Love your insights and thoughts on business!! Keep plugging away and remember to take time and pray for guidance in all that you do. I wish you and your family nothing but happiness and joy!!! 😊
I am a few steps ahead of you and my strategy was to spend money on bee equipment and grow bee numbers. All other decisions became easy after that as the increased bees and honey production demanded certain items. I will not buy anything until I have no other option. A person can spend endless money making things easier and faster. Be frugal and thrifty helps alot.
Thanks! Ian Steppler says to build your bees and buy your equipment, implying if you use debt then it should be on hard assets instead of bees which can die. Lots of thinking to do, but I’d really like to be closer to critical mass when the flow hits next spring.
I would agree. Debt on bees is not a good idea. Build your bees is the best plan. It may come down to how fast you can build bees in you area as well. Oh the joys of endless important decisions. You are smart and will learn the best path. A few mistakes are garenteed. 👍
Maybe consider purchasing early packages in spring and dropping them on comb? Without the risk of overwntering and deadouts? Get extra spring queens for early spring splits? Equalize some brood bees into the packages? Smaller hives/nucs tend to get robbed out and tends to be dearth related... bigger hives overwhelm them PDQ if they are near by. Had two mating mating nucs robbed out that way which I found today. I too am not looking forward to deeper hive inspections this time of year but I need to know whats down below those excluders so I can better manage the beginning of winter preparations. Its time to think Winter Bees even in the hottest days of summer! Beekeeing year really starts now!
I would say you did a great job this year. My thoughts were how much time you will need this winter to make boxes. Your expansion plans will require a lot of boxes. As far as expanding your honey house could you put another container crosswise to the one you have - kind of like a T? You will have lots of time to think about things before next spring. Have a good weekend.
I’ve got room to squeeze another one behind the original, then I can “L” off the front with two 20’s if need be. I wish I could find a reefer container.
Thanks for sharing your growth and work on your videos. I am glad you got some family time at the beach. You have grown a bunch this past year and done great. It’s definitely a balancing act. Take care Nathan.
Thanks for the video, it came in just after I had watched Fredrick Dunn interview Cory. St Louis is just up in the opposite corner of Missouri from me but, I can't make it I'm sad to say. Your thoughtfulness in your comments goes a long way to speak to your character I have learned. Always hoping the best for you, you have a plan and can adjust some, that's what's most important. You have good mentors.
Find you a wild rose bush gather the pods and strew them around old growled up fields and inbankments where mowers can't go also honeysuckle get rootstock from wild honeysuckle bushes
Great video the heat and humidity has been terrible in north west alabama. Hopefully we get a little rain here and there we have some goldenrod blooming earlier than normal here and the bees are really going after it. Wasn't going to do anymore swarm traps but i caught a swarm and needed it for a queen. I haven't seen a drone flying here in months so i gave up on grafting any queens. ❤️🐝
Hot and humid here, feels like 105° today. No queen rearing here either. I’ve seen a little goldenrod but not much. Lots of frostweed but they aren’t working it yet.
Good stuff looking forward to seeing your Honey house permit please share that with us looking forward to more info on what's next 4 you. 😊 Thanks for your time and sharing with us your journey
I don't know if it would be worth it to you or not. I plan to go into winter with 40-50 10 frame double deeps and 20 5 frame double nucs. If you can bring me 40 or so medium 10 frames with drawn comb, you could set them on my colonies in March we could let the queen come up and lay them full and you could pick them up in late April early May. You would need to have queen cells ready to go for when you got them back home. I am not expanding anymore I am at max capacity with my full time job. I am located in North Central WV in Randolph County. I am running Sas/Carni mix, but that won't matter since you'd be putting in your own queen cells. I really appreciate your videos and watching you grow your business. Let me know if you are interested as I'd love to help!
Nathan, I think you have done a great job this year. I have really enjoyed watching your progress. If I may offer this about drums, I would recommend straining honey thru paint strainer as it is pumped into drums from clarrifier. I did not do this and I am having to when pumping to bottling tank from drums.
Randall I was thinking of trying these drum filters. Someone on beesource recommended them. Disadvantage is you can’t fill a drum all the way up, but it seems like a pretty nifty solution. www.usplastic.com/catalog/item.aspx?itemid=37439
You are definitely right about the 5 gallon bucket with a gate. I promised myself I wouldn't do that to myself again. I now have a heated bottling tank with no drip valve ordered from John at Hillco. Also I'm getting a lift table cart from Harbor Freight so I can lower it down easily for refilling with buckets.
Hope your over the funk sickness. My wife came back from England and brought some English Funk for me to deal with. I did get pictures of bees at Stonehenge though as a consolation prize.
