are we would begin to see them starting swarm. This is how I did it. Enjoy!
#brucesbees #honeybeesplits #honeybee
@brucesbees is a beekeeping channel, a vlog of sorts. Here we discuss apis mellifera, aka the honeybee. We give people a look into our sideliner beekeeping operation. We share successes and failures. We show how we feed bees and treat bees for pests, such as varroa mites, small hive beetles and others. I am not a treatment free beekeeper though at one time I thought I wanted to be. We also discus things that are important to us that I think apply to beginning beekeepers and more seasoned beekeepers alike. We also show the beekeeping techniques we use to manage the bees and harvest our honey and sell our honey. We talk about beekeeping equipment and tools. At times we also catch swarms of bees and have even done a few cutouts, though I usually leave that for the professionals. This is not Beekeeping 101, though hopefully the information here is useful. As my good friend @Mike Barry says, this is not a necessarily a "how to" channel. It's a "how I do" channel. I hope you will continue to join us as we continue to perform hive inspections, discuss important matters in the beekeeping world, meet other beekeepers, perform splits, grow our operation and just continue down the path of this wonderful beekeeping adventure. Let's GO!!! - Розваги
Very helpful video. Thanks for showing how you do walk away splits. 💖
Keep in mind that we added queen cells to these. If doing true walk away splits it is imperative that you have eggs in each split. Even better if queen cells have been made by the bees.
NO WAY! wow! I can't believe you guys are so far along!
Awesome! I love making splits!!!
Great job Bruce!!! Numbers have been crazy this year!! Thank you for sharing!!
Great video Bruce. Keep em coming!
Thanks Greg!
Awesome Bruce!
Thanks!!!
Lookin good! I love seeing all the different ways folks approach splits. Hope they calm down for you.
Yeah me too. Maybe when I get some of those queens from Nature’s Image Farm it will help!
@@brucesbees no doubt!
Nice looking splits and hives. I have some that are "feisty" also, plan to re-queen those with cells when it warms up. Great video, thanks !
Thanks for checking in!
Wow I hope my bees look like that after winter. Holy cow well the cat is out of the bag to know how you grow so fast. Wow 😯
Hopefully a high percent these queens will get mated well and build up nicely. There always are a few that fail and it can be a little tricky this time of year but we will see. Thanks for checking in guys!!!
I’m jealous of the way that colony looked! That was a packed house, cool to see. Hope you have a high success rate on the splits. Keep us updated.
I hope so too. It can be a little tricky this time of year but my friend had a contact for cells so why not?!
@@brucesbees yep, and that hive was ready to split.
Sure was. No guts no glory haha! Thanks for checking in Jeff…
We are set for a low of 19 sat. Here in KY so it's going to be a bit before our season really kick's in. Your bee's look great. Good health and success to you. Thanks 👍
Yes still a little cold up there but won’t be long now.
Excellent job 👍
Thanks!
nice job, good to see I'm not the only one with grumpy bees
Whew no doubt. I am hearing that from a lot of people.
Wow Bruce! Your bees look fantastic! Yet another great video and explanation. Enjoyed watching your method of doing splits. Those splits look really strong. Good stuff!
This is one is am trying. Should work out ok (hopefully). There are other methods I actually prefer a little bit but hopefully this will work. The only real disadvantage is not knowing where the queens are.
I will be curious to see what you think about the method afterwards.
Will see how it goes. Pollination bees coming back the 15th. It’s about to get WILD!!!
Bruce!!!you are getting close to the 15k subscribers! Congratulations!
Yep. Getting close. Thanks for your support Tim!
Good video!
Thanks!
wow Bruce I'm jealous , I can't wait to do a few splits and a few graphs
Won’t be long now.
Yes you’re bees are testy like ours lol. Good looking splits. Hopefully the weather will cooperate with mating flights. All the mother colonies look great. Thanks for sharing.
So far the weather has been good. Hopefully we will have a good acceptance rate.
@@brucesbees We are splitting this week and dropping cells also. Chance of rain and storms all week. 😀
Good luck. Maybe it will clear up enough to get some good mating flights in for them.
Bees are looking strong! We dipped back into the 40's and low 30's this week, but hopefully we'll be back into the 70's -80's next week. Looking forward to splitting some up then also.