Had to pause the video, Mimosa smells so sweet, I never dreamed it wouldn't taste good, we are talking about the tree, aren't we? Hope your daughter and you have a quick recovery! Back to the video.
@@DuckRiverHoney Glad I asked the question, I was about to plant a few, still might plant one just as a resource, I grew up seeing them covered by all kinds of bees and butterflies along with hummingbirds. I never plan on going beyond hobbyist, I just like the bees and it's a tree that provides during the very hot weather as long as there is water to keep it blooming. The first house I bought had two in the front yard and I ran hoses and sprinklers that hot summer to keep the blooms going. Glad to know but, my gut feeling was just to provide and help the bees and hummingbirds. I just paid a lot of attention to such things when I was a kid growing up in the 70's. I'm not a tree hugger, I guess I walk the line between things. I just know that the number of insects and birds have dropped off so much compared when I was a kid that it's kind of scary.
Thanks for all your insights into bees. Really respect how honest you are with your development. Question: how do you keep track of the status of all your hives. I note your hive top shorthand notes, but do you have more detailed notes you keep elsewhere to stay on track of your hive details? I feel this would be important as you continue to refine your breeding stock. Thanks again for an excellent UA-cam channel! Very inspirational
I use push pins in the boxes to note really good or really bad traits. This time of year I’m looking for queenright, mites, and weight. Gentleness is something I look for all year. I weed feisty hives out pretty quick.
looking forward to another budgeting video. what's your pump/feeder setup? i'm in buckets right now, need to move to barrel/tote , pump, gasline system for fall feeding/future
I’m using a drum with a bulkhead fitting, a ball valve, and a diaphragm pump mounted on an Eley hose reel. It works pretty well. For more hives or a lot of feeding I’d prefer a tote on a trailer. Save for QA.
Great job in producing this series, very informative and motivating. I wish we lived closer, we have much in common. Thanks for the summary of sending priority regarding extraction. I recently upgraded to a 6/3 HillCo electric but now worry that it wasn't enough. You have big plans for your business and i struggle with vision. Mostly due to investment money, but It sort of begins with property. How can you have a container box honey house when you have an HOA? Keep your chin up!
I use a car hauler now if you decide to get a trailer get something that has a bed over the tires it’s tough to load and unload a decent amount of hives working around the wheel wells
If I could make a suggestion, it might be worth getting a bigger storage tank. Are using the Dadant 80 gallon and the Dadant 70 gallon. I bought the Lyson a Automattic Bottler. And I bottle and that gives me more room to put honey back into the tank I’m bottleing from. The lysin Bottler also is a creamer. So you can buy a two for one machine.. the bottler will save you a lot of time and probably save you money . I was overfilling my bottles by .25 oz . On a few thousand lbs that adds up
I am at the same place about expanding. I can't do splits till September. Golden rod helps the bees in the fall. Also. I sugar my bees with quart Jars because that is the cheapest route. I am putting pollen out for them in the dearth. I figure 8 per hive in the dearths and wintering I will be buy a few summer nucks from a friend. Would love to talk with you sometime. Love the channel. I live in north florida and this is now a sideline. I haul bees for a living so I have a lot of comercial friends. Do what works..
Great videos thanks for taking us on the journey…. If you treat with OAV wouldn’t it taint your harbo testing? You wouldn’t be testing the capabilities of the bees you would be testing how well the treatments are working..?..
Harbo tests need a mite load for best results. My thought is one round of OAV won’t totally remove the mites, it won’t hurt any mites under cappings. So I can shoot one round, ID low mite colonies, then Harbo test or hopefully use UBO next year.
Single in the fall or mated queen in spring with splits? Why not some of each and some good packages, too, to spread the risk? Do singles come with medium boxes and comb? Do you include your time when you’re doing your cost analysis- look forward to that video!
Mary I’m thinking more about my time on unassembled vs assembled equipment, not so much on hives. The singles are single deeps, bees plus comb. I’m thinking about doing some of each. I’m speaking in Orlando in October and hoping I can find a good early queen supplier.
How much are you spending on packaging and labeling either dollar amount or % of cost. Also where are you getting your custom labels. I believe you covered that but can’t find it. Thanks
I went the opposite direction of your strategy, but I have a 30 frame extractor an automatic knife capper and a bottling machine that does 350lbs an hour. I have fewer hives, but over four different bottle sizes I sale for retail everything is paid for and will expand my colony count next year.
Now that I need to make an income off the bees I’m way more focused on investing into cash flow generation vs buying assets that the bees can pay for. I probably stress too much over this stuff…I take it seriously.