It won’t be long!
I hope Alberta is blessed with a bountiful spring like you're having. We went through a record breaking heat/drought filled summer and hornets hit hard, due to the heat. I'm just a backyard beekeeper but from what I'm seeing I'm down to 20% of my hives now. We're still under a few feet of snow...it's the most snow we've seen in over a decade so hopefully our weather has made a turn around.
Maybe so. It’s gotta be tough keeping bees up there. Different problems for sure.
Wow! Those are some healthy looking splits! Not going to take long at all to fill those nuc boxes.
Will see what the take is on the cells and go from there. It can be a little tricky this time of year. Thanks for checking in!!!
The quiet one has the queen. Good increase, I've made a few walk away splits here.
Not sure any of them were quiet. Bees all over the place. But in theory that is true.
They're looking good 👍 I'm planning to do splits with mine over here in Andalusia probably before St. Patricks Day. Right after the cold snap coming in around the 12th to 14th is over
Sounds perfect. Good luck and thanks for checking in
I like watching your operation, but I also wish you would gear some of your videos to newer beekeepers. It would have been nice to see what kind of frames you put in the mother hive and why. I know you're trying to hurry though you have lots of hives looks great
Your bees are so far ahead of mine in South East Louisiana.
Hmm. Interesting. I did feed them some though and the winter was quite mild over here so maybe that had an impact on it.
Do you still like your Lappe queens? All 3 of mine that I used to requeen in July have made it through winter here in Northern IL. Super happy with them - one of the 3 IS quite feisty, but I would purchase again. Hard to find local queens and so far, Lappe has worked out for me. Thx for your vids! ❤️🐝🐝
Yes I have been impressed so far. They are blowing up now. Some of them are in California. They are a bit feisty as are most of my bees. Seems like everyone around here is having issues with feisty bees. They typically calm down some a little later in the year. Not sure why they fat so crazy.
Where are you getting your queen cells
Local commercial guy drove 4 1/2 hours each way to but several hundred of them of which I used 45. This is the company: www.manta.com/c/mkxf38x/honey-thomas-farms-llc
Great vid. The look for the queen part right out the window. Get it done. Where are you finding cells on February?
A commercial friend of mine made a 4 1/2 hour trek over to east Georgia to purchase hundreds of cells from which I used 45. This is where he got them from I believe: www.manta.com/c/mkxf38x/honey-thomas-farms-llc
My bees are as defensive as yours in the video. I split them last summer hoping the new queen would breed and raise a more gentle colony. No luck, now I have two defensive/ aggressive hives.
These bees will calm down for the most part as spring rolls in.
Wow those nucs are so strong they will probably need 5 more frames in a couple weeks!
I hope so but most will become a little weak until the new queens get mated and start laying.
I’ve spent so much time hunting for queens in colonies we were breaking down into nucleus resources. This was for apiary expansion and nuc sales which meant trying to ensure a new queen but if I felt fine about the queen quality then risking one cell out of all those splits is good math and not something I’d thought about doing on purpose.
It makes it easy for sure but not really planning on selling any of these. It is easy to figure out which ones have queens though because they will not slow down whereas the ones with cells will have a significant brood break. One way to assure you know where they queen is is to shake all the bees into the bottom box and move frames of brood into a box above a queen excluder. Close it up and leave overnight. The nurse bees will move up onto the brood. Then you can take the brood and bees away and add a cell or mated queen with confidence and know the new queen is in the split. This is actually my preferred method. But I really don’t have time to always try to find the queen.
In Ontario Canada my hives are still in the snow.
Parabéns
Season does seem to be early, up here in pa I have capped drones, no drones flying yet. Can't wait for warm weather consistent and things start to bloom, currently witch hazel is blooming and maple is swelling up.
Sounds like things are about to explode up there!
@@brucesbees I hope so, most of my hives had capped brood on 4 frames and eggs and larva on another. Last year I took my first splits on April 1st apparently that's a month early up here, can not do much when they wanted to swarm though.
True. Some have already had swarms around here as well.
Queen cells are & have always been my favorite way to make splits!
Where do you buy them?
Commercial friend of mine drove over to east Georgia about 4 1/2 hours away and picked up a few hundred. I used 45 of them.
www.manta.com/c/mkxf38x/honey-thomas-farms-llc
My goodness you had the bee's in that hive. Could I ask where you purchased the queen cells? I just ordered some queens from Weaver bee's out of Texas. I have been using them for years. My queens are from a strain of there own. Great job.
Thanks for checking in. Here is the link to where we got the cells. A commercial friend of mine went over and bought a few hundred cells. I ended up with 45 of them. www.manta.com/c/mkxf38x/honey-thomas-farms-llc
Bruce, that first hive could have been split into 10 and still had a good mother hive. I wish I had somewhere to buy cells like that. I have a couple that I have to do some splitting with very soon. Do you have to keep those cells at a specific temperature before putting them in a split?
Yes it’s best to keep them in the low 90s. More important that they done get too hot. I sent Michele the contact info. I got from my commercial friend that drove 4 1/2 hours to get them. I think they are near Waycross, Georgia. Not sure if they sell mated queens or have any available yet.
Bruce how is it going bud . I was wondering who do you recommend for queens I know you have purchased from several in the past . I am also Alabama beekeeper . Thanks
I have tried several sources over the years. So far I am impressed with the Lappe’s queens I order back in late summer. They are from Iowa. I have 20 ordered right now from Jose @The California Beekeeper. Also going to get some from Greg Burns in Ohio. And then I use these cells, pretty much from wherever my commercial friends recommend and find them.
I read the thread of comments. Thank you. Is it normal timing wise to be raising queens in February in Georgia? Still some winter left in the south east?
It is a little risky now but the queen breeders do a pretty good job in timing things out I think. Will see how they do.
You got some booming hives. Did you raise the queen cells or purchase them? Glad to see I am not the only one supporting the rubber bellow on the smoker. I really think that bellow does a better job than leather, just wish they held up longer than 2 years.
😊Pro Tip: Never touch that rubber bellow after touching MAQS, it will eat a hole in the bellow. lol
A commercial friend of drove to east Georgia to get a few hundred. I used 45 of them.
Absolutely beautiful! Just made my first split ever yesterday! Been buzzing about it all day lol
Hopefully they will do well!
Hey how you doing! I am new and getting bees apr 7th I live down the road from you in ga!
Awesome. Good luck!!!
Hi Bruce! What happens if the nuc makes their own emergency cells? Will the workers tear down the grafted queen cell? Will they tear down their own emergency cells? Will the virgin from the graft hatch and kill all the emergency cells? Will the nucs finish the emergency cells that they have started and then have a bunch of virgins running around?
Thank you for your time.
I think a little bit of all of that occurs. If you put the cell in the next day they typically accept the virgin out of that but if the cell is a dud or if they just simply prefer their own sometimes they make their own. I give them 3 or 4 weeks to figure it out. Went through them at 4 weeks and most had queens that were staring to lay.
Bees are looking great Bruce, thank you for sharing all that you do! What is your approximate success rates with the queen cells hatching, flying out to get mated and returning to the nuc to start laying? Just curious for future endeavors of my own, thank you!
It just really depends. This time of year it’s a little risky. So many variables. Usually it’s pretty good donut there are usually some that don’t take.
@@brucesbees totally get it for sure, keep us posted on your many success' and learning experiences, imma gonna go with a few mated queens from Jose this year and try a few of my own cells for the fun of it.
Yes I am getting some from Jose and Greg Burns. Probably some other sources as well.
Do you use plastic pierco heavy duty, hive beatles, no hide frames they have now and if so do they work.
No I have never tried those. Just recently heard about them. Might have to do that in the future. I have almost a whole pallet of the old style sitting in the barn and going to try some premier frames as well. May order some of those in the future.
@@brucesbees thanks for your response 👍 I appreciate it.
Absolutely. Now you have me curious. I had heard about them but not really looked into it.
Have you ever tried 2 frame mating nucs? I LOVE them!
I like them especially as they don't need so many resources as a full 5-frame nuc.
After the queen gets properly knocked up, THEN I'll move them to full 5-frame nuc.
...speaking of which, I need to build a few more!