I am right there with you! Keeps me up at night, but I retire from the Army next year and I will go full time after that. Heading to Poland and I may do some beekeeping while I am there. I want to stop by Lyson just to check it out.
For honey supers I would if I had a silver queen or cowed uncapper. I know several guys who run 8 frame supers with those uncappers. 9 frame supers work well with what I have now.
You’re looking at Bob do you know Bob has to be using another bigger warehouse think about that build the building before you start to see if you have the money for as my free advice like a beekeeper nothing to gain nothing to lose but be careful
Love your insights and thoughts on business!! Keep plugging away and remember to take time and pray for guidance in all that you do. I wish you and your family nothing but happiness and joy!!! 😊
Thanks Ed!
@@DuckRiverHoney hopefully I will get a chance to meet you in Louisville this January!!!
I’m planning to be there, hope to see you!
@@DuckRiverHoney expo is 30 minutes from me . I’ll be there
I am a few steps ahead of you and my strategy was to spend money on bee equipment and grow bee numbers. All other decisions became easy after that as the increased bees and honey production demanded certain items. I will not buy anything until I have no other option. A person can spend endless money making things easier and faster. Be frugal and thrifty helps alot.
Thanks! Ian Steppler says to build your bees and buy your equipment, implying if you use debt then it should be on hard assets instead of bees which can die. Lots of thinking to do, but I’d really like to be closer to critical mass when the flow hits next spring.
I would agree. Debt on bees is not a good idea. Build your bees is the best plan. It may come down to how fast you can build bees in you area as well. Oh the joys of endless important decisions. You are smart and will learn the best path. A few mistakes are garenteed. 👍
Hopefully not too many mistakes…😂
Mistakes are part of learning. Not all learning comes cheap...
Interesting insights there at the end Nathan. Good VLOG once again.
Maybe consider purchasing early packages in spring and dropping them on comb? Without the risk of overwntering and deadouts? Get extra spring queens for early spring splits? Equalize some brood bees into the packages? Smaller hives/nucs tend to get robbed out and tends to be dearth related... bigger hives overwhelm them PDQ if they are near by. Had two mating mating nucs robbed out that way which I found today. I too am not looking forward to deeper hive inspections this time of year but I need to know whats down below those excluders so I can better manage the beginning of winter preparations. Its time to think Winter Bees even in the hottest days of summer! Beekeeing year really starts now!
Funny how that works, as soon as honey comes off we’re working for next spring.
I would say you did a great job this year. My thoughts were how much time you will need this winter to make boxes. Your expansion plans will require a lot of boxes. As far as expanding your honey house could you put another container crosswise to the one you have - kind of like a T? You will have lots of time to think about things before next spring. Have a good weekend.
I’ve got room to squeeze another one behind the original, then I can “L” off the front with two 20’s if need be. I wish I could find a reefer container.
Thanks for sharing your growth and work on your videos. I am glad you got some family time at the beach. You have grown a bunch this past year and done great. It’s definitely a balancing act. Take care Nathan.
Thanks Garry!
Welcome back! Hope it was a relaxing time. And thank you for being a great dad!!! -Jeff
Thanks Jeff!
Thanks for the video, it came in just after I had watched Fredrick Dunn interview Cory. St Louis is just up in the opposite corner of Missouri from me but, I can't make it I'm sad to say. Your thoughtfulness in your comments goes a long way to speak to your character I have learned. Always hoping the best for you, you have a plan and can adjust some, that's what's most important. You have good mentors.
Thanks Tommy, I appreciate that!
Find you a wild rose bush gather the pods and strew them around old growled up fields and inbankments where mowers can't go also honeysuckle get rootstock from wild honeysuckle bushes
Great video the heat and humidity has been terrible in north west alabama. Hopefully we get a little rain here and there we have some goldenrod blooming earlier than normal here and the bees are really going after it. Wasn't going to do anymore swarm traps but i caught a swarm and needed it for a queen. I haven't seen a drone flying here in months so i gave up on grafting any queens. ❤️🐝
Hot and humid here, feels like 105° today. No queen rearing here either. I’ve seen a little goldenrod but not much. Lots of frostweed but they aren’t working it yet.
It’s long enough time until beekeeping is fun again that I can forget how much I do not like honey processing. 😂
Young man take it easy with the numbers make sure you can load or unload it don’t trust anybody to help you need to get tired
Good stuff looking forward to seeing your Honey house permit please share that with us looking forward to more info on what's next 4 you. 😊 Thanks for your time and sharing with us your journey
Thanks Brian!