I have a little bit. They can be tricky.
start them in a 5 frame and follower board or 3 frames drawn cheaper than having different boxes
@@farmer998 Nah, not in my case (it being cheaper). I get tons of free lumber from construction sites in my neighborhood. They throw away so much! I use Zip Systems for my nucs. Advantech I use for my 'regular' hives for lids & bottom boards.
So far, I love using 2-frame nucs! The main thing with them is to give them enough bees when adding a queen cell (that's what I almost always do, give them a queen cell) Today I made 2 splits with 2 queen cells)
I spotted a swarm.. so I set up my trap. Unfortunately on the next day, the swarm was gone. What must be my mistake?
Not necessarily. Sometimes bees just do things that they want to do regardless of whether or not we do everything perfectly on our end.
No mistake on your part. Bees had probably already decided where they were going.
I see, I thought I can finally have my 1st colony of bees.. Thank you to all of you guys, so friendly and positive. I'm still learning about bee keeping 😊😊
Happy bee keeping guys 🥰🥰👍👍
Thanks for checking in and good luck!!!
Bruce- do you just make sure there were eggs or swarm cells in each split?
Tried to make sure brood and preferably some eggs and food. We added queen cells to the splits. If doing a true walk away split it is critical that there are eggs and or queen cells in each split. Great question
Your making your splits like your putting in mated queens. With cells you need to make thin splits and if the queen mates well then combine them with the ones that do not. 75% of the cells will mate on a good day. Just my 2 cents. I make similar but only use one frame of capped brood.
Thank for the input. Will see how it goes.
Bruce will you get any honey production after the 3 splits?
I hope so. Have never broken them down this hard this early. But historically I think I have had issues with swarming. It’s tricky. Still trying to figure out the best strategy.
I got a box like that I got rid of the queen out of it she laid really well but if I was at work closer I had to have my suit and the rest of them I could work naked
Yeah for some reason this time of year almost all of my bees are grouchy. But I anticipate/hope they will settle down soon.
Your going to need a lot more equipment! Do you buy by the pallet of assembled?
Mostly buy assembled by the pallet. And now mostly buy frames by the pallet as well.
Bruce, is that a pullover Guardian suit you are wearing? Is that style what you wear most of the time when you want more than a veil? How tolerable is it in the hot weather for keeping relatively cool?
Yes it is. I love it. I think they are $99. Much less hassle than the zip up one. Has a zipper on the veil so you can get a drink or whatever you need. If you try one out be sure to order a size larger than what you would normally wear. I normally wear XL shirts, jackets etc so my jacket is a XXL.
My bees have always been Spicy. Requeening hasn’t helped. 😂
Yeah I think it is quite a process. Mine are slowly turning it around.
Do you think they will inherit defensive traits from your drones? I wonder if it will take a few generations to see noticeable improvement? Either way, at least they seam productive.
Maybe so. Will have to see but I must say that other southern beekeepers have also been telling me theirs are cranky now as well so maybe they will settle down as spring rolls in. They usually do.
Black gloves? You are brave.
It’s never been a problem though I wish they were a little longer up my wrists.
@@brucesbees same here, it helps for my hand arthritis
They rarely sting through the gloves. It’s where the elastic from the bee jacket meets the gloves that they tend to burrow down and sting. Not a problem unless the cuff of the jacket comes out from under the gloves. Then they tend to get me around the wrists.
I bet you got a few stings yeah? Haha
I feel curious ...
You put queen cells in .
You'll have virgin ones but how for the males around ?
Did you make them build up males frame 7-10 days before laying the nuke out of the apiary ???
I just feel curious the intend .
Could have been a way to build up a breed of your own having that space you stocked the nukes males saturated by making your bees building up males frame you kept apart ...
Taking those frame in such healthy brood is not a guaranty you'll have male cells at all ...
With all the due respect .
Might not be such a loss neither ...
Dare, care, ride safe, clean, have fun ...
From France with .
There are plenty of drones around to mate with the new queens. Hopefully the weather has been good enough for them to fly.
F_D_B_B_H
Not exactly sure what this means.
Im very surprised you wear "black" gloves! It seems like my bees attack anything black.
They are less likely to sting these than leather beekeeping gloves. If they get me it is usually where the wrist elastic meets up with the gloves.