I don't know if it would be worth it to you or not. I plan to go into winter with 40-50 10 frame double deeps and 20 5 frame double nucs. If you can bring me 40 or so medium 10 frames with drawn comb, you could set them on my colonies in March we could let the queen come up and lay them full and you could pick them up in late April early May. You would need to have queen cells ready to go for when you got them back home. I am not expanding anymore I am at max capacity with my full time job. I am located in North Central WV in Randolph County. I am running Sas/Carni mix, but that won't matter since you'd be putting in your own queen cells. I really appreciate your videos and watching you grow your business. Let me know if you are interested as I'd love to help!
Thanks Noah!
Nathan, I think you have done a great job this year. I have really enjoyed watching your progress. If I may offer this about drums, I would recommend straining honey thru paint strainer as it is pumped into drums from clarrifier. I did not do this and I am having to when pumping to bottling tank from drums.
Randall I was thinking of trying these drum filters. Someone on beesource recommended them. Disadvantage is you can’t fill a drum all the way up, but it seems like a pretty nifty solution. www.usplastic.com/catalog/item.aspx?itemid=37439
@@DuckRiverHoney thank you for sharing this.
👍
Love the videos, hope in a few years you are as big as bob binnie
There’s only one Bob, I’d rather be a better me than a worse him.
You are definitely right about the 5 gallon bucket with a gate. I promised myself I wouldn't do that to myself again. I now have a heated bottling tank with no drip valve ordered from John at Hillco. Also I'm getting a lift table cart from Harbor Freight so I can lower it down easily for refilling with buckets.
That system works pretty well.
Great video, enjoy those kids while you can, in no time at all theyll be teenagers and they wont want anything to do with you lol.
🤣
Hope your over the funk sickness. My wife came back from England and brought some English Funk for me to deal with. I did get pictures of bees at Stonehenge though as a consolation prize.
That’s pretty cool Dave, hope you feel better.
Had to pause the video, Mimosa smells so sweet, I never dreamed it wouldn't taste good, we are talking about the tree, aren't we? Hope your daughter and you have a quick recovery! Back to the video.
Yes, the tree. The honey is fair at best. Not bad enough to ruin a wildflower blend but I wouldn’t want a lot of it.
@@DuckRiverHoney Glad I asked the question, I was about to plant a few, still might plant one just as a resource, I grew up seeing them covered by all kinds of bees and butterflies along with hummingbirds. I never plan on going beyond hobbyist, I just like the bees and it's a tree that provides during the very hot weather as long as there is water to keep it blooming. The first house I bought had two in the front yard and I ran hoses and sprinklers that hot summer to keep the blooms going. Glad to know but, my gut feeling was just to provide and help the bees and hummingbirds. I just paid a lot of attention to such things when I was a kid growing up in the 70's. I'm not a tree hugger, I guess I walk the line between things. I just know that the number of insects and birds have dropped off so much compared when I was a kid that it's kind of scary.
I would t avoid planting it, it’s a pretty tree and pollinators do like it.
@@DuckRiverHoney Good to know, I was considering planting one.
Thanks for all your insights into bees. Really respect how honest you are with your development.
Question: how do you keep track of the status of all your hives. I note your hive top shorthand notes, but do you have more detailed notes you keep elsewhere to stay on track of your hive details? I feel this would be important as you continue to refine your breeding stock.
Thanks again for an excellent UA-cam channel! Very inspirational
I use push pins in the boxes to note really good or really bad traits. This time of year I’m looking for queenright, mites, and weight. Gentleness is something I look for all year. I weed feisty hives out pretty quick.
looking forward to another budgeting video.
what's your pump/feeder setup? i'm in buckets right now, need to move to barrel/tote , pump, gasline system for fall feeding/future
I’m using a drum with a bulkhead fitting, a ball valve, and a diaphragm pump mounted on an Eley hose reel. It works pretty well. For more hives or a lot of feeding I’d prefer a tote on a trailer. Save for QA.
Great job in producing this series, very informative and motivating. I wish we lived closer, we have much in common. Thanks for the summary of sending priority regarding extraction. I recently upgraded to a 6/3 HillCo electric but now worry that it wasn't enough. You have big plans for your business and i struggle with vision. Mostly due to investment money, but It sort of begins with property. How can you have a container box honey house when you have an HOA? Keep your chin up!
I don’t have to worry with HOAs, I’m out in the sticks! Thanks!
Mimosa is thin, runny, and citrus flavored. It also doesn't crystallize. I got some last year and most years that doesn't happen.
Thanks!
I use a car hauler now if you decide to get a trailer get something that has a bed over the tires it’s tough to load and unload a decent amount of hives working around the wheel wells
Even a small deckover is a lot heavier than a car hauler.
@@DuckRiverHoney that’s true
I may try to make it another year with a utility trailer, but the ability to pick up pallets would sure be nice.
@@DuckRiverHoney yeah we have ours on pallets now we’re hoping to get a flatbed soon though
I don’t intend to put my bees on pallets anytime soon, I mean it’s be nice to be able to go get pallets of bottles or sugar.
If I could make a suggestion, it might be worth getting a bigger storage tank. Are using the Dadant 80 gallon and the Dadant 70 gallon. I bought the Lyson a Automattic Bottler. And I bottle and that gives me more room to put honey back into the tank I’m bottleing from. The lysin Bottler also is a creamer. So you can buy a two for one machine.. the bottler will save you a lot of time and probably save you money . I was overfilling my bottles by .25 oz . On a few thousand lbs that adds up
Thanks! I know a bottler would pay for itself. Just a question of priorities.
@@DuckRiverHoney the lyson is also a creamer
I am at the same place about expanding. I can't do splits till September. Golden rod helps the bees in the fall. Also. I sugar my bees with quart Jars because that is the cheapest route. I am putting pollen out for them in the dearth.
I figure 8 per hive in the dearths and wintering I will be buy a few summer nucks from a friend.
Would love to talk with you sometime. Love the channel.
I live in north florida and this is now a sideline. I haul bees for a living so I have a lot of comercial friends.
Do what works..
If you’re hauling bees you’re down in the thick of it, bet that has pros and cons to it. Thanks for the kind words.
Great videos thanks for taking us on the journey…. If you treat with OAV wouldn’t it taint your harbo testing? You wouldn’t be testing the capabilities of the bees you would be testing how well the treatments are working..?..
Harbo tests need a mite load for best results. My thought is one round of OAV won’t totally remove the mites, it won’t hurt any mites under cappings. So I can shoot one round, ID low mite colonies, then Harbo test or hopefully use UBO next year.
Single in the fall or mated queen in spring with splits? Why not some of each and some good packages, too, to spread the risk? Do singles come with medium boxes and comb? Do you include your time when you’re doing your cost analysis- look forward to that video!
Mary I’m thinking more about my time on unassembled vs assembled equipment, not so much on hives. The singles are single deeps, bees plus comb. I’m thinking about doing some of each. I’m speaking in Orlando in October and hoping I can find a good early queen supplier.
You mentioned buying bees this fall. Do you buy nucs of bees or full hives? If you are buying full hives, where do you get them?
lol the open feeder with the comb. The best feeder possible
You don’t need a float if you have comb in it.
It’s messy. I like the cap and ladders a lot better.
If you want to grow buy 40 hives rerunning from almonds. They are strong and you can split them into 6 nucs
👍
How much are you spending on packaging and labeling either dollar amount or % of cost. Also where are you getting your custom labels. I believe you covered that but can’t find it. Thanks
Thanks, I’ll save this for a QA.
I went the opposite direction of your strategy, but I have a 30 frame extractor an automatic knife capper and a bottling machine that does 350lbs an hour. I have fewer hives, but over four different bottle sizes I sale for retail everything is paid for and will expand my colony count next year.
Now that I need to make an income off the bees I’m way more focused on investing into cash flow generation vs buying assets that the bees can pay for. I probably stress too much over this stuff…I take it seriously.
Sounds like the set up we have. Both the machines is the way to go .
Which machines do you recommend?
@@DuckRiverHoney Dave handsbury , or handsbury Honeybees
I am right there with you! Keeps me up at night, but I retire from the Army next year and I will go full time after that. Heading to Poland and I may do some beekeeping while I am there. I want to stop by Lyson just to check it out.
How do you like that Honey press? Does it work well? I was thinking about getting one on amazon.
It works fine, but I don’t know that it’ll pay for itself with honey recovery in my system.
Gotcha. Thanks!
👍
My 6 year old gave me Strep also, and you are right- it hits like a truck! It is definitely a child's illness.
🤣
Do you or would you ever do 8 frame in a 10 frame box?
For honey supers I would if I had a silver queen or cowed uncapper. I know several guys who run 8 frame supers with those uncappers. 9 frame supers work well with what I have now.
Daylight is getting shorter for the rest of the year.
Less bees and more fall bass fishing coming soon.
You’re looking at Bob do you know Bob has to be using another bigger warehouse think about that build the building before you start to see if you have the money for as my free advice like a beekeeper nothing to gain nothing to lose but be careful
النحل تشتي متبعه من اجل الحفاض عليه
250 for a single isn't bad tbh that may not be a bad way to go.
👍